Dignity Versus Recognition

Dignity Versus Recognition

There is a kind of nobility, or dignity, in art. This dignity is earned by the willingness of the artist to give up themselves. It is earned by their willingness and ability to give themselves over to the art, to the role, to the training, to the process, to the...
Impulse: Freedom in Performance

Impulse: Freedom in Performance

Learning to drop the plan and follow impulses is acquired learning. In the beginning, it feels like you’re throwing off a nice, warm blanket. You’ve worked through the scene, and you have it all planned out. You are lying all comfy in bed. And then, the blanket comes...
Struggling

Struggling

Learning to work through the struggle is an important part of the training process. If we turn away from the struggle, we save ourselves from that difficulty, but we also save ourselves from having learned what was there to be learned. Role Immersion is difficult....
Stanislavski on Concentration and Attention

Stanislavski on Concentration and Attention

“An actor should be observant not only on the stage, but also in real life. They should concentrate with all their being… they should look at an object not as any absent-minded passerby, but with penetration. Otherwise their whole creative method will...
Self Consciousness and the Camera

Self Consciousness and the Camera

An actor needs an audience. If an actor doesn’t have an audience, then the camera must replace that void. The audience, or the camera, provides a formality, a structure, that gives the actor permission to leave the area of “comfortable and casual.” It’s the formality...
Super Task

Super Task

When you act, you must have a fire in your gut. It’s hidden. It’s far below the surface, but it is always there. A fire. You must sit with the burn. You must stand with the burn. You must speak with the burn. You must listen with the burn. Whether it is comedy or...