The Performing Arts 4: Status

 My class in improv theater became much more complex when we moved to the notion of Status. This is often pronounced the British way, STAY-tus. It’s is a concept in acting.

The idea is that every interaction with another person involves Status. One person is always higher, and the other is lower. Everybody does this all the time, often without noticing, and we’re always shifting in Status as we go through the day. You go to the cashier with a cart full of groceries at the store, and you are higher in Status than the checkout clerk. But if you ask her a question, your Status slides lower — you need her help with that coupon or the price of onions. She shifts lower herself, calling you ‘Miss’ or ‘Ma’am,’ or maybe she shifts higher by explaining the coupon policy in complete sentences and meeting your eye while she does it. If you really want her to enter in that coupon, you might break that eye contact and smile.

Have a look at this classic scene from The Graduate, starring Dustin Hoffman. Benjamin the young man is firmly seduced by Mrs. Robinson as an iconic Simon and Garfunkel score plays Watch how Mrs. Robinson totally controls all the interactions, even though Benjamin tries over and over to grab his Status back. Even her first line: she is not helplessly saying she cannot drive a stick shift. She is declaring it flatly so that he has to do what she wants. Dustin Hoffman is an amazing actor in this, wiggling like a fish on the hook as Mrs. Robinson reels him in. And he doesn’t say a word about it. There’s nothing in his lines about his being whipsawed between lust and an entirely sensible caution. But his every twitch, every blink, the very way he walks, shows it. Hoffman has complete command over how he’s communicating. This scene covers several locations (the party, the car, the garden, at the Robinson home) and many camera angles; it must have taken days to shoot and the scenes may not have been shot in order. But at every moment Hoffman’s at the right place in the time line of Benjamin’s defeat. I cannot do this, and very probably neither can you. This is a master at work, a Michelangelo whose medium is his own body.

There’s an entire repertoire of tiny gestures and un-noticeable actions that slide a person up or down in Status, and my teacher helpfully printed then out on pocket-sized slips to help the students remember. Which you can view, at the top of this post!