A situation that arose between Gena and Geoff on the set of Man of La Mancha illustrates the type of situation that often leads to tertiary tension. Gena had been in several plays and had studied acting informally. She loved the process of uncovering a character from the inside out and discovering the meaning of a scene or a line through the rehearsal period. Geoff was a more experienced actor with some directing experience as well. He had strong ideas about how certain lines should be read and certain scenes played. When he took it upon himself to advise Gena about how to read certain lines, she was both irritated and confused. She liked Geoff and respected his experience, but she had her own preferred way of developing a character. She knew she had several choices about how to handle the emerging conflict with Geoff, with some choices likely to be more effective than others for the entire enterprise. Consider Gena’s situation:
1. What were several options Gena had for handling this situation? For example, she could do nothing or she could quit the cast. (List at least five in addition to these two.)
2. How was Geoff likely to react to each of these choices?
3. What were the likely outcomes for the group as a whole of each of these choices?
4. If you were faced with this choice, what would be more important to you—keeping control of “your”
character or maintaining harmony among the cast? Are there other things that would be more important to you in this situation than harmony or control? If so, what would those be?
5. What choice would you be likely to make, and why? How effective do you think this choice would be?
Ask two class members to select one of Gena’s options and to role-play this situation. After discussion about what worked and what didn’t, ask two different class members to role-play a different option. Which communication strategies seem to be more effective? Why?