Where To Now?
Starting two classes, the mask class at Freehold and Rachel's improv class. George, one of the instructors for mask, I've had for two or three other classes. I've also taken quite a few acting classes from Rachel.
I have some familiarity with the warm-ups and methods they use, and it served as a milestone of sorts for me this week. Last year was Meisner, all year. Coming back to these forms with George and Rachel was a "stop moment" for me. I'm sure there are differences in watching me, likely subtle. The difference from my side of my skin is profound.
I remember reading Carlos Castaneda twenty years ago, and his struggle to shut off his internal dialog, thoughts and all. It is exactly what we are striving for in the training. How can you assume someone else's character if you can't shut up?
My internal dialog shuts off. I did not set about trying to stop my internal dialog, which is the trick. I could not have learned that kind of silence in a way aimed at acheiving the quietness. It had to happen through the other work. I can now shut it down with volition. That's not the all of it. Otherwise we wouldn't have to keep working on the craft. You also need to know how to recognize the need, and to sustain it. Always, the new tools to learn and old tools to hone and expand.
I noticed in the forms when I had gotten in my head, I could take a briefest moment to vacate the internal dialog and surrender. The exercises did more to warm me up. Not so much a profound change in my acting ability as an awareness of how far we can go. In a very important and ever expanding way, I am more human. That is a benefit art, an overwhelming bennie when compared to a possible paycheck bonus or stock option. That's as far as I can or care to go in defining a measure of a small artistic step in a never-ending journey of and for beauty. In the same way a barn swallow loses it's spirit, soul, and beauty when thrust into a birdcage.
I have some familiarity with the warm-ups and methods they use, and it served as a milestone of sorts for me this week. Last year was Meisner, all year. Coming back to these forms with George and Rachel was a "stop moment" for me. I'm sure there are differences in watching me, likely subtle. The difference from my side of my skin is profound.
I remember reading Carlos Castaneda twenty years ago, and his struggle to shut off his internal dialog, thoughts and all. It is exactly what we are striving for in the training. How can you assume someone else's character if you can't shut up?
My internal dialog shuts off. I did not set about trying to stop my internal dialog, which is the trick. I could not have learned that kind of silence in a way aimed at acheiving the quietness. It had to happen through the other work. I can now shut it down with volition. That's not the all of it. Otherwise we wouldn't have to keep working on the craft. You also need to know how to recognize the need, and to sustain it. Always, the new tools to learn and old tools to hone and expand.
I noticed in the forms when I had gotten in my head, I could take a briefest moment to vacate the internal dialog and surrender. The exercises did more to warm me up. Not so much a profound change in my acting ability as an awareness of how far we can go. In a very important and ever expanding way, I am more human. That is a benefit art, an overwhelming bennie when compared to a possible paycheck bonus or stock option. That's as far as I can or care to go in defining a measure of a small artistic step in a never-ending journey of and for beauty. In the same way a barn swallow loses it's spirit, soul, and beauty when thrust into a birdcage.
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