My Meisner Journey: Part One. By Alexandra Gobeille

I honestly don’t know where to begin.

My Freehold Meisner class has been a flood of revelation, emotion, joy, struggle, and inspiration. I have experienced and witnessed the beginning of a great transformation, starting at our core. Robin Lynn Smith is our fearless leader, masterminding this unpredictable adventure, empowering and inspiring us every step of the way. She brings an immense awareness and knowledge to the course, of not only Sanford Meisner, but influential artists and teachers from all over the world. She has incorporated Eastern philosophy, from assigned reading like Herrigel’s “Zen in the Art of Archery”, to Tai Chi based energy work and principles of other martial arts.

Every class is unique. The warm up, movement exercises, guided imagination and free association activities, group work and discussion, introspection and writing, partner work and direction … have all varied and contributed to the strong foundation we are building. They have brought the teachings to life, so we actually experience what we are learning in our bodies, in our full beings. This training has started to cultivate access to more of our subconscious. Each class has contributed to … setting me free.

Free from old acting habits of pushing, indicating, holding. Free from social habits of politeness, self-protecting, apologizing, and faking. Free from thinking. It has been said that it takes 20 years to become an actor. Because during the first 20 years, we are constantly thinking about everything we are doing. Meisner declared the Foundation of Acting is the Reality of Doing.

It’s so simple. Yet our brains automatically intellectualize it, along with every moment we encounter, because we have been conditioned to lead with our heads. Rationalize, think before you speak, get it right, be interesting, edit, edit, edit! And in other words, lie. How many times a day do we actually tell the truth? Follow our gut impulse, our instinct? Recognize behavior in others and hold them accountable? Demonstrate the emotions we are truly feeling? Probably not many. We don’t for legitimate reasons though - our safety, for one. I wouldn’t recommend telling the person on the bus that they’re creeping you out … unless you enjoy getting socked in the face. Or telling your boss they’re being a real @#$%^*$&$#^@ … I doubt they’d say how much they appreciate your honesty and that you made them feel bad.

These social and behavioral protection mechanisms serve a crucial purpose in a civilized society, but they are not useful for our acting. So how do we knock down the solid brick walls, peel back the obstinate layers of ego, fear, and being in a hurry-the three enemies of acting? Well, Sanford Meisner thought of some brilliant ways.

More on that on my next blog post!

Part Two of Alexandra's Meisner Posts can be found here.

Exceptional Acting Classes in Seattle at Freehold Theatre

Freehold Theatre offers exceptional acting classes in Seattle. Since 1991, Freehold has offered acting classes taught by working professional actors, directors and playwrights including Amy Thone, Darragh Kennan, Marya Sea Kaminski, Gin Hammond, to name just a few. Whether you are an absolute beginner or a working professional artist, Freehold has a class for you.

Our Winter Quarter classes are now open for registration with most classes beginning in January 2013.

Explore the YOU You Don't Know
act.move.write.direct.improvise.

Winter Quarter Classes

Step I: Intro to Acting, Section 1 with Stefan Enriquez
Step I: Intro to Acting, Section 2 with Christine Marie Brown
Step II: Acting with Text with Sarah Harlett
Step III: Scene Study Text Intensive with Annette Toutonghi
Meisner: Instrument with Robin Lynn Smith
Advanced Voice-Over: Video Games and Character Voices with Gin Hammond
Auditioning with Darragh Kennan
Film Directing Course with John Jacobsen and Robin Lynn Smith
Making Theater in Community with Elizabeth Heffron
Improvisation with Gary Schwartz
Movement with Paul Budraitis
Public Speaking with Gin Hammond
Shakespeare with Amy Thone
Singing for Actors with Lucia Neare
Stage Combat with Geof Alm (prior stage combat experience required for Winter Quarter)
Voice Over with Gin Hammond

For more information or to register for a class: http://www.freeholdtheatre.org

Freehold Theatre Lab/Studio
2222 2nd Avenue, Suite 200
Seattle, WA 98121
(206) 323-7499
http://www.freeholdtheatre.org

"Oh My God, Robin Smith And John Jacobsen Teaching In The Same Room?" By John Jacobsen

You couldn’t be more excited about this than I am. I think Robin is the greatest director who still says hello to me, and that TheFilmSchool and Freehold have partnered up to offer a hands on directing course with her co-teaching is an extremely exciting opportunity for any one thinking of becoming a serious director.

