A rough few weeks with too much going on. But I'm back, and lots to say about what I've been up to. But let's talk acting.
I went to an introductory group session this week with New York Acting Coach John Pallotta and it was quite remarkable. His advice seems to run counter to what we learn in most acting classes. If you’re trying to capture a character you create a backstory, right? You think about motive and objective. You agonize over whether you understand where the character is coming from. Well, I won’t say that Pallotta says to forget all that, but what I saw him accomplish with actors (including myself) was very much impulse and spur of the moment.
The advice seemed to be to simplify the scene and then relate it to a personal experience; for example, a monologue from Frankie and Johnny he expressed as “boy meets girl, boy gets laid” (and wants to get laid again). Then add the knowledge that the “boy” has been in prison for three years and physically apart from women. Just that little bit of information transformed a nervous, flat reading into something touching and real. My Queen Margaret monologue from Henry VI, Part 3, which tends toward an Olivier speech (at his most stagey) was boiled down to betrayal. When I was told to relate it to an incident of betrayal in my life, suddenly Queen Margaret was full of anger and tears. You’re saying the same words, but the thoughts in your head are coloring them.
To be sure, if an actor is just about to speak his lines and someone gets up in his face and quietly says “Your mother just died” or “Your girlfriend is cheating on you….Go!” there are two things at work . One is surprise and the other is permission. Suddenly you are reacting to a thought without having the time to get your public defenses up, and someone is saying it’s okay to do that.
It truly is, as Pallotta says on his website, transformational. But in my mind it raised a few questions about how to use it in auditions. One is that a monologue is star material, whereas most auditions (at my level, at least) are cold reads for supporting characters. Instead of saying “ Great Lords, wise men ne’er sit and wail their loss, but cheerly seek how to redress their harms,” you're likely to be saying, “Is this intended as a gift? We have some beautiful cashmere sweaters I can show you.”
A bigger concern is whether I can “surprise” myself and give myself permission to react to a memory on the spur of the moment without over-thinking it. Pallotta gets $500 an hour to coach high-priced talent through a multimillion-dollar film (another perk you get when you’re a major star.) I would need to somehow do what he does for myself.
It’s worth another look so I’m looking for time on my calendar for a class. He’s a personable fellow (I like him!), and persistent. More later. In the meantime, enjoy his testimonials. He knows Meryl Streep! (sigh)
I went to an introductory group session this week with New York Acting Coach John Pallotta and it was quite remarkable. His advice seems to run counter to what we learn in most acting classes. If you’re trying to capture a character you create a backstory, right? You think about motive and objective. You agonize over whether you understand where the character is coming from. Well, I won’t say that Pallotta says to forget all that, but what I saw him accomplish with actors (including myself) was very much impulse and spur of the moment.
The advice seemed to be to simplify the scene and then relate it to a personal experience; for example, a monologue from Frankie and Johnny he expressed as “boy meets girl, boy gets laid” (and wants to get laid again). Then add the knowledge that the “boy” has been in prison for three years and physically apart from women. Just that little bit of information transformed a nervous, flat reading into something touching and real. My Queen Margaret monologue from Henry VI, Part 3, which tends toward an Olivier speech (at his most stagey) was boiled down to betrayal. When I was told to relate it to an incident of betrayal in my life, suddenly Queen Margaret was full of anger and tears. You’re saying the same words, but the thoughts in your head are coloring them.
To be sure, if an actor is just about to speak his lines and someone gets up in his face and quietly says “Your mother just died” or “Your girlfriend is cheating on you….Go!” there are two things at work . One is surprise and the other is permission. Suddenly you are reacting to a thought without having the time to get your public defenses up, and someone is saying it’s okay to do that.
It truly is, as Pallotta says on his website, transformational. But in my mind it raised a few questions about how to use it in auditions. One is that a monologue is star material, whereas most auditions (at my level, at least) are cold reads for supporting characters. Instead of saying “ Great Lords, wise men ne’er sit and wail their loss, but cheerly seek how to redress their harms,” you're likely to be saying, “Is this intended as a gift? We have some beautiful cashmere sweaters I can show you.”
A bigger concern is whether I can “surprise” myself and give myself permission to react to a memory on the spur of the moment without over-thinking it. Pallotta gets $500 an hour to coach high-priced talent through a multimillion-dollar film (another perk you get when you’re a major star.) I would need to somehow do what he does for myself.
It’s worth another look so I’m looking for time on my calendar for a class. He’s a personable fellow (I like him!), and persistent. More later. In the meantime, enjoy his testimonials. He knows Meryl Streep! (sigh)
xoxo
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