Sand Art

It’s been so good to hear from so many of you lately! It’s great to know that you’re well and finding your own paths in this nutty world.

Some of you wrote about being shy or embarrassed because you didn’t dive immediately into the professional acting thing, or may have found great joy in a different field altogether. Folks, we all have our different roads to what it is we are meant to do. Training as an actor prepares you for ANYTHING. You don’t have to be acting to be an artist. I’d love to hear from you no matter what you’ve found, and I know we can all learn from what you are discovering.

Here’s what I’ve discovered lately acting in the grad student production of NO EXIT:

What we do, as actors or anything really, is a whole lot like being one of those Tibetan monks who make sand art.

We spend a spectacular amount of time crafting a wonderful story, or beautiful work – and then we open the window and let the wind blow it to smithereens.

Each project we accomplish, whether it be a show, a day at the office, or even a well-made cappuccino (yes, I was a barista before it was cool) – each endeavor shimmers in the moment before it passes and is consumed by time.

And then we start over.

Doing the craft is what is important. It’s not what we get from it. It’s doing the thing and staying in the moment while we create.

What do we get out of it? I don’t know. It changes. Sometimes it’s just the satisfaction that we’ve done it and finished it before we let our minds race forward to THE NEXT BIG THING.

For right now, I’m staying in the here and now. (For a change.) Talk to me after Sunday, when we show our work for the first and only time to observers who don’t know the story.

Then I’ll move on to the next thing, whatever that may be. For now – I’m doing my job, and I’m going to do it to the best of my ability.

I hope you are all well.

No Exit Open Rehearsal

We're having an open rehearsal of No Exit at The New School this Thursday evening at 8pm in room 207. (April 10)

The New School is at 151 Bank St, near the old West Beth Theater, which is now the Bank St. Theater.

No lights, no costumes, just wooden blocks. It really is a rehearsal.

Right now run throughs are timing at about 1 hour and 35 minutes, we're hoping to take off 7 to 12 of those minutes.

If you can't make it, that's totally OK. Just wanted to let you know.

Oh, right. Process.

So I’ve been acting in this grad student project down at The New School. I posted about it a few weeks ago. At the time, I was really nervous about cramming all the lines into my head before we had to show it to the director’s class.

Since then I’ve had time to rehearse, study the script outside of rehearsal, and do the imagination work that one needs to do in order to fill out the character.

I’m getting really excited to do the gig, because now I’m enjoying the process. I can see things growing and changing and the picture is becoming clearer.

The first part of any project, writing, acting or otherwise -- the first part is always a mess. A big old chaotic, scary mess. For some reason I always forget this. I just dive in expecting results. But first you have to make a map. And that requires patience, time, and process. Beginning is a sticky process.

Once you get the initial work done, though, it starts to feel better. It might not be easier, but it feels better.

Funny how you learn some things again and again and again.