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NOTICE TO ED HOOKS’ CHICAGO SCENE STUDY ACTORS
Due to my teaching commitments in the UK and Europe, we will be breaking for the year-end holidays a little early in Chicago this year. Our final class for 2008 will be Thursday November 6th, and we will resume on January 8th, 2009.
And there is something else. Unless we have an enrollment of ten actors on January 8th, I plan to cancel the Chicago scene study workshop altogether. As you know, class size for the past month has been only 4 to 6 and, to be candid, it is not worth my while to teach classes that small. So, if you have been considering studying acting with me – or have thoughts of returning to class after being out for a while -- circle January 8, 2009, on your calendar. And be there.
CHICAGO SCENE STUDY CLASS SCHEDULE
On-going, Thursday nights, 7-10:30 at The Acting Studio (formerly The Audition Studio), 10 West Hubbard Street, #2W. Free audit, start any time. $135 per month, sixteen-week commitment. Here's a Yahoo map to the The Acting Studio.
It is easy to reach The Acting Studio on the CTA red line. Exit at Grand Street and State. Walk two blocks south on State to Hubbard. The #36 Broadway bus also stops very near the school.
PRIVATE COACHING
I'm always available for private coaching. My rate is $75 per hour. We can work on cold reading, career strategies or whatever you want. Call 773-929-4651, or send an e-mail to edhooks@edhooks.com.
ACTING FOR ANIMATORS SCHEDULE
Sept. 12-13 SPARK Festival Vancouver, Canada (sponsored by Vancouver ACM Siggraph.)
Oct 4th Chicago, Il. (open class. Contact Ed Hooks)
Nov 12- 18 United Kingdom, various classes, some open. (contact kumar@twelvej.com.
Nov. 24-27 Swansea Animation Days, Swansea South Wales
Nov. 29th Ludwigsberg, Germany, Academy of Performing Arts Opening Celebration
Dec. 1-5 Ludwigsberg, Germany Filmakademie Baden-Wurtemberg
Dec.12th Barcelona, Spain – Grin Games (closed)
Dec 15-16 Oporto, Portugal --Escola das Artes Universidade Católica Portuguesa (closed)
CRAFT NOTES
“ACTING AND FAME”
I have been teaching professional level acting for twenty years and am still astounded when a prospective student tells me – usually on the telephone or in an e-mail - that her primary goal is to become famous. Sometimes they think they can do it by getting a role on a soap opera, sometimes on a situation comedy. I don’t think I have ever heard one speak about fame and acting on stage in the same breath.
Let me say right off that there is absolutely nothing you can do to become famous as an actor. Indeed, if that is your goal, there is a good 99 percent chance you will fail. One of the ingredients of fame as an actor is pure old fool’s luck.
But let’s talk about fame for a minute. Suppose you land a role in a Tom Cruise movie and actually achieve some of it? What difference does it make? You’re still the same person, right? You probably still wash your hair before your feet. And let’s go a bit further: Suppose you land the lead role in a film that draws lots of publicity at various film festivals. That might help you get an agent, but it still won’t make you famous.
Anyway, what will fame get you? The guy at the next table at Denny’s will recognize you at breakfast? The folks at the dry cleaners want you to sign a photo so they can tape it to their wall? What difference does it make?
Acting is an art, like painting and music and dance, and hardly anybody makes a living wage from doing it. Van Gogh only sold one painting in his entire life! Beethoven died a pauper. 85 percent of the members of Screen Actors Guild earn less than $5,000 per year. Only about 5 percent of the membership earns what you might consider a living wage, and they’re not even famous. Paris Hilton is famous, and she can’t act. They pay her a lot of money to show up at Las Vegas parties so they can take pictures of her.
I have worked with some exquisitely talented and sensitive actors who are not stars. And I’ve acted with a lot of stars and I’m here to tell you they aren’t any different from you and me. I remember one guy that was so famous he had an assistant follow him around the set with a small plastic fan pointed at him so he could stay cool between takes.
Even if you could snap your fingers and become famous, you would still be you. You would still put on your pants the same way you did before, and you would have the same worries and concerns you always had. Fame will not make you enjoy looking at that pimple or mole on your left cheek.
I suppose I have been asked a hundred times over the years whether a particular person “has what it takes” to become an actor. My answer is always the same. Becoming an actor – or an artist of any kind – is like finding religion. You wake up one day and realize you simply must do it. If my telling you that you do not have “what it takes”, then you should by all means go find some other line of work. My opinion doesn’t matter, even if I am convinced you may be the next Pamela Anderson.
Acting is tribal and shamanistic activity. It is a way of keeping the tribe together so it can survive the winter. If you feel that you have some knowledge or a perspective to share with the tribe, then go for it. If you get in the middle of the circle in the dirt, they will gather around to listen and watch. But after you are through telling them what you have to say, they are going to leave you there to eat your lunch. You may be an artist and a shaman, but you still won’t be famous. And it still won’t matter.
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