It's Time

Time to ask of yourself, as it is everyday, to engage your will and effort toward some act of goodwill and kindness.

Discipline Your Mind

Day by day, little bit by little bit, you have to discipline your mind. For the actor the way to do this is by daily training. When you put yourself through your series of etudes and exercises, your mind has to come along and your thoughts are conditioned each day as your focus on what and how and why you want to do your job as an artist. Over time you build your mental strength and your develop your artistic taste and aesthetic to unwavering degrees. You build happiness and you build fortitude as an artist. And soon you will always approach your work with a personal respect and humility and honor.

Words and Thoughts

Many actors just do not learn their lines well enough. And without knowing your lines inside out, upside down, sideways, backwards and forwards,you just can't do any real work. Instead you will forever be anticipating and thinking the what and when of your lines and stuck in a kind of vocal pattern of line-speak. If on the other hand you can take the words and sentences apart and put them back together again quickly and easily under all conditions, being able to stress or not each word at will, where the words live in your body, then you can get to the real work and craft of acting. There is no gray area here, no alternatives, no new techniques, etc, that allow for someone to get away with not knowing their lines in this visceral way and still do real work. You have to be able to sing your lines, say them fast or slow, do various activities while speaking them, concentrate on other things while speaking them, stop or start freely with them. Once you can do that, then you are ready to do the other things that make acting come to life.

