I'm currently reading "Acting Professionally: Raw Facts About Careers in Acting" by Robert Cohen and James Calleri. It's a well needed kick in the butt. I love its direct and honest approach about an acting career. The book never tries to dissuade you from a career in acting but it lays out very clearly what the career entails and what you need to do to survive. It's very sobering.
These are some of my favorite quotes from tonight's reading:
"Work out regularly. ... If you are student reading this, hey, don't delay- do it now! Don't wait until you hit the big city casting offices. Get in shape, lose the weight, gain the muscle, just do it! Then you can hit the ground running, not plodding."
"The specifics of personal physical appearance are not individually critical. What is important is the effect that your person and your 'image' create-and the power of that effect, which should be enormous."
"Cultivate a distinctive appearance. ... Extravagance and propriety are not worth a dram in this business, but distinction in your own terms is. Find yourself, and find in yourself a unique appearance that will intrigue others."
"Every actor must have training and experience. ... Training is the foundation to your career. ... No one should think they are too good to train."
"Many theatre departments project a back-patting coziness that cal lull student actors into a false sense of security, preventing them from developing their craft in a disciplined manner and encouraging them to rest on ill-deserved laurels."
"Remember: Whatever your training, academic or professional, you'll learn as much or more from your fellow students as from your teachers, and you'll be in touch with them further down the road."
"College, acting classes, and the local community theatre can be very comfortable places. A lovely security envelops you. You are known, liked, respected, and well reviewed by the locals and by your teachers. But check your goals. If you want to move on, you better go when you are ready rather than hang around merely because it's safe. ... When you are ready to take the plunge, take it. Only you can decide on the proper time."
It's a tough industry! I've got to make sure I have solid goals and plans in place to achieve those goals. What do I want? What am I striving for? What am I willing to sacrifice to get what I want? What am I not willing to sacrifice? Why? Am I willing to do what it takes?
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Sigh.
"The Foreigner" has been cast at the Hale and I have not been selected to be in the cast. Sigh. At least I'm becoming more and more familiar with this whole rejection thing. I've still got a long road of rejection ahead of me! Wahoo!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
"Macbeth"
Recently I also auditioned for the Utah Shakespeare Festival's school tour. Christopher Clark is directing it and it looked to be a wonderful experience. I would get paid and housed for from January to April while touring schools and communities in Idaho, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. My audition felt really good. I did my monologue from "Twelfth Night" that I used for grad school auditions in February, and I did a monologue from "King Richard II" that I have used before. Both went really well. I had a wonderful conversation with the director, Chris, and with the producer/artistic director, Michael. Both seemed to really like me and the conversation flowed quite nicely. However, it doesn't look like I got the part. They are only casting 5 men and 2 women to play all the parts and I know of one of my good friends who has been cast as Lady Macbeth. She heard over a week ago, so that's a pretty good indicator that I didn't get that part. Oh, well. We keep trying. That's how it goes in this business.
Friday, October 22, 2010
"The Foreigner"
I auditioned for "The Foreigner" at the Hale Center Theatre in Orem. It's being directed by Laurie Harrop-Purser and promises to be a great opening show for the 2011 Season. And I want to be in it! I love the characters. They are perfect for me. For my audition I did a British-accent monologue from the film "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World". And... I didn't do so well with it. I was pretty stiff (which kind of works if you are British) and I FORGOT SOME LINES! Ugh! That hasn't happened to me during an audition in a long time. I didn't miss a beat and kept going, but it really shook me up.
Fortunately, the next day I got called back! Hooray! After a very successful opening performance for "Uncle Vanya" (more on that later) I rushed up to Orem for call-backs. I was called for Charlie and Froggy and read mostly for Charlie. It went really, really well! I felt great! It was a very competitive call-back though and it will be tough. I heard that the director wants to single-cast the show which further decreases my chances of being cast. I'm still hopeful! I would love to do this show. I need the experience. I need the money. I need the networking and connections that would come from it. It would be an all-around awesome experience. I just hope I did all I could to get it. It's now out of my hands. And so I wait.
