Respect

Hello to all my stunning readers! I've been quiet for ten days now, which is disgusting of me I know. I do apologize, but at the same time I've been having a wonderfully restful lazy time with my girlfriend, cuddling for days on end, visiting our godson and watching some really rather excellent movies.

A few days ago, while I was blissfully scrolling through Facebook from my mobile phone, I saw that my friend, mentor and guide in theater had posted the following as her status on Facebook:

RESPECT is the keyword to excellence in the theatre individually and collectively!

I could have whooped out loud, I was so happy. Such truth should be celebrated. So many times, we come into contact with people in the theater who have little or no consideration for others, and seek only to glorify themselves.

Self-glorification is fine, don't get me wrong, but the problems start to occur when it is done at the expense of the theater, one's fellow actors, and the audience. This is an epidemic with students that has to be nipped in the bud. I've ached through many awful productions from school shows, to amateur dramatics, to really spectacularly awful professional shows that left me, as an audience member, desperately seeking the closest cup of tea for consolation. Admittedly, there are many factors that can result in an abortion of a production, but I believe that 99 percent of the time, the main problem is a lack of respect. I've made an awesome table that reduces this ridiculously in depth topic to a brief summary.

Learning lines made simple

Learning lines freaks most drama students out to an incredible extent. I find this sad, because it's really not difficult. It may be time consuming, but if that's your concern, I'm afraid you are disgustingly lazy. I'd like to say up front that I am aware that there are many different methods of memorizing text; this is just my method, and in my experience it works like a charm. However if any of you know of other ways, let me know in the comments! Lets do this in steps.

 What you wanna do first, is separate your script into sections. The script as a whole is first divided into acts, acts into scenes and scenes into thoughts. It is important for us to follow this guideline in breaking out scripts into manageable chunks, so that the whole task of learning lines becomes less daunting. Most scripts are already divided for us as far as the third step (scenes), but it is up to us to divide them further into thoughts. We do this by identifying the ideas and steps within the scene, separating them and, only for a little while, isolating them. Each new 'idea' can be indicated with a square bracket, as shown below.


 The next step is to highlight sets of lines with different colours, so that attention can be given to each set individually, as I've done to the monologue below. I've blurred the words out so I don't get slammed with copyright lawsuits. The idea is that we highlight lines in sets of two's (a line here meaning sentence). I've given an example below.


 The third and final step is where the actual work comes in. This is the part where you start to learn your lines. Scared? Don't be. I'm about to give you a really simple method that will make all the difference to the amount of time you spend studying your text. What you do is, learn the first set of lines you've highlighted, so that you know them 100% off by heart. For the average person, learning two lines takes approximately five minutes. One you've remembered the first two lines, move onto learn the next two. When you've remembered those, try to recite all four lines. When you can do this, move onto the third set of two. Then try to recite all six that you've learnt. Continue this cycle until you've reached the end of the section. Then, restart the process with the next section. Once you've memorized the next section, try to recite the two sections you've learnt. Make sure that you speak the lines you are trying to learn out loud. That is the only way this works!

Once you've memorized the entire script using this method, it is imperative that you practice reciting your lines everyday! This is the only thing that will solidify them in your mind. Remember to say them out loud!

"Thats all very well," I hear you say, "but what about dialogs?!" No problem! What you do, is speak your lines out loud, and read the other person's lines in silence. This seems to create a divide in one's mind between the lines one must say and the lines one must be 'fed' by the other actor(s).

There you have it! Try it out and let me know how well it works for you!

Terry Pratchett's Nation

Terry Pratchett, best known for his Discworld series, is an amazing author. He created a whole new universe in exquisitely tangible detail that undulates in a never ending tango with normality. I have been a great fan of Terry Pratchett's novels for many years, frequently losing myself in the endless depths of each new page. My latest Terry Pratchett fix came from his novel Nation which is best described as a work of genius; a powerfully worded window into new possibilities.