Stanislavsky and Nature, Wholeness, Simplicity, Life

Back in September '09 I made a post called Boimimecry about Stanislavsky and nature. Recently I made a short post called "Cultivate Heart. Nourish Nature." And once I conducted a workshop with a fancy title but that gave nod to nature and process. They are always on my mind... and so I am re-posting them together to consider larger contexts. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 Biomimics Bi-o-mim-ic-ry (From the Greek bios, life, and mimesis, imitation) 1. Nature as model. Biomimicry is a new science that studies nature's models and then imitates or takes inspiration from these designs and processes to solve human problems, e.g., a solar cell inspired by a leaf. 2. Nature as measure. Biomimicry uses an ecological standard to judge the "rightness" of our innovations. After 3.8 billion years of evolution, nature has learned: What works. What is appropriate. What lasts. 3. Nature as mentor. Biomimicry is a new way of viewing and valuing nature. It introduces an era based not on what we can extract from the natural world, but on what we can learn from it. The above is from the first plate page of the book Biomimicry, Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine M. Benyus. About a hundred years ago, the great Russian stage director Meyerhold was borrowing ideas from man-made industrialization and turning out a fabulous training technique for actors known as Biomechanics. Before, during, and after Meyerhold, Stanislavsky was discovering ideas rooted in nature, in the natural world and in human behavior, and making his own science and practical technique for actors. Perhaps his work could have been called "Biomimicry - a conscious emulation of life's genius. Innovation inspired by nature." Perhaps the credo could have been "there is more to discover than to invent." In any case, Stanislavsky as most who know him know, was way ahead of his time. The three points listed in the above description of Biomimicry run exactly through Stanislavsky's work with actors. Point one, nature as model. Stanislavsky sought to find out what is the basic natural process that is "acting." In other words, what occurs that brings together fictional, made-up circumstance and living behavior in a way that becomes art, processed fully with human thought, sensation and feeling? The answer he called Affective Memory, and he described and articulated it and all its accompany details and qualities over a lifetime of work. This fundamental creative process he often said was akin to all other "magical" processes in nature, and he used many metaphors of such in his talks and work with actors. Point two, nature as measure. In the most simplistic sense, Stanislavsky knew that if an actor was violating what he called the creative laws of nature, the acting was "off." For Stanislavsky this measure of nature was his way of telling what kind of short and long term impact an actor's work would have on the spectators, how shallow or how deep it would it affect their sensibilities. Point three, nature as mentor. What could we learn from those characters in Uncle Vanya or The Three Sisters when they were presented to us not as metaphors or political operatives but as fully functioning living breathing human beings with all their interconnected and interdependent lives? An eco-system of a play? What would the actor-artist grasp in a visceral sense? What about the spectator? What is to be learned when you go "into the forest" or "into the play?" Nature runs on sunlight. Nature uses only the energy it needs. Nature fits form to function. Nature recycles everything. Nature rewards cooperation. Nature banks on diversity. Nature demands local expertise. Nature curbs excesses from within. Nature taps the power of limits. Ah, good ol' Stanislavsky! Gets better all the time! Now Workshop Outline... “Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Space and Time” A natural and empirical approach to pre-expressive training and creative presence for Actors and Directors. January 24th Dynamic Breathing, Movement, Sound Spirit (spiritus), Air, from inspiration (idea) to expiration (the end). In this session we are working with the very simple of idea of realizing we alive, that there is a biological basis from which we can proceed. We check our breathing and realize our ability to control it. We realize its impact and potential in doing so. The focus is internal. Breath creates movement – both outward and inside our bodies. These movements in turn can create sound. January 31st Awareness and Sensitivity of the Body and the Environment “The first step toward action and possibility is awareness.” In this session we begin with our awareness internally again, within ourselves, or on our own bodies. But then we slowly move our awareness outwardly, to our surrounding environment, making the realization that we have senses that give us information and help us to create a relationship with our envirionment. February 7th Rhythm, Music, Dance Biological impulses repeated in forms so as to create a behavioral experience. In this session we repeat movements, sounds, rhythms. This is the first step toward expression. It may or may not be something specific to be expressed. It could just be a sensation or a general feeling but now we are putting our bodies into expressive action. February 14th Memories and Associations of Sensation and Emotion “It is untrue and a complete nonsense that I have renounced memory of feelings. I repeat this is the main element of our creativity.” –Stanislavsky, January 1937 In this session we learn of our senses, thoughts, emotions as being storehouses for our experiences and offering us the chance to turn these particular memories into expressive action which is specific and purposeful, and also personal. February 21st Active Mind, Active Body – Creating a precise score of actions Text, from Texture, meaning “the weave” – Actors create and weave a series of actions as their performance text. The more intricate and detailed the weave, the richer the performance. In this session we are now aware that we must create some sense of logic for our expression which can be viewed by a spectator. This is done through a series of actions with can include, thought, feeling, movement, ideas, images, etc. February 28th Intrigue and Story through logical and illogical actions, interruption and displacement What lifts an action or series of action from the realm of the banal and into the realm of theatrical or poetic ,and thereby captivating the mind and senses of a spectator? In this session we realize that we must make things entertaining and arousing for the spectators. Our focus is not only ourselves, our score of actions, but on the spectators. We learn that through sudden stop –starts, breaks in logic, etc, we can capture their attention and interests. March 7th Wholeness and Creative Ardor Seeking to understand the particular scenic traditions and the cultural-historical context through which the performers unique personality manifests itself. Ultimately the score of actions, the expression must take some particular form. What is it that shapes this form? Habits? Traditions? Cliches? Personal desires? March 14th Energy and Adaptation Finding “the simplest human condition” for the stage With everything in place, we now seek a “return” to the most fundamental ideas – breathing, relaxation to ensure that these concepts have not gotten lost along the way. We seek to ensure that we have the right amount of energy for precise expression – the as needed – no more, no less. We have to make ourselves likable and watchable in that sense. And a short essay added in... Stanislavsky’s Notion – Return to Life. Stanislavsky’s first book intended specifically for actors is entitled “The Work of the Actor on Oneself.” The book is divided into two sections: Part One is “The Work on Oneself in the Process of Experiencing.” Part Two is “The Work on Oneself in the Process of Embodying.” Together, these form a suggestion of biological basis for an actor’s work on the stage. The “Process of Experiencing” implies that under the conditions of the stage, a person (an actor) has a tendency to go into a kind of artificial behavior, perhaps something copied, or perhaps a cliché understanding of a particular kind of behavior, or perhaps mere nervousness or getting carried away begins to dominate the impulses of behavior. To remedy this, Stanislavsky suggests a kind of “return to life” within the imaginary circumstances and world of the stage – a kind of “as if” it were true reality, where the person’s (the actors) biological being functions as it normally would with full sense and awareness. The “process of embodying” suggests that once an actor’s biological experiences are functioning, they then must have a particular kind of actualization, different from real life perhaps, in order to meet the specific demands required by the stage – and its accompanying group of spectators. It’s not enough for the actor to merely begin to experience, he/she must actualize the experience a way that is self motivating and comfortable, and in such as way so as to be expressive for the spectators. In order to help create this “return to life,” Stanislavsky suggested that the actor had to create a series of commands between the mind and body which replace the daily influences of the mind and body – thereby separating the fiction of the stage from literal reality. The created series of commands function as a substitution set which prompts the actor’s behavior on the stage. When the mind-body is reacting fully to this substitution set of commands, it is said that the actor is organic. Stanislavsky knew there were certain qualities which could aid the actor in this quest of organicity. Among those qualities was a sense of relaxation, concentration, and imagination. To develop those qualities, Stanislavsky invented a series of exercises meant to give the actor awareness and control over their breathing, their thoughts, points of attention, and movements. Once an actor achieved a level where he/she could accomplish this organic experiencing –embodying process within the particular conditions of the stage, Stanislavsky moved the actor on to his next ideas contained in the book “The Work of the Actor on the Role.” Here is where the peculiar creative nature of acting kicks in fully. Stanislavsky knew that there was/is a subconscious process which fuses the fiction of a play, the unreal, with the reality of the actor, his or her total being, their talent. Stanislavsky named this creative phenomenon “Affective Memory.” His ideas contained in “The Work of the Actor on Oneself” are meant to be a conscious approach leading to the activation of the subconscious in the creative process. Or another way of saying it is “placing the subconscious under direct orders from the conscious.” This is a concept Stanislavsky borrowed from Raja Yoga and put into practice for stage art, acting. These ideas that Stanislavsky had for the actor, function like a set of Russian dolls, one inside another, inside another, inside another. And to the list we must add yet another perspective consistent throughout Stanislavsky’s ideas. Stanislavsky considered The Work of the Actor to be a way of mastery, of technique. He considered the Work on Oneself to be the way of liberation, of freedom from the very technique one has mastered. He considered these two notions inseparable, one not fully able to exist without the other as applied to actors.

