THE REVISED SECOND EDITION OF ACTING FOR ANIMATORS IS AVAILABLE!

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.)

September 15-16 - Orlando, Fla (Disney Animation, pvt class)
September 20-21- Sarasota, Fla (Ringling School of Art and Design, pvt class)
September 22-24- Orlando, Fla (Disney Animation, pvt class)

October 5-11 - Denver, Colorado (public Acting for Animators plus classes for stage actors)
http://www.asifa-colorado.org - Contact Anne-Elizabeth at: inside@centralvectors.com
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
DAVID COXHEAD (s.stdy - current) recently appeared in "Bags of Bones", written and directed by John Weagly. It was part of Mary Archie Theatre's Abbie Hoffman Died For Our Sins Festival Chicago.
EYTAN LASCA (s.stdy - current) appears in the indie film "Truth is Beauty", being screened at this year's Los Angeles International Short Film Festival. (ArcLight Cinemas, 6360 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, 1:15pm Sept. 17th) CASSIE POWELL (s.stdy '03) has been cast in The Cafe Project: Triple Espresso with the Theatre Artist Conspiracy in SF.
ERIC SWARTZ (s.stdy/comml '99) is the narrator of a flash presentation that will be viewed and heard by more than 35,000 Cisco employees. In the past several months
JOSEPHINE ZEITLIN (all classes '01- '03) has completed roles in the following indie films: "Sonata", "Swaab", "September Son", "Child Psychology","A Form of Guilt", "The Two-Fer", "Oasis", "Clone" and "Loving Amazon"
SIMONE ALEXANDER (comml '01) appeared in the independent short film "Comedy, the Other Black Gold" as the "puppet lady".
LE ANNE RUMBEL (all classes -'99-present) plays Marianne in"The Miser" at Shakespeare At Stinson,
through October 12th.
CAMILLE MANA (comml '99) appeared in a small role on FOX's new series "The O.C." .
KEVIN LASIT (f/tv '91) has been cast in a commercial for Dollar Car Sales.
LISA WISEMAN (s.stdy '95) is appearing in "Anton in Show Business" by Jane Martin at the Studio Theater at The Western Stage, Hartnell College, Salinas, through Sept. 20th.
JOE MAHON (comml '01) is in "The Rimers of Eldrich" at USC's Bing Theatre.
DANA LEWENTHAL (comml '01) directed "Boil the Rice", one of seven one-acts for Theatre Artists' Conspiracy: The Cafe Project: Triple Espresso. Playing at The Canvas Cafe on 9th/Lincoln in San Francisco: Sun - Tues October 12 - November 4, 2003. Also, she directed "The Drowned Man" one of eight scenes in The Good Doctor by Chekhov. Produced by Act Now! Playing through October 25th at the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.
DORREEN FOO CROFT (s.stdy '92) has the lead in an indie "Five Happiness".
MARK WOODS (s.stdy '03) appears in "Mexican Wrestling Macbeth". It opens October 10th and plays Friday and Saturday nights (11PM) at Chicago's Bailiwick Theatre until November 1st. He also appears in a short indie film entitled "Marked".
SUSAN GARD (all classes '01) stars in the indie horror film entitled "Ray's Day", which screens at the Los Angeles festival Shriek fest Sept. 20-21.
MARNIE LEVEE (all classes '99) is in her first show since becoming a mom. "Wonder of the World" plays at the Eureka Theatre in San Francisco on the nights of Sept. 24 (preview), 26 and 28. And October 2, 4, 8, 10, 12, 16 and 18. For more info: http://www.eastenders.org/productions.html/ .
JOSEPHINE DE JESUS (all classes ''00-'03) landed industrials for AOL, Ace Hardware and Whitehall Jewelers. She can also be seen in "The Man with Pussy Galore", an improv spoof being presented by Chemically mbalanced Comedy, at the Conservatory.

CRAFT NOTES
"The Concept of Ma"

Today's acting lesson is about stillness. It comes to you compliments of two artists who worked in related art forms a century apart. Hayao Miyazaki, arguably the greatest feature film animator of our time, and Eleanora Duse, a self-taught Italian actress who achieved international fame a hundred years ago, have both emphasized the importance of what happens in between the utterance of scripted lines.

Introductions first. Ms. Duse (pronouned Du-ZAY) was a contemporary of Sarah Bernhardt and is generally considered to be the first "modern" actress. In a time when the popular acting style amounted to theatrical strutting, posing and indicating, Duse insisted on being truthful. She shunned stage makeup, refused star entrances, didn't wear a corset, prepared in-depth character analyses, shocked audiences with her raw sensuality and probably invented emotional recall. She was an intuitive actor with a tormented soul - an inner voice she called "an echo of pain in the world." Stanislavsky was among her admirers and often cited her as a prime inspiration for his approach to acting theory. He wanted to systematize what he perceived Eleanor Duse to be doing on stage.

Hayao Miyazaki, now 62 years old,, is Japan's most honored animator, the founder of Studio Ghibli just outside of Tokyo. Among his most vocal admirers is America's premier animator, John Lasseter, founder of Pixar Studios ("Toy Story", "Finding Nemo"). Miyazaki's most recent movie was "Spirited Away" (English dubbing overseen by Lasseter), which won this year's Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. If you are a person that believes she does not care for animation, I recommend you rent a DVD of "Spirited Away". It might change your mind.

Now, to the matter of silence and stillness ...

Many new actors mistakenly believe that acting is about how one says the words. This is an altogether understandable misconception, especially since acting is in a sense a process of repetition. When non-actors ask me casually about the art of acting, the first thing they generally want to know is how actors memorize so many lines. The truth is however that acting has almost nothing to do with words.

Miyazaki spoke about stillness in an interview, when he was asked to explain the difference between his style of animation and the style used by western companies like Disney and DreamWorks. He considered the question for a moment and then began to clap his hands together rhythmically. He first pointed out to his interviewer the obvious fact that when he claps his hands, we hear the sound of the claps, and we do not hear the silence that falls in between the sounds of the claps. He then explained that silence is not merely an absence of something; in Japan, they call it "ma". He said that, in his opinion, western animators are afraid of "ma". They want to continually make the sound of the clap, fearing the audience will lose interest if there is any silence. He on the other hand, tries to fill "ma" with emotion and character intention. He said that as long as you do that, the audience will always stay with you.

Though she was reluctant to explain her processes, Eleanora Duse's work was noted for its simplicity, emotional honesty and those silences. In one of her personal letters, she wrote that she sometimes succeeded in "communicating a great shudder to the spectators through the pure power of silence." French actor Lucien
Guitry saw Duse in "Anthony and Cleopatra" and had this to say: "...In the last act ...a slave presented to the Queen of Egypt, who was seated on a heap of cushions, a little basket of exotic flowers. Under these flowers was the asp ... Quite simply she took the asp in one hand, and with the other she opened her bodice, then threw the
serpent on her breast, closing again her dress with both hands. This action took about two seconds, but in that short space of time there was a long monologue which one could not have written in ten pages -- regret, dread, memories of the past, hope, the possibility of escaping from her face, the vision of her tomb, the funeral procession. 'What does the asp do? It moves ... Is it going to sting? Is this a happy thing? Is this deliverance?'...And then suddenly the sting, a swift look of agony, a shudder ...It is the end; she is dead."

You can read all about Duse in a brand new wonderful biography, "Eleanora Duse" by Helen Sheehy (2003, Alfred A. Knopf, $32.50). Most of what I have had to say about Duse in this essay is based on or derived from Ms. Sheehy's book.

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