Use All Gently

SCENE II. A hall in the castle.

Enter HAMLET and Players

HAMLET

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you,
trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it,
as many of your players do, I had as lief the
town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air
too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently;
for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,
the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget
a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it
offends me to the soul to hear a robustious
periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to
very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who
for the most part are capable of nothing but
inexplicable dumbshows and noise: I would have such
a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it
out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.

First Player

I warrant your honour.

HAMLET

Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion
be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the
word to the action; with this special o'erstep not
the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is
from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the
first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the
mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature,
scorn her own image, and the very age and body of
the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone,
or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful
laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the
censure of the which one must in your allowance
o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be
players that I have seen play, and heard others
praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely,
that, neither having the accent of Christians nor
the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so
strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of
nature's journeymen had made men and not made them
well, they imitated humanity so abominably.

First Player

I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us, sir.

HAMLET

O, reform it altogether. And let those that play
your clowns speak no more than is set down for them;
for there be of them that will themselves laugh, to
set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh
too; though, in the mean time, some necessary
question of the play be then to be considered:
that's villanous, and shows a most pitiful ambition
in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready.

Exeunt Players

Old Books From An Old Actor's Library

Many of my acting students ask me for reading lists. There are many very good acting books out there. I have a bookcase full of them. Some are old and some are new.

I find it difficult to choose favourites. So here are just a few of the titles that inspired me when I was starting out as an actor;

(listed in no particular order)

An Actor Prepares (Konstantin Stanislavski)

Building A Character (Konstantin Stanislavski)

Creating A Role (Konstantin Stanislavski)

Improvisation For The Theater (Viola Spolin)

Audition (Michael Shurtleff) more than just an audition book

Respect For Acting (Uta Hagen)

Impro (Keith Johnstone)

Sanford Meisner On Acting (Sanford Meisner & Denis Longwell)

Actors On Acting (Toby Cole & Helen Krich Chinoy)

A Practical Handbook For The Actor (Melissa Bruder)

The Stanislavski System (Sonia Moore)

Acting – A Handbook Of The Stanislavski Method (Toby Cole & Lee Strasberg)

Being And Doing – A Workbook For Actors (Eric Morris)

and for fun;

The Art of Coarse Acting (Michael Green)

No Turn Unstoned (Diana Rigg)

A good actor is a literate actor. ALWAYS BE READING. Even when you're not working on anything, there should always be a play or a screenplay in your bag, on your desk or on your nightstand.

You Are An International Phenomenon

THE WORLD IS YOUR STAGE.

I teach a series of workshops for emerging professional actors to learn how to establish and maintain their acting career. The series includes workshops on marketing and promotion, and preparing for auditions. In one class, I present a series of maps to the actors and ask them to identify their target market. The first is a map of their city, the next their province, then Canada, then North America and, finally, the world. The presentation speaks for itself.  There is no "local" market for a professional Canadian actor. I haven’t yet met a full time professional actor who only works as an actor, only in one city.  Narrow your market that much and you’ve probably diversified into other fields besides acting...

Google any significant film or TV production that’s been shot in the last decade and you’ll get thousands of hits from around the world.  I just tried it and I found a French website about “Less Than Kind”, A Greek website about “Degrassi” and a Portuguese website about Gary Yate’s “High Life”.

It may feel great to be a comfortable, safe, relaxed, part-time Canadian actor, but when we audition for any significant Film or TV project, we are competing with actors from other Canadian and American cities and often actors in other countries and continents.

If you audition for a lead, supporting or principal role on an ACTRA production, you should assume you are competing against actors in Toronto, Vancouver, New York and L. A.  If they’re looking at six people for the role in Winnipeg, there are probably another eight actors auditioning in Vancouver, eight in Toronto, eight in New York and twelve in LA - and the L.A. actors probably have whiter teeth. An international co-production may have you auditioning against actors in Britain, Belgium, New Zealand or France.

Even if the role you are auditioning for is a small “Actor” role that is likely to be cast locally, the director and producers are still comparing your work to all those other actors in all those other cities.  Make sure they’re seeing you at your best.

