Actors Should Act

There once was a great acting coach named Tony Barr. Tony is, unfortunately, no longer with us, but he had a long career as a Hollywood "go to" acting coach. He conducted a rare, out of Hollywood, acting workshop in Seattle in the late 90's, which I was fortunate enough to attend. He had a quite simple, but meaningful catch phrase he often used, which was "Actors should act." I said it was simple, but the meaningful part is that actors should do everything possible to find a venue in which to act. 

When I was in living in LA, besides weekly sessions with my private acting coach, I would go to casting director workshops, where you are given a two person scene by a recognized TV or film casting director, sent off to practice for 15 to20 minutes, and then return to do your scene in front of all other actors in the workshop. You work with good actors with good sides (for non-actors, that's a two to five page portion of a script) and get to do it in front of your peers and a professional LA casting director. Some actors get cast from these sessions, but all participants get to exercise their acting chops, In other words, actors get to act.

Using this same format, I have started, again, to conduct actors workshops. I have done them in the past and last week in a studio at Seattle center (the old 1962 World's fair grounds) I did my first one in a while. I had ten eager actors each doing a two person scene, for five scenes in all. The actors ranged in age from the 20's to the 80's. There was obvious talent in the room and it was a very productive and enjoyable evening.

Getting up in front of your peers and plying your craft is an important way for an actor to evolve. An experienced coach can guide the actor in their scene, point out a wrong path the actor has taken, suggest new paths, and allow the actors to mold a role to each of their unique personalities. Actors in a workshop such as this don't merely do the scene one time and sit down. They will work and rework it four, five, six times as they refine their role and their interaction with the opposite character. As an acting coach, or as an actor, it is an enjoyable process in which to be involved.

Last week's workshop was three hours long, but seemed much shorter.

Will I conduct more such workshops? I have another scheduled next week and if there is  a desire by actors for more, I will hold more workshops. I am an actor first and an acting coach, and a writer second. Still, I get a very satisfied feeling working with other actors and watching them grow. An added benefit is that by working with other actors, I grow as an actor myself, so it's pretty much of a win-win situation.

On the writing front, the Seattle Theater Readers will be doing a staged reading of another of my short film screenplays on the 19th of this month at the Jewel Box theater in downtown Seattle. This is the sixth screenplay of mine they have done, with at least one other scheduled for later in the year.

So, the life of an actor goes on with multiple irons in the fire, including several auditions since the first of the year. Additionally, in April, I will be visiting LA for more private sessions with my own acting coach. I have to say that I am greatly enjoying it all.

More later...........