Archive for February, 2007
As Jose wrote in a few comments (as well as the Meisner DVD post), there is a great discussion of Sanford Meisner’s work, how he taught, the making of the DVD and how to apply the work to your everyday life at the Inexplicable DumbShow. I highly recommend anyone who is serious about this to listen to the podcast. I bought a copy of the DVD and will be showing it in Prague for the class. It would also be great for people to keep up with other people’s takes on acting and working on acting, so I encourage you to keep up with the Inexplicable DumbShow and Mirror up to Nature and add comments on other places to find good discussions.
Note: the guys from the podcast left a comment saying that they’ll be GIVING AWAY a free Meisner DVD to a lucky listener of the next podcast, so be sure to tune in!
February 22nd, 2007
Anagram Film Club invites you to another free screening.
Screening #4 will be THIS Sunday Feb. 25th from 19:30 downstairs at:
Gusto Restaurant
Vinohradska 83
Prague 2
Just a short walk down from Green Line metro stop Jirího z Poděbrad on Vinohradska. Sunday’s Program:
- Byt by Jan Svankmajer, (CZ )1968
- Rubber Johnny by Chris Cunningham (UK) 2005 featuring music by Aphex Twin
- Kamarihaikara by Finnish director Katariina Lillqvistin
- Orginal Afc homage shorts from BOGART films, (UK)
- Spinage by Ye’ela Rosenfeld, (Isreal)
- The Room by Serbian director Darko Stulic
- Nocturne by Lars Von Trier, (Denmark,) 1980
- Morderstwo by (Roman Polanski) 1957
- Muzne hry by Jan Svankmajer (CZ )1988
- Harvey Krumpet by Adam Elliot (Australia) 2003
February 22nd, 2007
Those of you who want to see the Oscars on the big screen can register for a free screening at the HBO website. Prague.tv has more information about the event which, if you can stay up for it, should be a pretty cool party scene. I’m probably going to be a jet-lagged mess at the time (but on West Coast time, so maybe…) but I encourage Prague movie buffs to go and enjoy!
February 22nd, 2007
I’ve been getting notices on Uncle Curt’s list server email about the Anagram Film Club and wrote to them about putting the information on PraguePlayhouse. Look for more info here or if you want to get on their mailing list, email anagramfilmclub@yahoo.com
February 13th, 2007
I had no idea that posting links to youtube.com videos would put me in the presence of greatness, but I have been contacted by José Angel Santana, one of the people who was a part of the class that was taped, letting me know that the DVD was on sale at www.meisnerdvd.com or www.amazon.com.
José sent me a link to Mirror Up to Nature, where he will be doing a podcast interview which I hope to give you a link to as soon as it comes out. José has also very graciously linked to my thoughts on “Why should we work“. I offered him a chance to sit in on our Meisner classes when and if he comes to Prague. We look forward to it!
February 13th, 2007
In talking with several people about producing theater in English and it seems like the two biggest issues that we face as a community are transience and lack of momentum. They kind of go hand in hand: Transience basically means that most of the English speakers in Prague are just passing through. It’s kind of like being on a long vacation, where you don’t really want to commit to anything long term. I also fee this way sometimes. Transience means that if you have someone who, when they show up, is very motivated to work and meet and rehearse and do all kinds of things, chances are in two years they will be in another city, still very motivated, still willing to work, but quite out of reach from the Prague community.
Not only does transience make it hard from a lack of motivator’s perspective, it also is hard because each time someone leaves, all of their knowledge of how things work here, who they know and how to get things done (produced) goes with them. There are a few ways to overcome this: This site is one of them, the paper Gwen Orel wrote on the rise and collapse of expat theater in the Czech Republic is another. One thing that I would like this site to do is to start a comprehensive contact database which could serve as a way for people who were new in town to start out fairly quickly. New contacts, added to the site would ensure that when site users moved on, the work that they have done can be used by the next person who comes to fill their place.
Lack of momentum is a huge project killer. Without momentum, a group of motivated people who have been brought together by an enterprising engine in the community will simply disperse, wondering all the while why nothing seems to be going on. One frequent cause of this lack of momentum is the lead time needed to start the next project. If you start thinking about your next project when the current one is coming to a close, it will be too late from a momentum perspective. It would be great to plan projects (which kind of gets into the transience problem..) with enough lead time so that there are only a few weeks between one project finishing and rehearsals starting for the following one. Ideally, this would come down to planning a whole season in one fell swoop.
I very much feel like seasonal planning is the next hurdle that we have to grapple with. Seasonal planning would give project organizers several benefits: allowing them to dovetail projects which decreases the chance that you’ll lose momentum, giving them the chance to build up audience (advertise, promote and find sponsors) for many projects at once. As I said, planning for the season means that you will be fighting with transience. There has to be a way for a company to plan longer term without needing to get specific about who will be working. Of course, the more specific elements you can plan for in advance, the more solid your season will be, but baby steps are required.
