PRODUCING THEATRE USING THE OPEN BOOK MODEL – AN INTRODUCTION
A guest blog by one of my oldest friends… Nick Field:
Ok, so I was reading Mark’s useful tips on ‘How to Build a Successful Theatre Company’ and he’s kindly invited me to blog about how my theatre company produces shows.
It’s important to talk about the financial side of things. Even if you’re all friends and get together and decide to put on a great show on a shoestring, it invariably will cost you money (as well as a whole lot of time). There’s no faster to way to destroy a budding theatre company (or friendships) than by getting into a mess about the financial side of things.
Sure, we all make theatre for the love, and not for the money, but if you’re going to do it more than once, you need to at least aim to break even, and why not try to make a little profit to put into the next show?
THE PROFIT SHARE MODEL
Many fringe theatre productions, especially in London, are produced under what’s known as ‘profit share’. This usually means that no-one receives a proper salary, and that any ‘profit’ made at the end gets distributed amongst the company. The sad reality is however, is that often there doesn’t tend to be any profit, apparently. An actor may get a token envelope at the end of the run from the Producer, but who knows who got what?
Actors tend to do it for the practice, and more often for the potential exposure to the industry, but their agents don’t like profit share. If any of the actors have had a bad experience where they’ve seen the producer or the director at the end of the run buying Mojito’s at the bar whilst smoking a Cuban cigar, and they haven’t got much more than their bus fare home, it doesn’t make them want to work with that company again. And I’m not being that dramatic; I’ve had those ‘profit share’ experiences myself as an actor.
So, how do we make theatre without proper salaries, sharing the spoils if there are any, and do it in an ‘open, honest and ethical’ way?
THE OPEN BOOK MODEL
Open Book Management is a process in which all of the employees of a company are able to look at all of the financial and business information of that company. And are then expected to help drive business success.
It’s not new in business, but it is in theatre, which is why my theatre company Red Table started using it and it hit the front page of ‘The Stage’ last year.
HOW IT WORKS
For every play that we produce, the financial information will be made available to every member of the company. Every actor (and member of the company) will be able to see how much money goes on advertising, salaries, insurance, printing, props, set design, set build, illustrators, photographers.
And everyone will be able to see ticket sales as they come in.
Every week, during both rehearsals and production, everyone involved will be able to see how far away we are from profitability. And then, when we cross breakeven, how much they’re going to get from the production.
HOW THE PROFIT GETS DISTRIBUTED
This is how we do it at Red Table; we work out a budget for a show and attract investors to put money in to cover it. Investors might be the cast, friends, family, angels or even the producers. In our case, they invest in units of £100.
When the money starts coming in, if the show breaks even (the money made equals the money spent), the investors get their money back first.
After break even, the investors will get a 10% maximum return on their investment. So if your uncle has put £300 into the project, you’ll give him back £330.
After the investors have been paid their 10% ROI (Return on Investment), any surplus money goes into a profit ‘pot’, which then gets distributed out amongst cast and crew. It needn’t be equally split either, we use a points based system which is weighted according to the contribution made, but I can talk more about that another time.
IS THERE ONLY ONE WAY TO USE OPEN BOOK?
No. Our way is a guide. The main issue to realise is that all money coming in and out is recorded, transparent, and freely available to all those involved in the production to see.
DO YOU NEED SPECIAL EXPERTISE TO USE OPEN BOOK?
All you need is common sense, a knack of keeping a record of what comes in and what goes out, and an ability to use some kind of spreadsheet program such as Excel.
OTHER BENEFITS
There are lots of ‘fringe’ benefits (pardon the pun) to using the Open Book Model, but chiefly:
The entire company are able to contribute to the productions success and lend ideas on how to save and make money for the show. Everyone is involved, and everyone can see what’s happening.
You’ll attract more experienced actors, designers, lighting technicians both now and in the future if they feel that their hard work is not being exploited.
WILL OPEN BOOK MAKE THE SHOW A SUCCESS?
No. Not in itself. There are many other factors to look at, both in producing a show, and making sure the actors, designers et al. all get a clear contract stating what is expected of them.
EQUITY’S STANCE
Our announcement and front page headlines caused somewhat of a stir in the fringe circuit. Some welcomed the approach, others berated it, claiming to be already transparent.
Equity have long been campaigning for the establishment of a minimum wage in fringe theatre. Frankly I support them wholeheartedly, and wish for the same myself. Everyone should be paid a decent salary.
However, as long as small theatre companies don’t have public funding, they will continue to try and make theatre with little money, under the banner of ‘profit share’.
If you’re going to produce a show and build a theatre company, using the Open Book Model at least gives you the opportunity to be ‘open, honest and ethical’ when it comes to financial management.
For more info, please visit www.redtabletheatre.com
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook
Senior Acting Coach
ACTING COACH SCOTLAND
Like What You Read? Want to Read More? Mark's eBook is available here
Looking for Acting Classes in Glasgow? Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2011
Sense Memory: Why We Can’t Agree
I give Method Acting a hard time. As the dominant ideology in Western acting, it deserved to be questioned, critiqued, interrogated and perhaps even ridiculed a wee bit. Any technique whose practitioners feel religiously offended when the technique is criticised shouldn’t need defending in the first place.
Because I don’t think much of Method acting technique, I receive two lots of complaints: you don’t understand it, and if you understood it, you would appreciate it a lot more. Thusly, I am ignorant of the Method and ignorant of its potential.
