“The most important thing in the cinema and the theatre is the actor…”
Vakhtangov on Scene Analysis
“Vakhtangov invited us for the next rehearsal to rewrite our role so that the left side of the page was the author’s text, and the right side – a blank sheet of paper. The first rehearsal he devoted to dissecting the images [characters] in the play. I played the central role of Henry, a young […]
Irene Worth to students of an acting class
Most of you are probably not Star Wars fans. So be patient…
There is a Star Wars “spin-off” (yeah I know, there are many spin-offs; Star Wars is merchandise, after all). However one of the not-so-crappy ones was “The Mandalorian.” In a sense, it is an American space western that follows Din Djarin aka “Mando”, a lone Mandalorian bounty hunter who resembles Clint Eastwood, in the outer reaches of the […]
Solve et Coagula
“The desperate need for coagulation.” In the world of alchemy, the precursor of science-based thinking, magic, and logic were intertwined. In the “golden bough” a book by anthropologist James George Frazer, one can see the history of magic, reason, religion, and science. It all starts with a need to “control” the environment and fate. A crude example of what […]
Please sit…tell me all about it!
The actor’s coach, Um…COUCH, I meant couch, yeah! Sorry, a Freudian slip. Ohboy, do you hear that? Do you hear that slight metallic sound? Heh! It’s the sound of a can of worms!Enjoy this small article on a HUGE subject! More and more teachers find it necessary to study and adapt their techniques and teaching […]
Self-confidence in a class.
I really don’t like delving into such mattersI am not a therapistI am not a psychoanalyst…n o t a d o c t o r! But I see so many people in the class ( even seasoned professionals) suffer needlessly.Again, not a doctor, just an acting coach; As an acting coach I sometimes have to […]
HOW DOES ONE APPROACH A NEW TECHNIQUE?
And why on earth “are we so f@&^ing useless ?” Whenever we delve into the world of a new technique, be it M.Chekhov, S. Meisner, it doesn’t matter; you will fail…My advice?…do so gloriously! You ARE supposed to fail! The technique is new…at least to you, it is! Every step, every minute (mī-ˈnüt) addition in […]
“Poor Theatre Costs”
Part A(By Robert Cohen) In the winter of 1982–83, Professor Andy Harris of Columbia University contacted David MacDonald with an intriguing proposal: Jerzy Grotowski was in the United States and wanted to visit California. Andy wanted to know if we were interested in such a visit and perhaps a series of lectures from Grotowski at […]
The “Hintergedanken” of acting Part 2 (PUT YOUR CLOTHES ON)
Do you know what en-clothed cognition is? Well, let me explain it to you in layman terms (I am probably going to kill it, so bear with me) An experiment was conducted in 2012, a set of scientists decided to give two teams of participants a lab coat to wear. Team A was told the lab […]