In Nation, Pratchett tells the tale of a young island boy on the cusp of manhood, faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges. Pratchett weaves humour, suspense and action into a stunning tapestry, dripping with beautiful language and engaging imagery.

Imagine my joy, when I read in a local newspaper about London's National Theatre simulcasting live productions via satellite to a cinema near me! My excitement almost made me hyperventilate when I discovered, upon further reading, that Nation would be showing!  NTLive, as the initiative is called, is a truly amazing experience, and Nation was just the most spectacular show to watch. We got to see all the effects, puppets, expressions and action up close; so much closer than the theater could ever get under normal circumstances. I'm astounded by the whole affair.

Apology

Hello everyone! Good God it's been far too long since I've written anything. What with exams and moving from Wordpress to Blogger, I've had almost no time to sit down and write about everything that's been going on in my head.

However, that's all sorted now, so I'll be writing for you all with alarming regularity. Watch this space!

Get to Know Yourself

Twisting Oneself to Obtain New Understanding

In my constant travels within the endless undulating highways of my imagination, I’ve stumbled across an amazing way of getting to know precisely who you are, where you stand on any issue in life, and what you are willing to tolerate. It’s a 5 step powerhouse of a procedure that I’ve glued together with scraps of ideas from many different and long forgotten sources. It’s pretty basic to understand as a concept, but is quite tricky to get the hang of, in practice.
Okay, first of all I’d like to explain exactly why this exercise helps actors with characterization (the process of connecting with the character you intend to portray), and how it can benefit the population in general.
As actors, we are forever experimenting with different characters, emotions, ideas, challenges and feelings in an effort to prepare a memorable performance for our audiences. In order for an actor to successfully “become” a character in every way, it is essential for the actor to leave their own personality, habits, traits, feelings, emotions, inhibitions and all the other little bits and pieces of themselves behind.  As a fellow actor and I agreed in a conversation we had a few weeks ago, it is impossible to leave yourself behind if you don’t have complete awareness of who you are and what makes you tick. My peer’s statement was, and I’m paraphrasing here, “You cannot bring eve a small part of yourself onto the stage.”
For people in everyday life this tool is useful for building opinions, stepping into another person’s shoes to view life from their point of view, and to strengthen your resolve so that you know precisely what you are and are not prepared to cope with or tolerate.
This all got me thinking about how one can become so completely and intensely aware of oneself. I didn’t have to wait long for the penny to drop; it was obvious. One simply has to take it step by step, and embark on a motivated journey of discovery. Here’s how to do it:

1. Make a true statement about yourself/your beliefs/your life, etc.
2. Make the exact opposite statement.
3. Convince yourself that the opposite statement is true.
4. Explore your thoughts and emotions for signs of how this may be affecting you.
5. Make sure you break away from this process while remembering your experiences.

Confused? Let me offer an example of this hugely helpful process.

1. I am a trustworthy person.
2. I am not a trustworthy person.
3. Convincing myself that it’s true.
4. I’m feeling dark, contemplative, sly, angry, vengeful. I’m thinking about ways to double-cross people.
5. Breaking away from the process.

The benefit? I can now see how people, that I feel aren’t trustworthy, function. I can put myself squarely into their shoes and almost “see” through their eyes, the situation that is currently affecting me. This allows me to handle encounters with these people with more skill, or to better understand the character I am attempting to portray. Play around with this method, and see how it benefits you in life as well as in your career.

The possibilities are exciting and endless.

In closing I’d like to apologize for my scarceness this weekend, as my girlfriend and I were attempting to hike in zero degrees Celsius, far from internet access. I hope my post on attracting new theater-goers helped ease the boredom a little.
Once again, thank you all for the support!

Attracting New Theater-goers

I love theater so much more than I could ever describe. I love the passion, the drive, the enthusiasm it brings into my life. It is a breathtaking gift that I crave to share with the world.
So I got around to thinking about how I could attract more and more people to the theater, and I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s a need for different approaches for everyone. People need to be grouped into target markets, following which, we need to find out what they are interested in. Don’t worry, I’m not about to launch into marketing speeches. I’m simply about to offer ideas for targeting different audiences.