Next the complainants protest that I do not represent Method acting as they have experienced it, thus again, I am wrong and ignorant.
Further still, it appears that if I am not a world-class director who has trained in every form of acting, I am not qualified to critique.
Actually I think the problem is a much simpler one than any of these complaints reveal.
To explain, let’s use an example. In both Method acting and the Stanislavski system there are exercises called Sense Memory.
Depending upon the particular style of acting, this exercise is either used to help the actor to accept the imaginary circumstances or as preparation for Emotion/Affective/Emotional/Memory/Recall.
The exercises are simple things. By using the memory stored in you through your 5 senses and your imagination, you develop faith in theatrical truth, in other words, you create a belief in fictional things, you imagine things that aren’t before you are before you, primarily by recalling the modal sensations.
When you can treat imaginary things like they are real to you, you can believe in the imaginary circumstances of a scene, couple this with a thorough knowledge of your character and you can act with faith out of any imagined scenario, treating it like it is real.
In preparation for the Affective Memory exercise, you use sense memory to help you attune your senses to your memories so they can easily be recalled and experienced again.
But the thing is, I can’t agree with these exercises at all. So when I see Method acting, I don’t just disagree with it as an idea, I disagree with some of its fundamental building blocks.
I don’t believe you have to pretend anything to be an actor. To me, it is a moment to moment real-world interaction with another person. I believe the audience pretend, that’s their end of the deal. Actors on the other end of the deal, know how the trick is done, so do those things that most help convince the audience if their own willing delusions.
So if you don’t believe in entering the fictional world or you don’t believe that you can act as the character, or you don’t think you need to pretend anything, or express your emotions, if the very building blocks on which the Method stands do not make sense to your model of acting, then to you, these children’s games are utter flap doodle, an unnecessary waste of time.
It is not a misunderstanding of technique or value, it is a belief that the things involved are surplus to requirement.
Oh but if only I saw how useful it really was, I would learn to love the Method and use it successful too.
Your self delusional model of acting doesn’t interest me. I am for the truthful and the real. A real human transaction that has little to do with the script itself because the script was written to be heard and is not a blueprint for performance.
Acting to me is an improvised human transaction, a real set of actions and reactions.
And as so, I see Sense Memory as a way to fill up time in acting class. I’m not sure it even works, personally I am not fond of self delusion, it’s unnecessary.
Time for a Little Criticism
As always I get a lot of criticism and recently that’s become quite vehement criticism, quite personal, quite targeted by some individuals. Well I guess if you’re confident and forthright in your opinion you may come across in a way that rubs some people up the wrong way.
Since there are now 20,000 of you reading my blog every month, I’m bound to annoy some of you, but let’s stop for a moment and give voice to some of the people that find my approach objectionable:
“man this guy is a dick”
“go fuck yourself”
“you have no idea what you’re talking about”
“this guy is a fucking idiot”
“absolutely awful advice, the worst”
“pretentious douche”
“you are a left brained snob”
“you’re totally unright”
“who did you ever coach?”
“you spend all your time writing that blog, no wonder you never teach anyone”
“an arrogant man, pay him no attention”
“an eBook, lol, who did you pay to write that?”
“where is your famous students?”
“snobby British acting teacher, no nothing of real acting. American acting is best. Why? Because AmeriCAN!”
Well, fair enough I say!
My Top Ten Tips for Actors
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook
Senior Acting Coach
ACTING COACH SCOTLAND
Like What You Read? Want to Read More? Mark's eBook is available here
Looking for Acting Classes in Glasgow? Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2011
Writing a Personal Statement for Drama Courses
This blog is generally for those of you that have to write a personal statement as part of a drama school or conservatory application. Quite often I ask my private drama school audition coaching students in Scotland to let me read their Personal Statement before they send it off.
Look, let me be honest. My own personal statement was verbose, grandiose and pretentious. I talked about Stanislavski and the art of the actor. I got into a very good school, but no thanks to my cheesy personal statement.
TIP 1: Read what it asks you to do. Many people forget this. If there’s no instructions, move to Tip 2
TIP 2: Say why you are interested in applying to study acting/musical theatre/stage management or whatever.
TIP 3: Keep it SIMPLE! Don’t use big words and don’t come over like some Grand Old Queen of the Theatre.
TIP 4: If you don’t have tons of experience, don’t pad it out sound liking some verbose amateur. Be honest but positive.
TIP 5: Say WHY you want to do that for a living, think of an intelligent, simple, non-pretentious answer. But it has to be the truth.
TIP 6: EVERYONE is passionate and EVERYONE has been doing this since they were a kid, that isn’t a good enough reason.
TIP 7: Say what you would gain from having a place on the course.
TIP 8: Say why you would make a good student, talk briefly and without too much self-aggrandizement about your best qualities.
TIP 9: Don’t talk about your talent.
TIP 10: Don’t talk about how you were Hamlet in High School and how when you transformed into the Danish Prince, you understood something about humanity. Yes I have read this.
TIP 11: Say something about your weaknesses, and why you think the course would help you to address them, say it near the beginning and be willing to answer questions about it. It has been proven in psychological testing that admitting your faults early and then bolstering your profile later in an application or an interview helps the reader/panel to see past your limitations.
TIP 12: Put it away, even for an hour or two, then go back and read it aloud. Does it represent you?
TIP 13: Do you sound like the kind of student they would want?
TIP 14: Proof read it, get someone else to proof read it, spell check it and makes sure if you talk about the institution that your information is correct and you aren’t just ASS KISSING.
