It's Not Underwater Basket-Weaving
While we were in Door County we stopped at a bookstore that we both like. As I browsed through the shelves I found a book by James Lipton titled "Inside Inside".
I like the show 'Inside the Actor's Studio', because I'm curious about people. In that show the guests talk about how they came to their profession, their past, what motivates them, etc. It ends with ten questions that the guest has to answer. That is my favourite part. The questions make great Table Topics if you are in Toastmasters and great ice breakers if you are not.
I'm not so fond of James Lipton. He does a good job in the show and does his homework on each guest,but I've always thought of him as a name dropping, self important ninny. I leafed through a few pages and decided that I would buy it.
Chapters two and three are about the Method, which I think is a way actors to prepare for their roles and acting teachers he has had. I was interested in this. My step-daughter, Carrie, was accepted into a four year program of actor training at the University of Minnesota. She had looked over many schools and had auditoned to get into acting programs.
I didn't understand. What is so complicated about acting that you'd need four years and possibly more to learn to do it. I can see there are some things that one would need, voice classes and dance classes. Classes on how to speak with different accents and how to do things on stage like fight or fence without hurting yourself or your fellow actors. But four years?... You get into costume and make-up go on the stage and just do it. Right? if there is any preparation to be done it is memorizing lines or some research if the role you are playing involves a time span or profession that you are not familiar with. It's not rocket science.
Rocket science would be much easier. Acting, I discovered as I read through the pages, is pretty complicated. There's the"Magic 'If'","Given Circumstances", "Beats","Emotional Memory" and "Physical Action". There's "Objective" and "Super-Objective". There's a difference between an actor doing something or imitating doing something. After the first few pages I was wondering if I could get Carrie to translate this into something I could maybe understand. If that isn't enough, he also wrote about different teachers with different theories and how students would ague about who had the better teacher.
Once we got a DVD player I would sometimes listen to the commentary tracks of movies I'd seen many times. I didn't realise that you have to "block" each scene. Blocking is deciding where one moves and stands while giving their lines. I thought it was just a common sense thing on the part of the actor or director and it was just done, not the choreographed deliberate process it really is.
It's not the first time this has happened to me. At first I thought farming was just a matter of putting some seeds on the ground, tending them and hoping that the weather would cooperate. Then I met a farmer from in college and found out there is a lot more to it. It involves planning what will be planted where and when. Certain cops can't be planted near each other and certain crops cannot be planted ofnfields where a different crop was planted the year before. It's deciding when to fertilize and what kind to use. It's finding the best time to harvest because too early or too late affects the quality of the crop and ultimately how much you make from it.
I have a lot of respect for Carrie. She wants to be an full time actor, not the most stable or best paying of jobs. I have even more respect for her now that I know how much work it really is. I have confidence in her that if she really wants to this, she will. She's smart, talented and above all willing to do what it takes to accomplish what she wants. I can see her crossing the stage to accept an Emmy, Oscar, Tony or any other award given to those who excel at their chosen art.
And when it does, I'll be applauding loudly no matter where I am.
I like the show 'Inside the Actor's Studio', because I'm curious about people. In that show the guests talk about how they came to their profession, their past, what motivates them, etc. It ends with ten questions that the guest has to answer. That is my favourite part. The questions make great Table Topics if you are in Toastmasters and great ice breakers if you are not.
I'm not so fond of James Lipton. He does a good job in the show and does his homework on each guest,but I've always thought of him as a name dropping, self important ninny. I leafed through a few pages and decided that I would buy it.
Chapters two and three are about the Method, which I think is a way actors to prepare for their roles and acting teachers he has had. I was interested in this. My step-daughter, Carrie, was accepted into a four year program of actor training at the University of Minnesota. She had looked over many schools and had auditoned to get into acting programs.
I didn't understand. What is so complicated about acting that you'd need four years and possibly more to learn to do it. I can see there are some things that one would need, voice classes and dance classes. Classes on how to speak with different accents and how to do things on stage like fight or fence without hurting yourself or your fellow actors. But four years?... You get into costume and make-up go on the stage and just do it. Right? if there is any preparation to be done it is memorizing lines or some research if the role you are playing involves a time span or profession that you are not familiar with. It's not rocket science.
Rocket science would be much easier. Acting, I discovered as I read through the pages, is pretty complicated. There's the"Magic 'If'","Given Circumstances", "Beats","Emotional Memory" and "Physical Action". There's "Objective" and "Super-Objective". There's a difference between an actor doing something or imitating doing something. After the first few pages I was wondering if I could get Carrie to translate this into something I could maybe understand. If that isn't enough, he also wrote about different teachers with different theories and how students would ague about who had the better teacher.
Once we got a DVD player I would sometimes listen to the commentary tracks of movies I'd seen many times. I didn't realise that you have to "block" each scene. Blocking is deciding where one moves and stands while giving their lines. I thought it was just a common sense thing on the part of the actor or director and it was just done, not the choreographed deliberate process it really is.
It's not the first time this has happened to me. At first I thought farming was just a matter of putting some seeds on the ground, tending them and hoping that the weather would cooperate. Then I met a farmer from in college and found out there is a lot more to it. It involves planning what will be planted where and when. Certain cops can't be planted near each other and certain crops cannot be planted ofnfields where a different crop was planted the year before. It's deciding when to fertilize and what kind to use. It's finding the best time to harvest because too early or too late affects the quality of the crop and ultimately how much you make from it.
I have a lot of respect for Carrie. She wants to be an full time actor, not the most stable or best paying of jobs. I have even more respect for her now that I know how much work it really is. I have confidence in her that if she really wants to this, she will. She's smart, talented and above all willing to do what it takes to accomplish what she wants. I can see her crossing the stage to accept an Emmy, Oscar, Tony or any other award given to those who excel at their chosen art.
And when it does, I'll be applauding loudly no matter where I am.
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