Thursday, December 01, 2005
Feels like home...
...did you ever walk in a particular neighborhood, enter a certain building or house, meet a certain person or people...and feel right away the sort of comfort that comes with familiarity or the ease that comes with the rightness of the situation? There have always been parts of NYC that have felt that away to me...usually the older parts of the city, down by Wall Street, or the South Street Seaport,Gramercy Park, oddly never the Upper West Side or even the Broadway area...and one of the neighborhoods i discovered recently that felt that way to me is the whole area down around Washington Square Park! Starting with the Christopher Street Subway stop, then walking East across Sixth Avenue, onto West 4th Street, as the world closes in around the microcosm that is New York University...Washington Square on the left, NYU Law School on the right...the moment I walked that particular sidewalk, weeks ago, I felt at ease and at home. Familiar and happy to be there.
To add to the mix, there was (and is) a quote outside a church down on West 4th, and it caught my eye right away, especially as i was on my way to observe an acting class at Steinhardt, and it was such a perfect quote for how I was feeling, I wrote it down:
" In the muddled mess of this world,in the confusion, the boredom, the
amazement, we ought to be able to spot something - an event,
a person, a memory, an act, a turning of the soul,the flash of
bright wings, the surprise of sweet compassion, somewhere we
ought to pick out a glory to celebrate."
Samuel H. Miller - The Dilemma of Modern Belief
Ain't that the truth?
And as I walked past this church, down West 4th, it seemed the entire surrounding area was full of memories for me, familiar, comfortable...and I had never even been on that particular stretch of New York street before...but it felt like I had once lived there! Played in the park. Eaten in the cafes. I felt like I was back home. Where I belonged. My head was filled with thoughts of appreciation and recognition.
It was so interesting.
And I have felt that way every time I have gone down there since then.
Everytime I pass NYU Law School, I have this almost irresistable urge to walk inside!
WHAT'S THAT ABOUT???
In any event, down there feels like home to me. And as I have been observing Bill Wesbrook's Graduate Song Analysis Class at Steinhardt, each time I have learned something absolutely new to me, and when he asked me to get up and share the teaching with him yesterday morning, it seemed the most natural thing in the world to do just that, and so I did. It was thrilling. Combined with Bill's sharply intellectual approach, his cool clear way of analyzing what each student is needing, my physical/emotional in-put was catalytic. Bill prepared the way for me, as I knew he would, and the result: the students got a great class out of our combined energies. Bill then took me out to lunch and offered me my own class for the Spring Semester. He's vitally interested in putting his teachers together to discuss the philosophy of shaping each students progress, and since Steinhardt is first known as a School of Music, the inividual voice teachers are key to each team. This makes sense to me, especially if the shaping of the musical actor is all about making the "instrument" as flexible, fully usable and expressive as possible, without pushing, screaming, trying to impress with results....in other worlds: good vocal basics, allowing the young voices to grow in at their own rate, rather than making them all sound like the latest Broadway diva!I appreciate this considerate approach. And the voices I have heard around that school are enough to put me at my ease. I can teach those youngsters to act. Their sensibilities are already in a healthy place. They know how to actually breathe!
So, we will see what comes next. I have to discuss all this with my agency and find out more details from NYU, but already they are making it very attractive to say "yes", and since Wesbrook is interested in adding more working actors to his faculty, i know there is flexibility there, in case I have to go rehearse something. Because they keep enrollment at 30 per class year, it's possible for all the teachers to watch over all the students. I feel he is nurturing me into this circle. And has invited me to lunch with other teachers soon, as well as offering me carte blanche invites to any classes or private voice sessions I want to watch.
I stopped by Arthur Bartow's Office at Tisch to thank him: he set me up with Larry Ferrara, head of Steinhardt, who led me right to Bill Wesbrook and I am grateful. Arthur is a dear friend of many years. He understood both my needs and how they can be useful to the University as a whole. He and I sat and chatted for s while. His is such a welcoming heart.
Great class last night....another of my kids(from Summer PreCollege Class)got the role of "Fagin" in his school OLIVER !! Tuesday night's class was particularly good, as it became a roundtable discussion (with singing and monologing) about auditioning and its perils....I did the "create a safe haven" exercise with them...Paul J.,our pianist,while listening to the various horror stories from each about their audiiton experiences, wrote an hysterically funny short song about trying out, and sang it for us at the end of class....a classic was born!!! He is arranging it for harmonies and the class will actually learn it next week! Too much fun! He actually wrote it in class!!!! Such a great energy in that room! He is so wonderful,that Paul Johnson!
Today: i clean and get the place ready for our weekend painting party! We will get that guest room done!!!!!
Tomorrow: I meet Abrams agents for commercial on-camera work, and for directing!!!They have been most welcoming to me. I look forward to that.