Any further questions, just get in touch.
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook
Senior Acting Coach
ACTING COACH SCOTLAND
Like What You Read? Want to Read More? Mark's eBook is available here
Looking for Acting Classes in Glasgow? Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2011
Guest Post: Jeff and Julie Crabtree
Today’s blog post is a guest blog from my friends Jeff and Julie Crabtree, the authors of Living with a Creative Mind. They are two remarkable people, a musician and a psychologist, who have written the most important book on the way that Creative People think and work. And trust me, Jeff and Julie know their shit, so you’re going to want to read this blog through thoroughly, then you’re going to want to buy their book. I could not recommend it highly enough. It’s the kind of book where you start nodding along very quickly, recognising yourself in the behaviour described. Enjoy the blog post and buy the book.
* * *
We are the authors of the book Living with a Creative Mind, a survival guide for creative people and their friends and colleagues. We are all about how creative people work, and how to help them become more productive. For the performing artist (lets call him Adrian), this means understanding and managing the unique pressures of performance. His journey (an extract from Chapter 2 of our book) helps us understand how the pressures of performance affect the performer.
Adrian has just come off stage knowing he nailed opening night. The crowd was with him and he knew that he had them with him the whole way. It was electric. He is buzzing, feeling the euphoria of the release of pressure and tension that built up before the performance. Smiling and elated; his friends are laughing at all his jokes. He is thinking, “I am so good.” He stays up until four in the morning. Performance number two is the next day but he doesn’t want to lose this feeling. Plus he is young, full of energy – he can make it happen.
Next day, during the second performance, he misses a cue, stumbles over a line and his leading lady makes a comment as they pass each other on the way to the dressing room: “What happened to you tonight?” The applause was not quite as electric as last night. Adrian begins to feel a little sick in the stomach, like he is losing his grip. That old black doubt creeps into the back of his mind and takes hold: you are a fake, you knew all along you never had real talent, they’re going to get rid of you, they’re probably all in the pub now talking about how terrible you are. What starts as twinges of doubt is reinforced by some old thoughts and is soon developing into paranoia.
Adrian’s mood plummets. Suddenly he is obsessing over small aspects of the show. He phones a friend and makes them come round and rehearse a scene over and over. The smallest details are issues for him. Adrian has become hypersensitive. Self-assurance has become self-doubt, and he starts looking for little clues in the way others react to him that will confirm what he now dreads but secretly believes is true – it’s over for him…
How would we help Adrian?
The main thing would be to help Adrian realize that the natural state of the creative mind is tidal. So for a performer – the ups and downs are normal. You don’t overcome the cyclical or tidal nature, but you learn how to navigate it. So how do you do that?
If we were working with Adrian we would help him become aware of his sleep/ wake pattern. When he is in his up/high energy – wired phase – particularly after performances- it would be easy to begin a pattern of getting to sleep very late – feeling like he needs little sleep. Actors with longevity learn to respect their sleep/wake cycle and work to discipline and train their physiology to get sleep – despite the highs of performance.
We would also begin to explore his self-talk (the constant dialogue in our head, at the threshold of our consciousness, that forms our view of who we are in the world). The tension between the need for perfection and attention to detail produces fear and cripples a performance. The idea that “everything has to be perfect for me to be good” is in fact a lie that destroys the creative mind. Introducing the gift of imperfection to our self-talk will help Adrian embrace those times when his performance is not the way he would like it.
Finally, Adrian needs affirmation more than anything else after his second performance. An actor’s social world can be ruthless. Having one or two friends who will affirm Adrian without any agenda is crucial. Actors will always have bad shows; bad reviews and off nights – but having friends who can affirm you is essential to coping with the highs and lows.
* * *
If like me, you were thinking “yeah, a book on creativity, I need that like a hole in the head”, you’ll know from this blog post that Jeff and Julie are no bullshitters, they really know their shit, they’ve done their homework and this book can actually help those of us that struggle with the perils of having a creative mind, being a squiggly line in a world of squares. Buy the book folks, buy two, one for you, and one for the people in your life that don’t ‘get it’, because this book is closest I’ve ever come to feeling okay about being a freak.
To You, The Best!
Mark Westbrook
Senior Acting Coach
ACTING COACH SCOTLAND
Like What You Read? Want to Read More? Mark's eBook is available here
Looking for Acting Classes in Glasgow? Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2011
eBook Update
Let me start by wishing you all a Happy New Year. Yesterday’s blog was a bit fire and brimstone. I’m fired up about 2012. We can all get what we want if we break it down into small pieces and commit ourselves to action.
It’s easy to make excuses. For ages, I made excuses to myself about a whole lot of things, then I broke those things down into manageable chunks and got on with it.
Well, if you’ve slept through the last few weeks, I have written my eBook on acting Truth in Action, the other book Approaching Shakespeare is already written and will be launched in April this year too!
I’m just finishing off the final touches to Truth in Action and it will be available very soon now. If you’d like to be one of the first to find out when it’s released, you can fill in the little form below. I’m not going to push it, but I know some of you were asking to know the MOMENT it comes out. So okay dokes, sign up and I’ll tell you the moment it goes live.
Anyway, here’s to 2012, we’re going to nail it this year, yes we are!
