Actor’s Corner

“In order to create, we draw from our inner well. This inner well, an artistic reservoir, is ideally like a well-stocked trout pond. We’ve got big fish, little fish, fat fish, skinny fish– an abundance of artistic fish to fry. As artists, we must…maintain this artistic ecosystem.

If we don’t give some attention to upkeep, our well is apt to become depleted, stagnant, or blocked. As artists we must learn to be self-nourishing. We must become alert enough to consciously replenish our creative resources as we draw on them– to restock the trout pond, so to speak. I call this process filling the well.”  – Julia Cameron, “The Artist’s Way”  Continue reading “Fill The Well. Put Down Your Phone.”

“That was a train wreck.”

“I sucked so bad.”

“…..” The actor struggles internally, but the words “I’m a horrible actor and I’ve just embarrassed myself in front of all my peers and/or casting. I should just give up and go back to being an accountant in Arkansas,” read clearly in his expression. Continue reading “The Number One Thing Actors Should Stop Doing”

Does Lady Gaga stop singing for several months? Do Alvin Ailey dancers hang up their dance shoes for weeks on end? Does Eric Clapton let his guitar gather dust until his next gig? Does Olympic Gold Metalist Gabby Douglas stop going to the gym for half the year? Continue reading “Act Like A Pro”

If you had a wound on your arm that was scabbing over, would you pick at it and open it up? If you have ever done that, then you know you risk infection and a much longer healing process.

So if you wouldn’t do that to your body, why would you ever rip open an emotional wound?

Some actors pick at those emotional scabs for their craft. They use personal experiences (aka: substitution) so they can achieve an emotion. But the internal results are the same as picking at a physical scab; more pain and less healing. Continue reading “How Substitution Hurts The Actor”

Sonya, a Holocaust partisan fighter, is assigned to keep a rabbi’s wife alive in the forest until it’s safe to move on to the next village. She is fierce and tough enough for the challenge, but secretly deeply terrified. Survivor’s guilt tears at her soul as well; after the Nazis rip her family from their home and put them on a train to Auschwitz, she escapes through a small window, begging them to come with her, but they refuse and travel on to their deaths. In the woods, she is constantly on guard for the enemy. She longs for home and good food and fights about religion with her cohort so vehemently, she knocks the woman out cold. Eventually, she is almost a choked to death by a Nazi and finally mourns her family through copious tears. Continue reading “Taking Care: Letting Go Of A Character”

I’ve had numerous jobs in my time:

I’ve been a shelf stocker at a discount store, glorified babysitter at the YMCA, cashier at a lunch spot/sweet shop, group leader of a socialization group for teen girls with learning disabilities and a burger flipper at a country club that, ironically, didn’t allow Jews to be members back in the ’60’s (I was only at that one for two weeks).

For several years, I was an executive assistant at an insurance company (snooze) and then at a hair care company (free shampoo!). I left the fluorescent lighting and daily desire to stick a pencil in my eye to become a freelance marketing writer for a few years. I wrote copy (at home in my pajamas most of the time) for international companies, mom & pop stores, non-profits, scatterbrained “entrepreneurs,” and independent “inventors” who created some of the most asinine products they thought would make them money. Continue reading “Hey, you. Yes, you. Thank you.”

I’m assuming you didn’t get into acting to be famous (because let’s face it; if you want to be famous, there are plenty of easier ways to do that, from eating bugs and shooting your nuts off to making a sex tape or denying marriage licenses to gay folks). You got into acting because you love the craft and you hope to make a living doing it.

What you didn’t know was that craft and career are two different things. In one hand you hold your craft, the creative spark that fulfills you. In the other hand is your career, the thing you aspire to achieve. You hope that your career and your craft will intersect…that they will thread fingers together like a romantic couple. And maybe they will. But most of the time they shift in and out, coming together and releasing like an on-again, off-again Hollywood relationship. Continue reading “Your Craft, Your Career, and How To Make It All Fun Again”

Ah, the stage! The glorious live performance. When you’ve had years of experience on the stage, every cell in your body knows what performing feels like. Your body knows to be bigger, louder. It feels full, grand, real and you can hear the audience react. How rewarding. How deliciously rewarding!

Then you do film or TV for the first time and your eyebrows act like caterpillars on crack. You look like a bobblehead or cartoon character. You’re surprised your eyes don’t pop out of your head to the sound of an old fashioned horn. There’s no way around it; you’re simply horrible. Continue reading “From Stage to Screen: Toning It Down While Keeping It Real”

A successful producer once told me that the key to surviving this industry is how you handle the time in between gigs. “It’s easy when you’re working; it’s what you do when you’re not working that really counts.”

He wasn’t suggesting hiding under the bed with a pint of Cherry Garcia and a vision board and waiting for the phone to ring. He also didn’t mean you should focus solely on career-centric activities, networking your face off until you’re tongue falls out of your mouth. He meant, above all, you have to stay creative and enjoy a well-rounded life. Continue reading “The Secret to Surviving The Quiet Season”