There aren’t may directing courses offered in Seattle, so this is a rare chance to flex your creative talents with the two of us watching over your shoulder which sounds a little creepy, but I know will be inspiring. When I teach acting, I often pass on a quote from Uta Hagen who said, “Actors must be director proof.” She said that, as do I, because there are so many directors who do not know their craft. This is a sad state, but not a new one, and Robin and I designed this course to do what we can to improve the quality of directors working in Seattle and raise the bar.

Directing is HARD. You have to know a little about everything, and a lot about a few things. You lead the entire production creatively. You inspire, you teach, you nurture, and you push.

But without craft, you are dead before you begin. I like to say I want to be the smartest person on the set (which isn’t easy because there are often A LOT of really smart people in film, and in theatre), but that means I must know my craft. You can’t just wing directing – too many people try this and hence, Uta’s comment. You have to know what you’re doing and the only way to know is to learn the craft and then practice, practice, practice. That’s the path we hope to push our directors (and actors) on in this class.

Directors have to know text. It’s a director’s job to get a new script in shape, ready for production, and to do that, you have to know what makes story work. The text in a script is like a map: we use it to find out where we are going – but how we get there is up to the actors and the director. It’s our job to mine the gold of the material using the clues in the map and to look deep below the lines and action into the thoughts of the characters. This course starts with hands-on text work, learning how scenes are structures and how to discover motivation, action, and sub-text and then play it specifically, moment to moment and with honesty and courage.

Directors are the only people who can talk to the actor so the director/actor relationship is critical. The director takes his/her discoveries and work on the text, and translates that to the performer so it jumps off the page and comes alive. Actors also want to work with directors who understand their specific language. When a director understands the actor’s language, they will be able to communicate with the actors more efficiently, which will help them to achieve more believable and well-grounded performances. This course has high quality actors in the class that directors will work with, so learning the language to work with them is critical.

And while some may, with justification, argue that directors must know camera, I will suggest here that what directors need to know next is actually editing. When we focus on how to cut a scene to tell a story, that focuses us back into the script, back into the performance, and yes, back into the shots. By knowing editing we learn how to shoot. What will cut, what to cut, when to cut. So this course teaches directors not only to plan their multiple shoots with us using storyboard and shot lists, and develop a method for doing so on all future shoots, it also has directors thinking ahead to plan their edit and shoot and cut their own work themselves.

We’ve designed a course that both Robin and I would love to take. That is, if we weren’t the instructors. We’re both, I think, really excited to be in the room learning from each other, and from you, our talented charges that apply for this course. Join us and let’s all work to raise the bar.

To apply for the Film Directing Course: http://www.freeholdtheatre.org/new-film-directing-course-john-jacobsen-and-robin-lynn-smith

Playing with Swords by Emily Fortuna

As an actor eager to maximize the variety of characters that I can portray, I strive to diversify my skills as much as possible. I find I grow the most through the rehearsal process with a role, but with the audition process I don’t have this luxury. There’s a catch-22 – I won’t be considered for these new roles if I don’t show any potential in that direction to begin with. So, I develop these skills on my own time, in hopes that they the seeds will one day have the opportunity to blossom into some fantastic future role.

Stage Combat is one such seed that I wanted to plant, or in the words of Sanford Meisner “add to my actor’s toolbox” to open up new opportunities as an artist. Being passed over for that next Buffy the Vampire Slayer role simply because I hadn’t practiced the skills is a position I simply don’t want to find myself in. This experience was particularly highlighted before taking this class when I worked on a role for a film that did involve combat (surprise!). My unfamiliarity at the time only allowed me to think about the basic mechanics, rather than focusing on the safety of my partner and the overall scene.

