REJECTION

Anton Chekhov said that actresses are always looking for rejection - if they don't get it, they reject themselves. I would extend that kind of elegantly defined self sabotage to all interesting human beings.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

CREATION

It will be imperfect, as a matter of fact it will certainly be lacking in most respects - but the act of creation will always find perfection in the intention and effort of the artist.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

MY FRIENDS

People who are desperate to be seen, to matter, to rage against the absurdity of being born only to die, these people are the only ones for me.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

FIRE

When Griffith Park was on fire all I could do was clean the ashes off my car and say "It's terrible, how could this happen?" But soon I was IN the car, driving through more ashes, on my way to work. There is something cruel and unforgiving about a life full of purpose.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

RUNNING

If you want to write, write, if you want to dance, dance, if you want to leave, stay. Why? We have to look our creative responsibility straight in the eye, the way we would a lover or a mortal enemy.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

PERFECTION

We wish we were perfect and always more. Yet it is our shortcomings that point us towards meaning as our struggle towards what we perceive as our full potential becomes the screenplay of our lives.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

STUCK

When I am blocked creatively I need to create about what's blocking me.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

LONGEVITY

Al Pacino plays Dr. Kevorkian in a new HBO movie - I have not seen it but I will. You act long enough, like Mr. Pacino, you get to do it all, what can be better?

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PARTEEE

On Sunday, The Acting Corps is throwing a party because now, when international actors come to The Acting Corps, we can give them documents that will allow them to stay in America for up to three years. It has been a long process for The Acting Corps to attain this status, but here we are.

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OLD FOGIES

I am very much like every middle-aged actor since the beginning of time - I look at younger actors critically and every thought that comes to mind starts with: “Why, when I was a young actor, I used to….” Truth is, I have no idea what I was like, nor what I did, why I did it, or what I actually believed. It is only my desire to lend meaning to the past twenty years or so and lend myself an air of moral superiority that gives life to these opinions.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

LISTEN

I picked up my violin the other day. I have been playing this instrument, on and off, for DECADES. I found myself, though, for the first time, LISTENING to my violin, allowing it to dictate my next my next inflection, my next note, and my next breath. Listening is something we learn to do as actors, early on. Know acting and you know life.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

ROADMAPS

There are those who are so desperate for a roadmap to life that any map will do. Usually they follow the most accessible map, the map of Western civilization, or popular culture. Where does it lead? Usually it leads to quiet desperation, but for the lucky few who see the writing on the wall, it leads them back to themselves.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

5%

5 % of practitioners in any field of endeavor do their jobs exceedingly well. The rest keep the world turning in all its terrifying mediocrity. But make no mistake, the anointed 5% are anomalies, excelling for reasons unknown even to themselves, and while endowed with great natural ability, they are often very troubled souls. To wit, God does not play favorites, he gives and takes, reminding us all to look inwards.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

MR. JOHN

Elton John’s lyrics offer a simple solution: “When all hope is gone, sad songs say so much.” It is the apotheosis of art – art, even sad art, presented as a panacea.

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ACTORS AND ACTING TEACHERS

Acting classes are a wonderful place for actors and teachers to come together and and see how long they can keep from killing one another…

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PLAY WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW

We actors often investigate character and imaginary circumstances in order to find easy answers. And then we portray these easy answers by constructing a
paint-by -the numbers verisimilitude of what we have understood. We are then shocked when our audience does not react to or care about our acting. It seems that we have forgotten to acknowledge the mystery of the human condition, a mystery which can only be investigated IN FRONT of our audience with our hard won creative humility.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE

There is a brilliant piece of marketing in Bucharest, promoting a directory assistance telephone number. It goes like this: “Everything is resolved with a simple telephone call.” On the whole, I am tempted to agree with this unbounded optimism. My question is, though, if you do call the advertised directory assistance service, whose telephone number do you request?

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WHAT THEY THINK

The perception of self as defined by others, through others, is the devil incarnate.

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STREET LIGHT

Pain is the street lamp that illuminates the road less travelled, the road back to you.

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TAKING NOTES

When you get that first acting job and your director gives you a note, do something which may go against every creative instinct you’ve ever had, against everything you’ve ever learned about the art of acting: TAKE THE NOTE.

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THE VOICES

When the voices in your head bombard you with conflicting points of view about your life as an actor, it’s time to listen to them. They are all telling you the truth - like all committees, everyone has a valid point. And like any chairman, you can’t make anyone wrong – you will indulge even the most fearful and extreme interpretation of events, and by listening to it and nodding your head, the idea’s proponent will feel seen and heard and have no choice but to shut up for now.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

TEACHING OTHERS

The deepest, darkest secret any teacher or mentor usually has is that he is often incapable of taking his own advice or following his own teaching. And because of this a great deal of the shortcomings he observes in his students are his own - and his attempts to address these shortcomings are rarely about the students and mostly about himself.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

YOUR LIFE

My friend said something to me the other day; he said “It’s your life, it’s OK to live it for you.” I was taken aback by the audacity of his statement; what a selfish idea, and at the same time what a courageous idea, giving us permission to be true to ourselves, and as a byproduct, true to everyone else around us.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

COMFORT

If I have nothing to offer as an artist it is because I have embraced a life of comfort, avoidance, and escape. Important choices always come down to either truth or comfort.

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STUCK

When I am blocked creatively I need to create about what's blocking me.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

ONE FOR ME

Actors are always asking on movie sets: Can we do one for me? Meaning, can we do a take where I do what I want, where I play this part the way I imagine it, feel it, and understand it? Bottom line, the camera likes it when we take charge, when we give free reign to the child who wants to play the way she wants to play.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

POTENTIAL

Sometimes we fall in love not with people as they are, but their potential to become the kind of people we can allow ourselves to love. We should endeavor to reserve this kind of activity for our creative lives.

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THE GODDESSES OF VENICE

So my friend called me up in a state of utter confusion. His Venice neighbors, two women who are self proclaimed local Goddesses, asked him to move their couch in exchange for their benediction. “Hmm...,” I told him, “I guess we ask for God’s help all the time, it is only fair that God (or Goddesses) should require our assistance from time to time. How can you say no?”

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THE FAILURE OF ACTING TECHNIQUE

Truth is, and no acting school or teacher will tell you this, acting technique can only go so far – its application will sometimes bring you the desired results and sometimes it will not. What to do when acting technique fails you? The artist in you already knows the answer to that question.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

NO DOUBT

Ah, if only we could live without doubt. If only we could move through the world and manage our personal affairs with the same dead sure certainty we sometimes exhibit in our creative lives.

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SUPER FRAIL

Actors are the strongest and at the same time the most fragile people in the world. How does this superhuman strength live side by side with such profound frailty? We’ll be spending the rest of our lives trying to figure that one out.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

CONTROL

Whenever we do something which takes us away from our purpose and start believing that we cannot stop this activity, we’re actually right, WE cannot stop. All we can do is embrace whatever eternity means to us, and before long the self sabotage begins to slip away of its own accord, without our struggle or futile effort.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

SELF HELP

People say they want to be artists, but rarely do they have a desire to connect the dots on their own. They want to be told when to create, what to create, and how to create - I wonder how they manage in the bedroom.

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SHOW ME THE MONEY

Henry James’ pragmatism regarding money and how it exposes his characters to the realities of life, serves to this day as a great acting lesson. Instead of asking the same tired questions about your character’s emotional life, ask how she makes her money – you will immediately get to the bottom of what she’s about.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

PERFECTION

Anyone who has worked in the business of show in any capacity for any length of time has had to quickly learn that the prevailing principle of this or any other collaborative and creative medium is something called compromise.

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TO MEDITATE

Meditation is an important part of every actor’s day. But few actors want to slow down, to get in touch with the eternal. Truth is, we would much rather indulge our neurosis 24/7, believing that is our fuel, our identity, and our happiness.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

WELL ADJUSTED ACTORS

I have always believed that actors are the most neurotic people on the planet. But occasionally I am proven wrong – there are some actors who are not neurotic or self destructive, and can show up and do great work under very tough circumstances. I do not understand how this happens, but it does. Acting really is a mystery.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

THE SIMPLE TRUTH

Actors are the most charming people of all. I attribute a good portion of our charm to our unwillingness and utter inability to take pleasure in simple things, simple relationships, and simple lives.

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SPECIAL AGENTS

I used to think that Hollywood agents and managers were very special people, that they were appointed by the God of show business to be his archangels, his emissaries sent here to choose among us those who are deserving of His love and those who are not.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

WAR

Art is war, a battle to the death with your personal demons. Destroy yourself or create, you have two options if you’re an artist.

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THE DAILY STRUGGLE

If, on any given day, an artist does not create something of lasting value, he feels he has wasted the day and does something hurtful to himself to affirm his lack of identity.

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FEELINGS

The amateur actor affects himself; the professional actor affects her audience.

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WANTING IT ALL

We like to say that “you can’t eat your cake and have it too.” There is an old Romanian saying that amounts to the same thing: "You can't have your cabbage greased and your bacon in the attic." Comparing the two, the Romanian version speaks to the heart – not because of its nutritionally balanced imagery (combining fat, protein and vegetables) but because it invokes a way of life.

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HAPPINESS

Billionaires try to buy happiness, spiritual people try to experience happiness, while artists try to express the happiness which is already a part of us all.

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CIVILIAN LIFE

Without unassailable ideals and the call to action engendered by these ideals, artists wind up living civilian lives.

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HUNGER

One of the biggest acting problems is not having a strong enough objective. Oh well, what of it? If you don’t have strong needs in life, what makes you think that any acting technique will make you hungry for acting or for life?

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SAYING NO

Saying no to show business seems like the craziest thing a Hollywood actor can do. To say no to the possibility of love on a global scale (and also a local scale), to say no to untold riches and creative satisfaction (finally), would be, in our esteemed opinion, the act of a lunatic. But strangely enough, like all institutions, show business responds in a significant way only to those who once in a while exercise their power to walk away.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

PULL ME BACK IN

Show business is like Al Pacino’s line in that otherwise forgettable movie, Godfather III, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” And the comparisons to the mob don’t end there - because one learns over time that while the pull is irresistible and leads to tragedy, what else would we do with our lives?

http://www.theactingcorps.com

POLITICS IN THE THEATER

Our politically correct climate is decimating out theater. When politics come into the theater, and we are watching something not because it MOVES us, but because it supports a political agenda of some kind, which in and of itself may be quite moving, yet as part of a play (or movie) only didactic and lifeless, then we RUN to reality television – at least the bullshit there is unadulterated and proud.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

SERIOUS BUSINESS

Don’t EVER take show business seriously. The nature of the beast is that it attracts adrenalin junkies of all kinds; these people (OK, me too) will commit to a million things, be serious about maybe ten things, and for the most part wind up doing almost one thing.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

BOTTOM LINE

There are those in show business whose bottom line is just the bottom line.

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COMING HOME

Whenever you return to it, art it is always there waiting for you. “Where were you, I missed you!” it says. “All of these wonderful things happened to your project and the art form itself when you were gone, if only you’d been here to experience it all.” “Well, I’m here now!” you immediately say, as you remember that all would be well if only your time with art wasn’t so limited and that every time you leave art you give up a little piece of immortality.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

THE CREATIVE CLUB

Creativity can be a club of sorts. Not like a night club, but a club with which I strike myself over the head because I have now included it in my arsenal of weapons for self inflicted pain. So when I create I must remember why – I cannot do it in order to be more than I am, in order to please an internal or external task master, I can only do it because it is how I celebrate the human condition and how I connect with the infinite.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

PEKING OPERA

Having just seen an opera performed by The Peking Opera House of Beijing I can easily say that acting cannot be one thing. The performance style is so different, the rules of the game are so contrary to what we believe, that one can only conclude that great acting has only one true test – is the audience moved and entertained by what they are watching, or not?

