Only Connect

E.M. Forster's novel Howard's End.

Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, And human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect...

These words have always spoken to me about the Art of Acting, and in all my subsequent blogs I hope to explore how the actor may achieve and sustain this "connection".

The actor's purpose is an inherently spiritual one: a very high calling which requires the fullest and deepest possible connection with the text, the heart of character, the audience, the actor's own soul and heart, mind and body... with God, in fact. As a Quaker I tend to call this the Inner Light, but the idea is the same. All of us who participate in this art, believers and non-believers, are seeking and exploring the promptings of Love and Truth. I believe that this Inner Light, and our connection with it, is the creative source of all we do, and all that we are.

Unfortunately our fearful egos, our small-selves, have a tendency to interfere with the quality of this connection. We watch ourselves in the wrong way, seeking to prove our worth, make our mark in the world, appeal to false idols like fame, wealth, attention, sex, power, critical acclaim; and we seek dodgy justification for our choices in ways which stifle the still, small voice within that would entreat us to remain connected. And so we live in fragments, as E.M. Forster puts it.

No longer.

"Only connect".

The unifying principle we seek as artists, and which will make us whole again, is Love. For the essence of what we do is compassion as we merge with the universal consciousness through the process called characterisation. Spiritual teachers tell us that we cannot truly love others until we love our selves. Love your character, and your Inner Light will shine into the world.