Ed Hooks' Monthly Newsletter
August 2002
Until next month...Be Safe!
HOOKS RUNS FOR CHICAGO SAG COUNCIL!
I have agreed to run for a seat on the SAG council, Chicago branch. Please vote for me. Here are four of my positions:
1) SAG should more aggressively lobby the state of Illinois to grant tax incentives to film producers. This would be a partial local fix to runaway production.
2) Franchised talent agents should have their commission increased to 15-17 percent. It has been set at ten percent for over thirty years, and the agents need a raise to compensate for the awful contracts SAG has negotiated for cable and commercials.
3) I advocate a return to the kind of tiered membership arrangement SAG had in the 1940's, with only working actors being entitled to vote on union affairs. I want full benefits for all, voting rights for the working actor only.
4) In general, I support the recommendations of Towers-Perrin.

COLD READ/AUDITION WORKOUT WITH ED HOOKS AUGUST 3RD!
There is still space available in this one-time class. 10am - 5pm Saturday at the Ed Hooks Studio, 2908 N. Broadway in Chicago. $50 for current and past Hooks students; $65 for new students. We'll work on cold reading technique for stage and film. If you have a monologue that needs brushing up, bring that in, too. Limit: 15 actors. Call Ed at 773-929-1667 or send an e-mail to him at edhooks@edhooks.com.

NEXT 4-WEEK FILM-DEMO CLASS BEGINS AUGUST 6TH
There is one space remaining in this workshop. You shoot and edit your own digital video scene, with assistance from Hooks of course. This is the best way to learn the differences between acting on stage and acting for camera. Limited to four students. Tuition is $250. Tuesday nights, 7-10:30pm.

HOOKS ACTORS WORKING
ALAN QUISMORIO (s.stdy -'01) will next be seen in "Troilus and Cressida", for The Shotgun Players in Berkeley. For info, go to: http://www.shotgunplayers.org. KELLIE REED (all classes '98) shot a training film for Cisco Systems. SUSAN GARD recently completed her fourth indie film this year! "Rico is Back" follow's "Ray's Day", "Sway" and "Skel". She will also appear in Jules Feiffer's "Hold Me" at City College's black box space August 2 - 11. If this actress doesn't grab the brass ring, it's not for lack of trying or talent. Good going, Susan! PAUL BRAVERMAN(Scene Study '00 & '01, Comm '01) will be playing Roberts in the Hayward Little Theatre's production of "Mister Roberts". It opens on Labor Day weekend and runs four weekends. For more information, call 510 881 6777 or go to the web site www.geocities.com/haywardlittletheatre. LARRY GULI (f/TV-'02) is in an indie entitled "The Gathering".

ED'S UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Acting for Animators, August 17-18th -- BioWare, Edmonton, Canada. (closed workshop).

Scene Study (Chicago) -- ongoing, Monday and Wednesday night, 7-10:30. Free audit, start any time, 16-week commitment. $135/month.

Commercials workshop -- Weekend format, Sept. 14-15. $250 ($175 if you are enrolled in scene study, too.)

Cold Reading/Audition Workout -- Saturday, August 3rd, 10am-5pm. $65 ($50 if you are already enrolled in scene study)

Film Demo workshop -- Tuesday, August 6th, 7-10:30. Four-weeks., $250.

CRAFT NOTES
"Psychological Visability"

Every actor knows that when she acts on stage she needs to be visible. You must speak loudly enough to be heard and must orient yourself phsically so that the audience can get a good look at you, right? Well, there is another, arguably even more important aspect to being seen, one that is much trickier and can make the difference between aperformance that is merely adequate and one that has real power: Psychological visibility.

To make yourself psychologically visible is to display your authentic self to the world. You wear who you are on your sleeve and you run the risk that some people will like it and some will not. Each of us is defined by our values and, by extension, our emotions; these things dictate how we interact with the world around us, and it is a component of our self image. A person that is psychologically visible is one that is in touch with himself. I'm not saying that you must be the very picture of psychological health or that you be continually happy. People have mood swings in life, good days and bad hair days. A person that is psychologically visible is simply acknowledging and owning that.

Why is this important to acting? Because when we act, we say to the audience, in effect, "I understand this about this character." When the audience laughs, cries and applauds, it is saying, "I see what you mean." It is not enough, in other words, to simply portray an accurate characterization. A character does not exist in limbo. It is tied to the heart and soul of the actor that creates it. The power in acting has as much to do with the essence of the actor that is doing the acting as it does with the character being portrayed.

This is why acting requires courage. Non-actors mistakenly believe that acting is a process of hiding. By that reasoning, you "become the character", stepping outside of your own self. This is impossible. You can't be anybody but you, and you must be you one hundred percent of the time, day and night, awake and asleep, all your life long. You do not hide behind a character; you expose the character through yourself. You find in yourself those aspects of the character that you find important, and you tell the truth about them. Acting is a process of allowing and truthtelling, not a process of causing . It is an interpretative art. An actor is not merely a blank piece of paper that a playwright writes on. Whenever I hear an actor say, "My main job is to serve the playwright", I do a double-take. Actors collaborate with the playwright, it is true, but they do not serve him any more than he serves the actor. The playwright is not in charge. (David Mamet might be astonished to hear about this.) Words on a page will continue laying there on the page unless an actor gives them life in the form of a characterization.

All of this is on my mind because of a scene I was watching in class recently. The actors were doing a good job, and the scene was working, but I realized that I was still not moved by it. As the work continued in front of me, I tried to get a handle on what it was that was bothering me. Finally, it hit me like a bolt: One of the actors on stage was simply not present in a psychological way. He was hitting all the marks, playing actions and pursuing objectives and playing off of the reality of the other actor - but it was almost like he was phoning it all in. He was there, but he wasn't there! After the scene ended, I spoke about the importance of presence and psychological visibility. The actors did the scene again, and it was as if someone had turned up the lights on stage. It worked like gang busters this time. Same actors, same actions, same objectives, same scene - but the variable was in a new willingness to expose.

Actors are shamans. We speak to the tribe, and we are part of the tribe. Our blood is their blood, our weaknesses are their weaknesses, and our strengths are their strengths. Many people can go through life and display to the world only a psychological facade. An actor cannot. Not if he is any good, that is.

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