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HERE TO STAY

In every culture, there are certain human events, certain simple human exchanges that defy time, place, and intellectual scrutiny. These little moments of cheerful interaction serve as the only verifiable evidence that the human race may be around for a while.

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TO BE HATED

It is possible to be reviled only because you represent to others the sum of their fears. But maybe that isn't so bad. As Hamlet would say,"…'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished." Why? If you have achieved the status of inviting target, it is only because you have evolved to some degree - you are on the path while your detractors are engaging in a low level manifestation of their unresolved childhood issues.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

KAFKA

Certainly Franz Kafka was a tortured and estranged soul. But he was tortured in a universe he understood too well, even in his estrangement he belonged to the world of his suffering.

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TO CRITICS EVERYWHERE

Whenever anyone didn't like my work I would despair. Now I rejoice; their disdain is evidence that I am alive, engaged, and on the path. Bad work is a necessary component of any creative effort and the duty of every artist seeking a piece of the eternal.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

HAPPINESS AND ACTING

Whenever my happiness relies upon others I am disappointed by my perpetual naiveté. Whenever my happiness relies upon myself, I am mortified by my utter powerlessness. Best to leave happiness alone and when it visits I need to keep up appearances and pretend I don't want it to stay, pretend it doesn't mean the world to me, pretend I can do without it. Acting is so much easier than life.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

REJECTION

Anton Chekhov said that actresses are always looking for rejection - if they don't get it, they reject themselves. I would extend that kind of elegantly defined self sabotage to all interesting human beings.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

CREATION

It will be imperfect, as a matter of fact it will certainly be lacking in most respects - but the act of creation will always find perfection in the intention and effort of the artist.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

MY FRIENDS

People who are desperate to be seen, to matter, to rage against the absurdity of being born only to die, these people are the only ones for me.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

FIRE

When Griffith Park was on fire all I could do was clean the ashes off my car and say "It's terrible, how could this happen?" But soon I was IN the car, driving through more ashes, on my way to work. There is something cruel and unforgiving about a life full of purpose.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

RUNNING

If you want to write, write, if you want to dance, dance, if you want to leave, stay. Why? We have to look our creative responsibility straight in the eye, the way we would a lover or a mortal enemy.

http://www.theactingcorps.com

PERFECTION

We wish we were perfect and always more. Yet it is our shortcomings that point us towards meaning as our struggle towards what we perceive as our full potential becomes the screenplay of our lives.

http://www.theactingcorps.com/

STUCK

When I am blocked creatively I need to create about what's blocking me.

http://www.theactingcorps.com/

FALL

Autumn can teach us a great deal - the last leaves DANCE as they fall to the ground.

http://www.theactingcorps.com/

The Actors Boot Camp

The Actors’ Boot Camp® is four weeks of daily classes, by the end of which you will know if acting is your life’s work or just something you say to people at the local bar. Then, by invitation only, there is The Actors’ Boot Camp II – eight more weeks of exhilarating, hard work before you go out and begin to AUDITION. That’s right, we will hold your hand as you get out there - no more hiding in a classroom, now you’re an actor.

What’s next? Because now you’re out looking for acting work, you need to be ready for whatever comes your way. The Advanced Program will prepare you creatively for whatever Hollywood throws your way while the accompanying Acting Corps produced and directed Professional Showcase will introduce you to the industry. Afterwards, by invitation only, there is The Master Class, where Artistic Director Eugene Buica and the class create together film projects which are then produced by The Acting Corps.

Our final advice to you? Pleasing the teacher and staying in school may have worked in high school and it is what actors do when they are afraid to go for it; learning to serve your talent is what you do when you mean business.

For more go to http://www.theactingcorps.com/