Depth as Grid: An Improvisational Actor’s Perspective

Multiple disciplines, especially in the social sciences, have long emphasized the human mind’s universal natural elective affinity for a dichotomous, symmetrical, and well-delineated topography of human knowledge. In a grid inspired by this preference, inter-disciplinary professional dialogues are constructed as a proactive overcoming of longitudinal distances and defined professional boundaries. The chapter challenges this interpretation and highlights the importance of “depths” as cross-pollinating disciplinary intersections. Specifically, like uncovering different and sometimes precious geological layers and formations when digging deeper in a single confined space, digging deeper within a given discipline - as opposed to “looking sideways” for collaborative opportunities - produces “sideways”-like results, often of unexpected nature. This approach is exemplified here through the personal experience of professional improvisational acting. The chapter argues that honing an actor’s craft entails a trajectory of multiple encounters with other domains of knowledge, which are an integral part of an increasingly deep understanding of acting. More generally, in the post-modern condition of the information age, any discipline makes meaningful encounters with other domains of knowledge that lie within a deeper understanding and mastery of itself. These encounters take place not necessarily across a grid; rather, the grid lies within narrow, highly professional corridors marked by an expertise which necessitates the opening of multidisciplinary doors.