The French Scene

The French Scene is the basic building block of all storytelling. It is also the basic building block of who we are as an individuals. I want you to understand what the French scene is and the power it has for or over you. French scenes occur each time there is an entrance or exit of a life force within a scene or in your life.

I was first introduced to the term French scene in graduate school when it was used as a rehearsal scheduling technique. The rehearsals were set up in decending order of cast members. The scenes from the play were first broken into French scenes. The French scenes were then broken down as to the characters in each one. The largest number of cast members in the same French scenes were called first. Once those French scenes were rehearsed those not in any more of the French scenes were dismissed and the next series of French scenes were rehearsed.

This continued until those characters in each French scene were rehearsed. The last few French scenes to be rehearsed were usually the lead characters, as they had the longest French scenes. This process avoided wasted time for the actors who had specific responsibilities in the play. We, of course, were doing classic plays where there were usually many characters. That is a bit different today when most plays have as few characters as possible to tell the story. Budget don't you know.

It was years later when I was directing that I discoverd the power of the French scene in relation to energy and genre. After an exhaustive search I discovered the history of the French scene and its importance to storytelling. I was deeply disappointed by not being given the true purpose of the French scene. If this information had been given to me over my many years of study I would have, with greater clarity, understood my responsibility as an actor to the creation of a character in make believe.

If an actor is lucky he/she may have been taught that a French scene is the entrance or exit of a character. You may even have been given French scene knowlege helping with rehearsal needs and home work needs for the actor in relation to the character he/she is playing. What is rarely learned is the real purpose of these entrances or exits.

The real purpose of the French scene is to change the energy level of the scene. The energy of the life force entering or exiting the scene will either make the energy level of that scene more intense or less intense. The use of the energy level of the entering or exiting life force, therefore guides and clarifies the genre of the story. A single scene could have many French scenes within it. However each French scene within that scene must have a different emotional level than the French scene before it or the French scene after it. This is how genre is defined and adhered to. I will discuss this in a later blog when I'm discussing the hidden truth of a French scene.

The French scene is how the writer guides the audience through a kaleidoscope of emotions. He does this with or without the understanding of the term. The French scene is how the director defines his vision of the writer’s story. This is done with or without his knowledge of the power of the French scene. The use of French scenes ensures that all stories are different. (That is one reason the director of a film is called the autour of the film. He has the power to change the French scenes of the film script. He can add or take away any he chooses. This ability based on understanding is what constitutes a master film director. Usually this ability ends up in the hands of the editor who would never get the title of autour.)

Directors, writers, and actors would all be better served if we collectively understood the importance of the French scene. The power of the industry would be much more effective if we understood the French scenes relationship to energy levels defined emotionally to protect the power of a genre.

The fact that most directors, writers, and actors do not understand the power of the French scene can become your major advantage. Many successful performers work on instinct of the French scene. They have been fortunate to date. But, instincts can be manipulated. Your understanding of the French scene and its power can drive your success and give you the upper hand from audition to closing night and beyond.

Once you understand the complete power of the French scene you will have been exposed to the energy levels of your body (instrument) as well. I will deal with this is much greater detail in future blogs. For now it is only important that you know those energy levels constitute emotional notes that you must play when being a character. Those emotional notes, 8 in all, reside in your body and are used as postions of defense by your body for survival.

As discussed in my last blog, those positions in your body are the instinctive postions of defense you physical body will use to retreat (locking your life energy into your muscle tissue) creating feelings (not thoughts). Your body does this as part of its responsibility to defend the vessel (the body). By doing this it will demand your mental focus. These physical feelings then demand internal dialogue and will make every effort to manipulated your thoughts to stay in defense. Your body will try to demand that you fight or run based on the level of intensity of the percieved threat and resulting feeling.

These physical positions of defense are sometime the response you might have to a random life force around you. Even though that life force around you may have nothing to do in relationship to your health and well being. However, the feeling that you may be having will still require your mental attention. You can usually change the feeling by realizing it is not about you.

