-- 2005: The purpose of my online production books was to assist myself, cast and crew during pre-production and rehearsal periods. After the show is over I use webpages for my classes: directing, acting, drama.
THR331 Fundamentals of Directing 2005 * Wedding: class project -- finals *
"...let us save what remains: not by vaults and locks which fence them from the public eye and use in consigning them to the waste of time, but by such a multiplication of copies, as shall place them beyond the reach of accident." Jefferson, Thomas. [1791] 1984. Thomas Jefferson to Ebenezer Hazard, Philadelphia, February 18, 1791. In Thomas Jefferson: Writings: Autobiography, Notes on the State of Virginia, Public and Private Papers, Addresses, Letters, edited by Merrill D. Peterson. New York: Library of America
classes.vtheatre.net -- After Theatre UAF
Respect for Acting
In her introduction to Respect for Acting, actress and teacher Uta Hagen talks about a time when she herself had no respect for the art of acting. "I used to accept opinions such as: 'You're just born to be an actor'; 'Actors don't really know what they're doing on stage'; 'Acting is just instinct--it can't be taught.'" But this attitude of "you got it or you don't" is fundamentally one that denigrates the craft, as she points out. Great actors do not perform effortlessly, or merely through learning the appropriate tricks and cheats to manipulate an audience. Great acting is about the difficult fusion of intellect and action--about sincerely and truthfully connecting to the moment, your fellow actors, and the audience--and Hagen's thoughtful and profound book contains a series of observations and exercises to help an actor do just that. Her prose style is admirably clear and filled with examples from her own lengthy career both as a performer and in the classroom. While her exercises in sense memory and basic objects skirt close to the sort of self-absorption that followers of "the Method" are routinely accused of, they are presented clearly and with a focus on practical results. And in such places as her chapter "Practical Problems," which includes discussions of stage nerves and how to stay fresh in a long run, her straightforward advice is invaluable.
I have many problems in life, one of them the textbooks. Most theatre textbooks are written with the wrong attitude. They are for the students who understand everything. In my experience the kids come to my class because they DO NOT understand. Or even worse -- they understand it wrong!
They got wrong ideas about acting, about theatre and about life. Before I can make them understand, they have to see wrong and right. In Fundamentals of Acting we do the usual -- some analysis, some exersices, monologues, scenes. It's okay, when you have in front of you a non-theatre major. The majors can go further, unless they stop surfing the profession. You didn't like this word I use -- "life," did you? That's where the resistance comes.
In math class they do not have to go through personal transformation, it's just "knowledge" -- we can't work this way in arts. In order to change yourself, you have to know yourself. That is the philosophy behind Method Acting. Art is very personal, on stage it's done on public.
I guess, somebody after my class wrote in the bathroom backstage -- Everything you know is wrong! No, not everything, boy! Only the things you do not know are wrong!
The good books on theatre are the difficult read. You have to stop and think, because you do not understand. Many textbooks I get for class adaption I glance through. Many looks the same. I teach full time since 1986 and every semester I order a new textbook for Acting One class. You see my problem?
I do not know if the Web is the answer, but I keep adding new webpages for my classes. Acting, Directing, Film, Drama...
Plays: plays.vtheatre.net -- did you see this flash banner? Well, this directory for my new plays-in-progress. In Russian. You are in English directory: filmplus.org/plays (click -- and you will get to the title page).
-- it must something about me: resume, bio, cv...
[ one day I will make it better! ]
