Drama League Fall Directing Blog: Actors!

Actors are creative athletes

Tomorrow we begin the tech process for Don’t Go Gentle for MCC theatre. It’s been a rigorous and productive process in the rehearsal room. I’m looking forward to seeing the play get introduced to the theatre space. While watching the final run-through today, I took a couple of glances at the actors sitting on the side. At one point I noticed them gazing with a joyful focus at their colleagues who were acting in scenes. Later on in the run, I spotted an actor with head tilted forward, preparing to go on for their next acting moment. I will never cease to be amazed by the skill and craft of a great actor. I liken actors to a breed of athlete. A creative athlete. Great acting demands concentration, commitment, and physical exertion as well as personal excavation -- all of that devoted to the craft of storytelling. It requires tenacious effort to be aware of your self but not be self-conscious, and to act with conviction while being open to a spontaneous inspiration. And the end effect is like a ballet dancer who spends hours perfecting a dance in order to make it look so easy and natural. A good actor makes the expression of language, whether it’s explosive or tacit, seem effortless and essential.

Admittedly, the reason I go to see theatre is to see an interesting story and to see actors onstage sharing their craft. It's like watching a baker put the final details of icing on a cake...it's hypnotizing. Yes, I love to see the sets, lights, costumes, props and make-up and hear the music and sounds, and see the staging too. But today, at least until the next time I’m in a rehearsal room, today I got to savor the rawness of a company of unadorned actors expressing text and telling a story. And it was sweet heaven.

What I learned: I learned something about devotion. Not to be simply devoted to the overall craft of theatre making, but to be devoted to the moment at hand. Actors understand that you can't act the whole play all at once. They commit all of their focus to one sentence, to one word, a touch, a breath or a glance. And the accumulation of all of those acts of commitment creates the larger arc of a story. It's about devoting myself to each moment until it passes, and I’m in the next moment. And all of those moments will create the arc of my life.

Drama League Fall Directing Blog

My latest Drama League blog is up and posted. It's titled Nothing Goes To Waste. In it, I share a little discovery I made about how I used to view myself and my artistry.

Click below to check it out!

July DCN - Panel Discussion - Developing Musicals

 
On Monday, July 23 from 6:00 - 7:15pm at NYMF I will be a part of a panel discussion on Developing Musicals with Stafford Arrima in discussion with Karen Azenberg. It is a part of the Society of Stage Directors & Choreographers Foundation. 

 
Topics covered in this conversation will include assembling a team, developing work at NYMF and other festivals, driving a project forward, key artistic elements throughout the development process, and realistic goals for what can be accomplished artistically at different stages of the process.  There will be time for questions from attendees. The discussion will be audiorecorded for future podcast through the SDCF’s Masters of the Stage on AmericanTheatreWing.org.

 
When: Monday, July 23, 6:00 - 7:15pm
Where: NYMF,  330 W 42 Street

 

The Next Level

Click the image above to go to the Drama League blog website.

Oh my goodness! I am off to Korea, folks! Central Avenue Breakdown is packing up and getting ready to board a plane for the Daegu International Musical Festival. Last year for the New York Musical Theatre Festival, I directed and choreographed Central Avenue Breakdown. Out of thirty productions, our show was chosen to represent the 2011 season and go to Korea to perform in their annual musical theatre festival. We will travel to Korea with the cast, crew, design team, stage management team and the creative team. We’ll have eight fast and full days of tech, staging rehearsals, four performances and a Gala event. It’s going to be an amazing cultural experience. I’m in love with this opportunity.

I’m excited to share our production abroad and I’m so proud to share my beautiful and passionate cast with an international audience. The exciting news is we have been invited to perform an encores presentation of our show at NYMF this summer. New York City audiences will be able to see Central Avenue Breakdown once again for six performances July 19-22 at the Pershing Square Signature Center in the Alice Griffin Theatre.

Being a part of the DIMF and NYMF experience this summer is such an amazing opportunity. Working on a brand new musical is a dream come true for me. It’s an honor to surround myself with this world of jazz, family and musicians. Within the story, we explore themes of hopes, dreams and risks. I feel like the cast and creative team are exploring these themes in our daily lives as we go on this journey towards bringing new material to life. Over the past three weeks, I’ve learned so much about getting to the next level and what that means in a creative and a humanistic way.

One restless night after rehearsal, I found myself texting my producer, “what is the thing that I can do to take this to the next level?” It was a question riddled with my anxiety about being helpful to actors and designers, and the responsibility I felt in in regards to taking our production overseas. After I went through my mental list of all the hyper-aggressive actions I could take, I knew exactly what I needed to do to make this production a success.

What I learned: This week I learned that getting to the next level doesn’t always mean forcibly climbing a ladder of success. Sometimes it means going deeper, to a level within, and being mentally and physically present with whatever I’m working on – with whatever the task at hand. Getting to the next level is about being present with what excites me about theatre and putting that into my work. It’s about being present with my desire to make the world a better place using my craft. Getting to the next level is sometimes about taking action to get from one place of success to the next, and it is mostly about going deeper into the reason why I wanted to go on this journey in the first place. Thinking of the next level as something within me makes taking action an aspiration and not a chore.

My Wonder Week

The Drama League experience has begun! Click the link below to read my frist blog posting as a Drama League Fall Directing Fellow. Also take a peek at a red carpet photo of the beautiful directors and supporters I spent the week with. I mention them in my blog.

(L-R: Jano Herbosch, Roger Danforth, David Mendizbal, Jesse Jou, Jess Jung, Christopher Windom, Swaine Kaui, Knud Adams, Shana Gozansky, Patrick Walsh, Snehal Desai, Amy Claussen, Cat Miller, Garbriel Shanks)