Acting is Reacting! Reza’s Article on the Idea Designer’s Magazine

Acting is reacting! Isn’t it?

The fifth edition of Idea Designer’s Magazine came out just recently with Reza’s article in it: “What Defines Our Very Future, Yet We Can’t See It”. In the article, Reza describes how most of our focus is dedicated to our “actions” while what defines us, is, in fact, the reactions we have to our environment.

Since it’s beginning, Idea Designers Magazine is focused on multidisciplinary writes who waled their talks. After his well-heard article “There Are No Shortcuts in life, Deal with it!” at the previous issue of the magazine, this time Reza offers a new way of thinking to those who want to create positive change for themselves and their society.

We can say that the phrase “acting is reacting” is not only for when we learning to play, but it’s also applicable in our lives. In a sense, we are constantly reacting to what happens to us. What we know as our concessions, mostly defined by our reactions to our everyday life, in comparison to what we plan to do.

Reza Ghiabi

To make it easier for the followers to hear his voice, today Reza read his article on his Instagram IGTV which converted the whole article to a 30-mins video, publically available for those who can’t get the magazine itself.

Let’s dive deep into what “acting is reacting” means. The phrase is an ancient idea, literally. It is more like a proverb rather than an explicit quote. The phrase, however, is commonly used and often associated with ‘method’ acting and the Meisner Technique.

Regardless, of who first introduced the concept, it describes succinctly one of the core principles of the method and Meisner Techniques, both of which are derivatives of the Stanislavski system. Namely, that ‘real’ acting is about reacting.

Method and Meisner practitioners believe that actors give more powerful and truthful performances when they are reacting to their external environment and to the other actor.

Sanford Meisner, the originator of the Meisner Technique, took this further by training his actors to live truthfully under the given imaginary circumstances of a play or film. He did this by developing a set of training techniques for actors that are explicitly concerned with getting the actor to ‘react’ instinctively to what is happening around them and in the other actor.

It is a very powerful idea. Most of the accomplished actors we watch on film and stage have been trained to act by reacting. Yet, Reza thinks that we can map this idea into the very fabric of our lives!