I love Pat Hurley’s acting class. He absolutely knows what he is doing and how to get the actors to find the moments. Oh, he may say “I don’t know where this is going, but let’s try it”, but he knows man. He knows.
The Pause: I know of ONE spot in my reading with Robin last night. Sort of a dramatic pause. But I guess I was doing it at other spots. We were both off book for our scene. Pat asked that I remove all the pauses between Robin’s lines and mine. He says the pauses are indicative of “acting between the lines” and not “acting on the lines”. In real life, everyday people are reacting off the middle of the other persons statement. And we really do have a reply ready before the other person finishes talking.
The pauses could be not remembering your lines, but he says if my mind is empty, immediately ask for line. A term Pat used was “watching yourself”. If you are not reacting to the lines (acting on the lines) you are paying too much attention to what you are doing, instead of reacting.
Of course to react, you really need to know your lines. If the lines are out of the way, you can react.