The Importance of being Directable by Lisa Milillo

I can’t express enough the value of being able to take an adjustment in the room. A casting director might throw something out at you that feels left field, but it could also be a test of skill and character. How will you receive the direction? Will you be receptive or will you be disagreeable? They may just be testing to see whether you are the type of actor with whom they’d want to spend all day on a fast-paced set. People can and have been fired for being unwilling to take direction or just for having a bad attitude about making adjustments. 

 

Imagination by Lisa Milillo

Recall a particularly dismal day at school that you tuned out and allowed your mind to wander freely, seduced by the siren of your subconscious. Whatever path the wandering may have taken you down, wasn’t it delicious? To be able to shut out the droning and be ever so free to create and explore the makings of your own mind! Liberty!

Respect the Author – Lisa Milillo

One of the most important things to remember in an audition is to respect the writer. The screenwriter or playwright has invested blood, sweat and tears into the collection of words that you are expected to enliven into a full performance. Their story is told through you! Every actor should be in love with the storytelling, because that is precisely what you are doing.

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. 

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

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!