Geof Alm’s Stage Combat class has helped me firmly plant this stage combat seed in the ground and get it sprouting. He has patiently shown us that at the root, the stage combat is not hard, but it’s certainly important to practice, practice, practice so we can have the technique in muscle memory, which allows us to focus on other important parts of the fight—like not actually hurting anyone! This dedication to developing technique has helped me make progress not only with stage combat, but also other skills in my acting toolbox that need development, such as physicality.

So far we’ve learned how to attack, parry, and bind with rapier and broadsword, as well as a variety of unarmed punches. We’ve also learned how to fall, roll, and react without hurting ourselves. I look forward to seeing what the rest of our quarter will bring. Plus, it’s fun to play with swords.

Biomechanics Intensive: Arming the Imagination

Paul Budraitis will be teaching a Biomechanics Intensive this fall at Freehold. Here's some information from Paul on his upcoming class:

Biomechanics is a system of actor training developed in the early 1920’s by legendary Russian actor, director, and teacher, Vsevolod Meyerhold. Through this training, Meyerhold sought to develop actors whose work would convey a physical precision, an acrobatic lightness and agility, and a heightened rhythmic sensibility. The technique emphasized the development of skills from traditional, non-realistic theatrical sources such as commedia dell’arte, Russian folk theatre, circus performance, Japanese Kabuki theatre, east-Asian dance, and pantomime. Soviet ideology eventually put a tragic end to Meyerhold and his work. He was executed in 1940 for practicing “formalist” theatre (as opposed to the officially-sanctioned social realism of Stanislavski), which was considered “antagonistic” to the Soviet people. Although the teaching of biomechanics was officially forbidden, the system was passed on secretly as an oral tradition until the “glasnost” period and the subsequent fall of the Soviet Union.

The training is intensive and physical. Over the course of two intensive weekends, the class will explore a wide range of basic individual and ensemble floor exercises, individual and partner work with physical objects, as well as exercises that develop the body’s rhythmic and expressive abilities. Actors who undertake the training can ultimately expect to experience an increased sense of balance through awareness of the physical center, ability to move from the physical center, awareness and expressivity of gesture and physical form, heightened reflexive dexterity when working with partners and physical objects, and increased awareness and agility in ensemble work.

It’s important for anyone considering undertaking the training to understand that Biomechanics is not a system of acting or a method to create a certain type of theatre. Instead, Biomechanics should be seen as a valuable part of an actor’s personal palette of technique, helping to develop control of his or her body in an expressive and grounded way. This being the case, it can be rightly said that training in Biomechanics is beneficial to an actor’s work regardless of the specific aesthetic of any future project. From Miller, to Beckett, to Lecoq clowning, anything and everything in an actor’s future can benefit in some way from this work. It is in this way that training in Biomechanics is not unlike the honing of technique involved when a pianist practices musical scales or a ballet dancer puts in time at the ballet barre. One of Meyerhold’s favorite actors, Igor Ilyinsky, once said: “Technique arms the imagination.” This is ultimately what the training seeks to achieve, the “arming” of the actor’s imagination.

November 10 - November 17
Saturdays, 1:00 - 5:00 pm
Sundays, 2:00 - 6:00 pm
$220 Discounted
$265 Full Price
Tuition is based on household income

To register: https://www.freeholdtheatre.org/civicrm/event/info?id=145&reset=1

Paul Budraitis is a director, actor, writer, and solo performer, as well as a teacher of acting and stage movement. In Seattle, he has worked with On the Boards, the Degenerate Art Ensemble, Annex Theatre, Balagan Theatre, New City Theatre, and Cornish College of the Arts, among others. His solo performance (IN)STABILITY premiered at On the Boards in February 2011, and his production of David Mamet's Edmond received a Seattle Times' "Footlight Award" as one of the best productions of 2010

Paul was the recipient of a State Department Fulbright grant to study theatre directing at the Lithuanian Music and Theatre Academy (LMTA) in Vilnius, Lithuania, where he earned his master's degree under the mentorship of visionary theatre director Jonas Vaitkus. In Lithuania, Paul worked with the National Drama Theatre of Lithuania, the State Youth Theatre of Lithuania, the Kaunas State Drama Theatre, and Oskaras Koršunovas/Vilnius City Theatre (OKT). He has assisted directors Jonas Vaitkus and Oskaras Koršunovas, and worked as an actor on a contemporary re-imagining of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, directed by acclaimed Finnish director Kristian Smeds and performed both in Lithuania, as well as at the Vienna Festival. Most recently, Paul acted with fellow Freehold faculty member Marya Sea Kaminski in Riddled, directed by Braden Abraham.

