Imaging

Acting and voice training with Jason Bennett

Dreams. Daydreams. Deliberate invention. Give the character a world beyond the visible room: people, places, memories and possibilities. Test what your images make available in the scene.

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What is Imaging?

You use Imaging when you create a mental image. You already encounter it in dreaming, daydreaming and deliberate invention. For acting, you can develop an image internally or imagine it in the environment around you. You give yourself something specific to respond to within the circumstances of the scene.

A daydream can be one second long and consist of a single image.

Jason Bennett, from the original The Curious Imagination.

You can use this work to create a character's past, an absent person, a place or a remembered event. You can investigate the feelings and thoughts that accompany an image. A brief fragment can give you a starting point; you do not have to begin with a complete imagined world.

You also work with sensory detail. What do you see, hear, smell or feel? The Sensory Process gives you ways to make an imagined person, place or thing more specific. Imaging and sensory work can support each other as you build the world you need for the role.

What happens in the room?

You practice creating real or imagined objects, people, places and memories. You ask sensory questions and respond through your senses. You might investigate the colors and shapes of a person you imagine before you, their voice, or the texture of something you reach toward. These details give you something to work with while you speak and listen.

You can begin with a dream, a daydream or deliberate invention. You notice what arises and how you respond. You may keep a journal of images and return to something that interests you. Remembering night dreams is one possible starting point; you can work with imagination through other routes too.

You bring the exploration into a scene or monologue and try it in relationship with another actor. Does the image affect the atmosphere, the person you address or what you want to do? You test what it offers against the actual material. You can adjust an image, use part of it, or let it go.

The Sensory Process can add dimensions and specificity to the Imaging process.

Jason Bennett, from the original The Encyclopedia of Acting entry on Imaging.

You can pause or decline an exploration. You do not have to disclose private dreams or fantasies to use your imagination as an actor. Your discoveries are material you can choose how to use in rehearsal.

Who is this work for?

You can begin as a new actor or bring years of work with scenes, monologues and characters. You may have been told to use your imagination and want a more specific process. You may want to develop a character's memories, respond to someone absent from the room, or create the place around you more fully.

You can practice the tool between roles or connect it to material you are already preparing. Your starting point is what you need and where you are in your process. You work on imaginative possibilities and on how those possibilities serve the story.

Begin with a conversation

Study Imaging with Jason Bennett. Begin with a brief phone conversation.

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Read further

Imaging in the Encyclopedia of Acting gives you the definition and its relationship to sensory work.

The Curious Imagination takes you further into dreams, daydreams, invention and bringing imaginative discoveries into performance.