Image taken from ccinsider.comedycentral.com

I believe that the future lies with the younger generations. I feel that theater companies should do more to attract the younger audiences to their productions and continue to do so, so that young people will build a sense of loyalty and interest in the theater.
For teenagers, people in their twenties, and those who are young at heart, I have two ideas. Firstly, can you imagine a stage production of South Park The Movie? It’d be amazing. The musical scores, quotes and script are loved dearly by all South Park fans. Besides, if you really look at it, the show has some really great songs in it. I believe it’d be an enormous crowd puller. Think of the cult following South Park already has!
My second idea for this younger  is somewhat stranger but also has merit. Imagine Tenacious D – Pick of Destiny The Musical! I can hear you laughing, but once you think carefully about it’s structure, the technology in modern theaters, the following Jack Black’s creation has collected and the catchy soundtrack, you may begin to see that this film has potential to be adapted for stage.
So there you have it. The first two ideas of many more to come on the subject of making theater accessible to new audiences. Watch this space… I have many more ideas to share…

The Theater of Life Part 2

Life is beautiful. Everyday is a gift. Although it’s often hard to remember this, especially on a day like I’ve had today. Pretty funny, in my opinion, how there are levels of problem that people respond differently to. Here’s a graph I drew to explain myself.

My hand-drawn graph

Okay now for the explanation. As you can see, number 1 on the graph shows a great day, 5 a mildly bad day, 10 the worst day possible. Mystified? So is my girlfriend, but bear with me here, it’ll all make sense in a bit. Cast your eyes upon the smiley faces and the angry face. They indicate the reaction one has at the end of the day, thinking back on the way it all turned out. Now to go deeper.
(I’m loving this!) A great day is when the world and everyone in it makes everything easy and amazing for you. A mildly bad day is one in which that old bat took ages to steal your parking, while blocking you and seventeen other motorists from moving on, your mom was in a bad mood and kept bugging you and the cat’s vomited on the couch. The worst day possible is when you’ve been in a car wreck, been mugged, or something similar.
Now, for my explanation to work from this point on, think back to days you’ve had that you can relate to each of these situations. Take a few minutes to secure the memories in your mind.
Got em? Good. Now think about how you felt about these situations when the day was over, or when all was resolved. If it was day number 1, you probably felt joyful or thankful that everything went so well. If you had a day number 10, you were probably thankful that you’d gotten through it and that it hadn’t been worse. However if your day had been anywhere in between those two extremes, you were just plain irritated about the things that went wrong.
At the risk of sounding like some wheezing old scientist, I can now conclude that extremes result in contentment, while the grey areas result in annoyance. Pretty cool huh?
Now for the really cool part. There is nothing you can do about the rubbish things in life happening. What you can control though, is the way you think and feel about the days in your life. In stead of focusing on the rubbish bits, look for all the beautiful, good and happy things in your day! I know I sound like the hippies I mentioned in an earlier post (there is nothing wrong with being a hippie), but it’s true.
If you don’t believe me, check out The Secret for a whole siteload of people who this approach

Rev. Michael Beckwith

works for! It’s as easy as a choice. I do it, my gorgeous girlfriend does it, and we are both watching our lives transform every day!
So in closing, I’d like leave you with the following truth:

“You end up attracting to you the predominant thoughts that you are holding in your awareness. Whether those thoughts are conscious or they’re unconscious.”
-Rev. Michael Beckwith

All The Small Things

Hello to all of my wonderful readers. In just three days of blogging I’ve gotten a load of views and for that, I thank you all. I’m currently slap bang in the middle of exams and knowing that there are people out there who enjoy my writing does a lot to keep me smiling.

Harold was about the size of my index finger nail.

