Prague Playhouse

Meisner Acting Class Blog on letting the inner child roam free

Hi everyone!

I’m Boris Wilke and member of the Prague Playhouse Meisner acting group. I blog about our class activities.

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Rambo was very boring, really; so was the Terminator. They might have blown up a lot of things. They might have acted tough. They were always in control. But they were quite predictable. Those two guys had thrown their inner child into the deepest dungeon inside of them and let it languish there.

(more…)

Post Category: General

Add comment February 4th, 2010 at 03:50pmboris

Meisner Acting Class Blog on losing control

Hi everyone!

I’m Boris Wilke and member of the Prague Playhouse Meisner acting group. I blog about our class activities.

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This blog entry is closely related to my last one on keeping face. Brian has been telling us repeatedly to let go off control. The reaction to one’s respective partner should come “like hiccups”, involuntarily, instinctually.

Meisner’s main credo was “fuck polite”.

Politeness always gets in my way! Let’s say, the person in front of me smells from their mouth. See?! I’m being polite again! I wanted to say: If they stink from their mouth, I fail to tell them, for example. I suppress my instinct. Shame on me!

As an interesting note aside: “To stink from one’s mouth” is the direct, i.e. German, way to say it. The cowardly polite Anglos talk about “bad breath” or “mouth odor”. That sucks! In the English language there seem to be either euphemisms or four-letter-expletives. Where is the zone of truthful naming it, nailing it – so to speak – in between those two extremes?

“You have bad breath…” “I have bad breath?” “You have bad breath…” That’s as boring as a cold potato! Go get yourselves a life, people!

It is: “You reek from your mouth like a cow out of its ass!” Where is the fuck, the shit, the damn, the cunt, huh? None of that! And still, this is painfully truthful!

God! That gets me going!

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Post Category: Acting, Classes, General, Theatre

1 comment January 30th, 2010 at 01:04pmboris

Halleluiah Broadway

Mind the Gap Films, an Irish TV production company, will be in central Prague to record the musical extravanganza,Halleluiah Broadway, on Feb 8th for American Public Television. 

We would like to invite any members or friends of the Playhouse theatre who are fans of Musical Theatre to be part of our special invited audience on the evening.

In Halleluiah Broadway, we harness the emotional power of the songs that have so inspired millions of theatre goers and gather them all together in one feast of entertainment. This show is high on emotion with a true spiritual connection at its heart. We have selected the most uplifting and powerful songs from the great Broadway musicals and they will be sung in Church, accompanied by a full Orchestra and Choir.

Halleluiah Broadway will feature star performances from three featured soloists – the amazing Rodrick Dixon, formerly of Three Mo Tenors, the powerful soprano from the Chicago Symphony Alfreda Burke, and the marvellous Irish Tenor Anthony Kearns.

We will also feature as a special guest one of Broadway’s leading ladies – Linda Eder.

If you, or any friends of the Playhouse would like to be part of this very special evening then we would love to hear from you by Wednesday January 27th.

Email your name, contact phone number and the number of tickets you would like to: tickets@mindthegapfilms.com

Audience tickets are free of charge but strictly limited. If you apply and are successful, you will be contacted by a member of the production team with further details.

Please forward this to anyone you think might be interested and don’t hesitate to get in touch with me if you would like any further information!

Post Category: General

Add comment January 24th, 2010 at 11:30pmbrian

Meisner Acting Class Blog on how bad keeping face is for our work

Hi everyone!

I’m Boris Wilke and member of the Prague Playhouse Meisner acting group. I blog about our class activities.

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Wow! 2010 is still a baby. But so much has happened already. Class, for one, has started with a couple of surprises: Members who I thought would certainly stay left and others joined us.

I’d like to wish everyone who cares to read this a happy new year full of pleasant surprises!

A friend of mine really had the mendacity to ask me: “Why surprises?”

Well, gurl! Get this: Life is change. And change lacks predictability, you fool! Period!

If you live a life where everything is predictable, you’re stuck. And that equals death, really.

Last Monday our two new class members had their first moments of truth in the wondrous ways of the Meisner technique. Brian stopped them both short early in their exercises and asked them about why they failed to connect with their respective partners.

One was held up with listening to his own voice, which he hates. The other felt it hard to concentrate and squirmed because he wanted very badly to know what would come next. Both preferred to stay in the realm of the predictable instead of letting go of control in order to experience a surprise, be it lovely or scary, tearful or filled with laughter.

Both looked constipated and stressed, had blushed blotched cheeks and sad eyes. They looked surprisingly unremarkable, like most folks you can see every day in the trams and subways of Prague. They remained on the dead side of things – stuck, grey and wretched.

They kept face.

Click on the “CLASSES” button above and then choose “ACTING FOR PROFESSIONALS” to read more about the class itself and where we meet!

