@thedrewdavidson @thedrewdavidson - Tumblr Blog

“Humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but

the thing dies in the process

and the innards are discouraging

to any but the pure scientific mind.

-E. B. White, 1941

#EWhite #humor #quotes #wit #literature #thoughts #reflections #wisdom #inspiring quotes #eb white

"At one time those who worked in the theatre dictated its path, its growth. The many writers, actors, and directors who worked well and often created the theatre, and the public came and watched and loved or liked or endured or hated it. This is over; this is gone. Through a rabid and idiotic fear, the theatre relinquished its role as creator and designer and gave it to the public, which will always want what is safe and sweet and recognizable and easy. Bring me a star and something that reminds me of a better time. Do not test me. You think people wanted to do early [Tennessee] Williams and [Arthur] Miller? I'm telling you they did not, but we had smarter producers then: They trusted the artists; they listened to arguments. They weren't the wives or lovers of dentists or decorators or real-estate men. These were men and women who happened to have money and who happened to love the theatre and who happened to have their lives burnished by brushing up against talented people. They knew their place. Now the wives and lovers are running things and telling the artists what to do and how to do it. And we have a dumb, unimportant theatre. Your Aunt Sadie is dictating what gets on the stage. A minor talent with a sinecure sits for decades at the helm of a non-profit and regurgitates safe puddings for the Friends of Thirteen. Up at Lincoln Center you can walk into the circle jerk of [John] Guare, [A.R.] Gurney, and [Wendy] Wasserstein, and sink into the soft cushions of that theatre. Meatloaf theatre. Same-old, same-old. And where are the new plays? The new directors? Try breaking into that group and getting a job. It's all like the union of doormen, and you have to be grandfathered in by someone who has been beaten down by the landlords of badness." Elia Kazan/Interview with James Grissom/1993. Photo of Kazan and Arthur Miller by Inge Morath.

#TheatreRevolution #ArtisticFreedom #CreativityMatters #NewPlays #CulturalCritique

"As an actor, I've got to really, really know those lines inside out, so that when I'm performing I'm not spending any energy whatsoever on remembering lines. Most actors in TV shows don't really know what they're about to say next; they're kind of searching for it and so they do all these little pauses and brow scratches and other baloney to cover the fact they don't really know what they're doing. If I'm not thinking about the lines, I can behave, I can go beyond the lines." -Eric Bogosian

#eric bogosian #actors #actors on actors #preparation #memorization

"Character is the combustion of yourself with events. Put yourself in the situation and you'll discover your character." -Fiona Shaw

#fiona shaw #acting #actors on actors #preparation #character design

Preparing a Role Notes

Find Your Role

First thing is first, you have to figure out what role you are going to be working on.

Some questions and recommendations to guide you when choosing a role to work on:

Is this a role of your own sex and your own age? Or are you going to go outside of your traditional type? *(This question is worthy of another post and discussion at another time.)

Look for a role with clear stakes for the character, don't make your job harder when you are beginning to act by choosing laissez faire material.

Does your scene have something happening on stage or are they talking about something offstage? When starting out, I would reccomend choosing something that is happening right there onstage with you and your partner. *(we will have to talk about memory scenes and offstage commentary scenes later)

Can you discern the character's struggle or dilemma? If it is murky and unclear, I would recommend looking for a different role if you have to invent or can't clearly see the struggle.

Do you like the role and does it spark your imagination? If you don't like the role, it doesn't matter how close to your type OR clearly defined stakes OR present and active in the moment OR easily identified struggle, you will have a harder time preparing the role.

The Goal of these criteria is not to limit you as an actor, but when you are starting out, we want our focus to be on developing our own process of preparing the role. We want the scene we choose to be easy for us to access, so we don't have to waste energy and focus on things we don't have to... If the scene is close to us in type (which we can discuss later), has clear emotional stakes for the character, includes action happening on the stage, an easily identifies character struggle, and you love it; well, then you can put your focus solely on technique.

#acting #actors on actors #education #learning through play #preparation

Tasks of the Actor

At the end of the day, it is up to each individual actor to create their own foundational system for preparing for a role.

SCENES- the basic medium of acting.

Exercise Assignment: Choose a two-person scene, 3-8 minutes in length, drawn from any play, to work on.

You must practice applying your preparation for a role and continue to improve on your process, and scene studies let you do this in a relatively short period of time.

Cohen defines the Actor's Tasks as:

Preparing a Role

Rehearsing

Staging the Scene

Choices

Performing

Evaluation and Improvement

#acting #actors on actors #actors #actress #learning through play

Ben Kingsley Interview (Sexy Beast Film) Charlie Rose 2001

#actors on actors #sexy beast #ben kingsley #expectations #acting #Youtube

Anticipating Triumph

Leading the charge of an actor's performance must be the EXPECTATION that he will achieve his character's goal, not just TRY to achieve it.

When you EXPECT to accomplish your objective you can access more energy in your performance than you would be able to muster otherwise.

A more energetic performance is waiting for you the minute you know you will actually get what you want if you try hard enough.

IF we are trying to find a connection point with our audiences, that is to say move them to empathy for our characters, we must understand that it is the character's expectations that gets them there.

The character's expectations is where the audience and actor can connect to the character: for the audience the excitement when the character expects to win and wins or the bitterness when they expect to win and lose contextualizes the action, and for the actor it provides an impulse for the behaviors the actor pursues.

On the other hand, if you play as if your character has already lost, you are going to look uninvolved, unbelievable, and uninterested to audiences.

You must try to win your character's goal with the expectation of winning, no matter what actually happens in the play, if you want to connect with your audiences and your character in a believable and dynamic way.

"If you're offered a great tragic role, look for the joy--the potential joy, and it's that that causes the tragedy. You don't play tragedy. You play joy." - Ben Kingsley, Describing how he played Don Logan in the film Sexy Beast

#acting #actors on actors #ben kingsley #sexy beast #expectations

#motivation #inspirationalquotes #quotesgram #theatrekids Let’s rest, reset, refocus this weekend and then keep building something great! I believe in you guys and what we are doing ! (at Rome, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnaBga6p11o/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#motivation #inspirationalquotes #quotesgram #theatrekids

Getting ready to watch “Alice in Wonderland” @romelittletheatre @courtneywdavidson @brandon_kidd_1997_ (at Rome Little Theatre, Inc) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo2jaaknyl2/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1kzatcagszoru

@babywantscandy was amazing! First time seeing a @secondcitychitc and it was so much fun! (at The Second City) https://www.instagram.com/p/BonyztGn3yJ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=dyrfbdo6gqc

Scouting out the “competition” (😉) for @shortercomedy’s Side Stitches all the way in Illinois at @purefestchicago! (at Cross Point Church AG Lockport IL) https://www.instagram.com/p/Boml6tUn6up/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1k6a4y4jtfxcr

Directing Class directors are conducting their first auditions. #standardbearers #directors #flyhawks (at Shorter University) https://www.instagram.com/p/Boh3VuBnKrA/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1inmb3aoswuvw

#standardbearers #directors #flyhawks

Man use tools. Make bathroom pretty. Cat help man. #drewthetoolmantaylor (at Rome, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/Boc6HC5nQ1B/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ycgjzby3g6en

#drewthetoolmantaylor

at Huntsville, Alabama https://www.instagram.com/p/BoUjZ8DHCtA/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=15e8bl0lww1qd

Audition time for @shorteruniversity theatre departments upcoming production of Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap”. (at Shorter University) https://www.instagram.com/p/BoH7OOrHJDd/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=kedrti4p6hd0

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