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INTRODUCTION TO THE WORKSHOPS
These workshops are part of a certificate program but are also designed so actors may take them individually to address and overcome specific acting obstacles.
The first four workshops are of ten classes each. The scene study workshops are ongoing from September to June, and actors may enroll for a minimum of ten consecutive classes.
The bootcamps are intensive workshops of one to two weekends each (two to four days).
Please check calendar and schedule for days and times.
BODY AND SENSORY AWARENESS
All acting approaches and techniques have bodywork. Why? Because we are no longer doing radio… What does that mean? It means that whenever we "act", somehow, someway, the audience sees what we do. Therefore, the body is our visual instrument.
If your body was a musical instrument, you'd have to learn how to get notes and sounds out of it, how the valves or keys work, what causes one note versus another… Before you ever start to play a song, join a band, play a symphony, you first have to learn the instrument. Our bodies are the instruments of life. What better way to learn how to play a moment of life then to learn how the instrument lives that life in each moment?
Remember when you were a kid? (And by that I don't mean eleven or twelve, but five or six years old.) Your playing was "total". You had no judgements, no fears that you weren't doing it right. You were the bad guy, the captain of the army, the princess of the ball, the mother, the doctor… and you played it so well!
Unfortunately, you grew up and dealt with social judgements, approvals, fitting in, relationships, puberty… Well, welcome back to the world of playing!
This workshop incorporates a series of games, improvisations, explorations and your own life to rediscover the simplicity of the body and how it interacts in a moment of life. If the body does not live organically the moment of life, nobody will believe what comes out of your mouth.
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SCRIPT ANALYSIS
" Be in the moment", "Organic life", "What's my motivation?"… Nice catch phrases aren't they? What do they mean? Those who know, don't care… Why? Because when you're in the moment, you can't also have the awareness that you're in it. You're just there.
When you live your life, do you say: "What's my motivation?" No. You just do what you want. Do you say: "Am I living organic life?" Duh!!! "Be in the moment"… Sorry, but if your body is not in the moment, it's dead! It's always "in the moment" in your life.
Sounds like I'm talking about Body and Sensory Awareness doesn't it? And I am. It's very important. In your life, it's much easier to "be in the moment" and not in your head, to be organic because you are, and to know your motivation because it's what drives you from one moment to the next.
But now, you are an actor. And you'll be playing other people's lives, whether real or fictitious. What is their life about? What do they want? What's organic to them? What exists in their moments?
The actor's body is an instrument. When you have learned how to play that instrument, how do you figure out how to play the song of a character's life?
In the symphony of your life, of your character, you, unless you need analysis, you pretty much know who you are! You know your name, how old you are, who your parents are, your likes and dislikes (favorite colors, books, foods, movies, etc.) You also know your personality, the types of people you spend time with, what your days consist of, how you deal with situations, etc.
In order to play a different symphony, that of the character's life, you must discover who the character is: what melodies make up their joys, what requiems come from their obstacles, what overtures are played with their victories…
Here is where the actor puts on their detective hat. With a magnifying glass in one hand and a simple list of questions in the other, we go through the discovery process of analyzing the script. We learn how to read the music of a character's life. We uncover all the tidbits of information a playwright has given us in order to piece together the understanding of the three dimensional life called "the character".
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CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
Well… you want to act! So, here we go! Just like the musician who plays an instrument reads the music and puts it all together in a song, here's where the actor gets to roll up their sleeves and explore who their character is by playing their discoveries of the script.
After you've uncovered the character's personality and physicality, comes the time to integrate them into yours. You've realized from the script that the character has certain qualities. Do you have those qualities? Up until now, the character has been a theory to you. How does an actor combine his body and the theory of who the character is in order to create a living breathing being?
Stella Adler once said: "The best way to do character development is through script analysis." After having learned, in script analysis, how to determine who a character is and what are the numerous aspects of their life, it is time to explore all that has been discovered.
Theatre games, improvisations, experimentation and physical discovery is the playground on which we create the life of the character. The more we actually play with the development of the character's life, the more the actor learns how to keep what serves and eliminate what doesn't. So, by physically exploring the characters from the script, we layer them with the subtleties of life.
Once this work is done, if I may quote "Young Frankenstein", in referring to your character: "It is alive!"
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PLAYING THE WANTS
When you wake up in the morning, do you decide which emotions you'll have today? I don't think so. Do you decide on all the problems you'll have today? If you did, you probably wouldn't get out of bed! Do you think off all the obstacles you'll encounter during the day? No. That would be way to depressing! Do you decide on your energy? No. Your status? No. Your dialogue for the day? Of course not!
Why then do so many actors play the words, the emotions, the status and the energy? If you truly take a look at your day as your life unfolds from the time you get up to the time you go to sleep, there's really one thing that sends you from one moment to the next, and that is what you want.
Of course, we all have emotions and energy, and obstacles and status… and yes, we do speak as a result of all these things. But none of those are the cause of the moment, they are the result. What causes the moment? "WHAT YOU WANT!"
As actors, what do we want? We want to create a believable character based on the script.
What is in our way? Our lack of understanding on how to take the information we've gathered and bring it to life.
