Wednesday 3 – June 13th Day 9

Walked to Lincoln center again. A few observations:

Everyone who lives in NYC must have been issued an Ipod. If you see someone without one, they’re probably a tourist.

The food in NYC is good, if expensive. But a Subway sub is not as good as in Washington.

Since I don’t have an Ipod, I spend my time thinking as I stroll along. It would much easier to do this blog if I could just record my thoughts. They would be very jumbled because I never seem to finish one thought before another pushes it aside.

Which reminds me – Someone over the last two weeks told us about speaking lines to the audience or some imaginary person in a play. The bottom line is that when you are thinking to yourself, whether out loud or not, you are always talking to a very specific person. I’ve been testing myself as I walk along. Sometimes I am describing things as if I were writing them in this blog, sometimes I am sharing my thoughts with someone at Lincoln Center (always a specific person) and sometimes I am telling a friend. Interesting to think about who you are thinking to. . . .

Today and tomorrow we have three hour sessions with “Master Teacher Ron van Lieu”. That’s what people call him. He directed two scenes with two professional actors. The first pair of actors memorized the second scene of Death of A Salesman. The second did a scene from Streetcar Named Desire. Ron directed them for the first time today. Here are some comments:

Rehearsal is a time for discovery, not reaching a predetermined goal.

What is the event in the scene that the playwright had in mind?

Rehearsal is a process of trial and error with the actor and director finding their way collaboratively using the play as a guide.

When talking with actors about a role or a scene, start with what they know not with what they don’t know.

The ending of the play is inevitable – it has already been written. Each scene must feed directly to that ending.

Find thoughts that the actor can move from his head to his body.

Characters move their lives forward moment by moment by moment until they reach the end.

“I don’t see any difference between you and Willie.”

Never let an actor act a negative such as “Don’t be crazy.”

Stella is the center of the play (Stella = star) with the two warring planets circling around her.

Make sure all relationships are multifaceted: Stella loves Blanch but she also thinks she is a pain in the ass.

Actors work so hard to get th epart “right” that they don’t find the joy in the part.

From and actor: I worship at the alter of self doubt.

For him, directing and teaching are the same process and he can’t separate them.

He doesn’t do blocking – he lets the actors find it. According to him, blocking is just making the actor be in the right place to do what is required of them to do what they need to do at that moment and the actors will find it themselves.

This afternoon we had three hours with on releasing our inner clown. A lot of fun and at least we weren’t sitting the whole time. I actually got a couple of good games for rehearsals.

Here are the things I wrote down: Actors have to LOVE the gift they have made for the audience. If they think it is cute or nice or funny, the audience won’t enjoy the gift.

It’s not about the thing you have made, it’s about your relationship with it.

This evening was a session with a voice coach. Good but no notes to write down.

All this reminds me of something Roy Thinnes told me. “Don’t ask me why I’m entering or how my day was or where I came from. I’m an actor and it’s my job to do my homework and you need to assume I have done it.”

Another note: The young woman playing Blanch in Streetcar talked so fast that she made Alyssa seem like a slowpoke. He didn’t have much luck getting her to slow down.

One last note: When he was directing the scene I picked up on a lot of the notes he gave the actors too.

We have the same three people tomorrow.

That’s it for today.