As a teacher, Paul has worked as a lecturer in the acting and directing faculty of the LMTA, teaching acting and stage movement, and he is currently an adjunct instructor at Cornish College of the Arts, as well as a faculty member at Freehold Theatre Lab. He has taught the Biomechanics technique of Russian theatre director Vsevelod Meyerhold at the LMTA, as well as to students at Freehold, Cornish College of the Arts, and the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Incremental Progress by Rebecca Tourino

What gets in the way of your writing? Is it a creative block? TV? A day job? A smartphone? On stage, obstacles to progress are what make drama dramatic; at the desk, they’re what make writers curse. There’s always something in the way.

Right now, I've got two somethings – adorable little Somethings, ages 4 and 1.

"Mama, I want you to play with me," says One.

"Cracker!" asks the other.

"Just a moment," I answer, squinting at the computer screen, where one of my characters is wooing the other. "I’ve got a little writing to do."

"Cracker!" repeats Something Two.

Since I’ve become a mother I’ve become adept at doing more than one thing at a time. I can carry on two different conversations at once while cooking dinner and playing unending rounds of tic-tac-toe. Writing a scene while feeding the baby on my lap shouldn’t be too challenging, right? I figure I ought to be able to field questions about robots and amp up my character’s central conflict simultaneously.

Sometimes, I can.

Then someone gets hurt, or someone won’t share; a nose starts bleeding or another needs blowing; a belly empties, a laundry basket fills, and . . . where was I?

Be patient, I self-coach, as my characters threaten to expire from ennui. If I can't write this morning, I'll do it this afternoon. If I can't this afternoon, I'll get to it tonight. Not tonight? Then tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow!

Progress is dizzyingly incremental. It can get discouraging.

"Mama, I want you to play with me."

"Sweetheart, please," I beg. "Please, I just need a few more minutes."

My children are teaching me the meaning of the word perseverance.

"Mama?" asks my eldest.

"I’m going to cry!," I gasp. "I just! Need! One! Minute!"

"Well, if you cry, I’ll give you a kiss!"

Breathe, I remind myself, as my characters seek out illicit substances to dull the pain of my neglect. If I can’t have two hours, I'll use one. If I can't have sixty minutes, I’ll use thirty. Twenty. Eleven. Three.

These days, if I can get one coherent thought from my brain onto my computer, I find myself beaming. Because you know what? It’s a step forward. My writing may feel like it's always in process, but so are my little boys – and so am I. My children will not always be children, but I've been telling stories on paper since I was six. I’ll always be a writer.

And my manuscript will always be right where I left it, waiting for me.


Rebecca will be teaching Playwriting I at Freehold this Fall. More information on our upcoming class with Rebecca Tourino: Playwriting I

Freehold Awarded a 2012 Mayor's Arts Award

Freehold was honored to participate in the Mayor's Arts Award Ceremony at the Seattle Center on Friday, August 31st with our other Mayor's Arts Award winners.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the Mayor's Arts Awards, 10 recipients were honored this year. In addition to Freehold, the other Mayor's Arts Award recipients for 2012 are: KEXP 90.3 FM, Li Hengda, choreographer, dancer and artistic director, Lucia Neare's Theatrical Wonders, Seattle Arts & Lectures, Buster Simpson, public artist, Three Dollar Bill Cinema, TilibSedeb (Singing Feet), Duwamish Tribe youth performance group, The Vera Project, all-ages arts venue and Olivier Wevers, dancer, choreographer and artistic director.

Thank you to all who nominated Freehold for this great distinction.

Here is a link to the video of the event (Freehold's speeches begin at 18:50).
Here are some photos from the event ...