Health And The Actor
Health to an Actor is the same as is health to a runner. All the tutors and all the books I’ve read on Acting talk about health being the responsibility of the Actor and I agree, but I wonder how often we can let these ideals slip. For an example, I’ve often held the belief that an Actor who smokes is like a cop who steals. Being fit and healthy in mind, body and spirit is my goal and my responsibility, and this is a work in progress.
I’d love to think that if we can come together for the occasional drink or barbecue, wouldn’t it be reasonable to get together regularly to work-out and then have that drink or barbecue. Even group yoga, or massages, or beach volley-ball. I’ve been in different workplaces where they’ve had company football, basketball, netball and cricket teams and they were really fantastic. This would help in exercising all the things I spoke of above – mind, body and spirit. As long as it didn’t degenerate, as it sometimes has, as an excuse to get blind drunk.
Generations
“You must be the change you want to see in the world”, Mahatma Gandhi
Is Theatre generational? Is there a point when the Actor reaches her use-by date? How you answer this question will determine the answer for your place in your society. My answer? If you believe that Actors have a use-by date, then you will have to believe that people have a use-by date. I do not believe this. What I believe is that IDEAS get old, and people can hang on to them or throw them out and get new ideas. Read more
Fantastic Fremantle Film Festival
I had the honor and privilege today of watching some of Australia’s finest young talents write, act and direct their way into the finalists of the 22nd WA Screen Awards. Jenny Cohen and I were asked to judge the nominations for Best Actor and Best Actress, and it was a rare thrill.
These people exemplified the best of what Acting is; honest, solid, immediate, intimate, energetic, poetic. I have never been a judge before and the responsibility was not lost on me. It was so good to consolidate the knowledge I’d accumulated of the art of acting, and see it in action. It was inspirational.
To all the artists and to the FTI, thank you for this privilege.
Love the art in yourself, not yourself in the art. – Constantin Stanislavski
Empathy
One of the qualities of a true artist, to my way of thinking, is the quality of Empathy. Acting requires empathy. I cannot play a character well if I don’t understand his situation or his story as he sees it. That’s not to say that what is required for me is to do anything other than the Director’s and Writer’s vision. Far from it. An Actors job is “to show up, and use the lines and his or her will and common sense, to attempt to achieve a goal similar to that of the protagonist” (David Mamet). Read more
Community
I attended a gathering last night. A community of Directors, Writers and Actors. This was an annual awards night for the work some had achieved throughout 2008. There were some faces I knew and some I didn’t, but we were all there because of a single idea – that as artists we need not be out there on our own; to create a safe place to practice our art and that we can support each other with ideas, encouragement and when needed, constructive criticism.
I looked around and saw people who warmed me inside to see. After the night was over I walked to my car with the sense that this collective were happy and glad to have been there. Read more
Beginnings
Beginnings. Internal, external. Seasonal and incidental, linear or lateral. We witness beginnings every moment, and are aware of them only occasionally. Or sometimes we are made aware of them. Beginnings can be subtle or brutal, new or renewed.
A book is opened, a seed is planted, an idea is formed. Beginnings can be welcomed or delayed. But they will not be stopped. Read more
Australia?
There are a lot of Australian flags fluttering in the breeze these days. Our national day strikes on the 26th January. Fireworks, barbecues, ‘drunk and disorderly conduct’ stories in the press… the usual stuff. Some enterprising person has come up with a flag that clips to the window of the car. Hmmm, lots of them around.
I sometimes think that the nationalist / patriotic fervor is not with whom most Aussies identify. I could be wrong. Some people I know have feelings ranging from ambivalent or embarrassed to disgusted and hostile. I share none of these feelings but I think if someone asked me I’d probably lean towards feelings of suspicion, similar to the feelings around Christmas. It’s probably OK for the kiddies but it’s not for me. Thanks anyway but I don’t really trust it. Read more
Z is for Zebra
There was a zebra born at the Canberra Zoo a few days ago, but they haven’t given it a name yet. I propose the name “SPOT”.
I was thinking recently about how we use sounds. Back in Acting school there was an exercise called “Sound Dynamics”. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, this means saying words whilst sounding their meaning. For example, the word “shiver” would be said as though you were actually shivering etc. I thought it was fun when I played with it early on but now I find it ludicrous. There have been times when I’ve picked up people actually doing this, not acting but in normal conversation, and it’s almost unconscious and pretty subtle. When you hear an actor do it on stage, well - let’s just say it takes the listener away from the action. I suppose it can work on radio and in certain stylistic ways of storytelling, but with some exceptions, I’m not enraptured with that stuff. But, each to his own, I s’pose. Read more
Yellow
I feel temporarily uninspired. INSPIRE ME!!! If you like, why not leave a comment on anything that you can think of about the topics or anything else on my website. But please, keep the profanities to a minimum.
It is a mean thief or a successful author who plunders the dead. – Austin O’Malley
XL
There was a joke that went around after the Wall Street problems of the late ’80’s and early ’90’s that the difference between a seagull and an accountant was that a seagull could still put a deposit on a Porsche! Maybe the days of extra large living have run their course. Not because people are no longer doing it easy, because in this country people still are doing it easy. The scare of the financial crisis today is just that… a scare. People are sophisticated and they’re just not as gullible as the politicians, the church, the media and the Big End Of Town would have them be.
Have we learned nothing from the excesses, the EXTRA-LARGE way of life? And where did XL come from? And who was best served by that ideology? There are those (see above) who would say we shouldn’t get caught up in the blame-game, but to me that seems a tad too convenient. What’s that saying? Oh yes, “Those who ignore the past are condemned to repeat it”. Read more