In a busy centre like Toronto or Vancouver, actors have many opportunities to audition.  I’ve heard different statistics, but it’s reasonable to say that actors in a busy centre may audition for twelve or fifteen roles for every job they book. When I worked in Vancouver, I auditioned anywhere from two to ten times a week in the busy season.  An actor in a larger centre auditions more often in three months than a Manitoba actor auditions in three years.  That’s a lot of practice.  That’s what you’re competing against.

There are advantages to being a “local” actor. If the project is being shot in your town, the producers want to take advantage of provincial tax credits by hiring as many locals as possible.  They also save on airfare, hotels and per-diems by using local talent.  It makes sense, financially to hire a local actor for a locally shot production.  That’s your advantage over the out-of-town actors. It cost less to hire you.  But, it’s only an advantage if your audition is as good or better than the actors in other cities.

Remember the directors, the producers and the casting directors all want you to succeed. They want the next actor that comes into the room to be the one they cast.  They want to say yes to you. You just have to ensure them that they are saying yes to the right actor.

All you have to do to succeed is to do the work and be prepared for EVERY audition.

Read the script, do your homework, learn your lines, be professional, be focused and, most of all, be excellent.  See you at the next audition.

John B. Lowe

Lowe's ACTORNYMS 3

A Good Performance is:

Active - Play actions. Pursue objectives. Don't Show. Do!

Connected - Connect to moments, to others, to body, to emotions.

Truthful - Don't pretend. Be in the moment. Act. React. Really.

One stone at a time. One flower at time.

A few years ago, I was acting in a play in Chemainus, B.C. on Vancouver Island. Almost everyday, I walked through a lovely area in a forest called the Hermit Trails. I spent many hours enjoying that place of beauty and tranquility. When I learned the story of the man who designed and built the trails, my daily walk became a time for personal reflection and perspective.

The Hermit Trails were named for the elderly reclusive man who created them. He lived alone in the forest and was nicknamed “the hermit”. The hermit was old and stooped and slow, but he worked diligently for many years, and moved hundreds of rocks and stone slabs to create a series of pathways and steps over a few acres of forest, bordered by gardens of wild flowers. Single-handed, with few resources, the hermit created a small forest paradise that’s been enjoyed by thousands of people.

The hermit’s name was Charlie Abbot. Charlie arrived quietly in Chemainus sometime in the 1970's and lived alone in a makeshift shack in the forest where he created and maintained his environmental masterpiece until he died in 1989 at 87 years old. The Hermit Trails are Charlie’s legacy. Nature provided the raw materials, but Charlie’s labour translated nature’s beauty into eloquent human terms. Charlie was dedicated and determined and his work was deceptively simple. He used crude natural objects to create a mystical place that celebrates nature. Since Charlie’s death, local residents have maintained the Hermit Trails so Charlie’s creation continues to be enjoyed and appreciated.

I don’t know much about Charlie except what’s written here and I like that bit of mystery because Charlie’s work ethic and achievement are what define him for me. I can only guess what motivated Charlie to create this little piece of paradise but I’m sure it wasn’t fortune or fame. Regardless of his background or motivation, Charlie’s work is impressive, joyful and inspiring and has had a profound impact on how I now view my own work.

My daily walks through the remarkable place that Charlie crafted without regard for recognition and remuneration, motivated me to reflect on the value of my own work as an actor, a filmmaker and teacher. While money and accolades are certainly appreciated, they are not the primary goals of most actors or artists. Sure, applause and a paycheque are always welcome but many great artists work with dedication and passion for many years without receiving any tangible rewards but are still considered successful.

The size of an audience doesn’t always reflect the success of a creative endeavour and we can’t measure the value of creativity in financial terms. The real rewards of creativity are the satisfaction of accomplishment, the tangible results of one’s labour, and the joy of sharing creativity with others.

Actors, artists or anyone can accomplish amazing things if they are primarily driven by the simple, honest desire to create excellent work and then work diligently with patience and perseverance to satisfy that desire.

Charlie’s gone. I never met him, but I feel blessed by the joy and inspiration I received from his labour and his creation.

Thanks, Charlie.

Paul Ygartua's 'The Hermit' mural, Chemainus

I learned a few other things from Charlie;
You are your own best resource.
Everything you really need is already close at hand.
Focus on the task and work hard with patience and perseverance.
Place one stone at a time. Plant one flower at time.
Simple, honest work can create something beautiful, complex and profound.

