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Mike Daisey - The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs - Play - Sydney Opera House Media Portal

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:26:17 +1100

Mike Daisey - The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs - Play - Sydney Opera House Media Portal:

Mike Daisey making an amazing case for why live performance is important and vital

Patrick Fischler Days Of Yore interview

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:41:15 +1100

Patrick Fischler Days Of Yore interview

"The job of the actor, is to direct the role"

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:45:02 +1100

“The job of the actor, is to direct the role”

- Anne Bogart quoting unnamed Russian Actress

"Your style is a function of your limitations, more so than a function of your skills."

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:24:29 +1100

““Your style is a function of your limitations, more so than a function of your skills.””

- Johnny Cash, thanks to Anne’s Blog from SITI

Being an Actor

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 19:01:44 +1000

Take the passion to become a complete person.

Negative interject (the inner critic) Melanie Klein. Let the internalised negative go.

Without something active you want to accomplish that’s a passive tragedy.

Your job is to fight for yourself.

The Bad news is: No one is coming to save you.

The Good news is: No one is coming to save you!

It’s an inside job, and if you wait for someone else to do it you are going to lose!

You need to understand your own psychology and understand what your creativity needs.

You need to have a profoundly good relationship with yourself.

you can’t get angry at yourself – learn the lesson and move on.

Just make the mistake and move on!

Commitment from Larry Moss Masterclass

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 19:00:20 +1000

Actors with longevity keep growing, keep working on different parts.

Get more hungry. Share your gift.

Bad actors can be general, life never is.

Commitment and Completion written large on the fridge.

Completion. Diligence. Dedication.

When you commit, the universe joins you in unexpected and miraculous ways.

Joy is more profound than sadness.

You have to ask in each rehearsal what did you learn?

It takes daily dedication to the grunt work.

It’s not tedious (repeating beats etc) it’s extrapolating the best of the timing, breathing.

Voice from Larry Moss Masterclass

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 18:59:45 +1000

One of the reasons actors need to work so hard on their voice – once you know the scene, you’ve prepared hard for it – the question becomes, ‘How many colours can you bring to the scene?’ You need to find the colours in your voice.

How much colour can you get into the vocal range?

Articulation exercise: Run lines, over-articulating to marry articulation with emotion.

Rhythm is the building blocks to be a storyteller.

Don’t separate sentences that destroy transmitting the image to the audience.

Know what you mean by that. Paint the imagery for the audience.

Take emotion through monologues daily.

Learn breath-marking. Breath mark timing in comedy.

Script analysis from Larry Moss Masterclass

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 18:58:23 +1000

You have to be challenged by the writing. You have to look at the context of the play, and why it was written.

The great thing about this scene is that they are both right and they are both wrong – with great theatre it’s never black and white.

Your goal in portraying any character is to make it hard for the audience to make a moral judgement.

You need to go through the play and ask ‘What am I doing?’ ‘What am I trying to get her to feel?’

Finding active intentions – choose an active verb you think is right for the specific moment in the scene then find all the synonyms in the thesaurus for that verb and try out the dialogue as you play the different possibilities.

Script analysis - a good actor is a good detective – they ferret.

What an actor brings to a play is telling a story with your body that Shaw or the writer doesn’t give you.

So if you don’t understand the play, HOW CAN YOU MAKE CHOICES? Meaning of objects.

Persons, places, objects, you can’t overlook anything. Investigate place. Object. Relationship with place, objects.

"Listen like an animal in a forest - never know what is coming next!"

Sat, 28 May 2011 18:36:56 +1000

“Listen like an animal in a forest - never know what is coming next!”

"Bad acting is general; life never is"

Sat, 28 May 2011 18:34:41 +1000

“Bad acting is general; life never is”

- Larry Moss (paraphrased)

"I’ve got good news and bad news. The bad news is: noone is coming to save you. The good news..."

Sat, 28 May 2011 18:33:40 +1000

“I’ve got good news and bad news. The bad news is: noone is coming to save you. The good news is: noone is coming to save you! (your job is to fight for yourself)”

- Larry Moss

"Create a fourth wall with your imagination - the more you create that fourth wall the more you can..."

Sat, 28 May 2011 18:32:13 +1000

“Create a fourth wall with your imagination - the more you create that fourth wall the more you can use it”

- Larry Moss

"If you don’t understand the play, how can you make choices?!"

Sat, 28 May 2011 18:31:17 +1000

“If you don’t understand the play, how can you make choices?!”

- Larry Moss

"A good actor is a volcano with a relaxed body"

Sat, 28 May 2011 17:34:54 +1000

“A good actor is a volcano with a relaxed body”

- Larry Moss

"All actors must study the meaning of the play and the function of their specific role. Why is the..."

Sun, 08 May 2011 11:06:43 +1000

“All actors must study the meaning of the play and the function of their specific role. Why is the character in the play? How does the character serve the play’s idea?”

- Moni Yakim, Creating a Character, p2

Scene Analysis: Given Circumstances

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 22:22:00 +1000

The given circumstances are always the same, no matter who acts the part.

Where does the scene take place?

Who is in the scene?

What do I as a character know about the other characters in the scene?

What are my relationships with them emotionally?

What do the other characters say about me?

Given what the script tells me, is it true?

What do I as a character know about myself that is relevant to the scene (my background, my attitudes) as I enter?

What does my character literally DO during the scene?

What do other characters DO to me? How do they treat me?

These given circumstances may make you emotional when you read them, and that’s important, because that shows you that you’re connecting to the material.

Larry Moss, P14 The intent to live

Scene Analysis: Point of View exercise

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 22:19:37 +1000

After you digest the material in the script, express the character’s point of view in the following way:

“My name is [character’s name], and the world is [six descriptive words or phrases].”

Larry Moss p13 The intent to live

"The more you work on an exercise, the more it becomes yours. As you work on exercises, the more they..."

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:35:29 +1100

“The more you work on an exercise, the more it becomes yours. As you work on exercises, the more they become a tool you can draw on.”

- Lynette Sheldon

"If you don’t put the work in, if you don’t do something different, nothing will change...."

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:32:22 +1100

“If you don’t put the work in, if you don’t do something different, nothing will change. You can only learn by RISKING!!!”

- Lynette Sheldon

The 2nd Lesson: Memory of Emotion

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 23:52:14 +1100

Affective Memory

the point is to bring yourself back as you were then, to command your own ego, go where you want to go, and then when you are the there, to stay where you went.

Use it if your artistic sense tells you that it is relative to your problem and creates a would-be life. to imitate is wrong. to create is right.

This is an actors fundamental work: to be able “to be” what he desires consciously and exactly.

Be careful not to overdo it. Don’t look for “to be” when you should seek “to do”. The difficult spots are what you should watch for and work for. every play is written for one or at most a few “high tension” moments. your whole strength and perfection must be directed toward those seconds.