Tuesday, February 15, 2005

I had a great class last night my "Working Professional Actor" class with Van Brooks.

I hadn't been in class for a few weeks because of toy job travel and the flu ('tis the season), so it'd been a month out from direct coaching. Monday served as a somewhat rough reminder that acting, auditioning, getting a callback, and class are all very different activities. If I get out of practice at any of them, I pretty much suck for everyone to see.

I did a scene from Beyond Therapy, the play by Christopher Durang that probably launched Sigourney Weaver's career.

It's a great piece, and I did a cold read, and stayed absolutely stuck the first two rehearsals. I made a very uninteresting choice, and the scene felt flat (and a wee bit pathetic).

Van got us ramped up, and the third take (which we filmed), got us where we needed to be.

And even though I was beating up on myself for doing so poorly through the evening (especially in front of my visiting agent), Van generously encouraged me by saying a did fantastic on the third take, and "there's nothing wrong with being stuck. You just don't want to stay stuck. And you didn't stay stuck."

Wise words, indeed ...

No comments: