Burning through the mask

I realized, watching 300 actors audition, that the American acting style is a mask. Like all masks, you must learn how to surrender to it. The skillful ones use it as a lens, burning through it.

I once saw Dan Donohoe, the great Shakespearean actor, use commedia text in rehearsal as a mask. He was so used to surrendering to Shakespeare's text, that he flung himself into the flimsy commedia text the same way. It was like wind bellying out a sail. Because of his belief, his surrender, and his trust, even that paltry text illumined. THIS is a master of the mask.

Maybe all acting needs a mask -- the text, the physical score -- something to scrupulously protect you in your abandon.