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. We will resume on January 8th, 2009. If you plan on being there January 8th, please drop me an e-mail at edhooks@edhooks.com so I can put your name on the class list.

STANISLAVSKY IN FOCUS, 2nd Edition (Routledge)
This book, written by USC professor Sharon M. Carnicke, is essential for anybody who wants to understand the nuances of modern acting. Ms. Carnicke understands the work of Stanislavsky better than anybody I have ever come across and expertly explains how his theories influenced American acting styles. I recommend her book to you heartily and without reservation.

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
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
“BODY LANGUAGE”
Recently, I was watching a documentary entitled “Secrets of Body Language” on The History channel, and the point was made that only 7 percent of what we humans communicate to one another is via words. Fully 93 percent is via body language, non-verbal signals, eye-blinks, status transactions (Read “Impro” by Keith Johnstone) and such. This reinforces the essential lesson that “Acting has almost nothing to do with words.”

New actors often think that an ability to memorize lines is essential to being a good actor. Actually, it is not a good idea to memorize lines by rote, even if you can. If you can figure out what your character wants in a scene, then you will see that only those words written in the script will do. In other words, what you do is go from intention to intention rather than from line to line. True, television shows put a high premium on a fast-study, one-take kind of actor, but you don’t want to learn acting in the first place that way. Words are the caboose of a scene, not the locomotive.

This is also the reason why relaxation is so important on stage. If you are tense, you body will not move well, and you will block your emotions. Your gestures will appear studied and purposeful when, in fact, we rarely focus directly on gestures in real life. As I have said in previous craft notes, I do not personally include a lot of relaxation exercises in my acting workshops because I have discovered that, if an actor is confident, then relaxation will follow. On the other hand, I can put a self-doubting actor through relaxation exercises until she is as limp as a dishrag, and the moment she starts acting, the tension will return.

NEW BRANDO BIOGRAPHY
Stefan Kanfer has written a new biography of Marlon Brando entitled “Somebody: The Reckless Life and Remarkable Career of Marlon Brando”. You’ll find a positive review of it on page 66 of the October 27th issue of “The New Yorker” magazine.

The reviewer, Claudia Roth Pierpont, says that “For the actors (of The Group Theatre), the goal was a paradox: real emotion, produced on cue.” And she correctly identifies Brando as perhaps the brightest practitioner of that technique. I’m bringing this point up now because I don’t want new actors to get the wrong idea from Ms. Pierpont’s article or Mr. Kanfer’s book. Yes, emotion is critically important to acting, but emotion by itself has zero theatrical value. The fact that you may be able to make yourself cry on cue is neither here nor there. An audience will not be impressed that you can cry; they are interested in why you cry. Yes, Brando was excellent – in his younger days – at evoking emotion, but it is an over-simplification to say that was the secret to his success. Brando also had a strong sense of audience. He knew he was on stage (or in front of the camera) and that the audience was the other half of the theatrical equation. An actor ought never be oblivious to the audience. The audience is why you came to the theatre in the first place. I have personally been in acting classes where a teacher would say something like, “When acting is right, you are not aware of the audience.” That is nonsense. If you try to lose your awareness of the audience while you are on stage, you will be become a self-indulgent bore.

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATRE “AMADEUS”
My wife and I attended a performance of “Amadeus” at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre last weekend, and I was wishing that my students could have been there with us. This is a physically lovely production in which there is the emotional depth of a thimble. All of the actors possess powerful well-trained voices and plenty of physical vitality, and they all wear the costumes as if they were raised in them. For me, however, watching this production was like watching a beauty pageant. I simply did not care about any of the characters even though I admired the craft of the performers. This production made me long for F. Murray Abraham as Saleiri. Abraham, who also played that role in the movie, came across as tormented. The actor playing the role in the Chicago Shakespeare production really did not seem to have many cares in the world. But he looked good in his costumes, and I could for sure hear his nice diction. Oh well.