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(The Cat & The Moon closes tonight).

The deep process and craft that you employ in the rehearsals and in the nightly repetition of a theatre job provide a way into acting that camera work never can have (Jim True Frost, Interview, ActorsLife.com).

. . . the deep process and craft, the value of a nightly theater job -- there's nothing like it for growing and learning.

I've been blessed with a fairly long run of the Cat and Moon -- about 6 weeks, and I can't remember working harder on a play after it's opened.

Breathing

Deborah Carlson's Word Of Mouth Studios hammers home, almost each week, the directive to speak no faster than you can breathe. Patsy Rodenburg calls this letting the breath drop.

I find this difficult to do partly because I'm not used to doing it, partly because I'm worried I'll drag a scene down pace wise, and partly because characters are often in an excited or heightened state, i.e., they're thinking and speaking rapidly.

However, if I go faster than I can breathe & think, I speak before my body and mind are naturally ready to speak -- what Ms. Rodenburg calls this getting ahead of the text.

Lately I have been asked by many actor friends and acquaintances if they should pay to meet CD's, Agents and Managers.

My answer is simple- YES, ABSOLUTLEY. Actors should attend what are called MEET & GREETS. This is where you pay to meet a CD, Agent or Manager of your choice to show them your work and personality.

Shakespeare, through Claudius, gives us a great description of bad acting:

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
~ Claudius, Hamlet, 3.3

Connecting Thought To Breath

Pasty Rodenburg makes essentially two points about a character's thoughts in her book: The Actor Speaks:

[1)] I think many members of an audience sit and listen without understanding a speech or even a whole play because the actor or actors have not understood the thought, the length of the thought, or one though's connection to another . . . [and 2)] . . . the [actor's] breath is linked to the length and quality of the [character's] thought and feeling . . .

(A full discussion of the relationship between thought and breath and voice is too broad to unpackaged here -- if you want to know more, start with one of these two resources: The Actor Speaks and/or A Voice of Your Own or try to find a good teacher than understands Rodenburg's approach. If you live in New York City, one of the best teachers that understands Rodenburg's approach is Deborah Carlson. She's also a terr!f!c coach with students currently on Broadway and in Broadway touring companies).

It's easier to hear what she's taking about rather than describe it, but I'll do my best:

The author's need is to write the play. The actor's most important need is to interpret the play.
(The Great Stella Adler, from the chapter "The Actor's First Approach To The Author" in her The Technique of Acting. Also author of the seminal acting book: The Art Of Acting)

I don't want to split hairs over terminology, but the word interpret shades too close to subjectivity for my taste, and whether Ms. Adler meant that or not -- probably not -- the reader could easily take that away from her dictum.

So, if you're an actor, to more clearly understand your First Approach To The Author, let's hear what Charles L. Mee has to say about his job:

One of the things Deborah's been hammering home during our work at Word Of Mouth Studios is that it's always about the other. Simple (and hitting-the-nail-on-the-head) advice, but -- exactly, in practice, in rehearsal, in performance, what did that really mean? How did one really do that?

To start -- what Is attention?

Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state which in French is called distraction. (William James, The Principles of Psychology, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2).

Attention is a nice thing because once deployed on some object, additional brain resources (sensory, perceptual, cognitive) are automatically allocated to the object, i.e., you start to take it in, all of it, every aspects. There's obviously levels of intensity, i.e., the processes of paying attention to whether or not a street sign says walk or don't work are less intense then if someone is pointing a gun in your face and asking for all your money.

For actors, the issue is really concentration, and learning how to to fully concentrate on the other, growing one's powers of concentration, is a critical skill. I feel my ability to concentrate has improved though practice (i.e., simply reminding myself to pay full attention to the other) and meditation, especially the Holosync audio technology by Centerpoint.

More Insights From Deborah Carlson's 'Word Of Mouth Studios:'

Rehearsals for Other People are finally done, the show has opened, and I now have to time to catch up on a ton of writing that's been slowly piling up into a precarious teetering tower on the corner of my desk.

We're getting to the end of a second 6-week session working on scenes from Uncle Vanya adapted by Brian Friel.

