It’s opening night.  I am standing in the shadows in my sturdy high-heels, nylons, and silky blue dress.  Waiting.  I am watching the stage manager introduce the show, reminding everyone to turn off their phones.  But I am certain that the only thing the audience can hear is the sound of my heart beating like a dark drum.  I look down at my chest expecting to see the fabric exploding with each thump.

I have done as much preparation as I can possibly do.  I take a few deep, calming breaths.  I remind myself that all of my monkey-mind thoughts are irrelevant.  Thoughts about expectation and who is in the audience and what if I forget my lines and what if I look ridiculous and what if I humiliate myself?…Read on.

The theater director and father of modern acting technique, Konstantin Stanislavski, used the term “objective,” to help actors focus on playing an action, rather than pushing for a state of being (“to persuade” vs. “to be upset” see “To Be vs. To Do”).  I like the term, “intention,” rather than objective because I find it more direct. Stanislavski believed that we always have an intention, even if we are not aware of it.  That is what makes us behave in wonderfully quirky, positively human ways. We always want something from the other characters in the play and we always want something from the other people in our lives.  That is our intention. If we do not choose a clear intention, we can default to intentions that are not helpful, undermine us, focus our energy on ourselves, and leave us expressively flat and disconnected.

We communicate our intention, not our words.

This is really important. 

Imagine a person saying, “I love you,” while sneering.  What message do we get?  Read on to learn how to use intentions…