never turn your back

Sometimes a director will ask you to do it, usually an actor will make the move first.

It's an argument or a debate and the other player has a long (or what feels to you like a long) monologue.

You step away, turn your back and slowly shake your head, sometimes even softly vocalizing, grunting your amazement at the outlandishness of the words you are forced to hear. This "listening" shtick lasts, miraculously, exactly until you have lines to say, at which point you spin around and attack.

Just think back to any actual argument you've ever had, an argument that mattered to you, an argument that wasn't scripted.

You never turn your back on your opponent.

What you do is the opposite.

You lean in, you lock eyes, you watch the words come out of their mouth.

So why not do that onstage?