The Secret to Great Acting

For anyone who wants to learn how to be an amazing performer, just let Ian McKellen explain for you. It doesn't get much funnier than this.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qKDbu3grA0Q

me tube

i may not be an official cameraman yet, but i have managed to produce a six second piece of footage that sums up my experience thus far. the 'actor' is rob. he's british and he's freakin' hilarious. the bearded man in the background is the dad on the reality show i'm working on. he provided us with the gaseous 'prop' that gave us such amusement. please note that since this is my virgin submission to youtube, it's considerably juvenile.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_xaMWKdOLV0

Ronkonkoma

I think the most fascinating aspect of my experience in the 'world of reality' is that we are stepping into a normal American family's life and sculpting it to fit a 44 minute television show. On the one hand, the drama this family is going through is rich programming, but on the other, we are manipulating them to fit our perceived 'choice moments' for the episode. We are writing their reality. They are not actors, but we are truly creating characters.

Granted, they signed up for the ride, but I have no doubt they didn't have any concept how this was really going to go down. We are setting up camp in their home and making them do retakes of their life. We have clear goals as to what they have to accomplish in three weeks and need them to achieve their objectives. Otherwise, thanks to state of the art computer technology, we will morph a nine year old boy and a six year old girl into future gluttonous sloths.

Whether the family succeeds or fails is up to them. Our only responsibility is to produce an engaging hour of TV. As employees, we must remain detached and fulfill our assignment, but as human beings, we sympathize with these individuals and want to help them. I get to come back to Brooklyn in November with closure. This family will only begin coping with what's happened to them. And I'm not even talking about when their lives are put on display in January for the greater American cable audience to watch.

Reality It Ain't

In an attempt to pay next month's rent, I've taken a job as a PA on a reality TV series produced by the BBC, airing on the Learning Channel, called 'Honey, We're Killing the Kids'. I've only had a limited amount of experience on a 'film shoot' and it's always been in front of the camera. Being behind the scenes is quite a different experience. You might wonder how the hell I ended up with this gig, and the short answer is: my cousin is the producer/director. Well, she's not really my cousin; she's my mother's best friend's daughter. Since neither of my parents have siblings, Laura is as close as it gets to extended family. We were chatting on the phone last week and I told her I needed a job. A few days later, she hired me as her PA out on Long Island, and now here I am in my Marriot hotel room, in the same parking lot as Charlie Brown's, Chile's, Wendy's and the Island 16 'Cinema de Lux'. Ain't the suburbs grand?

Support Theatre in Belarus

New York - Belarus: A Night of the Free Theatre
Presented by Culture Project/IMPACT; Co-Produced by Aaron Landsman

Monday October 16, at 7:00 PM

Baruch Performing Arts Center’s Nagelberg Theater
55 Lexington Avenue @ at 25th Street

FREE (tax-deductible donations are accepted)

Please come see the first-ever English reading of work by the Free Theatre, a collective of playwrights, actors and directors in Belarus, read by LAByrinth Theater Company, Naked Angels, Paul Willis and Tinderbox Theater. The work is adventurous, funny and passionate, and the artists onstage are great.

Each New York ensemble will present excerpts of one of Free Theatre's plays. Ranging from stories of blackmarket denim to unofficial disappearances, from overheard conversations to surreal dreamscapes, Free Theatre's work is truly transformative. The night will run about 90 minutes. Speechifying will be kept minimal. This is a chance to see what our colleagues are making in a country where creating theater can get you blackmailed, blacklisted and imprisoned.

The plays you'll see include:
We.Belliwood by Pavel Priazhko, Konstantin Steshik and Pavel Rassolko, presented by members of LAByrinth, directed by Michele Chivu
Generation Jeans by Nikolai Khalezin, presented by members of Naked Angels, directed by Johanna Mckeon
They Saw Dream by Natalia Kolada, directed by Paul Willis
Sky/Nikita Mitskevich by Andrei Kurei, presented by Tinderbox Theater, directed by Cynthia Croot

“I would like my plays to be staged in a theatre like the one I saw in Minsk. What I saw in Minsk is much closer to a true theatre, to its sources, to its true objective.”
--Tom Stoppard in an interview to Russian daily, 'Izvestia'.

Why Do You Go (if you go at all)?

Someone recently remarked that people go to the theatre to forget themselves. Though there is some truth in it, I think it's mistranslated. I think people go to the theatre to be in the moment. If 'forgetting' means not thinking or analyzing or filtering, then Yes.

That's certainly my goal when I'm acting: to be present. Character-schmeracter, just let me experience the lines as they come out of my mouth. Other than the exercises and blocking and the memorization and the design and the endless repetition, in the end, all I want is to act and react to what is going on in front of me. The only way an audience can 'be with you' is if you're 'in it' to begin with.

Theatres To Offer Terror Insurance

This is an article by Tom Parfitt for the Guardian - 10/6/06.

Theatre audiences in Russia will soon be able to buy insurance against a terrorist attack or some other catastrophe befalling them during the performance.

'One-off' policies against "unfortunate occurrences" will be available for between 5 and 200 roubles (£1-£4) when booking seats. It is a delayed response to the Moscow hostage crisis in 2002, when 129 audience members were killed after Chechen militants seized a theatre.

The policies were devised by the ministry of culture and Konda, an insurance company in St Petersburg, and pay out a maximum of £1,000 in case of death, disabling injury or medical treatment lasting longer than four months.

Andrey Moskovich, an insurance specialist, said Russians were wary of long-term policies. "People just don't understand life insurance," he said. "They prefer short coverage for concrete events."

About a third of visitors to theatres in St Petersburg are said to have bought the policies in a pilot project. However, a local newspaper found the most common anticipated "unfortunate occurrence" was being stood up by a partner - something not covered by the policies.

And we Americans worry about someone's cell phone going off.

The Pick Three

So for a random glance into my personal taste, here's a list of my current favorites.

1. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - For anyone who misses Friends or The West Wing, you're in luck. This new Aaron Sorkin show is fantastic. Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford are a match made in TV heaven. And who knew Amanda Peet could be so alluring? I've only caught two of the three episodes so far, but it is by far my favorite new show of the season. If any theatre folks saw Monday's show, you would have thoroughly enjoyed the inside joke about 'commedia del arte'. Check it out on Monday nights at 10pm on NBS (I mean NBC).

2. The Decemberists' The Crane Wife - I had a chance to see Colin Meloy at Town Hall back in January where he previewed some of the songs that are on this album. I was impressed then, and am flabbergasted now. The instrumental additions of the rest of the band are great. It's hard to pick out one favorite track, but I have to say the duet with Laura Veirs (who opened for Colin at TH) called 'Yankee Bayonet' is beautiful. If you don't know Laura Veirs, you definitely need to buy 'Year of Meteors'. She rocks.

3. Alan Alda's Never Have Your Dog Stuffed - One of the most memorable TV moments I have as a child is sitting in my mom's bedroom (up way past my bedtime) watching the last episode of M*A*S*H. It was the first program I watched pretty much every episode of in reruns. I wanted to be Hawkeye Pierce when I grew up. I saw Alda interviewed by Tim Russert a few months back about his memoirs and was really intrigued. A few weeks ago, I was in 7th Ave. Books and saw that his book was in the bargain bin for $2 (and Lord knows what a sucker I am for a good deal). I just finished reading and it was really good. I thought it was going to be just another auto-bio covering all the funny stories from M*A*S*H, but I was way wrong. He barely even talks about the show. It's more about his growing up in burlesque houses with his actor father and schizophrenic mother. Really thoughtful and moving. It's not just a book for actors, though there are some gems that really made me think.