Intention by Lisa Milillo

Intention

 “Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.” 

- William A. Foster

 The new year is buzzing with Pilot Season and Awards Season in full swing! Let this be a time to be inspired by veteran and new talent alike and be intentional about your career. This past week, one of my clients booked the very first Pilot she went out for after firmly setting her intention.  I also had a student determined to work on her active meanings prior to a big audition that she ended up booking and she is now a series regular. 

Brilliance on stage can be identified in certain moments, when there is no doubt that an actor is fully present. His response to the imaginary circumstance is created from a clear and specific relationship. The times when an actor is living truthfully through an event are when preset emotional responses manifest, in spite of oneself.

Actors try to display when they are deeply affected, whereas most people try to hide it.

The Paradox of Overcoming by Tom Patton

I’ll never forget the moment.  Twenty-five years ago Master-teacher Joanne Baron told our class, “The thing that brings you into acting is that which you must overcome to be able to act.”  Silence filled the room.  Something profound had been said.  What did it mean?  All of us began to ask ourselves the same question, “What brought us into acting?”  Escape, entertainment, fame, attention?  Or was there something more?  As usual I suspected there was something more. The ancients had told us this for centuries. Behind every dark cloud is a smiling Providence.  Underneath every trouble lies an invisible net.  She was leading us to something deeper. What she had said was meant to trouble us.  And it did. 

Welcome Back!

The Joanne Baron\DW Brown Studio welcomes back students from the holidays and would like to kick off the New Year with some resolutions.  

In this coming year we want to courage every student to look at their artistic obstacles and start to reduce or remove them with renewed vigor.  Maybe that way you can move on to some new obstacles.  If you don’t know what your artistic obstacles are, then you have just found one.  From this point forward, you want to be aware that your obstacle right now is that you don’t pay attention to what your obstacles are.  Keeping that in mind, ask your teacher what they suggest the main thing for you to be aware of in your work is and what to work on to improve it. 

There are obvious things you can recommit to:  increased concentrated rehearsal times doing the work you can do alone, as well as that with your assigned partner; doing extra rehearsals with other serious students, doing artistics (if you don’t already know about this, ask), and volunteering to be the go-to acting partner for anything that comes up. 

More than anything though, you want to get your spirit right and marry that with detailed action.  Make plans for how you’re going to make time for what you know you need to do.  That means sacrifice and understanding you’re not going to allow yourself those moments of weakness where you let it slide “just this time.”  It means discipline. 

Beyond this, you could resolve to study your art by attending the theater once a month (where you can best study an actor’s performance), or you can watch a movie for a second time with the deliberate intention of observing a particular performance:  Is the actor really playing moments?  Are they clear in their intention?  How would a better actor (like you!) play the scene?

Basically, the suggestion here is that you should be the hero of your own life; and “a hero is someone who does the next necessary thing.”

D.W. Brown

Awards Season

The Joanne Baron/D.W. Brown Studio encourages all of its students to see all of the nominated films for the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy Awards.  This is a rich opportunity to study performances and evaluate the work in relationship to the studio training.  Is the performance specific and clear, alive and truthful, relaxed and real?  In studying the Meisner training each student is educating themselves in what to look for that creates a truly great and skilled performance.  The popular response to a performance or film can sometimes be uneducated as to what truly makes the art form art.  As students of the Meisner work we no longer sit in the audience merely being entertained or moved; we are analyzing the work before us as painters may study a painting at a museum.  We encourage every student to create their own personal best actor list and turn it in for discussion in their class with their teacher.  Through this artistic debate we can all learn much about what creates virtuosity in acting.

This form of study is yet another means by which to measure your own work and growth within your training at the Joanne Baron/D.W. Brown Studio.

Have fun and learn much within this New Year with all its possibilities

Artistic Director

Joanne Baron

Great Actors Study and Prepare

 

JOANNE BARON D.W.BROWN STUDIO – AN INSPIRATIONAL EXAMPLE 

NEW YORK TIMES article on  Javier Bardem Star of Biutiful
                                                 

GREAT ACTORS STUDY AND PREPARE.

            Organic and spontaneous impulse is found by disciplined and detailed daily work.

“A sign of the seriousness with which Javier Bardem approaches his craft is that, despite the growing acclaim for his body of work, he continues to study acting …

… Mr. Bardem attends acting classes and workshops, where he is sometimes matched with beginning actors.

“Part of the work in preparing for roles at the table, where we analyze each phrase, I  try to understand the mind of that other person,” he explained.  Mr. Bardem does exercises designed to “prepare the canvas for painting” by “identifying and stripping away the habits, clichés and artificial aspects between him and the character, so he has the courage to find a freedom in his character.” 

Persistence by Charley Boon

“If I had to select one quality, one personal characteristic that I regard as being most highly correlated with success, whatever the field, I would pick the trait of persistence. Determination. The will to endure to the end, to get knocked down seventy times and get up off the floor saying. “Here comes number seventy-one!” Richard M. Devos

Less is More by Michael Frederick

Less is More

As you are reading this blog … where am I in my attention?  Am I actually reading this in a mindful way or is my attention “half way here” with part of me dreaming off about some chore I need to do … three “very important” cell phone calls … food to buy at ‘Whole Foods’ … how so and so “pissed me off” in that conversation a few minutes ago…I’m hungry…I’m horny…so bored with my “to do list”.   Am I aware at all of my body posture as I sit/stand reading these words or am I in some mechanical slump inherited from my father/mother long ago and still manifesting in this moment in an unconscious way?  How is my habitual posture affecting my breathing patterns? Am I even aware of my breath at all?  

AU-THEN-TIC-I-TY, by Elaine Williams

AU-THEN-TIC-I-TY, by Elaine Williams

  – True to one’s own personality, spirit, or character

 “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” – e.e. cummings

I am often struck by the courage of our students at the Studio, as you complete your coursework, only to begin the journey again toward a deeper understanding and training in of the craft of acting. We all appreciate that this is a journey, not a simple result. Yet, we must admit, that like all business professionals, ultimately we are called to a mission, a service that we fulfill through our art. The training and professional pursuit of an acting career isn’t easy and it certainly ain’t for the faint of heart – it’s hard work, perseverance and an unending enthusiasm bordering on obsessive love. But you already know that!

Truth is Beautiful — Alumni Celebration Speech by Billy Armstrong

When I first came to the studio I thought that basically the only thing I would learn was how to act well.

Little did I know that I would train with teachers in a school that would give me a new profound understanding not only of what this craft is all about, but true insight into who I am as a person.