At long last a word from me, Boris Wilke, alumni of Brian Caspe’s Prague Playhouse Acting Studio.

I’d like to invite you all to go see plays at the Prague Fringe this year, which will start this coming Friday, May 27th. For nine days more than 40 plays will be performed in nine venues. The style will vary wildly. But all will be a fresh alternative to traditional theater. The price of 150 Crowns for each play should also be enticing.

I will be in a play, too. It’s called “Hotel Red Cello“. It’s a collage of monologues full of desire, clashes between these soliloquizing loners that really long to be with someone and video-projections that combine all the elements into a juicy whole.

If you want to know a little more, read on!

We will perform in the Trick-Bar on the second floor of the Malostranské beseda (Malostranské náměstí 21 
Malá Strana, Praha 1; Nearest Metro – Malostranská and Anděl; Trams – 12,20,22 to Malostranská naměstí).

Our days will be the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of June from 17.30 to 18.30 hours (, i.e. the last three days of the Fringe from Thursday onwards).

This is a link to “Hotel Red Cello” on the official website. Click here! And click here for our presence on facebook!

Genre: Music, comedy, video/Text based but visual/adult material

Welcome to “Hotel Red Cello” with its unique panache of eccentric hotel residents; their confessions, accompanied by some delicious live music. The hotel with the sonorous name conceals a collection of ‘PLEASE DON’T DISTURB!’-rooms overridden with self-spreading rumors and weird story-yarn spun by even more peculiar hotel-employees… Let yourselves be led into a cesspool of desire!

If you think that this might something for you, feel free to reserve tickets through the Fringe-website!

For more information, also on how to reserve tickets directly via “Ticket Stream” or through Markus Nieden, the play’s director, please study the poster further up in this blog-entry!

PS: Last, but not least, here you can go to a website that features Nicola Pavone’s video-art on “Hotel Red Cello”.

The Spring Term is 5,000 Kc and runs until the end of June. For more information, check out our web pages: http://acting.cz

CASTING ANNOUNCEMENT

MICROSOFT COMMERCIAL

Shoots in Prague: 24-28 Oct, 2010

Roles:

CLAUDE: Can be any nationality. Comic. Lead Role. 20s or 30s. He is very awkward, and always says or does the wrong thing. He desperately wants to be liked but people avoid him. Need accomplished, funny actor who is physically and comically talented.

DANA. American. Mid 30s, mid- higher lever Executive. Smart, capable, not afraid to speak her mind.

ROB. American. Mid 30s. He works for Dana. Smart, nice, helpful, honest normal guy.

LIZA. American. Early 20s, study-abroad college student. Pretty, sweet, warm. Not modelly

MOM+ DAN. American. Liza’s parents. 50s. Normal wholesome Americans. Conservative types

ANNA. American. Early mid 20s. Cool and funny. Good looking and funny. Mary-Lynne Rajskub type.

DAVE. American. Her friend and also early 20s. Good looking, stylish, social, likeable.

THIEF. Any nationality. Steals laptop computer. Must have driver’s license and be able to ride Vespa.

*Fee Structure:

CLAUDE, 18,000kc/day + 120,000kc buyout

DANA, ROB, LIZE, MOM, DANA, ANNA: 18,000kc/day + 40,000kc buyout

DAVE, THIEF: 6,000kc/day + 20,000kc

*PLEASE NOTE ALL FEES INCLUDE AGENCY FEE!!!

Casting Info:

Where: Prague Film School Annex Building

Pstrossova 15, Prague 1, 4^th floor

Near Narodni Divaldo tram stop or Narodni Trida Metro

Time: 10– 18:00

Date: Monday, 18 Oct

For info please call Misa Formanova: 723 704 659

Callbacks will be: Tuesday, 19 Oct.

I will be migrating over the information here about the classes to there, but you should check out the new classes that we’ll be rolling out over the fall and into the winter semester.

We have also moved to a brand new studio in Prague 7, so be sure to come and check it out! Frantiska Krizka 1, 3rd Floor, right next to Vivid Casting!

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Blood, Love and Rhetoric have produced Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Memorandum, Chekhov and will be doing the Birthday Party June 9-12. They will be having auditions June 12 at Divadlo Inspirace (Malostranske nam 13) from 12-5pm. For more information email info@bloodloverhetoric.com or visit the facebook event:

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Local theatre company AKANDA is holding auditions on the 12th (Saturday) of June for it’s original production of Cabaret Macabre.

The performances will be held weekly and will begin on the 16th of July.

Looking for both male and female performers who can sing and act (or vice versa).
The performances are paid.

For more information, please contact Melanie Rada via mobile (723 085 650) or email (mellrada@yahoo.ca)

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

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Let me be short and concise again today!

