That patience thing is the great bugaboo of all artists. You have to be patient to grow as an artist, patient to allow impulses to affect you, patient for the right script, patient, patient, patient, while the industry is moving past us like a freight train. But within patience is an awareness, an understanding of what it really makes one happy by doing what one does. When that is known, it's easier to wait for the right thing, and easier to discern what is only reflections of what you really want. Now that's as Zen as I get when it comes to the entertainment industry.

ActTrue

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First of all remember, the investigation of experienced behavior is for the purpose of using it in imaginary circumstances. So, we look at what we do in our daily lives, see what causes it, the thoughts/images that we judge and thus cause us to take certain actions, and then we go to the imaginary circumstances, the combining of them together for rehearsal-investigation-presentation, and we see those images, NOW, we judge those images, NOW, and we react, NOW. We are already practicing and developing the ability to trust what we choose to believe. Just choose certain circumstances from your real life, see what causes the actions you take, and combine them into a moment of life that you present in class, for our observation and critique based on Truth/Untruth. Just trust your belief, through image and judgement of that image/want, and allow your behavior to respond to those cause/impulses. It all comes down to just presenting it, and letting me critique it based on Truth/Untruth. Remember, we are there for your growth as an actor. So, put it out there, just do it, and let the experience clarify things for you. It's EXPERIENTIAL. Ya gotta do it.

ActTrue

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For our first session, I adapted various exercises, building blocks of technique, to my personal concentration on IMAGERY as the actor's creative tool. These exercises revealed the lightning fast THOUGHT/BEHAVIOR in the most simple of story telling. These exercises prompted vigorous discussion between the actors as they shared personal experiences of their commercial work and how they are now seeing the relationship, the exact fit, between our class work and their audition/callback/on-set experiences. Folks, this is when "study" becomes "process", and that's when you can rely on it in your work. But too many actors rely on and thus get lost in words, their lines. It's the human skill of SEEING what we are talking about, of watching the story created by conversation, of physically describing an event with our arms, our bodies, our every gesture, it's that everyday instinctual process that is cast aside when actors rely on words. That's when it becomes a head game. That's when they become observer (watching themselves and their work: self consciousness) and give up being a creator of the event. Acting Techniques, the famous buzz words of Choices, Objectives, Wants, etc., these tools often become just more head games, weighing the actor down in "responsibilities" to his homework and not freeing him into the moment at hand. The danger and thus excitement of acting is in the moments between the actors. This Six Week Session is committed to connecting IMAGERY/SEEING to our behavioral process, our investigation of Action with Thought is Behavior.

ActTrue

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To SEE is to Do, to SEE is to Say. To Say is to Do. It's all doing. It's all active. Feelings are created by, through, the things we do, and the clearer, more precise the IMAGE in our Seeing, the more immediate the reaction/Behavior. Last night's class was filled with examples by many students of the power of Seeing. Through cold reading monologues from plays such as MASTER CLASS, THE PIANO LESSON, and K2, as well as Hagen Exercises in Combination (Phys. Dest., 4th Side, Changes of Self, Moment to Moment, Talking to Oneself...) we saw the growth, the deepening understanding of Thought into Behavior and thus the clarity of Action as we laughed and laughed at Exercises presented by students. NOT SCENES! Just Investigations of Personal Behavior, and STILL, we laughed and laughed. Why? There were no jokes, no set ups, NO SCRIPT! But there was precise Behavior, which we recognized, universally, which we connected to, and our laughter was an expression of recognizing ourselves in others. Personal and Precise is Universal, recognizable. The Hagen Exercises are Tools of Investigation into what draws audiences/the camera, to you: your precise Human Behavior, of Thought into Action. You have to See to Believe, if you don't See it, WE won't.

ActTrue

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A very exciting, inspirational class this week. Spurred by Linklater breath/voice exercises and Rodenburg image/word exercises which free the actor from self-judgement and self-consciousness, students expressed their daily realizations and associations 'tween class work and life/business experiences. They spoke of how they are using the process of seeing, of 4th Side in their commercial auditions and how they are growing, improving. We applied the exercises, these investigations into spontaneous image/breath/sound expression, to poetry by ee cummings and Yevtechenko as well as monologues from THE PIANO LESSON and K2, and students experienced the flow of images that are the source of action/speech. See it and Say/Do it. Thought/Image is the source of action.

ActTrue