THANK YOU, BAY AREA ACTORS!
It was a joy to work with you these past few weeks, and I'm looking forward to the next time. Special thanks to Jeanie Forte and the Pear Avenue Theatre for helping me so much with the Mountain View workshops. Without Jeanie's calm and wise support, I really do not think this series of classes would have happened. Thanks also to Brett Sharenow for organizing the fabulously talented East Bay Theatre Group and for allowing us to meet in his lovely home. And of course a lingering cyber hug to Gene Gore and her talented voice-over cohorts.Thanks all around!

ATTENTION CHICAGO ACTORS
Here's an interesting part time gig. Work as a standardized patient ($18 per hour). It's not really acting, but it is something like acting. The deal is that starting next year medical students in the U.S. will have to pass this particular test that measures diagnostic skills and bedside manner. The doctors need pretend patients, and that's where you come in. No nudity and no invasive examinations. One of the five national testing centers is going to be in Chicago, out near the airport (Cumberland exit on the Blue Line). If you're interested in learning more about this opportunity, contract Lisa Metoyer at 773-867-8643. Tell her you found out about it from me.

HOOKS ACTORS WORKING
MIA PASCHAL (all classes '99-'03) has been busy. She performed in the San Francisco 24 Hour Playfest benefit for Woman's Will. Next month her digital feature, "The Art of Etiolation will be shown at Divafest, (Mia wrote, directed and appeared in this. Yes!" She also appears in Exit Theatre's celebration of woman theatre artists and, if all of that wasn't enough, she shot a regional commercial for a credit counseling service. Drinks are on Mia this month. DEEANN WEIR (comml '98) is performing with The Queen's Company in New York in its production of "The School for Scandal", April 24-May 16. For info, go to their website, www.queenscompany.org. I love all-female acting companies! CASSIE POWELL (s.stdy '03) appears in "The New You" at San Francisco's Exit Stage Left Theatre through May 8th.

ED HOOKS'S UPCOMING SCHEDULE
(Most of these dates are in connection with my Acting for Animators workshops. If I am in your area, however, and you would like to arrange a private coaching session, I frequently have time to do it. And of course, if I am teaching an Acting for Animators a workshop that is open to the public, you are welcome to join us.)

May 6-9 FMX '04, Stuttgart Germany (keynote speaker) http://www.fmx.de

June 7-11 Annecy, France (I'm not teaching, I'm just going to join the fun and watch the flicks. Drop me a note if you'll be there and we'll hook up for a French brew.)

June 18-19 Luzern Switzerland. This is an open Acting for Animators class sponsored by FOCAL and ASIFA-Switzerland. For more info, contact Robi Rengler at: rengler@mail.tnca.edu.tw

CHICAGO CLASS SCHEDULE
SCENE STUDY -- On-going, Thursday nights, 7-10:30 at The Audition Studio, 20 West Hubbard Street, #2W. Free audit, start any time. $135 per month, sixteen-week commitment. Here's a Yahoo map to the The Audition Studio

It is easy to reach The Audition 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 773-929-1667, or send an e-mail to edhooks@edhooks.com

CRAFT NOTES
MAKING YOURSELF CRY

New actors often have this thing about making themselves cry. It's like it is a litmus test for whether or not they are real actors. Real actors, so goes the logic, can make themselves cry on cue, and if you can't pull off that hat trick, you lose. In a recent acting class, I actually got into a heated debate with a very earnest student who believed that feigning crying would be the only acceptable application of indicating (showing the audience how you feel) - which is pretty universally considered an acting error.

Some actors figure they can cut onions on the movie set or put glycerin in their eyes to give the illusion of crying. Directors have been known to play cruel tricks on child actors to get them to cry, telling them their dog just died and such.

Let's clear the air, and the tears, okay?

First, an ability to make yourself shed real tears is decidedly not the earmark of an excellent actor. I have seen plenty of high school actors that can do it. I have worked with professional actors that could do it, and it was not affecting. The mechanical generation of tears is just that and nothing more - a mechanical generation.

Tears are an _expression of sadness and maybe frustration. (Tears of happiness, like the ones you shed at weddings, will be the subject for another newsletter. They are the result of a mixture of happiness and sadnessŠ) Tears are a uniquely human _expression of emotion. It is said that elephants cry but there has never been any actual documentation of that. As far as I know, only humans do it. The reason is that we have thinking brains and emotions are automatic value responses. Tears require abstract thought.

Emotions are contextual, and sadness does not always result in tears. Take a look at the scene in Charlie Chaplin's movie "Gold Rush" when he realizes that Georgia the Dance Hall Girl has stood him up on New Year's Eve. No tears, but the sadness is almost tangible. There are times in life when sadness goes beyond tears. I remember once having to tell a friend in New York that his father had passed away. He did not react with tears until much later, but he was obviously devastated by the news.

We humans empathize with emotion. Tears in themselves carry little empathetic currency. They are just wet things. The important part is how the character feels, tears or no tears. Sadness expresses itself in the curve of the back, by the slackness in the muscles, by an inward-looking moment. It used to be said that Geraldine Page could do more acting with her back than most actors could with their front, and this was largely a factor of the way she expressed sadness with her body. The same was true with Eleanora Duse.

If you absolutely positively must make yourself cry real tears, you can probably do it. I can do it and have done so in various film projects. The trick is to put yourself on the edge of tears before they say "Action!" and then spill over in the moment. You have to have a private place in your brain to hold context. It is a mental discipline.

But, seriously, I would not make a big deal out of being able to cry. It is not a litmus test of your talent. More important is for you to have compassion and empathy for the human condition and for you to be willing to be a shaman. If tears are appropriate to the moment, then they will be there.

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