PASSIONATE INVESTMENT

And how Isaac Newton's First Law of Motion can help actors...

I went to the New Zealand Police College yesterday to watch the most extraordinary performance.

It was a scenario of family harm — or what used to be called “domestic violence” — played out by two members of the police force: a senior officer who lectures at the college; and a woman who has been a victim of family harm herself.

For half an hour they fought. The man attacked the woman verbally and physically, threatening her with a baseball bat and a knife. I watched with 20 or so trainee police officers from a mezzanine floor above the action, a bit like medical students 100 years ago who would observe the performance of surgeries by a teaching doctor.

The actions were meticulously choreographed so that the scenario was utterly persuasive, but of course in this re-enactment the woman was not hurt.

I asked myself, These are not actors, how come the spirit and craft in their performance are so amazing?

PURPOSE and LIVED EXPERIENCE

Well, first I think that PURPOSE plays a huge part. They w…