Fortunately, the next day I got called back! Hooray! After a very successful opening performance for "Uncle Vanya" (more on that later) I rushed up to Orem for call-backs. I was called for Charlie and Froggy and read mostly for Charlie. It went really, really well! I felt great! It was a very competitive call-back though and it will be tough. I heard that the director wants to single-cast the show which further decreases my chances of being cast. I'm still hopeful! I would love to do this show. I need the experience. I need the money. I need the networking and connections that would come from it. It would be an all-around awesome experience. I just hope I did all I could to get it. It's now out of my hands. And so I wait.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Teaching
This last Saturday I conducted an acting workshop at BYU. It was pretty successful. I had approached Barta Heiner, the head of the acting program at BYU, about doing a workshop to cover some of the things I learned while doing the Stanislavsky Summer School. She agreed and set up a time and booked a rehearsal room for me. I initially wanted to conduct it for the Teaching Assistants in the program and then focus on the exercises that Misha taught us, hoping that they would take them and use them with their students. I decided to open it up a bit more and invite anyone from Classical Acting and Auditions who would like to attend as well. It turned out to be a good thing as only 3 TAs came, one classical acting student, and actually two other students who just heard about it. So we had six, myself, and Barta.
I was nervous preparing for the workshop. I had three hours to try and give them a taste of what I had learned in five weeks. I decided to do a couple of exercises and then broke things down into a few different sections: action, events, given circumstances, imagination, and observation. I spent some time on each one talking about its importance and running a few exercises to reinforce the concept. All in all it went really well. I was pleased with the participation of the students and with how things moved along. I certainly learned a lot from this experience. There are many things I will do differently next time I teach a similar workshop.
Speaking of doing another workshop I'm hoping to start doing after school workshops at local high schools. Perhaps once a week. I want to do this for a number of reason. I love teaching for one. I love coaching and assisting young artists in understanding themselves and their art better. While at BYU I was a teaching assistant for three different acting classes and I loved it. I also got to teach two workshops at the Playmill Theatre's Summer Camp when I worked there two summers ago. I learned so much by helping others refine their craft and deepen their art. I realize that I have a gift for this and I really enjoy doing it (for example, I'm loving directing "Uncle Vanya" right now).
So, I got to thinking, why not make money doing this? I could hire myself out as a coach for young actors in the area. I particularly want to reach out to high school actors and help them out. I've created an ad on CraigsList, but haven't done much advertising yet because I'm still not sure where I'm going to be able to do this. I do have a friend who has a studio in the area and so I'm going to talk to him about possibly using his space to meet with clients/students. I'm in the beginning phase of this endeavor, but I really hope it goes somewhere. Wish me luck!
I was nervous preparing for the workshop. I had three hours to try and give them a taste of what I had learned in five weeks. I decided to do a couple of exercises and then broke things down into a few different sections: action, events, given circumstances, imagination, and observation. I spent some time on each one talking about its importance and running a few exercises to reinforce the concept. All in all it went really well. I was pleased with the participation of the students and with how things moved along. I certainly learned a lot from this experience. There are many things I will do differently next time I teach a similar workshop.
Speaking of doing another workshop I'm hoping to start doing after school workshops at local high schools. Perhaps once a week. I want to do this for a number of reason. I love teaching for one. I love coaching and assisting young artists in understanding themselves and their art better. While at BYU I was a teaching assistant for three different acting classes and I loved it. I also got to teach two workshops at the Playmill Theatre's Summer Camp when I worked there two summers ago. I learned so much by helping others refine their craft and deepen their art. I realize that I have a gift for this and I really enjoy doing it (for example, I'm loving directing "Uncle Vanya" right now).
So, I got to thinking, why not make money doing this? I could hire myself out as a coach for young actors in the area. I particularly want to reach out to high school actors and help them out. I've created an ad on CraigsList, but haven't done much advertising yet because I'm still not sure where I'm going to be able to do this. I do have a friend who has a studio in the area and so I'm going to talk to him about possibly using his space to meet with clients/students. I'm in the beginning phase of this endeavor, but I really hope it goes somewhere. Wish me luck!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Let it Be
The last few months I've been thinking a lot about the next step in acting that I need to take. I've gained valuable technical skills and mastered them fairly well. I am now lacking the deep heart and soul to bring life to my work. Misha told me that I have the ability not only to make people laugh, but to make them cry. How does one go about being so real in their art that the viewers are literally drawn in and will laugh and cry at the same time because what they are seeing is truth?
