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It's physical.

There are rules.

There is a goal - a way to win the game.

There are tactics, ways to endeavour to win the game.

There are conflicts, things (often people) that prevent you from trying to win.

When an actor pursues a goal or need through physical actions, emotions surface naturally and instinctively because you are a human being. When you are physically connected to the role, you are emotionally connected to the role. Through the use of Analogous Circumstances and Physical Action, it is possible to create the right emotion for the scene without even trying to provoke it.

Melissa Bruder and her colleagues from the first Practical Aesthetic Workshop write in A Practical Handbook for the Actor:

"Once you've learned to commit fully to a physical action, your only task concerning emotions will be to learn to work through them, to let them exist as they will, for they are beyond your control and will come to you quite unbidden. Your emotions are the natural and inescapable by-product of your commitment to your action."

Mamet defines actions as "an attempt to achieve a goal. Let me say it more simply: an action is the attempt to accomplish something. Obviously, then the chosen goal must be accomplishable." Physical Action is performed through the choice and pursuit of what is called an Essential Action. Mamet is essentially describing the call to action that is derived from an Essential Action.

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