In our personal lives the French scenes that effect us the most are those that happen within our own circle of life associations. French scenes that involve friends, family, acquantances or those we wish to be accepted by. Often our energy in those French scenes are reponding to pain or energy levels of those around us. Once our bodies have felt a need to defend by sensing "hostile" energy you are required to activate the five senses to do an immediate evaluation of possible danger. Once that has yielded no answer to your feeling you will revert to thoughts that come from the most recent memories recorded in your mind. These memories, dealing with the process of elimination, are recorded in the emotional level that is currently being activated.

Ro clarify: each emotional level of your body, from that sinking feeling in the stomach to Rage, has its own bank of memories. Our internal dialogue will searh in that emotional memory bank until it lands on a memory that justifies our feeling. Most often the memory that we grab is supported by negative beliefs. This works wonderfully for a character as the character lives in make believe. It does not work well for you as it only supports thoughts that disempower.

What is important to understand at this time is the term French scene and how the French scene relates to your life energy as well as the life energy of a character. You want to have the ability to differenciate between your body's perceived dangers and its awareness of negative energy levels that may be radiating in its receiving range. When you are creating a character you wish to indulge the character in its despair.

One thing is clear, the French scenes of your life ensure that there has never been, and will never be, another human being like you.

Certain life energies that have come in and out of your life through French scenes are what make you different from any other person. These sequences of life energies (people) have created who you are. They have defined your true beliefs. Those who have created the French scenes of your life have created the conditions and rules for living that you have accepted for your own life. You may have accepted rules for living from others that make it far more difficult than necessary to have a happy and successful life.

Therefore, understanding of the French scene, conceptually and literally, becomes important for many reasons. The formost reason is its process in creating who you are and how you perceive yourself. Understanding the French scene as the sequence by which our beliefs and choices define our hope for the future gives us the power to create and define characters that we may be playing. Each French scene in a play, film script, teleplay or other storytelling format, indicates how the character is emotionally altered by energies from different people. This understanding is your power to translate the writer's clues and to find the subtleties of the character the writer has woven into the fabric of his story. The understanding of the French scene will help you meld your own uniqueness of personality with that of a character you are creating.

The term French scene was coined in the late 16th century. It evolved from an understanding of structure in the writings during the last part of the Elizabethan period. This was extented by the Jacobean period during the late 16th and early 17th century. The Jacobean writers included those writings attributed to William Shakespeare.

The period of history that followed the Dark Ages focused on the science of art. Music had been the main benefactor of this new focus. The language of music, its science, was developed during the 12th and 14th centuries. The result of this effort led to the understanding of the Science of Music. This effort led to the defining of notes, the creation of score sheets, the ability to read and write music. This new science became the knowledge base upon which the language could be used by musicians to study that knowledge and through repetition could convert that knowledge to muscle memory. This, being the process for talent, took music to an emotional communication level that is non-ending.

During these centuries the foundation was laid for the greatest music ever to be written. With this Science of Music musicians, composers, and conductors were able to create Art. They could map out the emotions created by the understanding of musical notes and the countless variations of their usage. They then build upon this ongoing knowledge. No one had to start from scratch any more. Music and the ability to write it, read it and play it were provable. This effort led to an enlightened period and the understanding of how genre, the style with which an art form effects us emotionally, could be repeated and enhanced.

The Jacobeans believed that Drama would also benefit from some form of science to enhance the power of the art. They believed it would be beneficial to understand how each genre (style of writing) formed a rhythm that could be understood and enhanced. They realized that for storytelling, as in life, it was the sequence of life energies and how they affected us that led to our personal view of life. They realized the sequence of those life energies created fear or comfort, pleasure or pain, which would form our beliefs, fears and emotional growth or stagnation.