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook
Senior Acting Coach
ACTING COACH SCOTLAND
Like What You Read? Want to Read More? Mark's eBook is available here
Looking for Acting Classes in Glasgow? Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2011
How to Build a Successful Theatre Company
For my friends and students Meli, Paul and Ian of the SPARTAN Ensemble in Glasgow, Scotland, and Karli, Lara and Wade of the PACIFIC Ensemble in Sydney, Australia. Build an ensemble that makes you proud to be a member.
So you want to get yourself noticed. It’s hard. I know it. Despite directing, writing and producing for over 10 years, I have found it almost impossible to receive the type of funding that lets me produce independently. Over the last two weeks, I have analysed (while lying on the beach) those folks that I know who with only a mediocre talent (for mediocrity is not threatening to anyone) managed to build a successful theatre company.
I say this again. These people are not uniquely gifted. But instead, they took certain actions that lent them momentum. I have added to this my own thoughts on the making of great theatre and I challenge the SPARTAN Ensemble, the PACIFIC Ensemble and any of you out there considering making your own work to use these steps to build yourself the career that you want, not by waiting to be cast, but by becoming the producer yourself.
ONE: Everyone does Everything.
Fairly self-explanatory. There are no actors and technicians, there are no box office and set builders, everyone does everything. All chores are shared. Anyone who cannot live up to this simple system is asked to leave the Ensemble.
TWO: Today the Lead, tomorrow the Box Office.
The system must be fair. If there is no role in this month’s show, you MUST have a role in the next. You may choose to opt out and do other duties, but everyone gets to act.
THREE: Only Plays You Can Nail
Clearly, I am talking about a writing based company, but you only choose plays that are excellent. Nothing a bit dodgy, a bit weak, an amateur writer’s hopes for the big time. When you start off, choose the big ones. People will watch them because they have names. Weak plays lead to weak performances and they do not advance the ensemble. But most of all…
FOUR: Only Excellence in Performance
Only exceptional performance is required. If you cannot deliver the very best of acting, forget it.
Only cast people in roles they can nail, there is no character acting, you cast for excellence only. How long do you want to go on toiling in obscurity for?
FIVE: Ditch the Director
The director is a modern invention, only a little more than 100 years old and to my mind, they are not really required. A production coordinator can bring it all together. The actor’s direct their performance, the ‘Eye’, the Ensemble member who sits out and helps the actors to get where they want to be.
If you can’t ditch them entirely, limit them. Refuse to allow them a ‘take’, tell them they have to direct the play, not come up with something new or fancy. Get them to direct the production. If they can help the actors to stop fucking up, the actors will thank them. But the actors are not there to fulfil the director’s internal template.
Too many directors careers have been advanced by the performance of the actors in their shows.
SIX: You Do Not Need Anyone’s Permission to Do This
No one can give you permission and you wouldn’t want it anyway. Choose a venue, it doesn’t matter where it is. Make a deal with a pub, whatever keeps your costs low.
SEVEN: Invite your Initial Network
You can advertise if you have cash, but basically your first show is to your friends, family, acquaintances, work colleagues. Don’t be proud, if it feels a bit amateur, so what, you’re starting off like many others – small.
EIGHT: Build your Loyal Following
Everyone who comes to your show gets a free programme. They get the programme if they will give you their email address. One person’s job on each show is to encourage and befriend your subscribers. They will chat them up, make it all nice, and collect email addresses. This is the basis of your future audience.
NINE: Tell Them What You’re Doing Next
In the programme for Show 1, tell them what Show 2 will be and email them within a few days of them seeing Show 1 to remind them. Then, email them within 8 and 4 weeks with how to get tickets for your next show.
TEN: No One Gets Paid Until We All Get Paid
Minimal Wage blah de blah. It is a collective agreement that no one gets paid until everyone gets paid. You can’t be sued for not paying yourself.
ELEVEN: Invite from the Start
Classic rookie mistake: failing to invite reviewers, sponsors, theatre producers etc because you’re not sure how it will turn out. You invite everyone from the beginning. They won’t come. But when they do start coming.
TWELVE: Gently Squeeze your Network
So Jane’s brother Tony has a recurring role on a big TV show. Get Tony to come. His presence will add something. And you never know, Tony may bring someone. It is ALWAYS WHOM YOU KNOW.
THIRTEEN: Start with Standards
Make a list of your principles. Only things you actually currently already believe. And work by them.
FOURTEEN: Charge One Price
All tickets are the same price. Everyone gets to see the show. If you charge a lot people expect a lot. Charge a reason ticket price, but make everyone pay the same. Theatre is the last place that social economic status should affect the seating or the price of the tickets.
FIFTEEN: Have a Website
You don’t exist without baby.
SIXTEEN: Only Quitters Lose
This is simple. Produce and produce and produce and produce. One after another after another until you get a body of work behind your company that cannot be ignored.
So that’s my advice, take it or leave it.
To You, The Best!
Mark Westbrook
Senior Acting Coach
ACTING COACH SCOTLAND
Looking for Acting Classes in Glasgow?
Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels.
His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2011
In November, Mark will teach an acting masterclass in Sydney, Australia – to find out more Visit Acting Coach Australia
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook
Senior Acting Coach
ACTING COACH SCOTLAND
Like What You Read? Want to Read More? Mark's eBook is available here
Looking for Acting Classes in Glasgow? Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2011
Acts of Destruction
“For me, a picture is the sum of destruction. I make a painting, and then destroy it” Pablo Picasso
The orthodox way of making a production, is to ‘make’, to ‘assemble’, to ‘create’ in that highly unsuitable word ‘rehearsal’. To ‘build’ a character, to ‘create’ a role.
