Recently in Fired Up! Fridays Category

Below, you can see a clip from a film by Ric Burns (American Experience: New York: The Center of the World), a clip that I’ve been looking hi and low online for -- and I finally found it.

Watch the clip and think about acting, or any art you do. Ask: Why do we do it, really? What draws us? What is “it” -- what’s its value? Answer: It is everything -- it is priceless.

Shakespeare was right -- life is a stage, and a stage is life, our life, our larger life, and we rise to meet its possibilities. The heightened words and text take us there:

A while ago -- a long while ago, I think -- I submitted this blog to the Performing Arts Category in Blogged.com. Blogged.com offers ratings and reviews of the blogs in its directory based upon the quality of writing and how often a site is updated. Blogs are initially reviewed by the Blogged.com “team”, but if enough visitors rank and review the blog, then that takes precedence.

Well -- yesterday, out of the blue, I got this in my in-box from Ms. Liu & the Marketing Department of www.blogged.com:

Randay Pausch passed away today from pancreatic cancer in his family's home in Chesapeake, Virginia.

The Apostle Paul counsels us in the 13th Corinthians, verse 11: When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things.

Yet there are some childish things that should not be put away, and they are -- our Hopes and our Dreams. As Randay Pausch shared with the world in his last lecture, they are what we begin with, and they will be with us in the end -- if we keep, hold, and cherish them always.

And in living, and in dying, he showed us something else:

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.
~ William Shakespeare

Thank you Randay Rausch, for sharing with us, and for giving us so very very much . . .

Time is All That Matters:

This whole exercise of writing down your goals? -- it really seems to work!!!

Quite a while ago, I wrote down that I wanted to work in The 13th Street Repertory Company's production of Line, New York's longest running off-Off-Broadway show, and -- it happened! I auditioned today, and I got cast!

and my audition? . . . well . . . it was terrible!!! :)

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch is dying from pancreatic cancer, and he gave his last lecture at Carnegie Mellow university on September 18, 2007.

The topic of his lecture was not about his work, not about computational algorithms or immersive virtual reality systems -- its topic was instead:

Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.

The lecture, just for his students, colleagues and visitors, swelled to over 400 attendees in the large McConomy Auditorium. It was recorded and released on youtube where it became a world wide phenomena.

The Apostle Paul counsels us in the 13th Corinthians, verse 11: When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things.

Yet there are some childish things that should not be put away, or at least not thought of as childish things, and that is -- our Hopes and our Dreams. They are what we begin with, and they will be with us in the end -- if we keep, hold, and cherish them always.

Give yourself a quiet uninterrupted hour and 15 minutes to listen to his lecture. He's a very successful happy guy, and he gives some great advice, but what stands out, in the end, is what we think are the most important things are not really those things -- it's something else: it's not what we get (though that is very important stuff!) -- it's what we give, and we give though the realization of our hopes and dreams:

One of my hobbies, during my active career, was watching the results of other show biz folks. I kept journals for about 5 years, then I noticed that I didn't need to keep a journal because it was becoming redundant. The fact is, that all the successful people I met over 40 years, (and when I say ALL I mean 100%) were capitalists.

I don't mean that in a political way - I'm talking about store-keeper capitalism. All the successful people I've known in the show business are successful because they are good business people. Good store-keepers.

The other side of the coin is the unsuccessful actor, writer, director, producer, etc. Believe me, most of them are not untalented, or unlucky, or unconnected. Generally, their real problem is that they are just lackadaisical business people.

The biggest mistake I see is the total time and energy the unsuccessful actor puts into the business. This amount of time can be described as: NOT ENOUGH. (Acting For Money, Bob Fraser, Author of You Must Act!, The Secrets To Acting Career Success)

I do non-paid off-Off Broadway and Off-Broadway -- but I don't expect to work for free. I never expect that.

What I Expect

I expect deferred payment from The Universe in the form of future professional theatre, film, television, and commercial work. I base this expectation on the contingency of doing my absolute best in these productions. I ACT as IF I'm getting paid.

I'm not working for free (money is important, and you have to respect that) -- I'm working for deferred payment.

This is what motivates me to work hard. I love acting. But to continue acting, to continue growing as a actor, I have to increase my value, and a necessary (but not sufficient) metric of success as an actor is money. Money won't make me happy, but I need an income, derived from acting services rendered, if I am to grow as an actor. It's that simple.

Some actors, much better than I, choose to work primarily in non-profit theatre either for artistic or professional reason. And make no mistake about it, absolutely terrific work is being done in these venues, and it's my heart's greatest desire and dream to work in these absolutely wonderful off-Broadway production houses and productions. However -- it's not (for me) enough. My "perfect" life ("perfect" in a human, rational, realistically achievable sense) is this type of work and money. That would be perfect! (And I fully intend to do this perfect thing).

 My Goal

God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road.
~ Isak Dinesen (author of Out Of Africa)

 

I've always like this quote (and Dinesen is a wonderfully observant and poetic writer) because it reminds me not to look too far down the road. I have my long-terms goals and a plan, but that's really only a dry map -- day by day, it's just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other, being no where else than "in" that single foot-fall, being fully there, fully present.

Lately, I've been struggling to take my monologues to the next level, and I said in this post that I had a good idea about how to do this. Actually -- I didn't, but now I do.

This clip from Facing the Giants is instructive on a couple of levels: one -- it's an object lesson in setting your "real" goal to simply keep putting one foot in front of the other. Of course -- you have to pick a direction, know what you're working towards, but then . . . don't worry or focus on the hoped-for, wished-for, end result. Just focus on putting one foot in front of the other. Let your attention, your heart, and your mind be no where else other than the current step. Be fully present right here, right now.

It's also a great metaphor for how to "do" a monologue: one step/thought at a time -- really be present in that step, that thought, and be no where else other than where you are . . .

. . . and you may just wind up going much much further (in terms of reaching for your goals) and going much much deeper (in terms on a monologue):

Over his entire career, Payton rushed for 16,726 yards, and scored 110 touchdowns. He also caught 492 passes for 4,538 yards and 15 touchdowns. Payton was the NFL's all-time leader in rushing yards and all-purpose yards prior to the 2002 NFL season. As of 2006 he was the NFL's second all-time rusher, and ranked third in rushing touchdowns scored. (Pro Football Hall Of Fame, Class of 1993)

I was never, and I'm not, a great football fan, but I do remember The Chicago Bear's Walter Payton -- I remember . . . he just didn't stop. The defensive tackles were too big for Payton to just run though or over (recruiting agents for the opposing teams made sure of that), so Payton, when he would run into these unmovable objects, would . . . just bounce off and run around them. He flowed like water through the best defensive lines the NFL could throw at him . . .

I need to be like that -- there's ALWAYS going to be obstacles. Big Obstacles. I hit something unexpected, and I sit down. Not for long, but I do stop. No more.

Next time something unexpected gets in my way, I'm gong to think of Walter Payton, bounce off, go around, and not stop until I cross that touchdown line.

To Walter Payton -- Thank You!!!!!!

(Walter Payton, July 25, 1954 – November 1, 1999)

No matter what anyone else might think . . .