Acting is simple: conceptually.

What is difficult—and complex—in acting or any other endeavor, is excellence, so in my teaching I always emphasize the logical simplicity of acting, freeing my students to focus their energies on the more complex task of achieving excellence.

It does not take the IQ of a rocket scientist or neurosurgeon to understand acting, or for that matter, to act well. Some of the finest and most successful actors I have known have had very ordinary IQ's, which is not to denigrate the benefit of intelligence in accomplishing any task: its presence is extremely beneficial.

What is primary in acting, however, what the best actors and actresses have in abundance, is the extraordinary courage and insight it takes to live fully and intensely in public: to face, and accept, the deepest truths about oneself and, by extension, of humankind in general, and then be willing to really live out those truths in a real, exciting manner before an audience.

That is the genius of an actor.

That is the goal of all acting theory, training and practice.

"There is No Such Thing as Acting." That was the title of a seminar I conducted a few years ago at a state convention of grammar school through university theater teachers. I chose that title because (1) I hoped its seemingly confrontational tone would attract a large number of attendees to my lecture: it did; (2) I thought it would be challenging and fun to defend myself against 600 extremely intelligent people whose livelihood depended in one way or another on the existence of acting: it was; and (3) I believed that statement to be true.

I still do.

Acting is simply a term we use when real emotional life occurs (1) on demand, (2) in front of an audience, (3) with a variety, intensity, pace, and profundity of emotion—and elegance of style—uncommon in the everyday world, and (4) within very narrow, defined parameters of words, movement, and prop-handling.

Acting terms and instructions become nothing more than reminders to actors to act, to live on stage, in accordance with these dictates of everyday exciting life.

Consider, for a moment, such acting rules/conditions as "moment-to-moment," "pursue an objective," and "playing against."

"Moment-to-moment" is a command to actors to act a scene without anticipation for what is going to occur next. This acting injunction is nothing more than a real-life term dressed in acting jargon. Moment-to-moment is how we all live, isn't it, perhaps with some vague expectations of future occurrences, but without any definite foreknowledge of the future?

"Pursuing an objective" is another acting concept that states an actor-as-character should have a fundamental goal in the scene. Once again, the inclusion of an actor's goal in acting is nothing more than a truism of everyday life: purpose is not fundamental to acting alone; all human life is organized around purpose (survival, at its most fundamental level).

The term "playing against" is another suggested performance mode wherein the actor is asked to manifest surface behavior in opposition to inner feelings. Nothing out of the ordinary here, either. Most of us live our everyday lives unacquainted with our deepest feelings: we smile when we’re sad; we whistle while we work; we're manic when we're depressed. We invariably veil our inner emotional conditions—whether from ourselves or from others—behind contradictory outer masks. When actors are encouraged by teachers and directors to include these acting elements in their performances, they are simply being asked to live their performance life according to the tenets of everyday exciting life.

Accordingly, I believe any scene—and the actor's performance within that scene—can be conceptualized, evaluated, and diagnosed—and, when found deficient, remedied—by ten essential elements of real, exciting life: Conflictual, Real, Honest, Interdependent, Witnessed, Intense, Varied, Complex, Structured, and Elegant. Hence, this book is organized into these ten subheadings.

These ten elements become the actor’s blood pressure test, the temperature reading, the blood analysis, the X-ray, the MRI of acting—and the basis for subsequent correctional guides, nutrition plans, exercise regimens, and pharmacological solutions. The health and wellness of an acting performance are grounded in these ten essential elements of real, exciting life: avoid them at great risk ... to performance and career.