Yes and….
I love the word yes. Yes is a magic word that can cause whole worlds to appear before your eyes. Yes is the password to deep sanctums of knowledge, wisdom, and wonder. Yes is an invitation to create to continue, to converse, to collaborate. Strange how such a mystical and powerful word can be misused or just plain forgotten in times of stress.
I tell my students and my colleagues that in rehearsal my default answer to any question is YES. Yes, let’s rehearse it standing on our heads. Yes let’s do the scene over the phone while sitting next to each other. Yes let’s rehearse drunk, high, happy, sad, hungry. My yes is almost always followed with the word “and”. And is the connective tissue that binds ideas into a creative synthesis. Two yeses are very good. “Yes, and…” is the first step in binding two good ideas into a single more powerful idea.
In rehearsal, and in life make Yes your default and see for yourself what wonderful things occur.
Company Manager
What is a company manager? In the theatre world there are actors, stage managers, directors, dramaturgs, designers of sets and costumes, dressers, wig makers, carpenters, electricians, prop masters, assistant stage managers and they all are deeply involved in the moment by moment performance of a play. A company manager sits back and observes and insures that the entire company is well taken care of and the every person in the theatre is having the best time possible.
I have had the great pleasure of working with some wonderful company managers. Liza Witmer at the Public Theatre is someone I hold in the highest regard. Tess Lina at Shakespeare Orange County runs a very classy show. Sarah Peachy at The Show Must Go Online is the first company manager that I’ve met and worked with that I have yet to meet. She is a total pro and her shows always play to perfection.
But at the beginning of my career I met and worked with a company manager who defined the job for me and who set the bar very high. Her name was Mary Rindfleisch. She was company manager of The Camden Shakespeare Company, where I served as an apprentice in my first professional job.
Mary was tough, exacting, fun, strict, gentle, tough, patient and fair. She took time to tutor a rough and tumble ex-marine in the finer points of proper behavior. I learned all the important lessons of professional conduct from Mary. I can still see the exasperated look in her eyes on the morning after I decided to improvise during Act I, Scene I of Hamlet. I knew she was not happy, but she treated it as a teaching moment. I learned my lesson, tout suite.
Today I learned that Mary passed away in 2018 leaving behind her husband of 30 years and a band of New England librarians who thrived under her leadership. It makes sense that she gravitated to Library Science. She was so clear, and concise and orderly. She was the perfect company manger. She created a safe and orderly place for storytelling artists to play.
I always thought I would see Mary again and spend an evening reminiscing about our Camden days.
God Bless you Mary.
Another Day of Lockdown
It’s starting to lift. It’s starting to change. And yet we do not know what will happen when we venture back into the world. I know one thing for sure. It’s going to be a while before we can expect to attract audiences to live theatre.
Strange it is and very disturbing that the one art form that was always there for me to return to is now unavailable. All my career I’ve done Film and TV for money and Theatre for love. Theatre jobs were always there for me when film and tv were scarce. Now everything is scarce.
Some very clever person pointed out that “Art is Art” and that and artist will use whatever medium they can to express themselves. I’m writing. I’m making photographs. I’m making videos. Now the trick is to make a buck.
Moments like this are when artists shine. We will shine again. Stay safe. Stay Healthy.
Actor / Slash
In the film Zoolander, Ben Stiller’s comic take on the world of fashion, the action comes to an award ceremony where one of the categories is “The Slashie Award”, which is presented to the best Actor/Model of the past year.
I smile at that moment because it is so true about our profession. Actors will now list themselves as Actor/Writer/Director/Producer. However we have always been “slashies”. For many years I was an Actor/Tech Support Rep. I’ve also been an Actor/Security Guard, Actor/Waiter, Actor/Bouncer, Actor/Customer Service Manager, Actor/Handyman… The list goes on. Of course the one constant in all of this is “Actor”. I plan to have that professional title appear in my obituary, sans slash. Practitioners of our profession must always be able to pivot to whatever profession will pay the bills at any given time. That is the life we have chosen.
It took me a long time to get comfortable with this reality. I would counsel young players to get comfortable sooner than later. It will make for an easier path.
Some days a King
Shakespeare Meets Star Wars
I just had the most amazing experience. During this period of isolation I’ve been working with a marvelous theatre company called The Show Must Go Online. It’s the brainchild of Glasgow actor/director Robert Myles and is pure joy. They do weekly readings of Shakespeare plays live via ZOOM. It’s fun and creative. Folks use whatever they have around the house to create props and costumes. Then they all gather in a virtual and tell Shakespeare stories with vigor, and joy. I’ve worked on The Taming of the Shrew and Richard III and this week William Shakespeare’s Star Wars, which is exactly what the title implies. I got to read to role of Darth Vader. Oh what fun was had.
Kudos to the company of The Show Must Go Online!! Theatre will never die, not even in a plague.
Stay safe and stay healthy!!
#laactor
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@publictheaterny @francinemaisler @sharonbialy
Memories are what we keep
Sometimes the moments we dream of arrive and we live through them so quickly that we’re already remembering before we finish living them. I finally did get to do a Star Trek. I’m still smiling about it all these years later.
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#laactor
#laactors
#laactorlife
#losangelesactor
#filmactor
#filmactors
#tvactot
#tvactors
#actorslife🎬
#actorlife
#actorlifestyle
#actorsofinstagram
#actinglife
#actorslife
#actorslifestyle
#actingislife
#actorsworld
#workingactor
#selftape
#castingdirectors
#nycactor
#nyactor
#sagaftra
#castme
#castingcall
#actorswanted
#castingdirector
#casting
#castingfilm
#talentmanager
Coaching
When we are preparing an audition we have the unfortunate task of being actor and director at the same time. This means we must be in the moment and outside the moment simultaneously. An experienced player can do this to some extent but sometimes an actor needs a third eye to gauge the quality and direction of the work. Be on the lookout for an announcement regarding my desire to help my colleagues succeed.
