MANY OF MY BAY AREA FRIENDS AND STUDENTS are associated with a hit production of Chekhov's "The Seagull" running through October 12th at The Pear Avenue Theatre in Mountain View. Jeanie Forte directs. I've heard great things about this show and send my congratulations to all! To purchase tickets, go to the Pear website at www.thepear.org or call the theatre at 650-254-1148.

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.)

October 5-11 - Denver, Colorado
October 14-15 Ohio State University (pvt class)
November 6-9 - Cineme, Chicago's first International Animation Film Festival (http://www.Cineme.org)
November 19-21 Projector Animation Festival, Dundee Scotland
November 26-29 - Swansea Animation Days, South Wales, UK - http://www.sand2003.org.uk/
Jan 26-30 Animex 2004, Teesside England

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.

HOOKS ACTORS WORKING
RAY RENATI (s.stdy '98) is appearing in 'West Side Story' at Broadway by the Bay through Oct. 12 and in 'Inspecting Carol' at Bus Barn Stage Company from November 20 to December 20. Ray also recently landed a principal role in a commercial for Chukchansi Casino. ERIC SWARTZ (s.stdy '99) appeared in a short Intranet-delivered film for Cisco Systems. He also completed more corporate narration work for Cisco (a flash presentation about Sales Territory Training). ELIZABETH BAGBY (s.stdy '02-'03) spent the summer doing "Two Gentlemen of Verona" with Shakespeare in the Park. MARK WOODS (s.stdy '03) is in "Soul of a Whore" written by Denis Johnson, opening Nov. 14th at the Viaduct Theatre in Chicago. ELEANOR PRUGH (F/TV '93) portrays Aunt Abby in College of Marin's "Arsenic and Old Lace", Oct 3-19. FARAH SANDERS (s.stdy '01) appears in a new play entitled "In Our Names" at San Francisco's Exit Theatre, opening Friday Oct. 3 8pm, closing Nov. 8.. For more info: http://www.twoplustwoequalsix.com. DIANA LEATHERS (s.stdy '03) was cast in an indie film, "Frequency of Occurrences" .

CRAFT NOTES
"ELIA KAZAN, 1909 -2003"

A giant of a director has died in New York at ninety-four years old. Elia (pronounced ee-LIE-ya) Kazan was an immensely talented, complex and controversial person whose work changed the very face of twentieth century theatre and movies. He almost single handedly brought "naturalism" to the stage. Think of Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront" and "A Streetcar Named Desire"; think of James Dean in "East of Eden". Kazan discovered both of those actors, plus Warren Beatty. In the 1950's, he was the director of choice for Broadway. He directed "Death of a Salesman", "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "The Skin of Our Teeth" among other hits. He was closely associated with Lee Strasberg in the early days of the Actor's Studio and was a champion of Strasberg's Method. Kazan's movies and plays were noted for their primal animal-like tensions, and his actors stood in often shocking contrast to the more classically trained actors of the day.

In 1952, Elia Kazan named names before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and he was never forgiven for doing so by many in the entertainment industry. The McCarthy period was one of the darkest stains on U.S. history. Lives were ruined, some of our most talented artists were accused of being communists and could no longer find employment. They were forced to endure the Hollywood Blacklist, worked under pseudonyms, left the country, killed themselves. It was a horrible time politically, and Kazan never apologized for what he did. To the end of his life, he believed in his heart that he had done the right thing. This is why it took so many years for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to honor him for his body of work. When he received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999, the TV cameras panned the audience and many were plainly sitting on their hands, not applauding.

Difficult though it may be to separate the political from the artistic, I think we should try in Kazan's case. McCarthyism will always be a historical blight and, if past is prologue, it may well eventually be dwarfed by other American political horrors. But Kazan was first and foremost an artist, not a political person. He was a theatrical genius and he pointed to a career path that has subsequently been followed by an entire generation of actors. He set the bar of honest acting high.

The most superb theatrical autobiography I have ever read is "A Life" by Kazan, and I recommend it to you heartily. For now, so that you can get a small insight into Kazan's skill with actors, I offer the following brief excerpts from "Kazan, The Master Discusses His Films", interviews by Jeff Young (1999, Newmarket Press):

REHEARSALS FOR "A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE" "We improvised the essential elements in a scene so that the actors would have experienced them before they had to learn or get down the lines....I'd make up a scene that's not in the play. For instance, Stella's sister, Blanche, tries to get her to go home with her, to get her to leave Stanley. Stella is in the position where she has to handle her hysterical sister and at the same time refuse to go home. Such a scene is never in the play."

"I had a (pictorial) image of Blanche being like a moth: she kept flying against a luminous, transparent curtain, trying to get out."

"ON THE WATERFRONT"

"With Rod Steiger you could just smell it. You could look at him and say, 'Here's a guy who is going to make it.'. I just smell the soul and see what the hell is there."

"I think an artist is - not only a storyteller, but, if he's any good, he's a myth-maker. The goal you should strive for is a mythic goal. You take reality, anchor it in the facts and raise it to the level of myth."

"I had a problem right away. The actors had to be in the same league as the scenery. They had to be as real as the Hoboken locations. You rarely get that with actors. ... I was able to use a lot of real longshoremen. ... The next problem was getting the actors out into the cold, which was not as easy as it sounds. A couple of days I had to go to the hotel and pull Brando out by the hand. It was not only zero degrees on the waterfront, but the north wind was blowing off the Hudson and the actor's faces, therefore, without makeup became like the real thing."

RE: CASTING/AUDITIONS

"Unless the character is somewhere in the actor himself you shouldn't cast him. The person has got to have the essential qualities, the mainstream in him. Otherwise you fake and never get a truly good performance."

"I take people for walks. I take them to dinner. I don't do any readings, but I talk to them like I'm talking to you. I veil it. I make it sound like chatter. Everybody will talk to you about their most intimate problems if you give them a chance. ...An actor will tell you anything in five minutes - if you listen. All you have to do is sit down with them, and you'll find what they're made of."

"I'm looking for something -- say a guy that really looks mild, but is a murderer in his heart. If I get a glimpse of it I'll say, 'Come at the end of the day. We'll have a drink.'"

"EAST OF EDEN:

"An actor is already a formed instrument, not an abstract being. His body is already an expression of his life. His face is a piece of sculpture, so is his body. If you watch people in movement, you see how they sit, how they stand, how they walk. You can learn a lot about them. Also, you can see what expressive means they have available to them. James Dean's body was eloquent."

"...It's a love scene. It's amazing how helpful that way of thinking is. For instance, you can have a business conference where two guys are antagonistic to each other and never get together on a deal, but by the end of the scene you feel they both think, 'Well, he's a shrewd son of a bitch.' There can even be love scenes between a man and an object, like a man with a racing car, a man with a horse or building a house. If you just say he's building the house, it's one thing, but if you say he's loving the house and doing something that he likes to do, you're dealing in emotion right away. It's good to think of a scene in terms of the emotion that rides through the apparent abstractness or the apparent impersonality of it."

RE THE CRAFT OF DIRECTING "The important thing is to not become rigid, to always allow yourself chances to change and to grow. Directing is a human craft. Your tools are human beings. You develop your own methodology each time out. And if you really are any good, each time out you feel as if you are learning the craft all over again."

Like I said, a giant has died, and it makes me personally sad. I never met Elia Kazan, but I do not believe I would ever have become an actor or a teacher had it not been for his work and influence on me. His life was long and rich and touched by brilliance. We should all be so fortunate. 

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