Organic

Have you ever met that person that strips everyone they encounter of genuine interaction. Have you met the other person? The one who breaths life into the day of everyone they meet? Like the the fire of their sincerity spreads to those around with not just charm, but inspiration.

How do you interact with the things around you? Do interfere and cause tension among them? Or do you let things interact with you? Do you let things happen naturally? Or do you worry and contort your emotions in an attempt to control what goes on around you? Start by asking questions in your life off the stage. See what conclusions you can come to with how you function and grow and take in stimuli and how it feeds you. Then you can begin to construct a technique for creating characters that will always do the same, and a way to open yourself to all the possibilities around you.

Thus begins the understanding of Organic moments.

Don’t see the length of your training…see the life.

“Don’t see the length of your training, see the life.” I would have forgotten I said this had a student not reminded me.

I often hear the question, “How long until I get this?” or “How long will it take you to teach me this?”  There really isn’t an answer to this. I can’t tell you how long it’s going to take you to learn something and quite honestly you may have not had enough life experiences to be able to fully grasp it. No, that doesn’t make you incapable of this. However; a lot of times actors end up doing themselves a disservice by trying to jump ahead too soon in their training. We all learn at different paces and we all learn differently. Don’t look at your training as, “Wow, I’ve been doing this for 3 months and still can’t emotionally connect.” instead look at it as, “Wow, I’ve been doing this for 3 months and I can break down a script so much better.”

Acting is like working out..if you continue to do the same work out everyday then your body gets used to it. Acting is doing. We have to keep our muscle memory fresh. Experience different things in life. Allow yourself to feel new things. Training never stops. Training is life long journey.

Is it me or does the crisp fall air and smell of autumn make things just make so much more sense?

Life is good.

It’s all about the perspective.

Oops…I’m a blogger now. I forget this sometimes.

Busy day.

Busy Life.

The crisp fall air makes me happy and smile more than usual.

How lucky am I to be able to do the things I love and call them work?

Bring on the fall festivals, autumn candles, and pumpkin carving.

inspired to cause trouble

Yeah, so clearly if you don’t encourage me to talk I tend to stay silent. Not sure why that is. 

So, not to sound so like THE ACTING TEACHER here but gee kind of like needing a reason to feel compelled to speak. Yup. Art imitating life, imitating art, etc.. etc…

Now I am feeling compelled. Sitting in my office listening to our teens take class and our adult rehearse scenes I think of how awesome to be a student of acting. How fun to jump into the story and start playing. How interesting to do the action of the play and to try and solve the problem keeping you from achieving your goal.

The objective is the thing.

The want is the reason.

The reason is the force.

The problem makes the reasoning harder and therefore gives action to the want making it more interesting to watch the struggle to achieve it.

Fun, fun, fun…

Looking forward to class tonight and helping people get into trouble on stage and watching them find their way through it. 

small things worth mentioning

Had one of those very satisfying days where the best parts of my life were all affected in the best ways. Nothing HUGE happened, just a series of small good things. Happy baby waking up chatty and playing. Contractor showing up to begin work on closet in my office (finally fixing what the original builder on this house was completely inept in doing.) Niece Nat showing up to hang with Eli and watching him love her to pieces. Hearing all day the great things he does with her and for her. Read thru with new cast goes so well and meeting that follows gets me excited about working with this great new show. Head to other show and spend time watching two great actors Kat and Zach light their scenes on fire. Not literally. (You never know with our show…) So excited for them and so happy to see them work. Made it home to hang with Eli after his bath and snuggle into bed with him and put him to sleep. My favorite thing to do. Hang out with yummy, funny husband while going through tone notes on episode and scheduling work time with actors for the week.

Its a good day for small things and these small things are parts of a very good life. They are worth mentioning.

Monday stuff

Oh right…I’m blogging now. Forgot.

Set Call 11:30 am

Awake at 9:00 am

Hung out with Eli and Papa for a bit.

Got ready to leave.

Went to set.

Found Candice immediately to tell her I love WEN hair products and need more ASAP!!

Got awesome veggie corn tacos from Pancho.

Did rehearsal of first scenes.

Ate awesome veggie corn tacos from Pancho.

Saw TVD wardrobe shopper Elizabeth with awesome sweater vest from Free People. Want it.

Saw Kellie with same item on only it had sleeves. Hmmmm….. Curious.

Elizabeth cut off the sleeves and made it a vest. GENIUS! Wish I could sew. Feel bad that John bought me a sewing machine a few Christmases ago because I said I wanted to learn and I haven’t done it. 😦

Went to crafty and avoided the donuts.

Found a Sprite.

Needed some carbonation. It was warm.

Had a few sips and tossed it. But it did the trick, so I’m happy and it also means I can still have a ginger ale during tone meeting later and not feel like I’ve had too much soda today. Woo Hoo!

Tone meeting in a few hours for next episode. Always so crazy how fast this goes. Impressed again with the machine that is a television show.

Thinking about what my little bug and yummy husband are doing right now. Hoping they are having fun. Missing them. Loving them.

Looking forward to every day of my life.

Hugs and Kisses to everyone.

Oh… except the mean people who are blocking the entrance to my studio all the time. You know who you are.

 

 

The Blend and Emotional Payoff

So, missing getting to go to Eli’s dance class on Wednesday mornings is definitely a bummer, but knowing he is with his Papa and Cousin Natalie make it better. Also, I don’t know how people functioned before Facetiming, the opportunity to connect with him in a somewhat physical way at some point when I am not at home is amazing. Still, there is a compromise here of course. Having it all, doing it all, career and home is a gift and I need to always look at it that way. That these things are not a burden on me, but a blessing.

Its easy to fall behind on being grateful. Harping on the problems with a situation takes the value out of that situation. Takes away the worth.

I had a wonderful class last night, students brought in work from The Shape of Things, Nuts and Jitney. We did some great work with changing the characters perspective and arriving to the scene with a new idea of what they overall need and want. In some cases it delayed the emotional surge the character had in the scene because they came in expecting something else entirely which led them to a stronger realization.

Great work, great actors, great family and a sense that if I just change my perspective sometimes the greater emotional payoff is waiting for me down the road and it will change me for the better.

multitasking and decision making

You want to be successful in this business? Be good at multitasking and making fast decisions about important things. When I left LA (not from there, but lived almost three years working for my Aunt Dinah who was acting on a sitcom at the time, my aunt said to me “You can always come home”. I loved this and always remember it, because what I knew that to mean was that I had the power to change things in my life if I wanted to. I remember that when making big decisions. The decision may come with things i don’t like, compromises and hurdles, but thats okay. If it turns out later on I need something different in my life I can change it, but right now I commit to this decision and to making it work.

Multitasking requires a clear mind and commitment to the task. If you want more things out of life, than be willing to do more in your daily life to achieve them. Nowhere will you find more multitasking going on than on a TV set. There is a lot happening and people accomplishing mountains of work in a short amount of time. The schedule is the beast and people who cannot function within that schedule are weeded out quickly. People who work in costumes, props and most especially in the AD departments are some of THE MOST SKILLED at multitasking. I am always in awe. I just try to get out of their way and not make their jobs more difficult. 

When I leave set at the end of my work day, I am often disappointed in my experience with the rest of the world and their lack of ability to multitask the same way. Then again, maybe those people are the smart ones and we folks in the business are just insane. Well, yeah, we are, but still I like those who can accomplish a lot. They might be nuts, but they are who you can count on to get things done.

First Post

So…lets see if I commit to this.