This attitude results in theatrical products that are little better than Halloween tricks. The tendency to ignore fundamental aspects of the mask's meaning is indicative of a major difference between performers in the East and West. The Western actor approaches a role as an opportunity to succeed or fail in creating something that originates inside himself. Unlike the Balinese actor who searches outside himself for the creative seed of the character's interpretation, the Westerner does not take time to consider the inherent qualities of the mask that were developed by a collaborating artist, the maskmaker. This leaves the actor little opportunity to move beyond his personal limitations.
Balinese masks are inanimate pieces of wood.
The performer's challenge is to make the wood move as if it were alive. When he succeeds, its fixed expression seems to change as the light illuminates its features from different angles. It is a recognition of the actor's ability to animate his mask in a way that conjures up the spiritual and musical rhythms that are in harmony with its sculpted expression. When working with masks in the West, respect for the mask and its maker will lead to the assumption that each mask captures in its expression some essential aspect of the character's personality frozen in time. To do justice to the mask, it is necessary to begin by interiorizing its image in order to invent body images and gestures that are as economical as the mask's face in their expression of a character's central traits.