The first concept that we learn in Richard Boleslavsky's "Acting: The First Six Lessons" is about concentration; a technique that all actors need to focus upon in order to help create a believable presence onstage. He states "Concentration in the quality that permits us to direct all of our spiritual and intellectual forces toward one definite object and to continue as long as it pleases and to do so- sometimes for a time much longer than our physical strength can endure (pg. 9)."
             At first, talking to a young prospective student about how theater cannot be taught - it's merely whether or not you have the talent to play that determines whether you can know theater. He then asks the student what shows she has done and asks her to speak some lines. By doing this he shows that there is more than one way to express oneself through a set of lines; it was easier for the student to curse something than to struggle to think of how to use the same line to give it praise. He explains to her the creature, as she is called, that she did not understand theater and completely went against everything theater stands for, basically saying she cannot act. By accusing her of this, he evoked a pure, raw emotion in her of pain and sadness.
             He then explained to her what he had just done, showing the creature that she had just used emotion to work on something, and then went into the importance of concentration, telling a small story about a fisherman who used all of his concentration to get his boat safely back to the harbor and only then did he let his concentration done and fainted. He explains that most all professions have some sort of material concentration, but the actor has the human soul. The creature asked, "But how do you start?" In wish there is a reply that you use your 5 tools, your 5 senses to start at the beginning to create a character. It is only from there that you can begin to construct a character to the fullest. If you concentr...