In January, the Swiss light artist Gerry Hofstetter and his team projected a tiger onto the north face of the Eiger. The aim was to congratulate Asia on the New Year, the year of the tiger, which began on February 1, 2022. At the same time, Gerry Hofstetter wanted to use the strong symbolism of the tiger to motivate all athletes at the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing. The projection Tiger on Eiger is 5.3 km long and over 2 km high.
“Is belief a feeling?” I asked myself as I was writing out a new course description for one of my acting classes. Over the last many years, I have concluded that for acting in any medium, belief is perhaps the most powerful state from which to work from because it breeds confidence, playfulness, and spontaneity in performance. How many times has a director or coach suggested an actor “fully commit!” Of course, commitment isn’t a feeling, or something that be turned on with a switch. Certainly, I teach in my directing classes that directors are tasked with cultivating belief for their whole team on a scale from getting behind a large project goal to the helping an actor believe the smallest bit of stage business. But I’ve recently become concerned with finding out exactly what belief means for the student and how it can be fostered and used. What principles of language can we implement to generate belief? And furthermore, how can we make sure the language we use in the classroom and rehearsal is actively in pursuit of building belief?
