Zen and the Art of Film Acting

An article I wrote awhile back on film acting is in this week's issue of Actors Ink.

Click Here to read.

Inspiration

I saw this posted on Facebook and wanted to share it. Amazing. Inspirational.

"In a Chinese modern dance competition on TV one very unique couple won one of the top prizes. The lady, in her 30's, was a dancer who had trained since she was a little girl. Later in life, she lost her entire left arm in an accident and fell into a state of depression for a few years.

Someone then asked her to coach a Children's dancing group. From that point on, she realized that she could not forget
dancing. She still loved to dance and wanted to dance again. So, she started to do some of her old routines, but, having lost her arm, she had also lost her balance.

It took a while before she could even make simple turns and spins without falling. Then she heard of a man in his 20s who had lost a leg in an accident. He had also fallen into the usual denial, depression and anger type of emotional roller coaster.. But, she was determined to find him and persuade him to dance with her.. He had never danced, and to dance with one leg....are you joking with me?? "No way!"

But, she didn't give up, and he reluctantly agreed thinking, "I have nothing else to do anyway." She started to teach him dancing. The two broke up a few times because he had no concept of using muscle, how to control his body, and knew none of the basic things about dancing.. When she became frustrated and lost patience with him, he would walk out. Eventually, they came back together and started training seriously.

They hired a choreographer to design routines for them. She would fly high (held by him) with both arms (a sleeve for an arm) flying in the air.. He could bend horizontally supported by one leg with her leaning on him, etc..

In the competition, as you will see, they dance beautifully and they legitimately won the competition."


click here to see video

RIP Jakey the Cat

Yes. I did promise to start keeping up with the blog. But life decided to throw me a painful curve. My beautiful kitty Jake got killed by coyotes last Friday. A window was accidentally left open, and, well, you get the idea.

I was shocked by the intensity of the grief I experienced over this loss. I felt physically ill. I couldn’t stop sobbing. Couldn’t eat or sleep. It was like an orgy of grief. I felt surrounded by a solid mass of pain that I couldn’t escape, I was eating it and breathing it. Like drowning in sand. That stage, thankfully, is finally over and now I just feel sad. But friends, I will share some potentially uncomfortable truth with you. Being an actor and a writer, a part of me watched my reaction and took notes.

I know, it sounds mercenary, heartless, uncaring, and it is with a certain sense of shame that I even admit it. But I think it’s very important. Because I’m sure I’m not alone.

Let me assure you that I could not have loved this little guy more. I was one of those freaky cat-lover ladies. I doted on him. My friends got sick of hearing me go on-and-on about him. But, I’m an actor though and through. My job is to be able to reproduce humanity. I had not experienced this level of grief before. I’ve had roles where this state was required, and I imagined it, but now I know first hand.

Yes, just like in the movies, I dropped to my knees. Yes, just like in the movies, I cried “no no no” over and over and made keaning sounds while clutching my chest.

For me, part of the many blessings of being an artist, is that it gives me a place to place all the pain and happiness I experience in my very human life and use it to bring life to the characters I play.

I know that part of why people go to the theater and watch films and TV is to see themselves; to see their own life’s hopes, dreams and sorrows acted out. And by living along with the actors they can experience what Aristotle called catharsis, and can find relief by a shared humanity.

So as actors, writers, and human beings, as hard as it can be, we can welcome whatever life brings us, whether pain or joy, because of course that is our artistic material, it is our paint and ink, we use it to draw our lives.

Pericles Redux

I know, I know, I have been neglecting the blog! It's just that this summer has been BUSY BUSY BUSY! I've been teaching lots of privates and have also started some kid and teen classes, plus my house is being renovated so I've been kind of camping out in my own home. So, more soon I promise! Meantime, I just read a rave review of my pal John Farmanesh-Bocca's play Pericles Redux playing at the Kirk Douglass. This is a great opportunity to check out a fantastic company of actors. Click here to read the review. I'm going this Wednesday night the 22nd. I hope to see you there.

"Tantalizing" Lisa Pettett

Read below this weeks LA Weekly review of Richard III Redux and it's RAVE about JRose Studio alumnus Lisa Pettett.