February 13th, 2007
There have been a number of people writing comments and emails who are interested in getting involved in English language theater. I think that’s fantastic and I wanted to write something like a standard response (though I absolutely want you to continue leaving comments, thoughts and emails to which I will respond personally!) so that more people can know about what’s going on.
Basically, it seems like we’re reaching critical mass of people who are interested in being a part of some kind of theater project or company. I personally think of English language theater in Prague as a non-profit venture. It’s possible that if we get a good and consistent group together that we can start marketing more to tour groups which would raise the profit making potential. As it stands now, however, I don’t know of anyone making money doing theater (the exception would be the Bear Educational Theatre who do many shows for schools throughout the year and can afford to pay actors something fairly decent. I’m not sure what their budgets are). The kind of theater that I’ve been involved in, dinner cabarets, short play projects, readings, hasn’t been able to generate revenue to cover paying a full cast, staff, designers, etc.
That said, I would love to be involved in bigger productions of full plays with proper budgets and equipment. Anyone who shares that dream should absolutely get in touch. I highly encourage anyone with an idea of a show they want to do (anyone who wants support of any kind) to bring a script, a concept, whatever they have. My goal is to have as many people working on putting on English language theater in Prague as possible, whether or not I am involved.
If you want me to help promote it, just send an email with what you’re looking for and I’ll put it up on the site. If you want me to help produce it, give me a call (608 577 012) and we’ll go for a coffee and discuss it.
February 12th, 2007
FOR ALL INTERESTED STUDENTS
The Department of Authorship and Pedagogy (Katedra autorské tvorby a pedagogiky - KATaP DAMU), The Theatre Faculty of the Performing Arts and The Institute for the Research and Study of Authorial Acting (Ústav pro výzkum a studium autorského herectví pri KATaP DAMU)
are offering
A UNIQUE COURSE (IN ENGLISH):
“ACTING WITH THE INNER PARTNER”
An original psychosomatic approach to the study of acting & the principles of drama discovered and developed by prof. Ivan Vyskocil (Head of the Institute for the Research and Study of Authorial Acting)
every Tuesday 16.30 - 18.00
starting February 13th, 2007
classroom 313, 3d floor at KATaP DAMU (Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts)
Karlova 26, Praha 1
Course introduction: prof. Ivan Vyskocil
Teaching Assistants: MgA. Jan Nepomuk Piskac, Irena Pulicarová and Co.
YOU ARE WELCOME!
Please contact Jan N. Piskac at 721 385 186 or jan.nepomuk@post.cz for more information or to register.
February 12th, 2007
Living in Prague, there are a lot of people who get work in commercials and even in films without putting in the work on their acting craft. What’s the big deal in putting in the time to work on the craft? Will you see any difference in the kind of work you get as a result? Well, while there isn’t the definitive answer, I just wanted to explore some of the reasons why it’s a good idea to focus on working on the craft rather than worrying about whether you get a particular job or not.
There are quite a few reasons why you should take the craft of acting seriously. Starting with the most basic things: being on time for your rehearsals and classes will train you to be on time when it comes to doing the work. Nothing screams unprofessional like an actor that doesn’t make it out to the pickup car on time or one that the PAs need to constantly track down. While that may not seem like a big deal, after a while you will get the reputation of being difficult and untrustworthy. Is it a dealbreaker when it comes to getting cast in something? Probably not. Could it prevent you from getting a recommendation for something bigger. Possibly!
Preparation is another area which often falls by the wayside when Prague actors are gearing up for a role. Just think what an impression you can make when you come to a film audition with not only your lines memorized, but with having an opinion about the imaginary situation you find yourself in. You’d better believe that coming prepared (and on time) to an audition is a sure-fire way to get called to the next one, even if you don’t book the one you’re called to. How do you practice preparing for auditions (and eventually jobs)? By coming to acting class prepared, with fully fleshed out activities and doors (if you’re working on Meisner) and deep meanings. After doing several hundred of these exercises, working on a 2 page audition will seem like nothing and it will put you head and shoulders about the rest of the pack.
By working on acting in a consistent way, not only do these two basic principles start to get ingrained in your habits, you also start to develop a good acting physique. Instead of having to ramp your acting muscles up to speed for each audition, you will simply be following the momentum of your practice work. The audition or job will just be another exercise in a long line of exercises. As such it will not be as stressful as it would be if that’s the only time you do any acting. Being more relaxed allows you to respond in a much more freely, which is good for your acting.
Can you get work without working on your acting? Absolutely. People who don’t work at all on their acting get cast in things every day in Prague. Working on your acting may not result in an immediate increase in how many jobs you get: much of that is determined by what you look like and what kind of jobs are available. You will feel a difference, however, just as a person who starts running three times a week may not win any races but will be more physically fit and healthy and will most likely live a lot longer than those who don’t do anything for their health. In the long run, if you are interested in continuing to act for a living, being lazy about the work is a sure way to failure.
So the next time you choose to go to the pub and have a beer instead of sitting down to memorize your lines, remember this: There will be someone who is more prepared than you. Maybe not in Prague, but nowadays we’re competing not just with other people in Prague, but people from London and Berlin and Budapest.
February 6th, 2007