Chekhov is great to work on because it's all to easy -- perhaps especially with Chekhov -- to play the "problem" rather than the "solution." Playing the "problem" means focusing on what the character doesn't want. For example, Vanya wants Elena, and -- we all know that will never happen -- and Vanya probably, somewhere deep inside, knows this too, but he stays focus on his love for her and indulges in fantasies of a life with her (that he, at some level, of course, knows will not happen). Playing the problem is playing Vanya depressed, resigned, bitter -- doing his monologues from this perspective, in affect telling the other characters something he already knows, i.e., how about depressed he feels, how resigned he is, how bitter he is. That's not what Vanya -- or any character in his place -- is doing.

The play and scenes take off in beautiful flights of longing and desire, longing and desire of the true human spirit, when you play the solutions. Great advice, but -- exactly how do you really do that? This is what I've learned so far:

Lately, in class (Word Of Mouth Studios), Deborah's been cracking the whip to keep me still during monologues and scene work. Why? Because I've got all this energy, but -- it's unfocused. Worse, the deepest part of myself is not fully "acting," rather, when I move around, use my hands, move my head, it's those parts of me, and my voice, that's doing a lot of the acting (by "voice," I don't mean the necessary vocal and breathe support that a particular text requires -- what I mean is I start to use my voice to "indicate" what the character is doing, what the character wants instead of letting all that come from my center).

"Deepest part of myself?" "my center?" Confused?

Hello all,

I have been acting now for 3 1/2 years and have learned a great deal from working with several industry professionals and books which I have read.

My approach to my craft and business has changed dramatically. I understand that this is a business and I am the CEO of my own company and must always showcase myself in the best possible light. I shake as many hands as possible, always remain professional and positive, be open to change and most importantly, BE MYSELF! I submit for every project I can but focus my time, energy and money on areas that are geared towards my type. And it's extremely important to know your type/product. Meaning if a CD, Agent or Manager ask you, "Who's getting your work?" What they are trying to find out is if you were auditioning for roles in the BIG leagues, which Actors are getting the roles that you'd be perfect for based on your type. This is part of knowing your business.

I got cast in an original play that opens in Brooklyn in early April. The character is a charismatic religious figure, but while a bit heavy-handed, he's quite benevolent. It should be fun to do because he's someone I'm normally not like, i.e., he's highly confident, self-assured, but grounded and genuinely warm and caring (though most people would find his means heavy-handed and his motives suspect).

His monologues are not standard monologues (i.e., they wouldn't be good choices for audition monologues), but they do offer a terrific opportunity to master a type of text that we've been working with in Deborah Carlson's Word Of Mouth Studios. The text piece we've been working with have been highly expressive, almost poetic, pieces.

We've been working on them for several reasons:

After WWII, in the early 50's, Durning started reading Shakespeare and Ibsen and Chekhov with other actors in Joseph Papp's home (Joseph Papp of The New York Public Theatre fame).

Recalling his early days with Papp, Durning says that Papp was "brutally honest but always right," and he also reveals Papp's insight into how to handle Shakespeare's heightened poetic language:

Durning spent most of the 1960s under the tutelage of Papp, whom he remembers as "brutally honest but always right." Durning notes, "He never did it maliciously. If you didn't know him, you might think he was being harsh." The actor recalls one incident in which he wanted to play Hamlet and Papp told him he wasn't good with the poetry of Shakespeare. Says Durning, "I said, 'What do you mean? I'm in all the Shakespeare plays.' And he said, 'Yeah, but you're doing all the prose stuff. You're not doing any of the poetry.' He had me pick up a Shakespeare play and read it, and I asked what he thought. He said, 'More to the point, what did you think?' " Durning pauses before admitting, "I'm still trying to figure that one out."

. . . more to the point, what did you think?

The Triad took away our remaining January Monday evening performances (mostly because the other shows they rent to are cabaret, and they can open the bar), however, the producers informed the cast last week that the show has been extended for one month, through February, i.e., Sunday @ 3PM and Wednesday @ 7PM. This is great -- it's one of the longest runs I've had, and rather than the show getting stale, it's just gotten better, as I expected it would.

For me, this extension gives me a chance to practice really listening and responding to my partners and to practice "being alive" and reacting while I've have no lines, which happens in the last critical scene. In short, this extension gives me an opportunity to better learn how to act, my main goal of these off-Off-Broadway and off-Broadway productions.

Thank you! Thank you! THANK YOU!!