What do we do to overcome this obstacle? We take the workshop!!!
How we do that? With joy, rapture, enthusiasm and an openness to change, if necessary.
More specifically, we realize from the script what the character wants. With improvisations, theatre exercises and an exploration process, we discover strong actable choices that drive the character and uncover what is in the way of their wants.
By exploring the character's wants and by dealing with their obstacles the emotions will naturally come to you. The greater the wants, and the bigger the obstacles, the more emotions. How hard does your character work to overcome their obstacles? Degrees of energy. What is the character going to do to overcome these obstacles? What could they do? What might they do?… What will they do? As the character makes their choices, they layer in subtext. As they physically take actions and express themselves along the way, the wonderful result is the story, both physical and verbal. So… What do you want?
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SCENE STUDY
"As an actor, why do I need Scene Study? I know how my body works, I know how to pull actable answers out of a script… Those two things give me the ability to work on a character and motivate that character with what it wants. So, can I just go work?"…
Not necessarily. Why not? Because we have to deal with one very important factor: characters interact!!! They interact with their environment, with their props, with their circumstances and their relationships and, of course, unless you're a hermit… with other characters.
Because the actor now has the ability to create a living, breathing, motivated character, do we have a story? No. We merely have what one character does within the script. We therefore need other characters, circumstances and situations, an environment and a timeline in which our character will interact.
In SCENE STUDY, the actor takes all ingredients and skills they've learned and sets them free to naturally respond and interact with all inner and exterior stimuli.
How do we do this? It's actually simpler than it sounds. Actors get together with scene partners and work on a specific scene from either a film or a play. In a combination of in-class and exterior rehearsals, the actor then puts into practice Script Analysis, Character Development and the discovery of their Wants. By being natural in their body and organic to their character, they begin their career of playing characters in scripts.
Scene workshops are held in every major city that has an active acting community. These workshops are attended by working actors and are usually ongoing. They give actors the opportunity to work on characters they otherwise would not get a chance to play.
In other words, the SCENE STUDY workshop is a necessary tool for actors to develop their acting skills further by practicing and honing their abilities on a regular basis. This, in turn, allows them to remain fresh with their art, thus giving their character work depth, spontaneity and a true sense of reality at auditions and work.
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ADVANCED SCENE STUDY
"I'm a working actor! I've done scene study! Why do I need more?"
Just because you're a pianist, and you can play in a rock & roll band, does not necessarily mean you can play a piano concerto…
I've heard it said many times from working actors: "I'm tired of always playing the good guy" (or the bad guy, or the guy that gets killed off to create the story… or the girl next door, the mother, the "femme fatale", the ingenue…)
How do we break out of our mold? How do we let the casting directors and the directors know: "There's more to me than my look!"… ADVANCED SCENE STUDY.
As an actor, the three components that we work with and hope for (a good director, a good script, a good ensemble) don't often come together. We're lucky if we get two out of the three. More times than not, we get only one… But yet, we must create believable characters (with wants and conflicts to overcome, in a natural progression of life) which must interact with other characters in the script (whether they are believable or not…)
ADVANCED SCENE STUDY. Professional actors audition to be part of a group of other professionals who are constantly developing and refining their abilities in a forum similar to the Actor's Studio.
The emphasis here is not just to play the character but to create multiple levels layered with subtleties and realities. The little moments of brilliance that is unique to you.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOTCAMP SERIES
Just because a person is trained as an actor doesn't necessary mean that they know how to get work in their craft. I know hundreds, and there are thousands of talented actors out there that don't work. Remember… I said they're talented. It's not that they can't work, it's that they don't know how.
Too often, actors graduate from an acting institution (College, Conservatory, University or private acting institution) and feel their training is complete. But that does not mean they know how to get the work. It just means they know how to act. Right? These actors are so saturated with training after years of a program, that they cringe at the mere mention of another workshop… The fact of the matter is, knowing how to act is the art, and knowing how to get the work in your art is a hole different ball game. There is a criteria out there in the business. We didn't create it. We didn't cause it. We simply understand it and teach the skills necessary to flourish within it.
It's very simple… The Bootcamp series teaches and layers skills so the career actor can work within the criteria of the industry and towards the ability to live off their craft. We're not talking about acting here. We're talking about working. Once we have the job, then we're working actors. Until we have the job, we're unemployed actors. It's really very simple…
Do you want to be a working actor or an unemployed actor?
As far as I'm concerned, starving artists are out! Eating is in!
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CAMERA BOOTCAMP
Do you know how often actors ask me what kind of acting I teach? Which puts a smile on my face and of course my response is "What do you mean?"… They answer: "Well, do you teach stage acting or camera acting?" When I first heard this question many years ago, I thought, "Did I miss something? A moment of life is a moment of life, is a moment of life…"
There's nothing you can do that's going to change the fact that life happens in moments. However, the camera's eye sees different. It really boils down to size. On stage, in front of hundreds of seats (in some theatres there are over a thousand), the actor must make sure that everyone sees the moment come alive, not just the people seated in the first ten rows but also those seated in the back row of the second balcony. 'Cause they bought a ticket to! They all must get the story, even though sometimes they need binoculars to do so.
