UC San Diego

A lot of the training is not the training. At times that means buttressing one’s self against the forces of negativity that may be encountered when entering a rehearsal space. At times it means appreciating those moments you walk into a space in which the company as a whole – from the actors, to the company management, the director and playwright – finds a way to fall into a space of trust, constantly buoying each other in a harmonious process of realizing a play.

The willingness to release one’s self of any pre-determined expectations of how those amongst you will perform in their assigned roles/tasks – replacing it with only a personal expectation of how you as an individual will perform your own assigned role/task – is most beneficial in realizing a work of art in concert with others.

SERE was a room absent of ego and full of hunger. There was a hunger in each person to do/be/deliver their best in realizing this plays visions. No artist looked beyond themselves and their own performance and in doing so subconsciously entered into a metaphorical trust fall amongst a community ready and willing to catch each other.

A lot of the training is not the training. Of all the training, I believe the most valuable that is more implicitly rather than overtly taught is that of teaching actors to prepare themselves to fall with trust within any space/process they may encounter. No process could have highlighted the benefit of such an approach more than SERE.