debor009

The morning smells of Los Angeles.  Odd how smells trigger memories.  Odder still that after more than 30 years in the East, and a good many years since I've even visited LA, I should suddenly start smelling the cool, misty, eucalyptus-pungent mornings that I remember there. But several times over the past year, I have stepped outside, taken a breath, and been flooded with memories. I was even moved one Sunday to research apartments online. (What does this mean?) Had the first read-through on the play J.B. and got a look at the cast. Only one is a familiar face to me, and unlike The British Players cast, where it was all one happy family, only the principals seem to know each other here, so there will be a process for everyone of warming up and learning to work with different personalities.  Some of the concepts director Rip Claassen has in mind for staging the play are very exciting, and my role, though small, is not insignificant.  I was glad of that.  It's...

One of the things I did back in May that was pure pleasure was attend the Columbia University Film Festival at the Lincoln Center in New York. A film I did for Michael Toscano, The Louder the Better, or Max Cotton’s Climb to the Top , was one of the entries (and went on to take Faculty Honors), but I was also impressed by Andy Nguyen’s beautiful, gritty, Forever in Hiatus , about a washed-up former pop star pedaling a bicycle taxi aimlessly in the streets of Ho Chi Minh City; Nathan Floody’s delightfully wicked animated short, Hunters ; and Juliet Lashinsky’s riveting Keys. Wallet. Phone , which I thought so much of I contacted the star, Rae C. Wright , and gushed until I’m certain I made a pest of myself. I’ve had bits and pieces in films where I thought I did okay (I’m my own toughest critic), but Wright had the whole film to herself and turned in a lovely, nuanced, emotionally wrenching performance that had me eating my face with envy. The credits started rolling and I just sat...

Heading into rehearsals next week for American Century Theater's production of the Archibald MacLeish play J.B.   A small part, but still a grueling schedule through early October. Trying to get a class or two in and still be home enough that the dogs and cats don't forget who I am.  Glad to see some familiar faces in the cast. Theater really is like family.

A rough few weeks with too much going on.  But I'm back, and lots to say about what I've been up to.  But let's talk acting.   I went to an introductory group session this week  with New York Acting Coach John Pallotta and it  was quite remarkable. His advice seems to run counter to what we learn in most acting classes.  If you’re trying to capture a character you create a backstory, right?  You think about motive and objective.  You agonize over whether you understand where the character is coming from.  Well, I won’t say that Pallotta says to forget all that, but what I saw him accomplish with actors (including myself) was very much impulse and spur of the moment. The advice seemed to be to simplify the scene and then relate it to a personal experience; for example, a monologue from Frankie and Johnny he expressed as “boy meets girl, boy gets laid” (and wants to get laid again). Then add the knowledge that the “boy” has been in prison...