Wednesday, August 6

I got the following email from my Acting Professor:

Dear First Year Students,

In a few weeks we begin our year-long collaboration. In lieu of an introduction, I would like to share with you a few of my thoughts at the start of the year. The first conservatory year is typically dedicated to truth, to discovering the reality of an actor’s life on stage. Our ability to truthfully live onstage is at the very core of our creative process. But what is this truth of which we constantly talk? Does being truthful onstage mean that we need to appear natural, or does it mean that we actually need to live onstage as we do in everyday life? And if the later is true, then how?

Not many things in our everyday lives are preplanned, and even things preplanned get adjusted on a consistent basis. Life bombards us with “circumstances” and, as they hit us, we react accordingly. This is the truth of our lives. So, why is it that onstage we have to be in full control of all “circumstances”? Do we feel lost otherwise? Is it, perhaps, that onstage we feel the need to be more “expressive”, more “effective”, more “telling” than in real life? Do we feel that otherwise the essence of our character and their intentions might be lost on the audience? This need to be expressive, effective and telling compels us to control our every move onstage—this need compels us to “perform”?

We need to hold on to what we discovered in rehearsals, we need to convey the idea, we need to stay true to our character, to the director’s vision. We need to make sure that we preserve the blockings and won’t throw off our partner… We need to, we need to, we need to… So, where is the space for our creative freedom, for our spontaneity, for unpredictability? And what is our role as actors? Are we creative individuals, or mere copyists of someone else’s intentions? Perhaps, the best we can be is effective, expressive and telling “transmitters” of our own creative discoveries? The creative life, the creative process takes place at home and/or in rehearsal, while in our performances we merely copy those beautiful results. Does this mean that our audiences never actually see us create, but rather just recreate? Does this satisfy them, does this satisfy us?

I intentionally present these questions to you, with no attempt to provide any answers. We have a year to answer them together… What are some of the challenges I foresee on our way? As banal as it might sound, one of the main challenges I foresee is the struggle to balance the studio (classroom) part of our training and rehearsal work with the actor’s homework. For some reason (a lot of it having to do with the constant lack of time) we, contemporary actors, often skip the homework part and rely exclusively on the training/rehearsal period in our work. While every rehearsal is a day in the life of the character and a step forward on our creative path, it cannot entirely substitute for homework research and the imaginative process. Today’s rehearsal only exists for the sake of tomorrow’s rehearsal; it is meant to prepare for the work of tomorrow. Not being able to support and assess it through homework would be a great loss and an obstacle on your creative way. That is why, despite your busy schedules, I urge you, from the first day at the conservatory, to develop a personal schedule that will allow for individual (and group) homework.

I would even suggest that you make a further step in this direction and strive not to separate between your everyday life and your creative life. After all, what you do in everyday life, how you behave, what conversations you have, what creative games you play with your colleagues, and how you behave towards them and other people in your life – all of it can be treated as a exercise that could potentially expand your creative individuality, make you more interesting onstage, make you a better partner and ensemble member, and make your characters more rich and complex. The true creative process does not end with the end of the class. It continues within you subconsciously, and you can support it by consciously creating conditions that stimulate this process.

Your success as an actor and artist also depends enormously on the books you read, the movies you watch, the music you listen to and the visual art you view. Without such creative “inhale”, you will have less to “exhale” in your own creative work. This is why I find the time outside of the classroom during your conservatory journey almost as important as the classroom work. I am calling on you to structure this part of your life from day one and to continue adjusting it along the way.

These are some of the thoughts I wanted to share with you as we prepare for our first meeting on August 26th. During that meeting, we will discuss our year together. We will build artistic plans and outline creative objectives. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your summer. Here is to a great year!



He also attached a reading list.

1. Stanislavski, C.

AN ACTOR’S WORK
Routledge, London and New York, 2008


2. Stanislavski, C.

CREATING A ROLE
New York: Routledge/Theatre Arts Books, Reprint Editions, 1989


3. ACTORS ON ACTING: The Theories, Techniques, and Practices of the World's Great Actors, Told in Their Own Words

by Toby Cole and Helen Krich Chinoy (Editors)
Three Rivers Press; 4th edition, 1995


4. Michael Chekhov

TO THE ACTOR: On the Technique of Acting
Revised and expanded edition, foreword by Simon Callow
With a previously unpublished Guide to the Psychological Gesture Technique, translation and commentary by Andrei Malaev-Babel, and a biographical overview by Mala Powers. ~ Routledge, 2002