Simon Ager of Omniglot, a second (third, forth, & fifth) language acquisition and linguistics blog, followed up on my Don't Skim Over Text. The Organization of Language: From Rhythm to Meaning post. He points out that using an unnatural rhythm in a second language may make it more difficult to understand you:

The main point is that language has inherent rhythms which are crucial because they are where the meaning is found. When you read a text in your mother tongue, you naturally break it up into meaningful chunks and adjust your rhythm as appropriate. If you apply unnatural rhythm to a text, it will be difficult to follow and you may not understand what you’re saying, neither will others.

Prosody is a linguist's term having to do with the study of rhythm, intonation, and related attributes in speech:

Prosodic units do not always correspond to grammatical units, although both may reflect how the brain processes speech. Phrases and clauses are grammatical concepts, but they may have prosodic equivalents, commonly called prosodic units, intonation units, or declination units, which are the actual phonetic spurts or chunks of speech.

Wikipedia has some good examples of how prosody maps onto grammatical structure .

One of the great Orators in the Western Cannon is Shakespeare's Marc Antony. It's little known that Marlon Brando, early in his career, played an electrifying Antony, and you can see part of his performance here, skillfully turning the crowd against Brutus in his speech after the murder of Caesar. Play the movie clip ("Dogs of War" monologue) and then you'll have the option to play the next clip, the "Friends, Romans, Countrymen" monologue as an introduction to the lost art of public speaking, of speaking aloud: Oration, Recitation, Rhetoric. . .

Visual Thesaurus interviewed Harvard Professor James Engell, author of The Committed Word: Literature and Public Values, who revived the study of rhetoric at his university after a 60 year hiatus -- and who argues that a classical literary education is critical for today's communicators:

the definition of literature [in the 19th Century] was broader [than it is today]. It meant not just poems, plays and novels and the criticism associated with them, which is what usually people take to mean by "literature" today. "Literature" back then really meant the written record of human experience, particularly anything in which attention was paid to the resourcefulness of language, its aesthetic qualities, its richness of vocabulary, its persuasive effects and its ability to engage emotion and intellect at the same time. Historical works were considered literature. Works on politics were generally considered to be literary.

"How To "Think" your way through a text by speaking it, to really "get it" at all levels, intellectual, emotional, is not only the foundation of classical literary education, it is the foundation of Theatre, of Acting, and it's a lost art there too:

In a critically important class here in New York City, new actors are being taught a new respect for "the text," i.e., they're being taught to not skim over the text as they speak but to pay attention to the natural organization of language, to pay attention to and take in its rhythms in order to find out what the author or playwright really meant.

Disclosure about how well I'm trying to manipulate you: the headline of this post ('Oration, Recitation, & How to Think your way through Text') has an Emotional Marketing Value Score of 22.22%, not bad, but below what a professional copywrighter could do. On the plus side though, it does appeal primarily to your spiritual side.

1. Stage adaptation of Angel Heart by Christopher Dames. Produced by Urban Theatrical Players. Opens at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, New York City at 7PM on Thursday, December 13th, 2007. Angel Heart is highly atmospheric 1987 film, combining elements of film noir, hard-boiled detective stories and horror. The film is great, and so is trailer -- check it out!
2. The Jewish Theatre of New York's production of The Last Jew In Europe with the second cast, written and directed by Tuvia Tenenbom, the Artistic Director The Jewish Theater of New York, opens at The Triad, New York City at 7PM on Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 and runs through January 2008.

The Last Jew In Europe is a controversial play . . to say the least -- (and The Jewish Theatre of New York has also managed to even offend Howard Stern . . . which doesn't seem possible at all, but they did it anyway). I've been too busy with rehearsals to think much about exactly why the play is so controversial, beyond the obvious reasons stated in the articles. Later, after the second cast opens, I'll have a chance to catch my breathe and try to figure out for myself what all the rumpus is about. It's all fascinating to me, to be in the middle of a political whirlwind and barely notice it, but I just haven't had time to think about of it.

I have, however, written about theatre that's political and/or socially motivated before. While, I'm suspicious of putting any adjectives in front of "Theater" (except for good or bad), I'm neither for nor against political theater -- in my mind, and heart, it's just a question, always, of making sure you've got the horse before the cart rather than that other way around . . .

This is actually a HUGE topic -- just type in "rhythm language" in goggle, and you'll pull up links to 100's of research groups and labs in major universities all over the planet, not to mention links to literally tens of 1000's of research articles and books on the topic. The relationship between language and thought is one of the main questions today driving research in the area of Complex Systems and Brain Sciences.

