Commedia in Boston

A few weeks ago, I experienced my first ever live Commedia Del'Arte performance. The troupe, Teatro Dell Maschere has posted their performance on youtube, for your viewing pleasure! I LOVED this performance, and I encourage you all to check these guys out in the future.

If you don't know about this theatrical art form, read up on the wikipedia article. Every actor should at least know about this stuff.

The things I notice in this video: The freedom and sense of ease. The characters are over the top, and flamboyant. But they don't seem strained. The performances are at ease, but not lazy. there is a balance between strength/energy and grace/lightness. Each character is specific, and no one seems like they're "Trying too hard." This is what I'm talking about when I describe the difference between Naturalism and Realism. This is far more natural than half of the realistic performances I see. Good acting isn't about being "Realistic". It's about being "Real". As an acting teacher once said to me:

"I'm not asking you to act falsely. I'm asking you to act truthfully, but stretch the definition of what truth can mean."

Best,

K

Bad Kenny!

It's been a while, friends. The lot of us have been up to our necks in work related to the casting for play, which I'm sure you've already seen! I'm very excited and a little scared to finally begin the great undertaking. Then again, I've always said that any process I during which I don't experience fear is often not worthwhile.

In other news, I've started dabbling in the world of actor coaching. In addition to the coaching I recieved from Ben Evett, Scott Fielding and Rachel Kurnos (a brilliant combo), I've also been doing some coaching myself. I did sessions with a few actors around the time of the StageSource generals, and I really enjoyed it. In general, I've always enjoyed working with actors on acting. Up this point, I've mostly worked in this regard as a director. But actor coaching... it's so much different as it is the same.

First, I have to learn to take off my director's hat. I can leave my dramaturg hat on, but ultimately the audition is such a personal expression for an actor that he or she must be his or her own director. I can't coach them based on what I want. I have to learn to coach them based on what practically communicates the most to an auditor. Moreover, this auditor can be anyone with any taste, with or without competance.

In a weird sort of way, I'm both preparing you for the most scrutinizing and most dullardesque of audiences. Not because we assume the worst, but because we have to be ready for the worst. When you put yourself through the wringer, the real thing seems blissful in comparison.

To paraphrase John Gilued (I think it was him): "The actor must make the impossible look difficult, the difficult look easy and the easy look beautiful."

Anywho, I think I'm going to look seriously into more actor coaching kinda stuff. I really enjoy it, and my actors responded very well.

In the meantime, I promise to post more often now that "play." has been cast!

Be well!

K



P.S.



Look what I saw in the 7-11 today (for scale, that thing is about as big as my chest and torso):

Two pounds of awesome.

The Morality of Acting Immorality

The words are burned into the script. Just a few minutes before, I didn’t know this eight page world existed. It could’ve been a novel, a film, a five act, three hour classical masterpiece. But instead, it runs no more than 8 minutes.

I received the script shortly after I accepted the part, casually, as I would any other project. The name generic, the title simple. I opened the pages with a fresh untouched mind. I encountered a young girl of a family utterly disconnected from reality. A father with expectations impossible. A sister who flees for safety. And a brother denied his childhood, reaching towards the only love he knows.

I realized who my character is. Or, more accurately, what he is… I attempt to commit an action, morally reprehensible and emotionally disturbing. A moment of weakness, of longing that manifests itself in a way that I don't think many people would've been prepared for.

An eight minute American beauty. An assortment of dark sides, critiques of the functional family. And yet, I’ve learned from past mistakes that an actor shouldn't critique. She doesn’t judge. He empathizes. We understand, and then we commit the action. The actor acts against what is obvious. Paraphrasing Stanislavski: “If you play a villain, find the good in him. If you play a hero, find the villain.”

This is one of the most vulnerable roles I’ve ever taken. Somehow, these eight minutes have condensed more complexity than most of the roles I’ve accepted thus far. I hesitate to even write what he does, partially due to the mystery of storytelling, but also due to my discomfort with the action. If this was a real individual, and I stood witness as a third party, I would condemn him. Many of us would paint him a pervert, a monster. At the very least, a predator.

Plato believed that the theatre corrupted society. Among his charges: that an actor who portrayed an evil character would learn and adopt corrupt characteristics. Of course, he probably would’ve made a terrible actor. In any case, I go forward with this challenge embracing my discomfort. If it scares me, I have to do it. I already feel like this might be one of the more important roles I’ve accepted. It won’t be the biggest, or the flashiest, or the most praised piece of work I ever do. But I think it’s important. Very important for me. Jim and I are evolving together, as I try stop trying to “understand” him, and just accept the reality of the play. When I walk down the street, I can look down on him. But from the moment I walk onstage, to the curtain call, I have to want something very disturbing. I have to want it with painful sincerity.

