IS MTV SIGNALING THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE? IS THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES LISTENING?
MTV created a new category for its awards show, Best Virtual Performance. Gollum from "Lord of the Rings: Two Towers" won. http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,11896,00.html?tnews

ED HOOKS SAN FRANCISCO ACTING CLASSES JULY 18 - AUG. 5
(Note to CHICAGO students: Your regular Thursday night scene study workshops will not be affected by this trip. I will fly back from SF each week to be with you on Thursdays.)
I will teach 3-week intensive scene study workshops in both Mountain View and San Francisco, mid-July to early August. The tuition is $275, and classes at both locations will meet two nights per week.. Mountain View classes will meet on Tuesday night and Sunday night July 20, 22, 27, 29 and August 3, 5 at the Pear Avenue Theatre. San Francisco classes will meet on Monday and Wednesday nights July 21, 23, 28, 30 and August 4, 6, but I don't have a firm location for them yet. If you are interested in enrolling in one of these workshops, please send me an e-mail at edhooks@edhooks.com, and I'll tell you how to proceed.

I will also be available for private coaching during my stay in the Bay Area. I don't know where that might take place yet though. If you are interested in private coaching ($75 per hour), send me an e-mail so I can put your name on a list. That way, as soon as I get the locations set, I can let you know.

HOOKS STILL LOOKING FOR A SUITABLE HOME FOR THE SAN FRANCISCO TRIP
If you hear of something, let me know. I need a two-bedroom place for the period July 16 - August 8. Either San Francisco or the South Bay is the best for me. Sublet or a housesitting situation is okay. I can water flowers and feed cats like a pro. <g>

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.
A NEW FILM DEMO CLASS BEGINS NEXT TUESDAY JUNE 24TH
This 4-week workshop is limited to only four actors, and I teach it in my own apartment in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago. (Frankly, the final edited scenes have a higher production value this way.) My apartment is located at 600 West Surf #3, at the corner of Broadway and Surf, a half block south of the old Broadway acting studio. Here is a map

REGARDING CHICAGO COMMERCIALS WORKSHOPS
I'm still not sure what I'm going to do about commercials workshops, and I apologize for it taking so long.. I'm in discussions with executives at The Audition Studio. Stay tuned.

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
JO MCKINLEY (F./TV''96) booked Boston Public, national commercials for Ameriquest and Klondike, and an ongoing voiceover gig for The Sims. AMY WATT (all classes '97), now in LA, appears in "Playhouse Creatures" April DeAngelis, a comic drama set in the 1660s in Restoration England. Details: Open Fist Theatre Company, 1625 N. La Brea, Hollywood, CA 90028. Call 323-882-6912 for info. and reservations. ERIC SWARTZ (all classes '99) has been cast in a corporate film for Cisco Systems. MEREDITH HAGEDORN (f/tv '00) and DIANE TASCA (s.stdy - '96-'00) are featured in "Collected Stories" by Donald Margulies at the Pear Avenue Theatre in Mountain View, CA. Running Thursdays through Saturdays, August 1 - 17. For info: www.dragonproductions.net or call 650-329-1656. SARA BETTS (F/TV-'00) is featured as Hortense, the frisky French maid, in "The Boyfriend" at the Dean Lescher Center for the Performing Arts in Walnut Creek, June 5-28, 2003; Thursday -Saturdays at 8:15pm; Sundays at 2;15pm. GENE GORE (all classes '99-'00) has recently landed lead roles in three independent films: "Doghouse" (a comedy) "The Music Box" (a mystery) and, currently she is shooting one entitled "Dumping Gretchen"

CRAFT NOTES
MORAL OUTRAGE
There are many factors that share space in the definition of an excellent actor. The obvious ones are an ability to project your voice, to know what it means to play an action, to stay in the moment theatrically and to play off the reality of your scene partner. The not-so-obvious but perhaps most important factor is that the actor have a sense of moral outrage.

First, let me first tell you what I do not mean by this term "moral outrage". I do not mean that you should be angry or that you should be picking a fight when you act. Nor do I mean that you must turn each of your roles into something political or that you should look for elements of hostility in your characters. A character can have a sense of moral outrage and still be a pussycat.

The idea of moral outrage goes back again to the shamanistic roots of acting. Actors are like religious figures. Do you know of a good priest or rabbi that does not care deeply about his religion? How would you like it if you showed up at a funeral for a good friend and the minister didn't seem to have a position one way or the other about what makes a worthwhile life?

Sometimes you can be overt about it. Sometimes you have the good fortune to be playing a character who is saying and doing things that would take you personally to the barricades. More often than not, though, that is not the case. Consider the play "Keely and Du" by Jane Martin. The spine of the piece has to do with a standoff between two women, one of whom is pro-choice and one of whom is anti-choice. Suppose you are cast in the role that is opposite of your personal real-life opinions? Would you play that character with less gusto than the character with whom you personally agree? If so, I can tell you right now that you are a bad actor and should maybe consider pursuing a different line of work. Both sides of that issue feel equally as passionate. Both characters believe equally that she is correct.

My point is that having a sense of moral outrage does not mean you have to agree with me philosophically or politically. As an acting teacher, I only care that you care. Make your acting personal. Stimulate yourself with it. What do you care about? What trips your switch? What pushes you over the edge? Where is your fire and passion? At what point do you stop turning the other cheek and stand up for something? Contrary to what David Mamet might believe, actors are not blank slates on which playwrights write.

Recently I was watching a couple of actors doing a scene from Edward Albee's 1960's play "Zoo Story". The young man was telling the older character about his comparatively less comfortable lifestyle. He spoke of living in a small apartment with thin walls and a "colored queen" next door. As I watched the performance, I started wondering how, say, George Bush or Donald Rumsfeld might respond to this story about the colored queen. I started wondering how it would feel if one had an opportunity to speak to one of these men in private and exclusively about how life actually is experienced at the lower half of the social spectrum. Had it been me playing the young man, I would have made sure I rubbed the older guy's nose in the reality of life real good. For me, it would not have been a discussion, but a mission, an opportunity.

And then I wondered (all of this while the scene was in progress, which is fascinating on its own terms. I need to write some craft notes one day about what goes through the audience's mind during an actor's performance Š..) if maybe the actor on stage who was playing the younger man was a Bushey, a Young Republican. And if he was a Young Republican, what could he do to show a sense of moral outrage about the inequity in social status in America.

The answer is that it doesn't matter what the personal position of the actor on stage is. If he was a Young Republican, so what? Doesn't matter! The important thing is that he care about things and that he be willing to allow his character to care about things. I remember once reading an interview with Peter Brook in which he said that no matter how much you personally love, your character loves more; no matter how much you hate, your character hates more; no matter how much you care, your character cares more. That is profoundly wise theatrical insight in my opinion.

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