On The Set
Have you heard… Oh, sorry… Happy New Year. Now where was I? Oh yes, have you heard about those Actors who roll up onto a set with nothin’ but their personalities? They might have prepared their lines and got them down just fine, and they might have just what the Director needs for the gig, even invented a few extra lines and jazzed up some business in their scene, but believe it or not, there are a couple of REALLY IMPORTANT things you should have with you at all times on the set. Read more
Greasy Seasonings!
Filed under: Acting, Cafe Critique, Food, I'm not sure, Life, Literature, Mates, Politics, Remembrance, Yada Yada Yada, nostalgia, poetry
To all who have visited my site (mispelt ’sight’), and even those who haven’t, may your seasons be unmentionably pleasant.
Happy Holidays
Gettin’ Down
You know that thing about Actors being a fraternity? How we’re all in it together and, although it’s very competitive, that it’s great when you’re in the company of your peers? Makes you feel all fuzzy inside, don’t it? Well, it’s a warm feeling alright. It comes from a feeling that we’ve chosen such a specialised field, and because the unemployment rate is so high, we appreciate the suffering of our fellows, and how lucky we are to be working. Yeah, it’s a wonderful thing.
I want to let you in on a less-known, hardly ever talked-about thing that also happens. Read more
That Moment
It is quite clear to me that acting is about doing what is required. We don’t have to think about who our character is – as David Mamet says, “there is no character. There are just lines on a page”. Why get all muddled and mixed up about stuff like emotional memory or sense memory? It’s just bulls#*t. When we let go and just do the stuff we’re required to do, it really is bloody easy.
I was in an improvised scene recently and a moment came, and it really proves the point exactly. Being impro, there was no script, just a scenario wherein I was to go with whatever came up.
Because I know what I’m doing, I was at ease with the situation and, feeling free and loose, it was no problem when something surprising came up. Read more
Lots Hap’nin’
This fortnight, I have the rare pleasure to report that I’ve been either booked for or have completed 10 Acting jobs and auditions. I think the world is catching on. I’m loving it.
Training
Recently I experienced an encounter which happens from time to time. It concerns what I see as such a serious threat that, like some virus, if it is not identified for what it is, it spreads and spreads and can virtually render a body inert. The body? Acting. The threat?
An Actors Problem
There’s a problem / dilemma / question that arises most frequently when we come to an audition with a new piece that we’ve learned to be greeted by a Director we’ve never met: “What does she want?”. I often meet Actors contorted into all shapes and sizes of anxiety about how to squeeze themselves into, again, all shapes and sizes of what the Director might want. It seems to me that some Actors would love to be all things to all people. Are you KIDDING? Read more
My Acting Update
Hello Folks, yes I know it’s been awhile. I have been very happy to move into more productive work circumstances of late, and it’s been challenging and rewarding.
I am increasing my work as an Actor by training recruits in role-playing, sort of like a consultant. I’ve done this in the past but the hours are a little more frequent, and I’m also branching out into Acting in the area of tourism.
It goes like this – Read more
what comes to hand
One of the tools I’ve embraced as an Actor is the one of using what you have ‘just lying around’. If I’m working on a role and I want to get some feel for the part, usually – if not always – the information is in the script. We can then use our brains and get everything we need from the work, for the work.
Great novels are an excellent example of this. When we read Dostoyevski’s Crime And Punishment, we see everything immediately. There’s no need to torture oneself in figuring out what the character wants or why he does things. It’s all there. We don’t have to twist ourselves into knots. Read more
The Business of Acting
The business of Acting, or I should say the business behind Acting, is something I feel not very confident to discuss. This is why I have an agent. There is a time, however, when we have to look at this subject seriously, and to address things – a time when our agent will not be able to do everything for us.
I’m at that place now, and although I’d be fibbing if I said I was totally relaxed about it, I genuinely believe that this is to be a very valuable and exciting time in the development of my career. Read more
