Today in Company we shared the annual Dangerous Love Letter assignment. The students were simply asked to write a “dangerous love letter.” They were asked to write the letter in pen and not on a computer. They were asked to seal the letter in an envelope and KNOW that this letter was NEVER going to be open and NEVER going leave their sight. The hope was they could fully explore the concept of dangerous writing.Today everyone brought the letters and after the warm-up we all tossed the envelopes in the center of the circle and just talked about the experience. Students talked about how this excercise made them think about love and all of the many variations it can take. Most were rather suprised to think that love goes way beyond the traditional romantic face. Some students really tackled the idea of “danger.” What is dangerous writing? Is it writing about illegal, immoral or taboo ideas? Is it ideas that are simply embarrassing? Is it dangerous because of what it says about you or what it says about the receiver? It was a fascinating discussion.
Students talked about how, once written, they found the letter to be fake, they were indulgent, they didn’t tell the truth, and a significant number found their letter to be more clever then clear. They were trapped by the rules of good writing. They found their letter to be an academic success but a authentic failure.
I barely said a word and the analysis and critique went on and on to greater depth. It was working. Then I challenged the group further. I asked how this excercise informed any of their training about theatre or the work of an actor. They were able to relate how the “danger” in love letters gets at the very “vulnerability” and “risk” that are so desirable as an actor. They found a new tool in searching for “dangerous writing” in all of the scripts they read. They thought that perhaps they should write a dangerous love letter in the guise of the character they are playing.
And most significantly we all realized that as we sat in a circle in the Blackbox staring at a pile of assorted envelopes, we were looking at an excavation of subtext. Actors have trouble finding this subtext in the fictional world of the play, but today they got to see a real live pile of words that have never been said and will likely never BE said – – but words more real then those that are given voice.