I believe this entire concept is built on a flaw. I think that a production produces a performance that is a continuous act of destruction, the breaking down and not the construction of something, the obliteration of the art artefact, exchanged for the dangerous and unforeseen that can only exist in the moment, and is infinitely more exciting to be involved in and a thousand times more watchable.
Of course there are some elements of the rehearsal process where we make some decisions, we shape the space that we give ourselves license to play within.
What does destruction mean practically for you, the actor? Well it really means never seeking to reach a finished polished state, never making a product, always riding the tides of success and failure.
It doesn’t mean that we don’t train, or rehearse, it means that our preparation doesn’t end in a mortification of live performance but a total embrace of the improvised nature of day to day humanity. We don’t aim for wood or stone, we aim for water.
Confused? Think of it like this. Everything is always disintegrating, and holding it together doesn’t stop it. If disintegration is accepted, acknowledged – even encouraged, we learn to live with it and we make the most of it and the most of the liveness of the event.
To You, The Best!
Mark Westbrook
Senior Acting Coach
ACTING COACH SCOTLAND
Like What You Read? Want to Read More? Mark’s eBook is available here
Looking for Acting Classes in Glasgow?
Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels.
His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2011
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook
Senior Acting Coach
ACTING COACH SCOTLAND
Like What You Read? Want to Read More? Mark's eBook is available here
Looking for Acting Classes in Glasgow? Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2011
Xmas Update
Merry Christmas to All of You!
I am rested after a brief holiday in Newcastle, NSW and now I’ve returned to Sydney (to see the Picasso exhibit) before flying back to my beloved Scotland.
I’ve managed to move the eBeBook on Actingook Truth in Action on a great deal and we’re onto draft 3 now. It’s an exciting time for me, I’m stoked about all the cool stuff coming up in 2012, although a little sad about leaving Australia.
Normal blog service will resume soon.
Building a Character
It’s easy to see how the mistake was made all those years ago. You read a play and your imagination brought all the pieces therein together and made the characters seem like real people, particularly as the dialogue and style became more psychologically real.
Then, if you were playing a character in a play like that, it made sense that you would attempt to impersonate that character to the highest degree possible.
Here’s the trouble: impersonate means to assume the character of a person, to personify them, to pretend to be them.
But a character is not a person, therefore they cannot be impersonated.
Seen from the outside, an audience’s perspective, they SEEM like people, but people exist beyond the temporal limits of a play’s duration and people exist outside the space of a theatre or the confines of a page or screen.
Characters do not.
Characters are actually just a set of lines, fictionally they appear to have goals, actions and defining characteristics but actually all they are is a set of signs and symbols, think of them as… potential energy.
Now you ARE a person, and you have a character (your own persona) and when your character is asked to represent this set or series of signs and symbols, these cyphers fuse with you and your endless and constantly changing behavioural possibilities and creates the appearance of a third thing. Synthesis occurs and an audience sees this third thing as the character personified.
But it’s 80% accident and 20% design. And that’s what makes it special, it’s changing, evolving like a person, constantly and continually in flux.
The script and the requirements of the play, along with the director’s suggestions/demands/requirements provide the design element that prevents it from simply being an open ended improvisation and ensures that you fulfil your obligation to the author, who if they had anything important to tell you, should include it in the script rather than expecting you to achieve it by clairvoyance.
You cannot impersonate a fictional character, you can impersonate a fictional character representing a real person, but this IS an act of impersonation and not one of acting, they’re different skills. And for the most part, you will be studiously copying gesture, manner and voice in an attempt NOT to act well, but to ensure that you give an accurate impersonation.
But the basic doing, the ‘acting’ that happens in the present, in the here and now of the actor’s moment to moment existence, that’s what brings this synthesis alive for the audience. Not some mistaken attempt at embodying the fictional.
So yes, I guess I am saying that those schools and styles and methods and techniques that have the creation of a role as a separate intentional activity are wrong.
Someone has to say it.
You’ve got it wrong.
Training actors to create character is wrong. Forcing actors to do the job of creative writing and calling it characterisation or building a character is wrong. And blaming actors when they can’t do it is a mistake. Or when they can’t fuse with this creative writing project on the theme of the play, it’s a mistake. And it just gets in the way and makes the actor’s job not difficult but impossible.
And all the games and all the exercises and befriending the character and going outside yourself and all that well-intentioned voodoo is just a placebo because they won’t admit that they have no fucking clue what to do.
They are still labouring under this same old mistake. Are you? You can change things. You can.
To You, The Best!
Mark Westbrook
Senior Acting Coach
ACTING COACH SCOTLAND
Like What You Read? Want to Read More? Mark’s eBook is available here
Looking for Acting Classes in Glasgow?
Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels.
His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2011
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook
Senior Acting Coach
ACTING COACH SCOTLAND
Like What You Read? Want to Read More? Mark's eBook is available here
Looking for Acting Classes in Glasgow? Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2011
He Knew Too: Do You?
This is just a mini-blog post to share something I found in Jeff and Julie Crabtree’s book Living with a Creative Mind.
As artists, as creative people, as actors, we feel both a desire to comment on life (outside) but we also need our comments to be accepted or validates (inside).
Jeff and Julie say we inhabit a place where we both desire to confront and conform with society. That makes a lot of sense to me, do you sometimes feel like that too? I know I do.