Abe Lincoln and Shakespeare, Richard III

Abraham Lincoln thought that perhaps Claudus' speeches were better written than Hamlet's. I mention that just as a way to say that Shakespeare had some influence on Lincoln. And isn't there a little Richmond from Richard III in Lincoln's words and approach at the end of the Civil War? I hear it loud and clear. Where Richmond sought to articulate a reconciliation in the War of the Roses, Lincoln in similar fashion and speech did the same.

Creative Enthusiasm

Stanislavsky often spoke of the importance of creative ardor and enthusiasm, suggesting that if you lose it during the course of a production, you will almost never regain it. He suggested you have to nourish it, cherish it, and let it carry forth in your work. We should all live and work each day with enthusiasm. And such enthusiasm must grow out of our beliefs and our aspirations and the confidence that can come with knowing the rightness and the goodwill of your work, your efforts.

Good People and Friends and Art and Caring

The other night I had the rare chance to go out and spend a few hours with some friends and actors who have spent a great deal of time in their adult lives working on their craft, being good people, being artists. It was a tremendous occasion. We did not dwell on cynical aspects or engage in fits of joke telling and horseplay as often happens when a bunch of actors are together. Rather we told personal stories, and questioned and acknowledged dedication and concern for our art, and found our way to what matters most for us as people, as a group who feels and believes in ideas. I will long cherish the time spent that night.

