Three Treasures from the Denver Museum of Art

The Mask of Satori?

The Temple by Berlin artist Jonas Burgert

Blue Elk

Methods of Entrancement

I’ve been thinking about the word Entrance.

Not the more common meaning like those you’ll find in Webster’s dictionary:

Entrance

1. The act or an instance of entering.

2. A means or point by which to enter.

3. Permission or power to enter; admission.

4. The point, as in a musical score, at which a performer begins.

5. The first entry of an actor into a scene.

6. Nautical The immersed part of a ship's hull forward of the middle body.

Right now I'm more interested in the secondary meaning:

Entrance

1. To put into a trance.

2. To fill with delight, wonder, or enchantment.

Because that, essentially, is our job as performers.

To put our audiences in a trance.

To help them suspend their disbelief and send them on a vacation without leaving the room.

To entrance.

And there are many methods by which we performers endeavor to do this.

There are many ways up this particular mountain.

There is no sure fire, tried and true technique.

But there are, I think, some ingredients by which entrancement is made a possibility.

Here then, is a brief compendium of excellencies.

A very partial list of some of the

Methods of Entrancement

Make a small thing Wow-worthy.

Make a godly thing human.

Make dear the atmosphere.

Exercise fierce abandon.

And fiercer control.

Look with an extravagance of gaze

And see with tweezer vision.

Don't forget to ignite the molecules.

Add pzazz

And Baffling dis/reappearances.

Of course the heart must be involved

And the gut.

You must rule the room

And surrender to the task at hand.

Have surprise fighters

And remind us of our breathing.

Astound us with dexterity

And share.

Share from the toes up.

Hold something back

There should also be an element of twinkle.

Swaddle them with magnificence.

Catapult time.

And resurrect the forgotten.

Give.

Play with fire.

Have a nice rack.

Alternate savagely between bombardment and seduction.

Be still.

Scratch a universal itch.

Reveal divinity.

Set off quiet explosions

And jettison shame.

And of course, it must swing.

You may add to this list by commenting on this post.