located in Waterford CT, 06385
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There are no rules. There is no "right" way to do anything. You can only tell the truth on stage. That's all you can do. It's simple. Telling the truth is the simplest way. It sounds easy. It is not. Getting to the truth is simple, but it's not easy. The truth is what is left when you strip away everything else.
"You have to be
courageous and on your toes, ready for deeply felt exchanges.
YOU are the part. It's your feelings that matter -
it's how you feel, because the rest of it is just a concept,
an idea - just
words on a paper. A good actor is someone who allows everything in,
whose willing to trust himself and abandon himself to the
circumstances.
You have to be willing to throw yourself in, and not
know what the hell's going to happen.
Be willing to take that trip, that
adventure."
- Mark Rydell
Acting can be simple and uncomplicated when you know what to do. All you have to do is show up with focus and commitment, with passion - and you will become the actor you want to be - it's impossible not to improve.
"Acting is a glorious
profession. As an actor you are put in a position where you can actually change
somebody's life, you can affect them that much. You can move and enlighten
people - make them think where they had never thought before. And I think that
is sensational. Acting is about giving - not what you're getting out of
it."
- Jack Lemmon
The ability to make creative choices, based on an understanding of material, is crucial for an actor. A good writer cannot reveal too much. He must take seemingly random, insignificant events and weave them into significance - into a story. In good writing there is much more meaning that is hidden. This makes the actor's job of interpretation much more difficult. Many actors take the writers' words at their literal meaning. They base their work on a surface level interpretation. This can only lead to a surface level performance. You have to learn how to take a step back from the words in order to find their deeper, more significant meaning. Only then, can your ability to make informed choices, and execute them shine through.
The key to character is desire. A character comes alive the moment we understand what he wants. Character is expressed through the difficult choices he makes under pressure. The greater the pressure the more is revealed about him. Work on character is a step by step process. A character must first be the noise of his name, and all the sounds and rhythms that emanate from him. Character is also expressed through contradictory desires. They bring dimension to a complex role. There is a hero in every coward and a coward in every hero. What distinguishes the great actor is the unresolved nature of his characters. A hero is not a fixed image, but a surprising mix of many sides that can be glimpsed at, but never explained away. Without memorable characters we would have only a cinema of surfaces. Great actors leave us with a sense of mystery and a realm of the unresolved. Myth demands this.
Preparation is what you do creatively, imaginatively inside yourself to be in a place that will carry you into the scene. It's a process that causes you to transform your inner life, so that you're not who you were five minutes ago. Wishful thinking is part of it. So is fantasy and day dreaming. In other words, you are not necessarily confined to the reality of your life, or recalling a past event that actually happened to you. It can come from anywhere. Fantasy or reality: either way you go, it's better to use what moves you - affects you. There are positive and negative fantasies. Don't over complicate. Imagine winning an Academy Award. Now imagine yourself homeless. I'm pointing out a conscious way of starting the process. It's really very simple. Preparation is the most personal, the most secret of acting values. It comes from your imagination and is a product of your inventiveness. Be prepared to let your preparation go astray. If you have it - great, if you don't - don't bother, just come in truthfully with little fanfare. You can't fake it, just like you can't fake emotion; it just calls attention to the fact that you ain't got it. Prepare. It should be simple. Preparation lasts only for the first moment of the scene - then you never know what's going to happen.
"I've found the
important thing is to discover where my character is coming from.
I don't
mean in any deep psychological sense, just where she was a few minutes ago.
What's her mind on right now. In life you don't have huge
psychological reasons for walking into a room,
you just walk into a room.
You come from somewhere. And that place is either cold
or it's hot
or it's late or it's early, and you're usually thinking about
something before you enter.
And bring your day on stage with you,
which sounds simplistic, but it's actually very true.
It opens you up to the
nuances that are always there, always changing."
-Glenn Close
Acting is an art that requires immediacy and courage. To act means to perform an action, to do something. It's in the doing something, that you are an actor. It's not the words that carry the meaning; it's the actions. What is an action? It is an attempt to achieve a goal. An action is an attempt to accomplish something. The chosen goal must be do-able and simple. It is only necessary to have an intention - to have desire - to have a goal - to want something from the other person that only he or she can provide. It is the actor's job to reduce the action to its simplest, most do-able form. The difficulty in acting is in being simple. It's the ordinary person acting in an extraordinary way. It's the person who won't be swayed, who perseveres, who never gives up trying to achieve his goal. Acting training is simply this: learning to deal with uncertainty. Learning not to over complicate. Learning to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Learning to accomplish an action, simply and honestly.
To act you need an appetite that is larger than life. You need passion and desire. If you're an actor, then your life must be about expression. What do you need to express? Your attitude about yourself is very important. It informs and encompasses your talent. Confidence releases juices, releases life, releases talent. Class is for solving problems and breaking new ground, rising to a new level. If you can identify a problem, you're half way home in solving it. 98% of acting is showing up. All you have to do is show up to class, with passion, ready to work, and you will become the actor you want to be. Acting must be personal. It must spring from who you are. It comes down to the choices you make and your ability to fulfill them. Acting is also collaborating with other people. So get out, go study life outside of yourself. Make your life work, make it sing. Use your creativity to make other people look good, to make their lives better. People can be wrapped up in their own world. But realize that if you are consistently excellent, people will get you. It's just a matter of time.
Disclaimer: These words are taken from several pages
from http://www.actorscenter.com/ .
The words belong to Michael S. Butler, unless otherwise indicated. He also
says, "It is important that we create an atmosphere that gives an actor the
inspiration to explore the depth and range of human experience." I
like the way he thinks.
- David