My wife, Cally, and I recently snagged a week of much needed down time in Italy, and I can happily report that the wine, food and scenery in Tuscany are as intoxicating as you might imagine. Traveling in Italy is probably my biggest addiction (heck, I don't smoke!) and, if you have never been there, I wish it on you. It is the kind of place where, as soon as you step off the airplane, you can feel your blood pressure drop and those endorphins start kicking into gear. And more good news: Alitalia flies from San Francisco to Milan non-stop now, at a very affordable price. Check it out!

In Florence, they're filming "Hannibal", the sequel to "Silence of the Lambs". Ridley Scott ("Gladiator", "Blade Runner"), a director known for his lavish movies, has taken over the historic center of the great city, turning it into a Hollywood movie set. I stood in the shadows and watched Anthony Hopkins -- as Hannibal Lector -- playing a deadly nighttime game of cat-and-mouse with the good guys throughout Florence's cobblestoned piazzas. It must be costing the studio a bloody fortune to have this kind of access to Florence! It was fun to watch Hopkins doing his prep work before a shot, by the way. He paces around, getting the rhythm of the character working for him. Fascinating.

CAMERA FOR SALE
"Psst...wanna buy a Sony Hi-8 videocam (model TR940)?" $250. Like new. I used it in my film classes for a couple of months before I upgraded to the digital video setup I'm using now. Excellent condition, terrific price. I was going to list it on E-Bay, but I figured I'd give Newsletter people first dibs. I paid about $600 for it less than a year ago.

UPCOMING CLASSES
Commercials Workshop -- July 1-2
Scene Study (San Francisco) -- Mon, 7-10:30pm, ongoing
Scene Study (Palo Alto) -- Thurs, 6:30-10pm, ongoing
Film/TV (San Francisco) -- Tues 7-10:30pm, ongoing
Acting for Animators -- July 22

Clint Eastwood's new movie "Space Cowboys", will open August 4th, and you'll see HOWIE KLAUSNER's name in the titles as one of the screenwriters! This is a major coup for my good friend and former student Mister Klausner who is currently co-writing yet another script for Warner Brothers. I'm damned proud of you, Howie, no kidding! JAXY BOYD (all classes - '94-'97) recorded v/o's for Wal-Mart and Charles Schwab. THORGE LORENZEN (f/tv - '97) landed a role on a German TV show entitled "Wolf's Revier", shooting now in Berlin. His character is Bodo, the boyfriend of the inspectors daughter. KAYT CAMPBELL (comml - '00) appeared recently in a dinner theatre murder-mystery production of "Gold Rush" at the Delta Saloon in Virginia City, Nevada. CHRISTINE SCHNEIDER (s.stdy - '99)has put up a web site to promote an indie film she appears in. Check it out at http://www.angelfire.com/movies/nutcracker. BRETT ROSENBERG (comml -'99) shot an indie film, "Scrappers". MING LO (s.stdy - '91) is in a "predominately Asian-cast" production of Ibsen's "A Doll's House", through June 17th at the Morgan-Wixson Theater in Santa Monica. Call for tickets: 310 828-7519. MIA PASCHAL (s.stdy - '97 - '99) landed an indie film entitled "A Day of the Life of a Crackhead" directed by Tim Talbot and produced by Celia Zaentz. RAY RENATI (s.stdy - '99) is in "The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny" at the West Bay Opera Company, through June 4th. For tickets, call (650) 424-9999. DIANE TASCA (s.stdy - current) appeared in an industrial for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists convention at the Moscone Center, May 22-23. JEAN MAZZEI (s.stdy-'97-'99) is appearing in an original one-act at the Exit Theater in SF, Fridays and Saturdays 8 pm June 2-24. For reservations, call (415) 951-4812 JEANETTE HARRISON (f/tv '99) has a lead in an independent short, "Zingaroo. " In July, she'll be onstage with C.A.F.E. at the Next Stage in SF. And in Napa, she's playing Diana in "Lend Me a Tenor". SUN ST. PIERRE's (s.stdy - '95) Providian Visa commercial is running nationally on cable. LISA WISEMAN (s.stdy - '94-'95) appears in Christopher Durang's "The Actor's Nightmare" at Stage 1 Repertory Theatre in Newark, through June 17th. For info, call (510)791-0287. RALPH FILICE (s.stdy - current) is appearing in a murder mystery supper theatre production of "Murder And All The Usual Suspects". He has also had recent roles in indie films "Nut- Cracker" and "Banker Secrets", and he recorded a v/o for the indie film "The Four Minute Fable".

