Teaching
Teaching is the most wonderful privilege…
Being given custody of a theatre as a leader is an onerous responsibility. But teaching is the most precious responsibility I have ever had. The teacher/student relationship is a venerated one- with good reason. As a teacher you are entrusted to use your knowledge as a gift, foregoing any personal expectations. When this is successful, one can feel so fulfilled by the purity of this relationship. Students who take a class are, by definition, acting as their most vulnerable selves. You, in turn, are blessed to be acting as your most generous self. In this situation both sides are willing to get messy. There is no judgement. Both sides cherish the desire to learn through exploration. It is the most unshielded and fulfilling form of human interaction I have had as a professional artist.
My focus as a teacher has been mainly on two things.
The first is scene study. I am endlessly fascinated with this process and absolutely love going through it with as many new and different actors as possible. I am very interested in helping actors to create performances that allow for flexibility as opposed to exact repetition. I revel in finding ways to keep a performance very present, and, if possible, somewhat surprising.
The second class that I love is audition technique. I am not so much interested in finding tricks or secrets or rules for auditions. I am much more interested in working with actors 1/ to find ways to diminish the anxiety provoking, toxic power of an audition, while 2/ clearly enumerating and strengthening all the areas where an actor is actually in control of the process.
I love actors and I know they are disadvantaged by the audition process. But I think my 35 years of auditioning has given me a lot of powerful insights into how an actor can begin redressing that disadvantage. And I have seen how useful these insights are to actors.
Here is a mini-teaching bio:
teaching now for 35 years
with individuals and groups
within the context of theatres, educational institutions and professional associations
or on contract with one artist or many artists