In the last few weeks there were several incidents in class that led certain members to become slightly wary of the Meisner technique.

Some of the repetition exercises bordered on the insane, vicious or at least very insensitive.

While I am aware that that is mighty scary and leaves one unsatisfied, I must insist that this has very little to do with the technique. In fact, Brian rightly pointed out to me that the Meisner technique provides you with all the tools you need.

One example: I felt attacked and cornered once. My reaction was to withdraw into “critic mode” and to lament my partner had not played by the rules. (I was being Meisner-righteous. That’s an expression Tzvi came up with.)

But in fact, there are no rules, except this one: No physical violence.

So let me present you with a remedy to feeling bad about the technique: Be Meisneritious!

If somebody attacks you, call them on it: “You’re attacking me!” “You’re cornering me!” “You take pleasure in hunting me down!” etc.

If somebody calls on things that are not in the moment like: “You’re always so arrogant!” or “You dismiss everything I do!”, look at how they say it! Stay in the moment – at least you! Call them on the way they say it: “You are insistent!” “You are holding on to things!” “You don’t see me!” “You sound indignant!” “You are petulant!” etc.

Non-Meisner-like behavior should incite Meisneritiousness of the first order! Take it personal! Pinpoint your partner’s behavior! Don’t let them get away with it! But then drop it to be open for the next moment.

It takes two to tango. If one partner stumbles, help them by picking them up. In the Meisner-world that means, as always: Be honest, even if you think the truth will hurt! Have trust in your partner, no matter how he scares you! Feel free to react accordingly, though. There is always a door you can leave through!

I insist: Take things personal! Own them! Brian called that kind of taking things into your own hands selfish – I call it Meisneritious!

Please remember: The Meisner technique is supposed to help us broaden our palette of behavior, to act out the most outrageous states of mind.

One needs to let go of fear, rules, self-centeredness, false sensitivity.

Meisner is not for the faint-hearted. But it is for the Meisneritious!

And being Meisneritious means to me to fully make use of the technique. It is there to serve us, not the other way round!

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General stuff:

Our acting class consists of some twelve new and not so new active members, who meet every Monday and Wednesday from 6.30 pm to about 9.30 at the Prague Film School. We do Meisner. And the Meisner-technique really rocks!

If you want to connect with your inmost feelings, expressing them freely in an acting environment and thus getting to know yourself better and better, feel free to join us! If you do, be prepared for some serious thrills! Class will not convene in the week from May 17, neither the one from May 24. And due to Mark Wakeling’s weeklong seminar we also won’t have regular classes from June 7 through 11.

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About the author:

I am Boris Wilke, a German expat in Prague.

I am a writer at large and have been studying Meisner since January 2008. If any of you know of any kind of acting work that befits a laddish, tall 41-year-old, please leave a note!

Based on improvisation studies (Keith Johnstone and others) we are going to create a crossover theater collage, accompanied by some experimental music scores.

Where?

Divadlo Kámen,

Nekvasilova 625/2, Prague 8 – Karlín

Metro Station Invalidovna (B-line)

When?
Friday 28th – Sunday 30th of May 2010
daily between 10 to about 6 pm.

We offer valuable theater experience FOR FREE!

We’re inviting interested artists simply to email us a soon as possible.

Who you are and which artistic discipline  you’re following doesn’t matter!
All actors, actresses, singers, dancers, musicians - no matter if amateur or professional! – of all ages, with or without theater experience are invited to this workshop!

You

- have some knowledge of English or German

- are open for a nonprofit  artistic experience

- are possibly but not necessarily of Eastern European origin!

- if musician, you would bring your instrument with you (piano ready to play in theatre itself)

Please contact us by email markusnieden@yahoo.com

or call 774168801 (English and German speaking)

Every email will be answered!

And just have a look at www.rhiz.eu!

In the search box above right you put in: ”Hotel Red Cello”

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If you consider coming, please everybody bring some personal object related to a hotel or a private room with you that could be for example…

door key(s), book, mirror, item of clothing like jacket, shirt, cap, hat or shoes…

object from daily life like umbrella, mobile phone, letter to post, other documents, passport…

bracelets or rings, hairdryer, soap, shampoo, razor…

calendar, price list, urgent files, magazines, bottle of wine, champagne, vodka (empty, of course), suitcase…

You name it!

We need it to play with in some way.

Thanks a lot!

DONT FORGET TO CONFRIM YOUR PRESENCE BY EMAILING OR CALLING ME!

See you then and there, hopefully!

MARKUS

markusnieden@yahoo.com

774168801

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

***************

Let me be short and concise today!