I have to be honest.

For more details about Kenny's show, My Sister is An Actress, please visit www.ganemeed.org or click on the link below:

Ties That Bind is free and open to the public. Patrons are invited to come for the 6pm performance of three ten minute plays.

“No man misdeals with Joshua Quince, by Jesu!”

Some of you may be familiar with the recent Shakespearean adaptation of the The Big Lebowski. A filmmaker named Adam Bertocci adapted the screenplay into a stage adaptation known as The Two Gentlemen of Lebowski. It’s being produced all over the country, and I’ve been cast in the Exquisite Corps Theatre reading directed by Adrienne Boris.

Try to guess which role???

All those acting classes paid off. I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun analyzing text and doing character work. Of course, I’m in a unique position of portraying a character already so vividly immortalized onscreen. Of course, I’m treating the text like I would any other classical verse text. Interestingly enough, the poetic style of Iambic Pentameter meshes splendidly with the flamboyance of Joshua Quince (as he is known in this version.) The focus on my work thus far as been on the physical flow and exuberance, which I believe to be the key to honoring both the new character of Joshua and the original John Turturro portrayal of “The Jesus”.

There’s two ways I can see this role going sour; focusing too much on recreating the Turturro portrayal or completely ignoring it. As he’s written, Joshua Quince is completely new character and yet he and Jesus have key similarities. It’ll be a tightrope walking that line, but so far I’ve derived only joy from my exploration of the character. How often does one get to play “The Jesus”?!


Some actors use their training to prepare for Hamlet or Mother Courage. I prepare for The Jesus.

More Details will be posted as the dates approach (Feb 8th and 9th: Adrienne Boris, Director).

The Other Chekhov

It’s common knowledge amongst my friends and collaborators that I’m something of a nerd for theatre history, theory and technique. If I haven’t practiced it, I want to read about it, and if I haven’t read about it, I want you to tell me about it. From Meisner to Meyerhold, from Artaud to Strasberg, I believe that it is an actor/director/playwright’s duty to develop a wide palette from which to paint from. For today’s post, I want to discuss my experience with Michael Chekhov.

Click Image for Wikipedia Article

For those of you unfamiliar with the technique, Michael was a nephew of Anton Chekhov and one of the most important actors of the Moscow Art Theatre and MAT Studios. He developed an approach to acting adapted from the Stanislavski “system” that included an added emphasis on imagination and physical specificity. While many other techniques focus on the psychological, and others focus on the physical, I’ve found that Chekhov links the two together via the use of one’s imagination and encouraging personal creativity. This is, of course, my own understanding, and others might explain Chekhov differently.

This past Saturday, I attended a three-hour introductory workshop on Michael Chekhov, led by Scott Fielding. I first studied Chekhov during my senior year at Brandeis, where it formed the basis of my final year of acting classes. Now, some of you might be a few years out of school and remember the days of “acting class.” We learn so much from acting classes, and yet we rarely get the opportunity to refresh our memory, flex the muscles and stretch our chops once we’ve left school. Some directors like to play, but I’m sure you’ve all encountered rehearsal processes where you feel creatively stifled and bored. While many criticize acting classes as “impractical”, I do find that it is important to periodically reenter that world of wonder and curiosity.

I felt this during my experience this past weekend. I enjoy being in a judgment free environment, free from the pressure of opening night or meeting ticket sales goals. Scott’s approach to the art of acting is right up my alley. One of the key points he made is that the actor is an artist, and needs to be creative. He briefly discussed how some prefer to refer to acting as a craft, and though he accepts that as subjective judgment he believes acting to be an art. And for those of you who worry about the tendency of some acting to impose dogma in their students, from the very beginning Scott explained that what matters most isn’t what we believe should work, but rather what does work. If I remember correctly, his exact words were “It’s not the same for everyone. Whatever works, works.”

Scott recently moved to Boston where he is offering a series of classes and workshops on Chekhov. If you have the time, I recommend you give it a try. I don’t believe there are many Chekhov teachers in the Boston area, so if you’ve never worked with Chekhov or have but would like a refresher, take a gander at Scott’s website. If you do, please let me know what you think! I love discussing this stuff.

MICHAEL CHEKHOV ACTORS STUDIO BOSTON