It's a journey. You begin by trying to be in control. That first run of a scene, or the beginning of the rehearsal process, or your early career is a time of trying to be in control. Slowly your give up control. You stop trying so hard and you do nothing. You get to the point where you're not trying anymore. The lines are dull and flat and the movements are few and small. You've turned off the conscious control that tells you that you need to do something. At this moment magic occurs. Your subconscious takes over. You start to come back to life. The movements and inflections and tactic changes aren't motivated by an actor who feels like he needs to do something, rather they are driven from the inner soul of the artist. They are real. They are natural. They are truth. At this point the audience stops breathing. And leans in.
You have to trust your self to get to this point. You prepare and rehearse and research and memorize and work and work and work and work. Then when the time comes, you let it all go. You simply give yourself over to the piece and the power of your inner soul. You release control. You turn off the little voices in your head telling you that you're doing it wrong. You fight off the fear that you need to do something. You allow everything to happen to you and you respond naturally.
This is how Chekhov must be played. We've gone through the first phase with Uncle Vanya and we are passing through the second phase. Already I've begun to see the third phase emerging and it is beautiful. I know the play and I'm still sucked into those moments. They are vibrant. They are full of subtle and beautiful life. They are truth. When the actors finally stop trying and allow ourselves to be out of control, beauty happens on stage.
I leave you with these two quotes from great artists:
“To serve a work of art, great or small, is to die, to die to self. If the artist is to be able to listen to the work, he must get out of the way; or more correctly … he must be willing to be got out of the way … in order to become the servant of the work.”
-Madeline L’Engle
(Walking on Water)
"When [the actor] reaches the region of the subconscious the eyes of his soul are opened and he is aware of everything, even minute details, and it all acquires an entirely new significance. He is conscious of new feelings, conceptions, visions, attitudes, both in his role and in himself. Beyond the threshold one’s inner life, of its own accord, takes on a simple, full form, because organic nature directs all the important centres of our creative apparatus."
-Konstantin Stanislavsky
(An Actor Prepares)
It's a journey. You begin by trying to be in control. That first run of a scene, or the beginning of the rehearsal process, or your early career is a time of trying to be in control. Slowly your give up control. You stop trying so hard and you do nothing. You get to the point where you're not trying anymore. The lines are dull and flat and the movements are few and small. You've turned off the conscious control that tells you that you need to do something. At this moment magic occurs. Your subconscious takes over. You start to come back to life. The movements and inflections and tactic changes aren't motivated by an actor who feels like he needs to do something, rather they are driven from the inner soul of the artist. They are real. They are natural. They are truth. At this point the audience stops breathing. And leans in.
You have to trust your self to get to this point. You prepare and rehearse and research and memorize and work and work and work and work. Then when the time comes, you let it all go. You simply give yourself over to the piece and the power of your inner soul. You release control. You turn off the little voices in your head telling you that you're doing it wrong. You fight off the fear that you need to do something. You allow everything to happen to you and you respond naturally.
This is how Chekhov must be played. We've gone through the first phase with Uncle Vanya and we are passing through the second phase. Already I've begun to see the third phase emerging and it is beautiful. I know the play and I'm still sucked into those moments. They are vibrant. They are full of subtle and beautiful life. They are truth. When the actors finally stop trying and allow ourselves to be out of control, beauty happens on stage.
I leave you with these two quotes from great artists:
“To serve a work of art, great or small, is to die, to die to self. If the artist is to be able to listen to the work, he must get out of the way; or more correctly … he must be willing to be got out of the way … in order to become the servant of the work.”
-Madeline L’Engle
(Walking on Water)
"When [the actor] reaches the region of the subconscious the eyes of his soul are opened and he is aware of everything, even minute details, and it all acquires an entirely new significance. He is conscious of new feelings, conceptions, visions, attitudes, both in his role and in himself. Beyond the threshold one’s inner life, of its own accord, takes on a simple, full form, because organic nature directs all the important centres of our creative apparatus."
-Konstantin Stanislavsky
(An Actor Prepares)
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