Click on “(more…)” below to read more about keeping face.

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Post Category: Acting, Classes, General

Add comment January 20th, 2010 at 02:09pmboris

True West Trailer!

R. Scott Williams and Ian Bull have teamed up to give us this trailer for the upcoming production of True West, which opens on Thursday. If you haven’t already booked your tickets, you should truck on over to the online shop and put in your order!

Post Category: General

Add comment January 19th, 2010 at 02:51ambrian

True West opens January 21!

The Prague Playhouse is proud to announce the upcoming production of Sam Shepard’s True West. The show opens January 21st at 19:30 and plays 22, 23, 27, 28 and 29 as well as February 3, 4 and 5. Tickets are 220 Kc general and 190 Kc (for students and seniors over 65) and will be available at the Globe Bookstore (Pstrossova 6) as well as online at the beginning of next week.

The director Jeff Beck, the cast (Mark Bowen, R. Scott Williams, Andrea Bulisova and Frank Martinez), and all of the production staff are going all out for this dark comedy about two brothers who must work out who and what they are to themselves and each other. Past Playhouse productions have sold out quickly, so don’t hesitate to buy tickets now!

Post Category: Events, Theatre

Add comment January 7th, 2010 at 02:20pmbrian

Acting class is starting up Jan 11!

For everyone who is interested in working on their acting, the Prague Playhouse acting class for professionals is starting up again January 11th. You can read more about the class here.

Since Mark Wakeling from the Actor’s Temple in London came to do a workshop with the class in November, we have considerably deepened and strengthened our sense of truth. The approach is much more of a therapeutic approach to looking at why we block our feelings about things. It is a real eye opener to see people who you think you know start to reveal who they really are underneath all of the pressure and expectations that society puts on them. It has really inspired the class to learn more about themselves and by watching other class members go through the process, develop a real sense of humanity: we are all human underneath, no matter what we look like!

The take away for new students is that this class has become much more serious about the craft. It is not a place for hobbyists any more. I am considering starting classes that are more for casual actors as well as classes for people who are not confident with their English. If you’re interested in one of these classes, please write to me at brian@pragueplayhouse.com.

Post Category: Acting, Classes

Add comment January 7th, 2010 at 01:50pmbrian

Meisner Acting Class Blog on Paradigm Shift

Hi everyone!

I’m Boris Wilke and member of the Prague Playhouse Meisner acting group. I blog about our class activities.

This entry is about the paradigm shift that is happening right now with our take on the Meisner technique and how that is leaving us dazed and confused at the moment.

Click on the “CLASSES” button above and then choose “ACTING FOR PROFESSIONALS” to read more about the class itself and where we meet!

The weekend seminar with god-like Marc Wakeling from the “Actor’s Temple” in London shed so much light on us mere acting mortals that we are left blinded and dumb-struck. How are we ever going to live up to this high a standard?

What seemed truthful and in the moment only a week ago, now seems utterly fake and stuck in past experiences or future expectations. (more…)

Post Category: Acting, Classes, General

Add comment December 4th, 2009 at 04:30pmboris

Bear Theater: A Christmas Carol, Dec. 13-14

The Bear Theater will present Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at Reduta Theater (Narodni 20, Prague 1) on December 13 and 14 at 7pm. Tickets are 220Kc (180Kc discounted) and are available at the box office. It is suitable for families (children from the age of 6).

Ebeneezer Scrooge is the meanest old man in London, but one evening four ghosts visit him and teach him the true meaning of Christmas. The Bear Theatre stay close to the essence of Dicken’s original story but still use film, puppets and real mince pies to communicate the spirit of this classic Christmas tale. God bless us, each and every one!

Post Category: Events, Theatre

1 comment December 2nd, 2009 at 12:34pmbrian

Meisner Acting Class Blog about the weekend workshop with Marc Wakeling from the “Actors’ Temple” in London

Hi everyone!

I’m Boris Wilke and member of the Prague Playhouse Meisner acting group. I blog about our class activities.

In this entry I will shut up for once and let Marc Wakeling speak. His workshop (November 28 and 29, 2009) in the attic of the Prague Film School was a life changing experience. After that “Meisner earthquake” the lame exercises we’ve been doing lately in and out of class just don’t cut it any more!

Click on the “CLASSES” button above and then choose “ACTING FOR PROFESSIONALS” to read more about the class itself and where we meet!

This is some of Marc’s wisdom:

To act means to do.

Apart form violence there are no rules.

The intellectual mind switches on when preparing for the acting. The emotional mind switches on when acting.

We’re animals in our impulsive state. And acting means being in our impulsive state.

The only two pure feelings are joy and grief. (more…)

Post Category: Acting, Classes, Films, General, Theatre, Workshops

Add comment November 29th, 2009 at 11:35pmboris