Zen and the art of performance art

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the similarities between acting and playing music. One of the things I’ve noticed is that for either of these to be any good, the person doing the playing (in both senses) has to be both open and in the moment. The more they can be, the better the result.

Being open starts with stopping one’s mind from spinning about other things. That Buddhist “monkey mind”. One has to not be aware of “where do I put my fingers next” or “what’s my next line”. Those things only get between you and the enjoyment of what’s happening around you. If we can focus on what our acting partner is doing right now, or what’s happening in the music right now, and notice that these things are simply and unselfconsciously just happening, it becomes an invitation to relax, breathe, slow down your perceptions and give your full attention to enjoying the moment. Pause, relax, breathe. It doesn’t matter if the moment is being engaged fully with another actor on the stage or with the sounds surrounding you. It’s time to take a deep, unhurried breath and go with the flow.

Once you’ve done that, you can really start playing. Time becomes irrelevant because there’s only right now! And you’ll find that the scene is over before you realize it or that you’ve been playing the fiddle for half an hour when it seems like only a couple of minutes.

This has only happened to me a couple of times on stage. Though it happens more frequently (still not as much as I’d like) when playing tunes. But it’s pretty much the best thing there is.