An Award
An Award –
Press Night!
Press Night—
Public performance #16 was Press Night. The official opening night of the show. There are a lot of little customs and traditions associated with this very important night. One of those traditions is to give cards and gifts to cast and crew members that you have worked with during the rehearsal and preview period. My personal way forward on this idea is to write out a little card for everyone and give little tokens as well to the folks I’ve worked most closely with. On a Shakespeare play in Central Park this can be a daunting task because of the size of the cast. The last few previews I and my colleagues in the “old man’s dressing room†were silently scribbling away at note cards during our offstage moments. By the time I was done I had inscribed about 30 note cards and wrapped 4 small gifts.
I really love this particular theatre tradition because it speaks to the sense of community and familial connection that is the basis of a really good theatre ensemble. While every cast is a theatre community in itself, they are all part of a larger community of Theatre Folk who all speak the same language, share the same history, practice the same traditions. Opening night is a bonding moment. It’s a public declaration of our pride in the work we have done together, and an invitation to the fraternity of critics to witness our work and offer their opinion to the audience at large. Opening night is our collective shout to the universe, tho all the players who have gone before, and those yet to come that we have come to the stage to tell a story and it’s a damn good one.
Our press night got off to a wonderful start. Artistic Director Oskar Eustis was in attendance. Funny thing, I arrived at the Delacorte early in order to distribute the cards and gifts I had prepared, entered my dressing room and found Oskar Eustis, barefoot and shirtless, pulling on a pair of trousers that matched a jacket draped over a chair nearby. He was getting ready for press night as well. Tonight he would be making an introductory speech on stage just before the show. He greeted me warmly and we chatted about the show, the big night, the possibility of precipitation on the night. He offered some very kind compliments about my work on the show and we both agreed that this was a really great reading of the play. Oscar was finally dressed and about to leave, saying, “Sorry to have hijacked your dressing room.†I responded “No worries Oskar, you can drop trow in this dressing room any time you like!â€. We laughed and he bustled off to meet with the wealthy donors who were gathered on the stage right patio sipping Sancerre and munching on grilled chicken.
After Oskar left I took a look at my dressing station and found that some of my co-workers had already been by and dropped off cards and small gifts. Our dressers had chipped in for a bottle of good vodka for the four “old men†in our dressing room. It’s great to see this tradition carried on. I distributed my cards and gifts. One gift was a cork screw for a co-worker who had asked to borrow one from me on our first day at the Delacorte. Another was some mind tea for a co-worker who seemed always to be brewing and sipping fine teas from around the world. A third gift was for a co-worker with whom I got to sing a song in the famous tavern scene. It was a drinking song, so the gift was an ale tankard. The final gift was for a co-worker who I had a lot of business with on stage. The gift was a pair of opera glasses and the card advised him to “look to her, if you have eyes to seeâ€.
By the time the cast had assembled for this big night there were gift cards, bowls of candy, an edible arrangement, gift bottles of wine, booze and champagne arrayed all over the dressing room area. The words “happy opening†were repeated over and over. They became the mantra for the evening. And yet the routine was maintained. 7pm vocal warmups, 7:05 have my microphone placed and checked, 7:15 take out my script and go over my lines a couple of times, 7:25 go to the coffee station and get a hot cup of black no sugar, 7:30 Half Hour. This is time for 15 minutes of conversation, quiet jokes, and observations about the day, the prior night’s performance. 7:45 I don my Act 1 costume and begin mentally running through Act 1, picturing my movements and speeches. 7:55 I join hands with my dressing room mates and stand for a benediction offered by the “Reverend†Peter Jay Fernandez, a devout and highly spiritual man who never fails to pray for a “hedge of protection†around the cast, crew of Othello so that we might complete our work in safety. I love that part of the benediction. For me it says that we are professionals who know how to have success, all we need is a safe place to work. After the benediction I put on my softcap, and head for my first entrance. I like to be at my place before places is called. Hearing places called in the dressing room triggers a sense of mindless excitement in me that is too much about the show rather than the story. From my starting place I could see the great Bill Irwin, seated in the 5th row on the aisle. I remembered sitting in a seat in a Broadway house decades before, waiting for him to hit the stage. I smiled
A few minutes after 8:00 PM, the speeches buy the Public Theatre leadership began and ended, the opening music started and we were on our way. And we were 3/4 of the way through Act 1 when the rain began.
It came down suddenly and in a torrent. The rain delay went on for 40 minutes. In our dressing room we sat, a little sweaty, unsure if the evening would continue. Oskar poked his head in “Don’t let this delay dampen your spirits†He grinned. We laughed in response. “Well this delay will chase away the folks who really shouldn’t be here.†It was true, the people who really wanted to see and hear our Othello would be those who returned should the show continue. And continue it did. Most of the audience returned as the crew attacked the deck with their squeegees and, we returned to the stage to their wild applause. We brought the show down at just past midnight and our opening night party morphed into drinks and snacks on stage under work lights. Another opening, another show. In a career doing theatre, one gets only so many opening nights. I’ve learned to cherish each one more and more.
Our show is open. The work of mounting it is complete. The work of maintaining it continues.
More to come.