John Dalby's book has arrived, and I have it! $17. A lot of people who worked with John during Jean Newlove's Laban Movement Theory workshops requested his book on vocal technique. Contact me so I can arrange to get it to you. "How to Speak Well in Business" looks terrific and comes with an accompanying audiotape.

For the time being, I'm canceling the Director's Lab. It makes me sad to do it, but I'm having too much trouble finding qualified directors for the Lab. I still very much want to put actors together with directors on an ongoing basis and will revisit the challenge this Fall. In the interim, if you want to act on camera, check out my Tuesday night Exellent Film Class. We're shooting digital video in there now and I am personally editing the scenes for review. This is much more useful than reviewing unedited work and is an unusual opportunity.

UPCOMING CLASSES
Commercials Workshop -- May 20-21
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 -- Sat 10-5, May 13th

HOOKS ACTORS WORKING
Multi-talented STEVE LEE (all classes 92-'95) directed three 30- second national commercials for Franklin Telecommunications Corp. MIKE ROMO (all classes - '93-'96) lives in NYC now and is co-producing the Chekhov Vaudeville Festival at NADA Show World. The plays are "The Bear", "Jubilee" and "Proposal" and Mike also plays lead roles in all three. He is also doing the programs and running the web site! (www.purepop.org) KAROLYN NISHIOKA (all classes - '98-'99) landed a role on the TV show "The West Wing". Her episode should air May 3rd. MARCELO TUBERT (all classes - circa '82) is appearing through May 21st in "The Man Who Had All the Luck" by Arthur Miller, in North Hollywood. Call 818-506-8462 for tickets. SUSAN SHRAMM (comml - '99) plays the title role in "Diana of the Canyon", a short indie film. KURT KROESHE is in San Jose's American Musical Theatre production of "Phantom". After this, he will appear in "Out of This World", and, in September, he'll be playing Lorenzo in Marin Shakespeare Company's production of "The Merchant of Venice." ROCKY LA ROCHELLE (f/tv - current) recently completed a lead role in the short film "Remains". He also landed a leading role in an episode of "Voices From The Grave" to be shot by Triple Sticks Productions and a supporting role in the feature length indie "Before You Go!" written and directed by LA's Sargon Benjamin. CAROLYN DOYLE (f/tv - '92) recorded a v/o for eVoice. TERRY YOUNG (f/tv - current) booked an industrial for Charles Schwab. JEANETTE HARRISON (f/tv 99) stars in "The Lady's Not For Burning" at Crossroads Theatre in Walnut Creek, through May 13th. For Tickets, call 925-944-0551. In addition, she will appear in June with the improv show CAFÉ performing "Zenith in the Tropic of Cancer" at Next Stage in SF. Tickets: 415-673-0304. CHERYL MENDOZA (comml - '99) shot two episodes of "Math TV" plus a PSA Zeum. TERRY BAMBERGER (f/tv - 2000) has a role in the indie film "Coffee and Language."

CRAFT NOTES
"Moral Obligation"

Actors have always been citizens of the world even more than they are citizens of a particular country, and this orientation is quickening noticeably. Communication across great distances is instantaneous now, and international travel is commonplace. The world we have grown up with is reorganizing into communities of ideas rather than geographically separate nation-states.

The shifting tide of international values was brought home to me recently when I read a New York Times piece by Suzanne Daley (4/9/00) who posted from Paris. She enumerated the widening chasm between traditional European cultures and the United States. Since the fall of communism, the U.S. has become an 800-pound gorilla to many Europeans, tramping around the globe demanding that things be done the U.S. way. There is a new arrogance in how the U.S. government deals with other countries, knowing that there is not a chance that an unhappy government might toss in its lot with Russia. The U.S. is shouting, like James Cameron at the Oscars, "I'm king of the world!" This is furthering divisions along philosophical lines.

Ms. Daley, in her article, pointed to these glaring disparities between European cultures and the U.S.:

(1) A record number of Americans now own firearms while, in Europe, personal firearms are shunned.
(2) Thirty-eight U.S. states now enforce the death penalty while the sentence has been abolished or suspended by every member of the European Union.
(3) Forty-eight percent of Americans do not have health insurance; large American cities are plagued with homelessness. Cradle-to-grave health care is a birth right in Europe.
(4) The U.S. "war on drugs", which treats drug abuse as a crime instead of a public health problem, is in stark contrast to drug policies in Europe.
(5) The U.S. is essentially incarcerating its lower classes, spending more on prisons now than education. Half of the prisoners in the federal jails are there for violating drug laws.
(6) Black youths in America are more than six times as likely as whites to be sentenced to prison by juvenile courts. For drug offenses, blacks are sent to prison 48 times more often than whites charged with the same crimes.

Acting is about basic human values, what it means to live successfully in the world. We actors traffic in matters spiritual. Does successful living equate to stock options and a hot IPO? A new SUV? Does success equate to freedom from government intervention in our lives, even if that freedom includes zero health care?

We should be expanding our reach as artists. It is too easy to focus on getting cast on a hit TV show that is, after all, part of a sales medium, not an artistic one. Here in the United States, the government does not support the arts. The city of Paris, France alone spends more on the arts than does the entire United States government. American actors are forced to walk the walk and talk the talk of consumerism if they want to be paid to act. We are part of the information juggernaut that is overtaking the world.

I'm not suggesting that we give up commerce and move to communes. Nor am I suggesting that we refuse roles on television shows. My point is that we need to avoid myopia and embrace our world citizenship. It is so very easy to look no further than our immediate environment and to conclude that this is the way the world is. It's not so. We, as artists, have a moral obligation to stay connected with the stream of human values, not just the values of the prevailing government.

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