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When I was in acting school (a magical land of "do what feels right" and navel gaze until you create art) there was one teacher who was loathed by many. We'll call her Mrs.K.
I recall a pair of students rehearsing in front of the class. They were supposed to be drinking tea throughout the scene but had obviously forgotten to bring cups and some sort of liquid as a prop into class that day.
So they started pantomiming drinking tea...badly. Mrs. K lost it. "Stop! Where are the cups!? What are you even doing right now!?" Awkward silence. "Acting is not complicated. Do not make it complicated damnit. If you make this complicated there is nothing I can do to help you."
This instantly made Mrs. K one of my favorite educators of all time. The fact of the matter is that acting is not complicated. As Noel Coward once said, "learn to speak clearly, to project your voice without shouting—and to move about the stage without bumping into people"
*good* acting is *complex* but acting itself is not "complicated." That complexity is the product of the actor in a relaxed state unknowingly producing the nuanced complexities of actual everyday life while, nonetheless, being observed.
As Stanislavski said, "being private in public." As with many complex things, there is no deliberate path to the desired complexity. You must simplify your rehearsal and your efforts to allow complexity to manifest (as it inevitably will).
As Mrs. K said, "if you make this complicated, I can't help you."
I've long since left acting behind but I keep running into people who seem to belong to some cult of complicated. In public policy this is often called (sometimes proudly even) wonkishness... It's bad.
If you have a policy objective, pursue it. Don't get hung up on overly complicated rehearsal techniques: "let's build a dialog! Find public private partnerships! Synergies. Clever hacks!" Like the actor's forgotten cups these are pantomimes of actual artistic and academic effort.
And they are probably just a lazy attempt to cover up for having failed to do your actual homework (bring in the damn props that the scene demands).
And worse of all, as Mrs. K said, these pantomimes make the effort complicated and ultimately defeat your purpose... To develop simplicity that will allow desired complexities to emerge organically. Masking any signal in your work with nose.
As Richard Epstein says, "we need simple rules for a complex world." And as Mrs. K said, "Don't make this complicated, damnit! If you do, I can't help you."