LABAN MOVEMENT WORKSHOPS are being taught in Berkeley by Betsy Kagan. Laban is good stuff for actors, and Ms. Kagan is a certified expert. She's starting new classes at the end of June. For info, call her at (510)547-0843.

CRAFT NOTES
"Training the 21st Century Actor"

There were no directors in ancient Greek theatre; nor were there directors in Shakespeare's England or Moliere's France. Back then, it was the actor/playwright who did the story telling. The job description we know today as "director" evolved in the 20th century, primarily in the United States. Unfortunately, as story telling authority has shifted into the hands of directors, actors have increasingly become paints in the director's palette. While not exactly a zero-sum game, this evolution of authority from the actor to the director has definitely signaled some artistic disempowerment of the actor. In the typical stage production or movie, tribute is paid to a process of collaboration between all the parties involved -- actors, writers, director -- but it really is the director's vision that dominates. There is much more involved in the casting process than locating actors who are "right for the role". The director is not only casting for type and technical strength, but is bringing to life his or her vision of how the play ought to go. From the start -- beginning with the first production meetings -- the director considers how the story ought to be seen by an audience. From the start, the director -- not the actor or the writer -- is the de facto story teller. Indeed, this is why we have the word "auteur".

I am convinced that the 21st Century actor is poised for re-vitalization and that the Internet will play an important role in the process. Sharon M. Carnicke, Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Theatre at the University of California, wrote a remarkable book in 1998 entitled "Stanislavsky in Focus" (Harwood Academic Publishers). It is a must-read for actors, a keeper for the bookshelf. In it, Ms. Carnicke skillfully draws the line between acting theory as practiced by Constantin Stanislavsky, and "method" as practiced by Lee Strasberg of the Actor's Studio. Stanislavsky's focus always was on the actor as the primary story telling artist. Strasberg's Method oriented the actor to himself and his own emotions rather than the audience, leaving the story telling function up to the director.

All of this has been weighing on my mind lately as I began work on my next book, "Training the 21st Century Actor", which will be published by Heinemann in the spring 2001. I'm intrigued by a single recurring question: What will be the role of the actor in this new century? What precisely is the 21st Century actor being trained to do?

The career track of most professions is clear. If you want to be an accountant, you enter a CPA program and emerge as an accountant. If you want to be a doctor, an airplane pilot or a schoolteacher, same thing. But acting? The actor today is learning how to read a script and say the lines believably. He's learning how to be a color in somebody else's palette! And in the United States -- a country that provides close to zero support for the arts -- an actor who wants to make enough money from his profession to support a family must act on television, which is a sales medium, not an artistic medium. The purpose of television shows is to deliver good-humored consumers to the commercials. Television is an appendage of and commercial for U.S. consumerism. I'm not suggesting that it is wrong or less than honorable to act on television, but I am bemoaning the lack of options that face today's actor.

I want to see actors re-energized as storytellers and shamans. I want to see the 21st Century actor join hands with his ancestors in ancient Greece. The Internet, coupled with digital film making, offers a brand new arena in which stories can be told. The learning curve for participation is not steep, nor is it expensive. The Internet puts personal expression within reach of every person.

Cyberspace, yet a medium for e-mail, amusing or informative web sites and commerce, has the potential to host a new kind of theater -- one that plays to a global audience. You can see a glimmer of the future by visiting web sites such as AtomFilms.com and iFilm.Com. If Shakespeare himself were around today, I think he would be logged on and wired up.

We are living in exciting times at the start of the 21st Century. If actors can be trained to be storytellers once again, and if they can orient to a global audience, we may very well be participating in a seismic shift of artistry in the world of theater.

Return to Top