Bread and Wine and Time
Naaah!
What's to be made of this? When while posting my friend the writer's letter to me, I'm thinking, "Yeah, sure David was a student of Sanford Meisner's, that was our connection. It's a great letter. He won't mind . . ." But, still, I'm a bit self-conscious about even the "name dropping" aspect of the post. But . . . of course now, with his presence in my living room, and my new friend in Prague (actually on vacation in California), and me all meeting this way, sharing our common love of the work and all influenced by Sanford Meisner - the inspiration for this blog of journal entries of his teachings . . . with respect to "Time," I now proceed:
- Just received an e-mail from a new friend from the blogesphere, Brian Caspe from The Prague Playhouse, in the Czech Republic. A few days ago I posted an excerpt from his excellent article “Why should we work?” with links to his site. I just received the comment below within an e-mail he sent to me:
“. . . I think it's great that people outside of the Prague community should be interested in reading about what I considered a Prague problem.” - Brian
I wrote back:
“[Brian] That [yours] is such a great article with insight for every actor. It's the same exact situation in New York, LA or anywhere the commercial and the personal development of the craft exist in close proximity to each other . . . Someday, I'll find and send you a letter that a mentor of mine gave me at the beginning of my career, which is on the same theme that you write about now. That gives me an idea . . .” - José
-- click on image to enlarge --My very first professional job was working on “The Blue Hour” hired by someone who became my first great mentor in the theater, its writer and director, David Mamet. When work on the play ended, we spoke on the phone and I expressed what a great drag it was to not only not be presently working, and more so, to no longer be working in such a wonderful environment that David had created, and with such marvelous actors, Patti LuPone among them.
This was my first paying job. (Thinking now, my second job altogether.)
A few days after our conversation, I received the letter above in the mail.
Brian and David, each in their own way, have written in the spirit of the greatest traditon of the theater: to pass on "the knowlege" to those coming up, just a little ways behind. They write of the great dual needs that every actor who cares about their craft must satisfy: to grow as an actor while trying to build a career of meaningful work, and the need to eat – the bread and the wine, and the time.
the journaler,
José Angel Santana
-------------------------------
"The final frontier may be human relationships, one person to another." -- Buzz Aldrin, Astronaut
posted by José Angel Santana, Ph.D. at 11:03 PM
3 Comments:
José,
I'm short on time because I've got a class starting very soon, but I had to take time to comment on the power of your last statement. The balance of growing as an actor, building a meaningful career (whatever that means to the individual) and putting food on the table is crucial. Far too often these days, parents and peers pressure "would-be" actors into putting the last of these before the other two.
Acting should be risky and actors should want to take risks - both in their work and in about their work. It's not for the feint of heart, this career. Still, with the right inspiration and guidance, it is a craft that anyone can hone to a fine point.
As an educator, I like to think of myself as that whetting stone that sharpens so many edges along the way before it wears out.
Talk to you tomorrow!
Tee
Yes Tee, as you say, the pressure can be enormous. As this resonates so with your experience, I'll share another gift passed on to me, by my the same mentor that I refer to in the above post.
I was invited to teach with him at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, in their undergraduate drama department. Among the short reading list that he required the students to read was: The Enchiridion by Epictetus, Translated by Elizabeth Carter. Its first principle begins as follows, "1. Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions . . ." It goes on, and rather than post it all here, I'll provide the link: http://www.youand.net/youandblogspace/
youandvibe/2006/12/
positive-vibe-of-day_03.html
My point as it relates to your comment is that I've seen this principle work miracles to neutralize the effects of that pressures you speak of. And, I witnessed an uncommonly large percentage of the young actors from that class go on to achieve significant successes, on their own terms, while at times driving me mad hearing their religious zeal for that paragraph. Applying that principle to my own life since then, the only pressure I've noticed is that which I apply to myself.
Thanks for the amplification, which might help others to understand that parent and peer opinion is out of our control, but that our own thoughts, feelings and actions to, as you say to "sharpen" one's craft, that truly is in our power to control, as long as we can keep the distinction clear between what is not in our power to control (parents and peers opinion/pressure) and what is in our power to control what Mamet refers to when he says, "We all have to remind ourselves periodically that our lives belong to US, and we are, finally, at the mercy of no one . . ."
Good morning to you,
José
"The final frontier may be human relationships, one person to another." - Buzz Aldrin, Astronaut
Jose,
First of all, I have to say that it is fantastic to be involved in a discussion of all this with people who are as opinionated and care about it as deeply as I do (perhaps more deeply!).
Your comment about the opinions of others not being in control whereas what we CAN control is how much we work on the craft really hit home for me. I would go a step further and say that, as a teacher of mine once told our class, by focusing on the work we do in class, in our rehearsals, by using the measuring stick of "am I a better actor today than I was yesterday" rather than "am I liked" or "am I booking jobs" or even "am I able to live off of what I make acting", we put ourselves in the correct frame of mind.
Ultimately, as an actor, the only thing you have complete control over is your own opinions, your own habits of listening and freely responding and your own truth...Well, at least those things are within our power as actors. I guess the work comes in fully being in control of those things (or rather, being open enough to not have to control anything...I guess, then the work is working on listening and being open rather than controlling...Damn, this comment window is too small to think clearly!)
Something else that popped into my mind when I was reading your comment/post: I remember reading in "Stanislavski on Opera" about how he would admonish his students about wanting to take a break. "What are you taking a break from? Creativeness?" I often wonder how well I would do in that environment. It must have been a much harder training than what I received in LA. It's a good quote to remind ourselves, however, that really there is no excuse to keep working, because after all, our work is really play.
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