Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Teachers Meeting...
...and truly collaborating...an exciting thing to me...and after years of working with organizations where that was not the name of the game, where only lip service was given to the concept of collaboration and true mix of opinion and idea was frowned upon, it is with relief and pleasure that I encounter genuine discussion with yet another of Steinhardt's good teachers: Evan Mueller, a handsome and accomplished Rutgers MFA who has been teaching Steinhardt Freshman acting basics for several years, along with some rudimentary Speech and Diction work. Since he has taught the Level One Fundamentals in Acting class, and i am about to begin teaching a Level Two Scene Study to basically the same students, I wanted to get his ideas and his particular philosophy on how a young actor could most effectively be trained...so, we met for coffees this morning at a nice place on Columbus and 83rd...Even was so much fun to talk with. And i learned a lot about how to better focus the beginnings of my Fall class.
It saddens me to remember how difficult it used to be to teach at other places I have taught, where autocratic energies, energies too busy defending and not able to open and be truly creative with others, energies that deadened instead of enlivening others, ...where those sorts of energies prevailed...and it makes me even sadder to remember how unable I was to ask for the freedom I needed...like so many others, I was scared to "make waves" and "rock to boat". People in fear of losing jobs , as GB Shaw pointed out so lucidly in so many of his plays, people in fear behave in ways that make their lives smaller than they deserve to be.
We must do all we can to free each other from fear, not perpetuate it.
In any event, coffee with Evan was fun. And Fall Semester at Steinhardt will be fun too. Rehearsals for URINETOWN, directed by John Simpkins, have already started. ANd classes begin September 5th.
Callbacks for all sorts of commercial work this week, and one job would take me to Cleveland for a few days...or Cinncinnatti, or someplace like that...one I audition for Thursday shoots in BRAZIL or MEXICO or PRAGUE!!!! FOr PlayStation Three...amazing...THAT would be fun! (Though I would have to miss a few sdays of NYU in September...) Anyway, it's only an audition, right?
More soon.....
It saddens me to remember how difficult it used to be to teach at other places I have taught, where autocratic energies, energies too busy defending and not able to open and be truly creative with others, energies that deadened instead of enlivening others, ...where those sorts of energies prevailed...and it makes me even sadder to remember how unable I was to ask for the freedom I needed...like so many others, I was scared to "make waves" and "rock to boat". People in fear of losing jobs , as GB Shaw pointed out so lucidly in so many of his plays, people in fear behave in ways that make their lives smaller than they deserve to be.
We must do all we can to free each other from fear, not perpetuate it.
In any event, coffee with Evan was fun. And Fall Semester at Steinhardt will be fun too. Rehearsals for URINETOWN, directed by John Simpkins, have already started. ANd classes begin September 5th.
Callbacks for all sorts of commercial work this week, and one job would take me to Cleveland for a few days...or Cinncinnatti, or someplace like that...one I audition for Thursday shoots in BRAZIL or MEXICO or PRAGUE!!!! FOr PlayStation Three...amazing...THAT would be fun! (Though I would have to miss a few sdays of NYU in September...) Anyway, it's only an audition, right?
More soon.....
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