But the camera puts the actor and the moment of life right in the audience's lap. So the expressions and gestures needed to communicate all the way to the balcony are too big for the camera and are often considered over acting. The camera makes simple movements bigger than life.
So… my answer to all those actors is: "In my acting classes, I teach you how to act. It's that simple." Acting for the camera is a layering of skills and techniques on what you do with a moment so the camera reads it as true life.
This very intensive workshop works extensively to make sure that the life and choices you make as an actor for the character serve you, the director and the editor, to help tell the story in the final cut.
How do we do that? We bring in professionals from the business to work on over sixteen concepts of camera adjustment. These professionals cover everything from the wide shot to the close-up, from eye-lines to camera angles, from lighting to reducing or enlarging for the size of the shot, from killing bad habits to optimizing your choices, and more!
This is not just information. When we go over these different points, each actor, across the four days, will have the opportunity to work with these professionals on camera. The result, "hands on learning". Each actor works a scene, layering the skills as they learn them, six to eight times across the workshop. This enables each actor to work on perfecting their skills in a realistic environment with different industry professionals. At the end of each day, their tape is theirs to take home and review as a tool toward overcoming their acting obstacles.
Good directors shoot with the understanding that everything goes to post-production (for you, that means editing). Too often, good actors with good choices en up on the cutting room floor. Don't join that club! Stay in the movie!
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AUDITION BOOTCAMP
It's funny. I mentioned before that there are a lot of talented actors out there that don't work. Obviously, in order to work in film or television, camera technique is necessary. But how do we get to use that technique if we can't get the job? This is where a lot of these talented actors fail. Many feel that an audition is a nerve-wracking process. Some deal with it and succeed. Some don't.
How do we put the nerves and fears aside so when we go into the audition, we can simply execute all those wonderful, brilliant, creative, dynamic choices we came up with in our living room?
This is true for stage or camera auditions. " Am I what they're looking for? Will they like the sound of my voice? Is my hair to short, to long, to dark, to bald? Am I to fat, to thin? And the list goes on: " If I ask a question, am I taking to much time? What Am I allowed to do? What aren't I allowed to do? Can I move? Should I have everything memorized even though I got the sides yesterday? How can you possibly go in and live your choices when everything you're concerned with has nothing to do with why you're there?
When we first came up with this workshop, we simply called it " Audition Techniques for the Camera". After the first weekend, some of the actors commented how intensive, thorough, informative and fun the workshop was. One of them stated: "This workshop is like bootcamp for actors!" The name caught on amongst them and what they used as a nickname became the title for this workshop and the career series. Why?
In this intensive four days, we teach and drill you in over twenty-five subjects of auditioning. Most people don't even know there are that many topics for auditions. There are! And more!
The best way of learning is by doing. So we don't just teach you these topics, we make you do them. In a real audition forum, with a camera, cameraman, monitor, reader, director and casting director, each actor has the opportunity to put their cold reading, prepared audition, one-liner, callback on tape (a minimum of six to eight times). That tape goes home with you so you can view how you handle text, sight lines, camera techniques for the audition and clear active choices. You watch how you abilities progress through the four days.
No fluff. No editing. What you see is what you do.
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WORKING BOOTCAMP
Why do agents love this workshop? Because most actors think: "I get trained, I get some experience, I get an agent, I get work! That makes sense? Doesn't it?" Hellôooo! Who's career is it? Yours or your agent's? Yes, it's a natural progression, but there's more to it than that. If it truly is your career, what are you doing for it? Bothering your agent for auditions and then going on them hoping for the work? Why should a casting director give you an audition? Because your agent said so? Does the casting director know who you are? Has the director ever seen your work?
Do you know how often agents meet actors like this? If an agent has fifty people they represent, how can they handle every single detail for fifty careers? They can't and they're not expected to! Otherwise, the actor would be working for the agent and the agent would be giving fifteen percent to the actor! Not the other way around!
The agent is not in charge of your career. The agent is not in charge of your networking. The agent is not responsible for your pictures, your union dues, your demo-reel, your taxes, your training… No wonder so many actors who believe the agent is the key to their career, don't know what to do if they don't have one!
I mentioned before a criteria in the business. And yes, I use the word business. Do you know where you fit into this criteria? Do you know if you fit into this criteria? What do you need to change, learn or overcome to have a successful career as a working actor?
The Working Bootcamp is a very "in your face" workshop. Without putting any actor on the spot, this short but concise workshop will open your eyes to the realities of this industry. Your career is a business. You are an independent contractor and in our society, that is classified as a small business. Through the course of the bootcamp, we bring in experts from casting to production and unions, to accountants and agents. We go over subjects such as pictures, cv's, reels and audio tapes. We illuminate ins and outs of auditions, casting, productions and funding.
Of course, we also address image, profile and networking, both professionally and socially. In short, the Working Bootcamp is a comprehensive workshop that helps create an arsenal of tools and options to assist and propel you, the actor, through your career. When all is said and done… you want to be "WORKING in the BUSINESS of ENTERTAINMENT."
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