Meanwhile, Christmas begins to fully bloom all around New York City. Gorgeous stands of green and fragrant trees have appeared, bursting from street corners, each tree more beautiful than the other, headily pungent and fresh,waiting to be bought and dragged home to some Upper West Side apartment or other. It will be a familiar scene soon: couples lifting and shouldering their prickly purchases, dropping needles of pine and fir along the way, like some latter-day Hansel and Gretels...hot cocoa awaits! And NYC once more settles in for at least few weeks of comfort and joy!
And once more, as I do each year I am here, I will wonder: why isn't it always like this?
To add to the mix, there was (and is) a quote outside a church down on West 4th, and it caught my eye right away, especially as i was on my way to observe an acting class at Steinhardt, and it was such a perfect quote for how I was feeling, I wrote it down:
" In the muddled mess of this world,in the confusion, the boredom, the
amazement, we ought to be able to spot something - an event,
a person, a memory, an act, a turning of the soul,the flash of
bright wings, the surprise of sweet compassion, somewhere we
ought to pick out a glory to celebrate."
Samuel H. Miller - The Dilemma of Modern Belief
Ain't that the truth?
And as I walked past this church, down West 4th, it seemed the entire surrounding area was full of memories for me, familiar, comfortable...and I had never even been on that particular stretch of New York street before...but it felt like I had once lived there! Played in the park. Eaten in the cafes. I felt like I was back home. Where I belonged. My head was filled with thoughts of appreciation and recognition.
It was so interesting.
And I have felt that way every time I have gone down there since then.
Everytime I pass NYU Law School, I have this almost irresistable urge to walk inside!
WHAT'S THAT ABOUT???
In any event, down there feels like home to me. And as I have been observing Bill Wesbrook's Graduate Song Analysis Class at Steinhardt, each time I have learned something absolutely new to me, and when he asked me to get up and share the teaching with him yesterday morning, it seemed the most natural thing in the world to do just that, and so I did. It was thrilling. Combined with Bill's sharply intellectual approach, his cool clear way of analyzing what each student is needing, my physical/emotional in-put was catalytic. Bill prepared the way for me, as I knew he would, and the result: the students got a great class out of our combined energies. Bill then took me out to lunch and offered me my own class for the Spring Semester. He's vitally interested in putting his teachers together to discuss the philosophy of shaping each students progress, and since Steinhardt is first known as a School of Music, the inividual voice teachers are key to each team. This makes sense to me, especially if the shaping of the musical actor is all about making the "instrument" as flexible, fully usable and expressive as possible, without pushing, screaming, trying to impress with results....in other worlds: good vocal basics, allowing the young voices to grow in at their own rate, rather than making them all sound like the latest Broadway diva!I appreciate this considerate approach. And the voices I have heard around that school are enough to put me at my ease. I can teach those youngsters to act. Their sensibilities are already in a healthy place. They know how to actually breathe!
So, we will see what comes next. I have to discuss all this with my agency and find out more details from NYU, but already they are making it very attractive to say "yes", and since Wesbrook is interested in adding more working actors to his faculty, i know there is flexibility there, in case I have to go rehearse something. Because they keep enrollment at 30 per class year, it's possible for all the teachers to watch over all the students. I feel he is nurturing me into this circle. And has invited me to lunch with other teachers soon, as well as offering me carte blanche invites to any classes or private voice sessions I want to watch.
I stopped by Arthur Bartow's Office at Tisch to thank him: he set me up with Larry Ferrara, head of Steinhardt, who led me right to Bill Wesbrook and I am grateful. Arthur is a dear friend of many years. He understood both my needs and how they can be useful to the University as a whole. He and I sat and chatted for s while. His is such a welcoming heart.
Great class last night....another of my kids(from Summer PreCollege Class)got the role of "Fagin" in his school OLIVER !! Tuesday night's class was particularly good, as it became a roundtable discussion (with singing and monologing) about auditioning and its perils....I did the "create a safe haven" exercise with them...Paul J.,our pianist,while listening to the various horror stories from each about their audiiton experiences, wrote an hysterically funny short song about trying out, and sang it for us at the end of class....a classic was born!!! He is arranging it for harmonies and the class will actually learn it next week! Too much fun! He actually wrote it in class!!!! Such a great energy in that room! He is so wonderful,that Paul Johnson!
Today: i clean and get the place ready for our weekend painting party! We will get that guest room done!!!!!
Tomorrow: I meet Abrams agents for commercial on-camera work, and for directing!!!They have been most welcoming to me. I look forward to that.
Meanwhile, Christmas begins to fully bloom all around New York City. Gorgeous stands of green and fragrant trees have appeared, bursting from street corners, each tree more beautiful than the other, headily pungent and fresh,waiting to be bought and dragged home to some Upper West Side apartment or other. It will be a familiar scene soon: couples lifting and shouldering their prickly purchases, dropping needles of pine and fir along the way, like some latter-day Hansel and Gretels...hot cocoa awaits! And NYC once more settles in for at least few weeks of comfort and joy!
And once more, as I do each year I am here, I will wonder: why isn't it always like this?
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