In their book they quote one of my favourite poets, Bukowski, he felt it too. Here’s the extract they quote:
I am not like
other people
other people are like
other people.
they are all alike;
joining
grouping
huddling
they are both
gleeful and content
and I am
burning in hell.
my heart is a thousand years old.
I am not like
other people.
Charles Bukowski
I’m going to chat with Julie on Tuesday, hopefully I will publish some of the chat here next week.
As Who Likes It?
So yesterday was Cate Blanchett, and tonight is Shakespeare’s As You Like It at the Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney.
I apologised yesterday for an unusual amount of reviewing, and today I continue under the cover of the same excuse, or a note from my Mum, whichever you prefer.
Well, I honestly don’t know how I feel about this experience, mixed is a word, I’ll unwind my thoughts with you.
First off, I managed to get a returned ticket, (which was a plus). But I was not able to get a student ticket as only Australian students are entitled to a student ticket. This is a minus. (Note I WAS an eligible student at the IMAX and the Sydney Aquarium today, but to the theatre, that institute of free-thought, truth and culture, I am the wrong kind of student, a foreigner, a fat cow suitable only for milking at full price.)
By the middle of the opening line, I already wanted to leave, (thats a minus)! I don’t mind raw, but there was not a drop of authenticity in it. (that’s a minus), but I accept that it’s heightened language and requires a heightened playing style, but heightened and pantomime are different things.
Now I was mad, I spent $59 on a ticket for a production that was bellowed and over-acted (did they not hear Hamlet’s advice to the players?) (that’s a minus)
$59 for a ticket to see a show which for the first 15 minutes felt like a Uni Medics review show) felt like a bit of an insult, (that’s a minus) and makes it clear to me that theatre in Australia, or at least in Sydney, is an expensive luxury.(that’s a minus)
The verse speaking is pretty awful, the beat ignored (try singing your national anthem to the tune of How Much Is That Doggie in the Window or Happy Birthday to You – for a similar effect), the energy disappeared at the end of lines and very difficult to understand at times. (that’s a minus)
Then they started singing, and created something beautiful that compelled me to watch on (that’s a plus). But it’s cheating to woo an audience with song (that’s a minus)
Next they started ad-libbing (that’s a minus) but it was done so well and so funny, it charmed us all (that’s a plus!) but mainly it was used to save us from the Shakespeare (minus)
At half time (the interval) I sat trying to decide whether to waste time as well as money and in the end decided to give it a ‘fair go’. (that’s a plus)
Returning to my seat, I found the cast dressed as sheep, with wildly self indulgent larking around, it was funny, but it went on far too long. (that’s a minus) The cast throughout looked like they were having smashing fun. (that’s a plus for them) it was the kind of piece that actors love to be in.
The clown scenes were well handled but its still worrying when the comedy grafted onto the piece is so successful (plus) and the comedy and drama of the original given only lip service. (minus)
But something magical was woven between the poorly acted Shakespeare, the cast, through their warm and affectionate performances, they got to me. They beguiled me. Unwillingly at first and finally, openly and reciprocally.
The musical ending including a solo song from Casey Donavan, was beautiful and charming, I left the theatre with a huge smile. (big plus)
So despite mishandling the text, avoiding the verse, mumbling, gabbling, paying little heed to the Iambic Pentameter, a complete refusal to truthfully work off the other actor unless ad-libbing, adding their own stuff, being self indulgent and very expensive… In the end, it was a fucking astonishing piece of theatre.
It was wrong for so many reasons, but it was right for many more. The whole being somehow (but it may have been the deliciously spicy sushi roll I ate at Jazushi before the show) was much more than the sum of its parts.
Layering a show on top of a show was clearly not the intention, and i should have hated the contrivance but at times, I could see method in their madness and a real sense of connection to the Elizabethan theatre, with gags and asides that the audience lapped up.
And since the audience don’t understand Shakespeare, they’ll wait for the next funny bit between bits of poorly done Shakespeare, cos he’s not very funny anyway…
And if the verse was mangled and the ad-libs were the best bits and that meant that there were two shows, As You Like It and As We Prefer It, well… So be it. It was still bloody marvellous.
I should have hated it, but I couldn’t. It cast its spell on me and made me want more (of the funny, musical, non-Shakespeare bits)
Gross und Klein
I must first apologise. I don’t do reviews usually, and now there’s two close together. Tonight, I saw Sydney Theatre Company’s Gross and Kleine, a play by Botho Strauss, in a translation by Martin Crimp. The last show I saw by STC was not good in my opinion.
Tonight was very different.
The script is fragmentary. The piece most theatrical. The performances range from complex psychological to the edge of performance art. The work only has traces of narrative, and as I like a good story, I struggled a little in the first half, but in the second I decided to just take each moment as it comes. I enjoyed the second half more.
The play IS weird. It’s unconventional and if you have a fixed idea of what a play should be, you may upset. But it’s beautiful too, immensely theatrical, beautiful pictures.
But what about Cate? The play surrounds one character, Lotte. This role was played by Cate Blanchett, and I was very interested in her performance. I didn’t believe it all the time, often it was too much for my sensibilities but it did seem like she was always serving the play.
The most powerful impression came from her opening monologue, a rambling woman. Blanchett delivers this with such confidence, that I am drawn right in. Despite her movie star roles, she is capable of delighting a theatre audience, but when you see her, you are aware of just how effortless she makes it look. She makes everything seem natural even among the surreality of Strauss’ play.
