This Thursday Night Post is actually a Friday Morning Post- all this weeks' rain had me down right depressed. So instead of writing my post last night I chose to eat my weight in Mint Chip and watch horrendously awesome reality T.V.. Baseball Wives anyone? My Secret Pregnancy? Yeah, I went deep. I was asleep by eleven and woke up to a sunny day. Victory.
I have reopened my little actor's studio. It's called, My Little Actor's Studio. Isn't that catchy? My friend Eileen Weller came up with it, thanks again Eil. www.MyLittleActorsStudio.com, register your little munchkins or bigger munchkins K-12 there. Classes start January 23, 2012. I can't wait.
Many people hold the notion that acting is about being a good liar. Quite the contrary, acting is about telling the truth. Acting classes are for helping the artist achieve the truth in an organic way so that they don't look like fools and annoy those they are being paid to entertain. When you see bad acting it is not because they are bad liars it is because they are bad at telling the truth. One of the greatest acting-isms, is that "the truth reads". So, if you are feeling happy and it is a sad scene, unless you can get yourself into that true place of sorrow, your body will be telling a different story than the text you are speaking. As humans, we always buy the body language and tone of voice over the actual spoken word. We are genius at figuring these signals out. Unless we're falling in love and then, well, we believe that the other person loves us no matter their language, bodily or spoken, we become goofballs. *Then, hopefully the message is received before a restraining order is issued.
Let's say you ask your wife, who has her shoulders slumped, eyes cast down, "What's wrong?" and she stares at the floor, kicks a rock and says, "Nothing" .
"Are you mad I bought you a treadmill?" You ask cheerily.
"No, its fine." She says, through tears.
Now, this is a funny scene, but its only funny if the actress, in this case the wife, can really get to a place of truth, of near or actual tears and the husband is legitimately clueless. Comedy, no matter how outrageous, only works when based in truth. And of course drama has to be pure or its comical, in a bad way. Think of some reality tv! It's difficult to tell the emotional truth, because those feelings are private. Acting is about being private in public, in life we are taught to cover our emotions from a very early age. Acting classes are about reaching emotional truths and conveying them freely. It took me two years at the Actor's Studio after my initial audition to be free enough to be able to cry, laugh, even walk on stage without looking affected. And then it had me singing, "I love a parade!"
Anyway, I guess I'm just speaking to those people who say things like, "She's such a good liar, she should be an actress, she'd win an academy award." NO, Son. Rephrase please, you would not believe a liar, a good performance is based on believability. "She's such a good truther, she should win an academy award."
Have a good week!
Please leave a comment here. Thanks!
I have reopened my little actor's studio. It's called, My Little Actor's Studio. Isn't that catchy? My friend Eileen Weller came up with it, thanks again Eil. www.MyLittleActorsStudio.com, register your little munchkins or bigger munchkins K-12 there. Classes start January 23, 2012. I can't wait.
Many people hold the notion that acting is about being a good liar. Quite the contrary, acting is about telling the truth. Acting classes are for helping the artist achieve the truth in an organic way so that they don't look like fools and annoy those they are being paid to entertain. When you see bad acting it is not because they are bad liars it is because they are bad at telling the truth. One of the greatest acting-isms, is that "the truth reads". So, if you are feeling happy and it is a sad scene, unless you can get yourself into that true place of sorrow, your body will be telling a different story than the text you are speaking. As humans, we always buy the body language and tone of voice over the actual spoken word. We are genius at figuring these signals out. Unless we're falling in love and then, well, we believe that the other person loves us no matter their language, bodily or spoken, we become goofballs. *Then, hopefully the message is received before a restraining order is issued.
Let's say you ask your wife, who has her shoulders slumped, eyes cast down, "What's wrong?" and she stares at the floor, kicks a rock and says, "Nothing" .
"Are you mad I bought you a treadmill?" You ask cheerily.
"No, its fine." She says, through tears.
Now, this is a funny scene, but its only funny if the actress, in this case the wife, can really get to a place of truth, of near or actual tears and the husband is legitimately clueless. Comedy, no matter how outrageous, only works when based in truth. And of course drama has to be pure or its comical, in a bad way. Think of some reality tv! It's difficult to tell the emotional truth, because those feelings are private. Acting is about being private in public, in life we are taught to cover our emotions from a very early age. Acting classes are about reaching emotional truths and conveying them freely. It took me two years at the Actor's Studio after my initial audition to be free enough to be able to cry, laugh, even walk on stage without looking affected. And then it had me singing, "I love a parade!"
Anyway, I guess I'm just speaking to those people who say things like, "She's such a good liar, she should be an actress, she'd win an academy award." NO, Son. Rephrase please, you would not believe a liar, a good performance is based on believability. "She's such a good truther, she should win an academy award."
Have a good week!
Please leave a comment here. Thanks!
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