July 4, 2022
So, you know, when you go in to actually perform you've been rehearsing at home with your pal who's going to come with you to the audition and for doing this for you you're going to buy them lunch and maybe you're going to go see a movie. So, now, it really creates a positive reinforcement to get up and perform. Now, when they have an audition you're going to do the same thing for them but it's critical and I find that for actors. This is the most challenging thing is to have a daily regimen, right. You don't prepare on the day you've been in constant preparation like a firefighter. You're always ready to slide down the pole and you never know when you're going to get that call and when you get that call you're excited because you've been working at home. So, what can you do at home/ Everyday voice work, work on your back, lie on the floor put your hands on the lowest part of your abdomen. First five minutes of just really deep breathing. Do you feel your hands right into your thigh sockets? Do you feel your belly moving up and down? That means your diaphragm is dropping and expanding. After five minutes of that, let that turn into five minutes of...You'll do that for five minutes and then allow that after five minutes of that total 15 minutes, right, that'll evolve into...You will find it deeply meditative but you will also feel connected emotionally, right. I mean, it's really amazing folks please write down that the main course in the curriculum of life is to fully feel all your feelings. Before I talk about why it's important to know what you're feeling. If you have loved this click and subscribe below. folks you know we've identified slightly in excess of 80 human feelings. Most people lay people and an actor is something else to write down. An actor is a professional human being. Your average person can identify three feelings, I'm happy, I'm sad, I'm pissed. That's it, okay. But a professional human being needs to identify more of those. You know with beginning actors a lot of times after you do a piece of work I'll ask you well how did that feel for you and the the answer that jars me the most is when people say, "what should I be feeling?". you shouldn't be feeling anything. You feel what you feel and being true to that. So, and this is another one folks when people are working you know they're going well this is a comedic scene and I'm feeling really sad today comedy is born of pain more than it's born of joy and the reason we laugh is it's not us that's in that painful situation. So, always begin wherever you are, right, emotionally. One of the great gifts of the theater is you get to do a show eight times a week and I can guarantee you they're all different. Emotionally you will look back at the matinee and go wow it felt completely different than the evening and each scene had a little bit of a different color because you're a different person.
In film, you don't get the luxury of doing it again. The days of 20-30 takes those are long gone even though we don't have film stock anymore, right. Now, it's pretty much all digital. In addition to your audition pal your rehearsal pal you know it's critical that you are in a constant state of training. I was very happy one of the last films I did six films as an executive producer for CBS and the last one I did I got to hire the great Doris Roberts whose work I admired for many years. She played Rey's mother on everybody loves Rey. And in getting to know her and she wrote me a beautiful note that I know right where it is on my desk that every Saturday she was in acting class for her entire life even when she was on a show working on the great parts. Because she said that you know most of the stuff on the sitcom use about seven or eight percent of what she's capable of but the thing about re,hearsing Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, John Patrick Shanley, Sam Shepard is they will work you out and there is no shortcut. If you want to be a truly powerful actor you have to work on the most powerful writing and that takes the community and then you know when I later I got to study with Kristen Linkletter who wrote freeing the natural voice. Sicily Berry who was a great palomino got to produce and direct what was the culmination of her life's work called working Shakespeare. But I when I was a kid before I had access to coaching. You know in a voice book it'll say ahh without a coach it might be. That's too nasal. Now, I didn't know that as a kid or it might be that's too far back, right. That's the one we're looking for. It took teachers to reveal that to me. But folks, don't think that you ought to know how to do this all alone. It really does take a village, it takes a community. You didn't learn to walk on your own, how to talk on your own, how to cut your food, make your bed tie, your sneakers somebody showed you how to do it. So, coaching is a very powerful thing, right. Keep learning, learn as though you will live forever and live as though you'll die tomorrow. Everything is coaching folks so come and prepare with us on Saturday. We welcome you to join our community the first class is free. Please click on the link below.