She is captivating, I want to watch, I want to know what happens next and that helps to fight the fractured nature of the narrative. But do I watch because she’s famous? Many there this evening were, I’m sure, but I was keen to see someone at the pinnacle of Australian acting.
I was not disappointed. She was free, playful, uninhibited, focused, truthful, theatrical, at ease with herself on stage. All this makes her supremely watchable. All this is something to aim for.
Vulnerability and Penetration
I’m sitting out in the bush, a place called Tomerong, near Jervis Bay in New South Wales, talking to a friend Lee Trew, a guy from the first ever acting class that I ever taught. He lives out here with his wife and daughter, in 8-acres, on the edge of two national parks running a bushcraft and nature connection school. helping people take off the shackles of domesticity and grow comfortable in the wild.
Through our conversations out here in this beautiful landscape, we realised that what we taught had an awful lot in common. We were both trying to help people connect with something in themselves that has been removed by socialisation. We agreed that when these social ties are removed, a more successful individual emerges.
Actors must make themselves vulnerable. They must receive as much as they emit. But they are often unable to throw off their social armour, they protect themselves as a default with walls and barriers, obstacles do that nothing affects them.
But the actor must be vulnerable, they must let those walls be penetrated. And once they have been penetrated, they must let others make an impression on them. Like a material that allows an impression to be left in it, they must be clay and not stone.
But it’s harder than it looks. I tend to teach this penetrability through improvisation, it’s a vital part of the training in my studio and our students will do much more of it in the future.
I think the actors I train, the people that I work with, get very good at taking truthful action, but I also worry that sometimes they do not have a reaction that is equal in sincerity.
It worries me that many acting approaches encourage the genuine response to take place through some kind of filter called ‘character’, and that is actually just another wall, another barrier between you and the other actors, another obstacle between you and your inner self, and the ability to let all that good stuff out in reaction to what is done to you. This perhaps also creates another filter that damages what you communicate to the audience.
We’re not talking about anything weird, or new age, or bullshit. Just an openness to things, to others particularly.
But I do think it needs to be relearned.
How Far Would You Go?
Your best friend’s brother becomes an internationally renown director, do you consider using your relationship to make a meet with him?
In the dying light of Erowal Bay, after a gut-busting bbq, a conversation something like the above started. Being a contrapuntal bastard, I took the role of Devil’s Advocate and suggested it wasn’t damaging to the relationship, that it was just business and sat back to listen to my hosts and family, debate the issue.
It seems okay to take advantage of the relationship if the friend offers, but not if you attempt to make it happen.
So the debate seems to hinge, not on the rightness of taking advantage but if the friend offers its okay, but if you try to make it happen, it’s not good
And then I was thinking, okay, but what if the friendship meant less to you. What if it was merely an acquaintance, could you ask then? There’s still the same ethical issues, only they mean less to you because you don’t feel that you are potentially damaging the relationship, because the relationship isn’t as important.
When is it okay to capitalise on a relationship? One of my friends is my hero’s daughter, I would be mortified if she ever thought I would abuse our friendship to meet him.
But in a world of luck and opportunity, is it wrong to try to make an advantage out of a serendipitous relationship?
My instinct says yes. But my competitive, ambitious side says -hold on- in business would anyone care?
Are you using your best friend or are you simply taking advantage of the situation and not the person? Surely if they are your best friend, the relationship wasn’t forged to take advantage of it, so is it wrong to make hay while the sun shines?
I have a discount card, 25% off at Such and Such. My best friend wants to use it, why would I deny him? Is it wrong for him to ask? If I offer it’s okay, is it so different if he asks and wouldn’t I be delighted to help him? Wouldn’t I be happy that my friend can benefit?
Is it part of a liberal guilt complex? Do we tiptoe around ambition, do we worry about offending people, or should we value our friendships so highly that we wouldn’t dare possibly damage them.
My personal feeling is we should not do anything that damages our friendships, but what do you think?
An Evening at the Opera House
Last evening, I got very excited about visiting the famous Sydney Opera House to watch Sydney Theatre Company’s production of No Mans Land.
My first piece of Australian theatre, a classic Harold Pinter, difficult play indeed.
It was a terribly disappointing evening. Pinter has always been tough on an audience but No Mans Land is particularly hard. I started to wonder if they only chose the play due to some passing references to Australia.
The actors were all so busy performing that no one connected with each other. There was a total lack of a commitment to landing anything on the other actor.
Pinter is often about miscommunication but when you act his characters, they do still have intention, which means they carry out those intentions in their actions, using tactics. And we as actors must find those behavioural possibilities and use them.
None of this was present, just four ‘performers’ giving interesting enough renditions of the lines to keep us watching.
But ten minutes in, their lack of engagement with each other had turned the audience off entirely. A fascinating and difficult play, a lovely set, clearly skilled actors, but zero interaction.
Still, the champagne that we borrowed from a corporate event going on at the Opera House after the show, really eased the pain.
Responsibility to the Tribe
A few days ago, I wrote a blog about why we must perform, a look at the special place that artists have in the community of our tribes.
Well, I was reading Jeff and Julie Crabtree’s remarkable book Living with a Creative Mind (I strongly advise that you read this book, and then buy it for all your non-creative friends and family) and it reminded me of two things. The first is that many of the tribe do not value your contribution and see creative people as weirdos and freaks.