These unrecorded visionaries, for whatever reason, gave the name of this life sequence the French scene. They understood that entrances and exits and the length of those entrances or exits as true French scenes (changing energy levels) would create an impact of emotional resolve or confusion for the characters. This also led them to realize the more French scenes used in a play would result in comedy. The fewer French scenes used in a play would lead to tragedy. There are, of course, some plays that are not comedy and yet do not result in tragedy. These plays tell stories of resolve often at an emotional price. They are usually referred to as drama rather than tragedy. They do not result in the everyman character dying or being disgraced beyond repair. This is the more agreed upon definition of tragedy.

What should be clear is that comedy and tragedy live in the world of drama. Drama simply means that what we are seeing, be it comic, dramatic or tragic, still resides in the world of believability. Other genres may be based on the audience's willingness to suspend believability in order to expand their imagination beyond that which is, as understood, real.

The sequence created by the new term, French scenes, became a process used to understand the rhythm of life. That rhythm of life that is shared by all humans. Understanding that rhythm became the basis for the science of any genre (style) within storytelling.

As stated a French scene is created with every entrance and exit of a life force. It is knowing how the energy of that life force effects the movement of the French scene that is crutial. It is translating that life force's intensity, supported by passion and emotional control, that guides the actor's charcter creation as the circumstance for the everyman in a story unfolds. The character and his/her choices are influenced, inspired, intimidated or destroyed based on true (actionable) beliefs. And, as you know, the character's beliefs are activated by the flow of life energies through specific sequences of French scenes defined as the character’s reality.

In your real life this is also true. Your quest for the knowledge to become a successful story teller can lead you to a more successful life. This can be done if you acknowledge that many of the beliefs that constitute your rules for living may not be in your best interest. Like the characters you create, you too may be making choices that are based on insufficient knowledge.

It should be noted that each French scene is supported by its own reality. It must be able to stand alone for emotional integrity and purpose. Each French scene must be understood and analyzed, one French scene at a time. There will be a later lesson on how the French scene is used as the foundation for The actor’s work process. That includes understanding Actor's Script Analysis and its relation to script analysis as a process. It will show how powerful the French scene is to the actor’s script interpretation of the written word. It will explain how fundamental the French scene is to the actor's ability to translate the vision of any director. Even if the director doesn't know he has one. I will discuss in the actor's work process how to clarify the duality of the actor's instrument and how each part of his instrument's responsibility is defined by the French scene.

In storytelling the French scenes would be the span of time in which the story takes place. The number of French scenes and the length of the French scenes will determine genre (comedy/drama) through rhythm. It will support the comedy or tragedy of a story’s intent. In your life, a French scene constitutes the sequence of life moments up to this present moment. Your life is made up of the entrances and exits of life energies. Those life energies (people) have defined your beliefs of fear and hope. As stated, those life energies, through the French scenes of your life, have made you who you are. They have led you to your belief system, your rules for living, good or bad.

Some French scenes in your life have been supportive and powerful while others have caused scars and and left hidden fears. For the same reason the French scenes of your life makes you totally unique in the history of man, so every story is different by the sequence of life energies and accompanying knowledge that supports or negates the everyman of the story's hope for the future.

No one will ever have the same sequence of life events as you. You are defined by that unique sequence. You are defined by the beliefs you have accepted based on the sequence of your life French scenes. This is defined by those who have passed in and out of your life and the marks they have left behind. Therefore, you are what the life forces that have constituted the Frence scenes of your life have imprinted upon you. Many of those resulting beliefs unknowingly have become your true beliefs. Based on deep seated or imprinted fears these true beliefs (indicated by your actions) may be in conflict with your desired beliefs. Therein resides your journey.

Understanding the French scenes of your life will help you find those life-altering events, those life-altering choices and those life-altering people that have been the influencing (good or bad) characters in your life. They are the stories of your life. Understanding the power of the French scene is the way the writer, director and actor create characters that are emotionally famaliar and yet inherently different. Understanding the French scene and its purpose will help you understand the path that you are taking and how your fears are being used to support or undermine your efforts in your quest to be a successful actor.

Have a wonderful and productive week.

I wish you well,
Russ