On the subject of things that make me smile, I’d like you to meet Harold. I met this interesting little guy one average day as he crawled along the rim of the bath. He waved his feelers at me and, stupid as it may sound, I waved back. I figured he was a cool guy, so I quickly got a jar from the kitchen and trapped him gently inside it. I secured a single sheet of tissue paper over the top of the jar with an elastic band and with permanent marker inscribed his name and a safety warning on the side of his new home. The safety warning was to protect Harold from being forced to savage anyone who tried to remove him. I brought Harold upstairs and introduced him to my girlfriend. Surprisingly, she was delighted to meet his acquaintance and struck up a lengthy conversation with him.
Getting to the point, Harold gave us a gift. He made us happy; and isn’t that, at the end of the day, all that matters in life? Everyday we have so many things that get on our breasts and weigh us down. There is just so much circulating stress in the world just waiting to embrace us and steer our day down the path of no return.

Harold gave us a gift. He made us happy.

This doesn’t have to be our reality though! Be like me and try to find little “Harolds” in everyday life. I’m fortunate enough, some days, to be driving home from university just in time to follow the undulating highway directly into the heart of a gorgeous African sunset. You see? That’s another “Harold”!
Unfortunately, in the interest of freedom and such things, I had to set young Harold free from the confines of his glass chamber for a much more promising future in amongst the gorgeously scented flowers of our Jasmine plant. Although he’s not been seen since, he still brings me happiness every time I think about him.

Our beautiful son, Phantom

Another little dude that makes me profoundly happy is our fuzzy son, Phantom. Always up to his long, flowing ears in mischief. He cuddles up to us at night, and never barks, but instead has long gruff conversations with us in a series of growls and exclamations. He follows us everywhere around the house, offering his opinion on anything and everything my girlfriend and I do. He is such a heart-warming influence on our lives. As I type this, he’s curled up behind my chair in a tight ball of the softest fur, lost in his dreams of bounding through the grassy tufts at our local park.

Nothing makes me happier than my soul-mate.

Although, and I’d like to make this absolutely clear, nothing makes me happier than my soul-mate, Jana. She’s also a blog writer. Check her out here. She and I are going out for dinner now. I hope your evening is going to be as much fun as mine. Sushi here we come!

The Theater of Life

Theater is a beautiful thing. The culmination of all art forms, and life itself into a single illuminating experience. There’s an endless supply of knowledge, texts, shows and studies to absorb and grow from, each with it’s own lessons to teach about life and living. To understand theater is to understand your life.

Image Taken from pantherarts.org

The theatrical experience, different though it may be for the creators, actors, designers and audience, enriches the lives of all who encounter it. It instills a deep sense of intrigue, bringing unexpected emotions forward to raise questions and provide answers to life’s mysteries.
I had a conversation this morning with a distinguished professor of theater. He asserted that an excellent theatrical work is like great classical piece of symphonic music: it cannot be understood in every detail without experiencing it more than once. A play may have an impact on you the first time you see it, but each subsequent experience of it will deepen and enrich not only your knowledge and enjoyment of the piece, but also of your life!

Every new experience of theater, art and music deepens the soul and opens the eyes.

Image taken from egullet.com

My point? Live art, absorb art, radiate art and create for yourself a universe of knowledge, beauty, intrigue, passion and love. Run full speed into the enormous molded Jell-O that is art and don’t stop eating until you’ve consumed it all.

Life is yours. Art is yours. Combine art and life and you have a dream of inexplicable beauty that is yours and yours alone… unless you choose to share it.

Lucky Lad I Am!

Image taken from meaningfuldistractions.wordpress.com

What brings you happiness? Perhaps you’re a flower-child that exists only for the crunch of frost beneath your feet as you stroll around your garden munching your falafel and inhaling the crisp freshness that comes with dawn.
Maybe your bliss comes from the satisfaction of completing a house of cards…
My happiness comes from two places: my girlfriend and theater. Imagine my recent euphoria, when my two favorite parts of life  merged into one mesmerizing experience!
My love of theater and performance goes back further than I care to remember. My girlfriend’s love of theater goes back even further. Now imagine the awesomeness of sharing your passion, dream and career with your girlfriend and fiancée-to-be.
We run lines together, analyse plays, scripts, and music. We relate, discover and investigate with everything we do. I can’t even begin to babble about it enough. Lucky lad that I am.
I’m not entirely sure at this point why I am still writing this entry, when I could be snuggling up with her watching something or reading something. So off I go! More thoughts tomorrow! In the meantime, give this site a look.

“Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.” – Project Gutenberg site.

Most scripts, and a few other literary works, that are 50 years old or more can be found on this site. It’s all legal, all free, and all empowering. Knowledge is power. The more you read the more you know.
When the reading gets too much, however, I find this video kicks my brain out of it’s slumber and back into action. Check it out!
AWESOME VIDEO
See you at sunrise!

Harold Pinter… I am beginning to understand you, sir.

Image of Harold Pinter taken from www.lebanese4cuban5.com

I've been studying this incredibly interesting dramatist for some time now, and I've drawn two rather interesting conclusions.
The first (rather annoying) conclusion I've come to is this: Pinter is not in the least mystifying.What annoys me about this is that everyone I spoke to built the issue of studying Pinter's ideas into a frenzied anticipation of late nights with glossaries, dictionaries, atlases, encyclopedias, diagrams and any other study-aids available. The long and short of it is that Harold Pinter writes in subtext. I can hear drama students all over the world running away as they read that dreaded word, "subtext." Yes, it's a grey area, can we move on?
Subtext is an endless topic of exploration into both self and into the character, but with a little hard work and an open mind, we can arrive at the conclusion that subtext is as simple as the thought behind the line, or what thought causes you to say the words you are saying.
Let's, for the sake of example, consider the thought process behind greeting an old school friend you haven't seen for years. Picture the scene: somewhere between the tinned foods and the pasta in your local store, you spot old Harry doing his weekly shopping. Now, given his appearance, his mood, his energy, or any other signal old Harry may be giving off, your greeting of "Hello!" may have any one of an endless list of thoughts attached to it. depending on whether you're thinking "I don't believe how old he looks", or "My God he's still gorgeous as ever!", the intention, intonation, and all the myriad parts of speech will change accordingly. Our job as actors is to find these sub-textual notions and display them through the written line.
Moving on. The second interesting point about Pinter's writing is that he's gone off and written about me, my friends, my father, my mother, all the other people I meet on a daily basis. His writing is so real that I can identify the characters in many of his plays as people from my life. Pinter has achieved the rather terrifying feat of writing about the condition of everyone's lives, anywhere, at any given time.
His characters overflow with truth. You will never have to look far to find people in your everyday life who match Pinter's creations almost to the tee. This gives the actor a personal level of insight into his work. As we, the actors analyse the text, we rapidly gain powerful insights into the lives of those around us, and the human condition as a whole. The situations that the characters find themselves in are drenched in the acid rain of dark humor and cold hard reality.
Pinter is fast becoming my favorite dramatist. Every note, every script, every crit, every slice of information on Pinter intrigues me to a new level.
Pinter's works are available at Amazon.com at really competitive prices. Check it out here.
I can't wait to read more of his work.
Well, goodnight. Wish me a broken leg for my first performance exam of the year tomorrow!

The Voice Explained

Ancient Greece. A time of culture, ritual, belief and passion. A chiton-draped population ruled by a plethora of gods. We know of their fame as feared warriors and great thinkers, but few outside of the world of stage and screen realize is that the first known actor came from ancient Greece. This great man separated himself from the conventions of his time to break new ground and spark a new chapter in history of his art. Known simply as Thespis, this visionary’s legacy lives on in the heart and in the art of every actor in our efforts to learn, discover and delve ever more deeply into the abundant life that consists the world around us.

Welcome to the life and learning of a dedicated actor, as I daily delve deeper into art, acting techniques, dance, singing, vocal control, and the endless pile of scripts and poetry that litter my desk.