GO RICHARD III REDUX: OUR RADICAL ADAPTATION The radical part of this stylish, modern-dress patchwork isn’t so much in director John Farmanesh-Bocca’s decision to preface Richard III with a flashback version of its chronological antecedent, Henry VI, Part 3. Nor is it in the Procrustean condensation required to fit both plays into an evening that clocks in at a mere 100 minutes. What is radical is the Veterans Center for the Performing Arts production’s argument that doing so makes for a more sympathetic, emotionally traumatized Richard (Stephan Wolfert). If the case isn’t airtight, blame Shakespeare — even Clarence Darrow would cop a plea before the persuasive power with which the Bard prosecutes his most irredeemably sociopathic of stage villains. That the effort proves such a rollicking good time is strictly the fault of Farmanesh-Bocca and his iridescent ensemble (ably lit by Randy Brumbaugh). Wolfert’s antic performance as the crook-backed usurper is almost Lon Chaney–esque in its physical dimensions, confidently spanning the valiant-defender-of-York honor in Henry and the gleefully scheming gargoyle of Richard. Bruce Cervi and Tim Halligan provide nuanced support as Richard’s ill-fated brothers caught in the cross hairs of dynastic ambition, while the versatile Carvell Wallace inflects the conspiratorial Buckingham with a distinctly Kissingerian menace. The best reason for this redux, however, may be Lisa Pettett’s tantalizing turn as Queen Margaret, a portrayal of matriarchal political manipulation right out of The Manchurian Candidate. Mortise & Tenon Furniture Store, 2nd floor, 446 S. La Brea Ave., L.A.; Sun. & Mon., 8 p.m., through June 8. (888) 398-9348. A Veterans Center for the Performing Arts production. (Bill Raden)

Happy Birthday Will!

On Monday, I had the pleasure of spending some time with director, actor, dancer, teacher (is there anything he doesn’t do?) John Farmanesh-Bocca. I met him last week when I saw my talented student Lisa Pettet play Margaret in a piece he directed, Richard III Redux. It’s a fascinating riff on Richard the III, incorporating lots of music and movement, that not only shows us Richard’s diabolical heart, but thankfully, his humor. There are some wonderful performances, Lisa of course, ( she is fab as usual), and Stefan Wolfert as Richard. It’s very interesting and worth checking out and it's produced by a great group, The Veterans Center for the Performing Arts. Click here for info.

At Peets in Venice over iced green-teas (hey, it’s VENICE!), John and I had a vigorous discussion about performing Shakespeare, particularly the importance of paying strict attention to iambic pentameter when approaching the text. We talked for almost two hours and I left feeling inspired and invigorated.

I spent a lot of time in the late eighties studying “The Bard” and my conversation with Farmanesh-Bocca reminded me of why I so loved working on Shakespeare’s plays (and sonnets). For an actor, Shakespeare is the apex, like climbing Mount Everest. The work will hold all you can give it-- all of your heart, all of your imagination, all of your intellect, all of your breath, all of your body, and it can always hold more.

I believe every actor should work on Shakespeare, even if he has no intention of ever performing it. It’s like a batter swinging six bats before stepping up to the plate. Studying Shakespeare will improve all of your acting.

Here is an excerpt from The Mystic in the Theatre, Eleonora Duse by Eva Le Gallienne:

"...she loved to hear the sound of Shakespeare's own words, and would ask me to read it aloud to her. Then she would sit awhile pondering over it in silence. 'The sound reflects the meaning,' she would say; 'blood; drowzy; incarnadine; those words sound like their meaning.' Then, after a moment she added: 'Of course it is Macbeth himself one would want to play. What an extraordinary complex nature! In spite of his maleness--so much woman in him! Ah, Shakespeare! He knew everything!'"

In honor of Shakespeare's birthday (and anniversary of his death), I will end this post with one of my favorite sonnets. Number 55. I love it because it is TRUE! His verse still lives...

Not marble, nor the gilded monuments

Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;

But you shall shine more bright in these contents

Than unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish time.

When wasteful war shall statues overturn,

And broils root out the work of masonry,

Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn

The living record of your memory.

'Gainst death and all oblivious enmity

Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room,

Even in the eyes of all posterity

That wear this world out to the ending doom.

So, till the judgment that yourself arise,

You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.

RIP Eleonora Duse, a mystic in the theatre.

I couldn't sleep during this LA heat wave so spent most of last night reading. I finally cracked open a book that has been on my shelf for at least fifteen years, Eva Le Gallienne's famous biography of Eleonora Duse, The Mystic in the Theatre. I picked it up and couldn't put it down. When I started reading it was 11pm Monday April 20th, and at around 3am this morning, Tuesday April 21st, I read about Duse's death:

"That afternoon in Pittsburgh forty-five hundred people saw Duse play with a magical power, a spiritual intensity which even Desiree (Duse's companion of thirty years) had never seen in her before. It was her last performance. The play was La Porta Chiusa--The Closed Door.

(She developed pneumonia afterwards.)

In those days there were no "wonder drugs", and for two weeks Duse, attended by two doctors, battled for her life...her strength gave out, and she died in Desiree's arms. Her last words were: "Pack the Trunks. We must move on!"
It was April 21st, 1924."
__Eva Le Gallienne

I didn't know the date of Ms. Duse's death until I read those words. Eleonora Duse, a mystic indeed...