I am totally thrilled about Mark Wakeling’s return to Prague in a month. In case you haven’t heard of him: He is a teacher at the “Actor’s Temple” in London. He held a weekend-seminar in late November of 2009 for us Meisner students at the Prague Film School. (Click here to read about it!) Now he promised to be back from June 7 to 11.

The seminar last year rocked my soul. It helped me keep on keeping on at this difficult time, where none of my efforts at getting started as a professional actor really seem to succeed. His version of Meisner also kept me from dropping out of this class. I have been looking forward to his oncoming seminar ever Brian started to talk about it, i.e. at least four months.

If you can afford it and have the time, please register for the seminar!

Mark will try his best to confront you with the inner barriers you set up to protect yourself against intense feelings. He is relentless in a way. But since Meisner is about the truth, it is absolutely necessary to get rid of these blocks. Mr. Wakeling will get you at places you wouldn’t even have known existed. If you trust him at least a little bit, he will help you free quite a bit of the aspects you carefully held captive inside for so long. You will shine!

Meisner is about getting ready to play anything – no! to be able to live it under imaginary circumstances. If you dare use the technique to the extreme – which Mark will help you with – it will get you there.

Mr. Wakeling will give you a good kick in the butt that will let you fly in the right direction.

He will take Meisner’s image of “the pinch and  the ouch!” in a totally new and really pinchey-ouchey direction.

And that is absolutely, mind-bogglingly exiting to me.

**********************

General stuff:

Our acting class consists of some twelve new and not so new active members, who meet every Monday and Wednesday from 6.30 pm to about 9.30 at the Prague Film School. We do Meisner. And the Meisner-technique really rocks!

If you want to connect with your inmost feelings, expressing them freely in an acting environment and thus getting to know yourself better and better, feel free to join us! If you do, be prepared for some serious thrills!

+++

About the author:

I am Boris Wilke, a German expat in Prague.

I am a writer at large and have been studying Meisner since January 2008. If any of you know of any kind of acting work that befits a laddish, tall 41-year-old, please leave a note!

While I wouldn’t necessarily apply a Meisner exercise directly to a problem in working with a text (although it’s perfectly legitimate to do so, even with early work like repetition and activities), the underlying concepts that those exercises are training — listening and attention for repetition, the reality of doing for activities — are directly applicable to working with a text in the “real world”.

The idea of Risk, Passion and Imagination also plays a part in the training.

Risk, or the willingness to try and fail, is absolutely essential in art — or any worthwhile endeavor, for that matter. Too often I see exercises where the students, for fear of looking stupid, not knowing for sure that something is going to work, or the fear of going into the unknown or scary place inside themselves, limit themselves in their experience. The desire to stay in a safe place, a known place is death to an artist. By using the activities and repetition with a thought towards risking (risking being vulnerable to the other person, risking showing weakness, risking bringing something really meaningful or on the edge of what you’d think is safe), students can start to gain the habits that will serve them very well in front of a camera or on the stage, where people pay good money to take these “risks”. By practicing risking in a safe environment, both in class and in rehearsals for class, students can learn that only through risk can they really achieve greatness.

Passion is another way of saying bringing meaning to the work. Lately, especially now towards the end of the school year, I see that passion for the work has waned. The thing that really differentiates actors from each other, aside from physical type, is the passioned opinion. To an actor, who is going to face a mountain of rejection, cultivating a sense of passion and purpose is a huge benefit. I would much rather work with a mediocre actor who attacks the work with a passion than an extremely gifted and indifferent actor. So much of our work is perseverance and survival. It is our passion that will sustain us through the hard times. It is our passion that will wow audiences and move them to tears or anger. The worst thing an actor can be is indifferent or apathetic. The process of doing the beginning work can be used to instill a passion in us: a passion for the other person, a passion for what we are doing in the moment. With that passion, what happens in the moment is never boring. Without it, I’d just as soon go home.

The last concept we discussed today was Imagination. It seems silly to say that imagination is needed in our work. It seems obvious. Yet we are so obsessed with the Truth or “what I would really do in that situation” that we lose sight of the imaginary situation that could move us. Working on your imagination and especially imaginary circumstances is something that can be really fun. Look around you the next time you go out. Who doesn’t have fantasies about the people that are around? Indulge those fantasies. See how they develop and how they affect you. Is the guy standing next to you a millionaire? What if he was? What if he just offered you a ton of money to do something you always wanted to do? It is so easy to deny that we could ever believe in such a thing, but that is what we are called on to do every time we work! These early exercises are an invitation to say “Yes!” Try out what it would be like to believe in something outrageous. Work on strengthening that imaginative muscle. It will pay big dividends down the road when you have to imagine an entire set while you’re working on a green screen.