But I think we might have brought this on ourselves. If our art doesn’t reflect the tribe or the needs of the tribe or offer the tribe something, then they will come to consider your contribution as unnecessary or surplus to requirement, they will stop valuing you and thus you become a laughing stock, because if you don’t provide food for the tribe and you don’t take care of the young, and you don’t add value through art, then you are a spare part. You have to add value, that’s your special role in the tribe. As the Crabtrees write quoting Ken Robinson “creativity is the process of having originals ideas that have value.”
So films, plays, art, music that are self indulgent and don’t represent the tribe, doesn’t offer us a reason to respect your special place, it is surplus to requirement. In my experience, sadly that’s the stuff that gets lauded and public subsidy. What an insult to your tribe to make them fund masturbatory art.
Yes, we must perform but we perform out of responsibility and that responsibility is to serve the tribe. Am I reducing the value of arts for art sake, yes I am! Because creative people are special and should be treasured, but they are only useful to the tribe if they fulfil their responsibility to us.
Working with Chaos
Today’s blog is based on yesterday’s first day of our Sydney Masterclass.
The moment is essentially endless possibility. This sense of infinity reminds us that actually everything around us is chaos and as we stride through life, we impose some methods of control onto it, we attempt to organise chaos into a controlled form and call it ‘society’, ‘art’ or ‘theatre’.
How far should a method of acting, an approach, a technique if you MUST, attempt to bring order to chaos.
To me, the actor lives and thrives in the chaos, attempts to control it, to impose stricture and structure upon it, is one if the great fallacies of acting.
The moment arrives and is disintegrating from the time we realise it is gone. The lines of the script apparently have meaning but their meaning explodes and disintegrates in contact with others.
Actors often attempt to impose order on the chaos of disintegration by controlling what they do in each scene.
It is sensible.
But it’s just not very helpful. To deny that the moment is happening, to attempt to control, is a wasted effort. To attempt to impose order on that which cannot be ordered, is a denial of the moment’s power to shock, surprise and captivate.
And so when the actor attempts to act out the meaning of the author’s words, they deny the endless potential for changing meaning. They deny that their body, their voice, the situation, the partner, the spect-auditor’s own experiences all play a part in the creation of meaning. To attempt to teach audiences a meaning is to reduce the experience. The meaning only exists for one night only and is different every time.
So it is with ‘character work’, the conscious artistic selection of elements the actor feels/believes/thinks might communicate a sense of the ‘other’ to audiences. But each choice is an attempt to control something, to steer a train that is already derailed, a moment that is disintegrating before them.
So it is with ‘actioning the script’ a wonderfully useful approach for the director, the control freak, when the Actor’s moment to moment actions and reactions can be reduced to selectable verbs. If you read this blog or attend my classes, you know I favour these useful little verbs, but you cannot control the moment to moment reaction to any action. So actioning the script is just another attempt to impose control or order onto chaos.
It’s different with visual art, when the maelstrom is finally nailed to the mast for a few precious moments, or creative writing when the mass and infinite realm of possible words is just for a few moments captured. These are both essentially static arts, where a moment must be captured and held in stasis for others to enjoy.
But acting is not like these art forms – at least not on the stage, in the theatre, It’s very different. Acting for film begins as chaos and ends as someone else controlling the outcome, turning the spontaneous into the predictable, making order.
Acting is not imposing order, it is living within it, you are a leaf on the river’s current, floating. To learn to act is to learn to gently steer yourself, not to buy an outboard motor and power yourself against the current.
Why We Must Perform
We have to make art, it is an integral part of human culture. Self expression is primal, like hunting for food or finding shelter. Sure, if you follow Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the expression of self rates last but it is vital.
Why do I think this? Well, what were the core values of ancient human cultures? What did they prioritise? Food, Shelter, Physical Safety, Raising offspring. These activities were vital to continued existence and took up the largest portion of energy, (and when you must catch and kill your energy source, you can’t waste energy) activities outside of this meant giving up time and space reserved to providing for the herd/pack/tribe.
So when our ancestors gave someone the job of painting the walls of their home with a visual record of their activities, they prized this expression and the artist doing it enough to excuse them from the ‘essential’ work in order to paint the walls. Only a culture that prized artistic expression as an important activity would allow this to happen. The artist excused from the grind to use their skills to benefit the group must be considered special indeed.
Art, or self expression is a vital human activity. Performance is an extension of that, a group of artists excused for a time from the essential tasks to reflect the life of the group through movement, sound and story.
It’s as important job as any others in our tribe. Of course there are those that disparage the ones excused from life’s essential tasks to represent the tribe artistically, but we cannot do without them.
So when you wonder about why you love to perform and if you feel selfish (you are but don’t worry about it), don’t forget that your place in the tribe is necessary. Not everyone should do it, not everyone can do it, but if you are chosen from the group, it is an honour, and you should commit yourself to it with heart, body and mind. You must.
Recent Posts
- PRODUCING THEATRE USING THE OPEN BOOK MODEL – AN INTRODUCTION
- Sense Memory: Why We Can’t Agree
- Time for a Little Criticism
- My Top Ten Tips for Actors
- Writing a Personal Statement for Drama Courses
- Guest Post: Jeff and Julie Crabtree
- eBook Update
- How to Build a Successful Theatre Company
- Acts of Destruction
- Xmas Update
- Building a Character
- He Knew Too: Do You?
- As Who Likes It?
- Gross und Klein
- Vulnerability and Penetration
- How Far Would You Go?
- An Evening at the Opera House
- Responsibility to the Tribe
- Working with Chaos
- Why We Must Perform
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