Lincoln Center Day 10
Started work today on the Actor's process. Started with Master Acting Teacher/Coach Ron Van Lieu
At Steppenwolf there is a system set up whereby if you don't believe something another actor is doing you cry out bullshit! Olympia Dukakis has a similar technique where she says to an actor " You're either lying or you're stupid, which is it?"
What DO you know about your character
A play is a series of human interactions that lead up to an inevitability
How do you turn an idea into the thing itself. I can believe an idea but not always the event.
Always think of any bit as part of the whole
Get their thoughts into their body I UNDERSTAND (mind) what that FEELS (body) like
They ( the characters) move their lives forward ( by adjustments) until something wipes them out.
Thing you are attached to keep you from giving up or committing suicide. "I'd kill myself, but who would walk the dog. I'd give it all up, by I did just start this book." There is always hope, however small, until there is none left.
Let actor's know that you trust them to find it, even as they flounder in the dark for a while, the trust could be all they need. I did an excercise last week where I had to act and an actor playing the playwright ( John Guare) was in the room. I have always had a tendency to paraphrase, I told him that I was just finding my way in it and apologized for mangling his words. He simply said that it was ok, that he knew that I would get his words right soon enough. It is simple, kind, and also set up his expectation for me. It said " These words are very important the way I set them up, but however you get to them is fine, as long as you get to them"
We then had Clown Class with Chris Baye an Actor from Theatre de la Jeune Lune ( my favorite Theatre)
Make more room for wonder, make more roomm for the big stuff.
What is the speed of fun?
A little bit faster than your worry, a little bit louder than your critic.
Just be ready, and on your toes to play with abandon
Don't bring the "deadly" rhythem on stage.
Over the top- the original definition came from World War I, the men leaving the trenches to a certain death went "over the top" It is to risk everything, an act of courage
Anger is a secondary emotion
Enjoy the common problem, don't try and always solve it.
The zone of the pathetic, a mid way point on stage where something almost kinda happens, But find the sweet spot and it all shines.
It's always more fun with encouragement
If you didn't care about it, neither would we
It's the terror and panic you fight that we find generous. It's the gesture not the quality.
If you don't love what you make, don't bring it on stage. When I went to go see Peter Brook's Hamlet in Chicago, I got to meet Bruce Myers, one of Brook's main actors and longtime member of his company, and we asked him what advice he could give to a young actor. He said " Treat a stage like a battlefield, you wouldn't go to battle without your suit of armor" I took that to mean impeccable technique AND the passion and belief in what you were doing. Every warrior goes to battle with the skills and techniques to fight, but also the belief that what they could be going to die for is real, noble, and worthwhile
" I wish the stage were as small as a tight rope, so that no fool would step upon it" Goethe
Clowns always try to do it right/nice. They may be incapable of doing it right, but doing something bad just to get jokes never works.
If you can do it the "funny" way, why not do it?
Once the body is given permission, it is very reluctant to hand over the keys. Laughter will beget laughter. We want to experience what we see on stage and our mirror neurons fire to mirror that. If you let yourself go there it will want to stay there.
We then did Voice work for the rest of the evening, no notes there. Repeat of the same schedule tomorrow. Thanks for all the great thoughts, I love the dialogue. Hopefully I can keep this up through SITI, and maybe even Columbia. Dunno. Appreciate all the thoughts though.
At Steppenwolf there is a system set up whereby if you don't believe something another actor is doing you cry out bullshit! Olympia Dukakis has a similar technique where she says to an actor " You're either lying or you're stupid, which is it?"
What DO you know about your character
A play is a series of human interactions that lead up to an inevitability
How do you turn an idea into the thing itself. I can believe an idea but not always the event.
Always think of any bit as part of the whole
Get their thoughts into their body I UNDERSTAND (mind) what that FEELS (body) like
They ( the characters) move their lives forward ( by adjustments) until something wipes them out.
Thing you are attached to keep you from giving up or committing suicide. "I'd kill myself, but who would walk the dog. I'd give it all up, by I did just start this book." There is always hope, however small, until there is none left.
Let actor's know that you trust them to find it, even as they flounder in the dark for a while, the trust could be all they need. I did an excercise last week where I had to act and an actor playing the playwright ( John Guare) was in the room. I have always had a tendency to paraphrase, I told him that I was just finding my way in it and apologized for mangling his words. He simply said that it was ok, that he knew that I would get his words right soon enough. It is simple, kind, and also set up his expectation for me. It said " These words are very important the way I set them up, but however you get to them is fine, as long as you get to them"
We then had Clown Class with Chris Baye an Actor from Theatre de la Jeune Lune ( my favorite Theatre)
Make more room for wonder, make more roomm for the big stuff.
What is the speed of fun?
A little bit faster than your worry, a little bit louder than your critic.
Just be ready, and on your toes to play with abandon
Don't bring the "deadly" rhythem on stage.
Over the top- the original definition came from World War I, the men leaving the trenches to a certain death went "over the top" It is to risk everything, an act of courage
Anger is a secondary emotion
Enjoy the common problem, don't try and always solve it.
The zone of the pathetic, a mid way point on stage where something almost kinda happens, But find the sweet spot and it all shines.
It's always more fun with encouragement
If you didn't care about it, neither would we
It's the terror and panic you fight that we find generous. It's the gesture not the quality.
If you don't love what you make, don't bring it on stage. When I went to go see Peter Brook's Hamlet in Chicago, I got to meet Bruce Myers, one of Brook's main actors and longtime member of his company, and we asked him what advice he could give to a young actor. He said " Treat a stage like a battlefield, you wouldn't go to battle without your suit of armor" I took that to mean impeccable technique AND the passion and belief in what you were doing. Every warrior goes to battle with the skills and techniques to fight, but also the belief that what they could be going to die for is real, noble, and worthwhile
" I wish the stage were as small as a tight rope, so that no fool would step upon it" Goethe
Clowns always try to do it right/nice. They may be incapable of doing it right, but doing something bad just to get jokes never works.
If you can do it the "funny" way, why not do it?
Once the body is given permission, it is very reluctant to hand over the keys. Laughter will beget laughter. We want to experience what we see on stage and our mirror neurons fire to mirror that. If you let yourself go there it will want to stay there.
We then did Voice work for the rest of the evening, no notes there. Repeat of the same schedule tomorrow. Thanks for all the great thoughts, I love the dialogue. Hopefully I can keep this up through SITI, and maybe even Columbia. Dunno. Appreciate all the thoughts though.
posted by The Necessary Theatre at 7:22 PM
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