For my purposes, however, the exercises we're doing really derive from the foundational work of Edith Skinner's Speak with Distinction: The Classic Skinner Method to Speech on the Stage (Applause Acting Series) -- one of the very first "acting" class I ever took at HB studio -- but Word of Mouth Studios has taken it all a step further.

Email to Deborah @ Word Of Mouth Studios:

Hey Deb,

I had an interesting Angel Heart rehearsal tonight -- I finally stopped (as best I could) trying to act: it's a bit hard to explain, but I just started to let go (as best I could) of trying to do something and instead just applied what I've been learning in Word of Mouth and just LET things happen:

Krusmark "realized," Krusmark "brought to life," Krusmark "in the moment," has nothing to do with how I think or feel he should be: Krusmark "realized/brought to life/in the moment" is just breathing the text, getting out of the way, and letting the text effect me -- what happens IS "Krusmark," and . . . he's unplanned and he's a surprise!

Getting out of my own way has a lot to do with just accepting what Krusmark "is" ( i.e., letting the words effect me) and not trying to do anything more. Rehearsal and acting now get exciting. Without this, it can be a strain and a chore.

I think "trying" to act, in some ways, is a way to insure that I do "act" because I'm afraid to hand control over to what I've been learning. That is, what if I let go, and -- I can't act? Or nothing happens? Or the wrong thing happens? "Trying" to act is the very definition of control -- when what I really need to be practicing is Trust.

OK -- finally, I think I'm starting to "get it," and "doing it" is a kind of surrender and trust, and (at least for me), that's something I have to practice and get better at.

Now -- the next steps are learning to listen better, letting my partner affect me the way the text affects me: trusting that relationship to create the scene rather than trying to "drive" or "control" the scene somehow (again, in a well-intentioned but ultimately misguided attempt to be "good" or get it "Right).

Just letting go.

I had a cold-reading audition tonight, and they cast me on the spot: I was cast in a stage adaptation of the film Angel Heart, directed by Alan Parker.

The stage adaptation and direction is by Christopher Dames. Angel Heart one of my favorite movies from the 80's -- click on Angel Heart link to see the trailer.

I'll be playing two parts in two short scenes -- Dr. Albert Fowler (using my normal wild hair as Albert is a also a junkie) and Ethan Krusemark (a "respected" businessman, so I'll just slick my hair back and do a small change in costume).

It's a relatively short run, but a great opportunities because 1) the story is strong, 2) the original screenplay is great, and 3), it's a first for me: to play two different characters in the same play. (Actually, I'll be working on 3 different characters between now and the end of the year because the second cast for the Jewish Theater of New York's production of The Last Jew In Europe goes into rehearsal the first week of November).

My monologues and cold reading auditions have been going well -- surprisingly well: I've been getting called back (maybe about 1/3 of the time), and I've been thinking my way through my monologues, moment by moment, and the same with my cold readings.

While I haven't yet been cast in anything -- I'm not concerned. What I have control over, what my targets are during an audition, i.e., moment-by-moment, not knowing/anticipating what I'm going to feel & think until I do feel and think, concentration, the characters thoughts & words coming out as easily and naturally as my own, all this is what I'm constantly striving towards, and to see it start to happen during real auditions is enormously gratifying. That's what I want -- and I want more of that, to get better and better at that.

Deborah Carlson @ Word of Mouth Studios teaches that ALL monologues and soliloquies are really about insight and discovery. When the character is talking (to another person, to himself), the character is not simply dispensing something already known -- instead they are figuring it out as they talk, as they go along; they are talking themselves in consciousness. Each sentence is a step in the journey, and during the journey, the character discovers/creates something that did not exist before.

A great example is Hamlet's final soliloquy on that desolate plain in Denmark. When he starts, he's bewildered about why he has not taken action against Claudius

I do not know
Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;'
Sith I have cause and will and strength and means
To do't.

In the end, he finds resolve, i.e.,

O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

a resolve that did not exist when he started with the observation

How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge!

Communicating that insight and discovery is the key to creating a great monologue performance.

. . . And this is NOT just some theatrical convention, some simple dramatic device found by the playwright/actor to make the performance compelling for the audience. It turns out that there is NO other way to perform monologues and soliloquies because this is LIFE -- it's how we create ourselves in life:

"Getting It" & (then) "Living It."