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Morons and Masturbation

Meisner had a favourite quote:

Goethe: “I wish the stage were as narrow as the wire of tightrope walker, so that no incompetent would dare step upon it.”

Perhaps it would be best if it were a tightrope, so the next well intentioned moron would fall off, break their neck and at least set a lesson for everyone else.

What’s got me so riled up?

We’re in rehearsal for an in-house production of Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter, we’re excited and rehearsals are going well. Our common sense approach works well for Pinter and rehearsals are a joy to be in, it’s wonderful when you all speak the same language, share an aesthetic and have similar artistic values.

Recently another production of DW was brought to my attention, in a self-published press release. Down the coast, two self-described ‘method actors’ are preparing to do the show and to demonstrate their commitment (I’m thinking another type of commitment may be necessary) they are going to conduct an ‘extreme experiment’, they will suffer a week of living together, trapped in a single room. To help them ‘get into the character’s mindset’ they will try to put themselves in the character’s position. Now despite my distaste for the Method, let me just make it clear that this is not Method acting, this is self-pleasuring, yes – masturbation

The actors in this production want to be taken seriously, they feel that theatre is marginalised in their little town. But might I suggest to them that fannying about in a room for a week ‘being the character’ is just about as far away from credibility as you can get.

Here’s where they got it wrong:

1) the play is set in a room but the characters can and do leave it. So the basic premise of their themed experiment is wrong.

2) The press release says it has scenes of strong violence. These are not to be found in the play.

3) A character’s mindset is constructed by the author, if you want to find it, try reading the play.

4) A week of being in character won’t help you even play the very first moment of the very first scene.

5) What is it with actors and suffering for credibility. Do you really think you need to suffer to be taken seriously to show your commitment? Do we have such little faith in our craft that we resort to ‘extreme experiments’.

6) Not one part of this moronic enterprise prepares the actor anything they have to do. They are spending a week pretending they are aroused by their masochistic exercise. But it’s self-pleasuring because they love how this commitment to self-flagellation makes them feel. Save the masturbation for your bedroom, boys.

7) Their approach is flawed on so many levels that the whole week is a total waste of valuable rehearsal time.

Finally, it’s fucking moronic. You embarrass the craft of acting with your bullshit.

Am I being too harsh? I don’t think so. I think enough bullshit passes as craft and it is constantly excused with vague and weak comments like ‘well there’s more than one way to act’.

Pandering to this self indulgent crap robs our profession of being treated like grown ups.

Tags: Method Acting, pseudo method acting, The dumb waiter

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

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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

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Tags: book on creativity, good mental health for artists, healthy creative mind, jeff and julie crabtree, Living with a Creative Mind, the creative mind, the psychology of creativity

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

Tweet me

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

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