Richard the Third next post

I finished re-watching Al Pacino's Looking for Richard, because I just had to. It's such a great-fun movie for actors or people on such a quest, informative, smart, cool, etc. Then I watched a few Daniel Day-Lewis clips, some interviews, some scene work. All part of the continuing struggle for inspiration and meaning.

Beowulf Alley Theatre - Winding Road Ensemble and Row After Row

Beowulf Alley (the name itself is brilliant enough) is hosting Winding Road Theatre Ensemble and their new production Row After Row. I can't wait to see it! I am greatly saddened that Winding Road has not been able to develop as the actual ensemble and company that it was originally conceived to be (as I wrote about in a post a couple of years ago or so), never-the-less, the arrival of this work is a great thing. Look it up. The opening is April 18th.

Get There If You Can!

Here's the Deal...

O.k. this is the deal. You have to decide what your aesthetic for the stage is going to be. By that I mean you are picking from two options. One is to have an aesthetic that implies and/or indicates something is occurring or will occur. The other option is to actually create an occurrence, an event on the stage, in the moment. Sounds like a simple distinction and in a way it is, just that, simple. For myself, and many others, the first way is not the way of theatre, or rather of a living theatre, but rather is something more akin to story telling or suggestive illustration of events. It is however far and away the most popular and most frequent form. Now whether that is by accident, ignorance, or on purpose I don't always know. But it is what you most likely see if you go to the theatre. The other way, where things actually do occur, is the way that distinguishes theatre among the arts and makes it unique. It is the way of immediacy and of actual energetic material being transferred around between humans(if I may be so new agey). The first way is dead on arrival, dead as a doornail. The second way lives. And from that living material comes the possibility to create the power and sense of purpose that elevates the art toward large purpose. So you have to choose. Or you should choose. you have to be aware of the difference.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Spent the day thinking about the amazing story of Martin Luther King Jr returning to Memphis, giving his speech, then being shot and killed on the following morning - April 4th. It is a story that in all its depth is still not well known or understood. But I assure you it is poetic and tragic and the details of it are kind of mind blowing. It is overdue to be (re)told for what is actually there.

New Stuff to be done next season?

I'm not completely cringing, but I'm not exactly thrilled with the shows that our producing organizations are choosing for next year. But they know better than me. And I admit there are some inroads being made in some respects. The thing to keep in mind is that these groups do not function as a theatre company "with a permanent group of artist united on a permanent basis who more or less share a common view of life and art" (paraphrasing Harold Clurman) but rather as old time producing companies who job in artist for each show. In other words there are no actors and directors put together permanently who can develop their craft in relationship to each other. Instead administrators choose seasons of shows that they think exhibit a certain variety and entertainment value, and then they fill in actors and directors along the way. There are small exceptions to the rule, but they are just that, small. The Rogue Theatre (of which I am a member of the acting company - for full discloser) is making a valiant attempt with its company of actors and its ongoing training of artists. The Rogue keenly has its sight on certain production values and elements and is working with its actors to be able to sharply manifest that. Amazingly enough, this is considered by many in the theatre community to be not only a strange and unusual occurrence but a kind of unnecessary nuisance. Sad to say but as many have noted, the actor is just a part-time visitor to her/his own house. (And remind me to write a post about actors and skill-sets - to use a sports metaphor term - and how they are chosen via auditions). BUT, understanding and belief of what constitutes a theatre aside, and back to the shows chosen...I am excited about a couple of new plays being put on. And by new I mean new. Not new as in was written three years ago and played on Broadway last year. Or Southwest premier (whatever that is). But actually new! Not a silly staged reading or a kind of half-workshop blocking rehearsal with scripts in hand, but an honest to goodness production of a new play! I think there are at least two scheduled! Well, I did say small inroads.