Good advice for actors. Good advice for life.

I Succeed When You Succeed

In rehearsal, performance or in an acting class, actors need to feel free so they can be free to explore all aspects of the emotional life of a character and scene. Actors need to be uninhibited and emotionally vulnerable. They can’t be restricted by self-censorship or fear of failure. Actors need to feel safe enough to drop the defenses they’ve developed for life in the real world and remove their carefully crafted social masks so they can be as playful, as open and as un-self-conscious as a child.

A good director or acting teacher will create a working environment where actors feel secure and emotionally protected so they can quickly develop enough trust to be vulnerable and uninhibited. This can’t be treated casually. The importance of a safe, nurturing working environment for actors cannot be overstated. An actor’s creativity flows freely when they are unimpeded by judgment, analysis and censorship. Collaboration works best in an environment of openness and trust.

In my acting classes, I use many games and exercises to develop an environment of trust. One series of exercises involves actors passing balls around in a circle. These exercises have many steps and variations, and I won’t go into detail here, but there is an important point of discussion that arises when I first introduce these exercises to a group of acting students.

I use air-filled toy balls about the size of a volleyball. They’re very light and bounce easily. When the first ball is introduced into the circle, the actors are simply instructed to call out someone’s name and pass that person the ball. I usually let this first game go on for several minutes without further instruction and, almost always, the speed of the game soon increases and one or two actors start throwing the ball in ways that make it difficult to catch. Others quickly pick up on this trend and start tricking each other into missing a catch. Within minutes, the ball gets out of control and bounces out of the circle.

This trend used to frustrate me until I realized it’s an excellent illustration that helps actors recognize the behaviour and attitudes they’ve learned on the playground and the sports field. The ball bouncing out of the circle is an eloquent demonstration of how competitive, selfish behaviour is counterproductive to collaboration and teamwork.

Teamwork is as fundamental to actors as it is to athletes. But, there’s a significant difference in how we view success in the performing arts versus the way we measure success in competitive sports. It’s an important difference that actors must understand.

Simply put, success in sports is called winning, which implies there must be a loser. In other words, success is measured against the failure of others. The implication – right or wrong - is that for one to succeed, others must fail. To be the best is ideal – so we must strive to be better than everyone else and work to make others fail. This attitude may be a key to success in sports, but it’s the key to failure for an actor. That’s the attitude that caused the ball to bounce out of the circle.

Just like in sports, an actor is part of a team. They must work with the other actors, the director and the crew to do the best work possible to succeed as a team. However, the success of an actor and the production are dependent on the success of everyone and enhanced by the failure of no one. An actor doesn’t succeed by winning because there is no one to defeat.

When the young actors in my class are encouraged to throw the ball with the intention of ensuring a successful catch, their focus shifts from the throw to the catch. They make eye contact with other actors in the circle, communicate readiness and carefully throw the ball in a manner that ensures it will be caught. With this small shift of attitude and intention the ball tossing exercise can quickly and easily be developed into a complex series of exchanges with several balls moving rapidly around the circle in complicated patterns with very few missed catches. Now, the ball rarely bounces out of the circle.

Throwing a ball around in a circle seems quite simple but the actions of throwing and catching are not the point of these exercises. When both actors commit completely to the successful completion of the ball transfer, they start to trust and rely on each other and they almost always succeed even as the task becomes more challenging and complex. The important discovery for the actor is the powerful connection that is formed between people who are focused on the successful completion of a shared task with openness and trust.

The beauty and magic of acting are manifested in the unspoken connection between actors who are fully committed and openly engaged in the action of the moment and the almost divine exchange of energy that occurs through that connection.

Friendships, marriages, families, communities and even nations are created and succeed not just through action, but also through the personal, emotional and spiritual connections that are created, revealed and renewed, by those actions. Electing an exciting new leader, playing a game, making love, singing in a choir, watching a play and acting are all actions. But it’s the powerful personal connection that occurs between the people who are openly and willingly sharing those actions that is valuable, joyous and wonderful.

When actors in a company or a class can feel free to work with openness and trust in a secure, supportive environment where everyone’s success is equally important, collaboration and creativity will flourish. When everyone’s success is valued, everyone’s success is assured.

Good advice for actors. Good advice for all of us.