"IRON GIANT" RULES!
Even if you think you don't like animation, you'll love "Iron Giant" which, ironically, is also set in the 1950's, against the background of the Red Scare and McCarthyism. Thoroughly enjoyable movie that has been badly mis-marketed by Warner Brothers. This is NOT a Saturday morning cartoon about space monsters. It's an emotionally satisfying and exciting story that is told using animation. Big difference. See it quickly on the big screen, before it descends to Blockbuster. I loved this movie a lot.

"RUN LOLA RUN" is also recommended. It's a film, not a movie, if you get my drift. Clever concept in which the same twenty minutes is replayed three times, with different things happening to the main character each time, which changes the outcome each time. This one won awards at Sundance, and I can see why. Go and enjoy.

ATTENTION ANIMATORS! The ACTING FOR ANIMATORS class is September 25th in San Francisco, 10am - 5pm. There are still two or three spaces left, but you better hurry. Class limited to fifteen. I'm looking forward to it.

HOOKS STUDENTS WORKING
JODI FUNG (s.stdy - '97) shot an episode of "Passions", the new soap opera. JUDY MARTIN (comml '99) is in "Liquid Soap", an episodic, improvised Soap Opera based on audience suggestions, at the Eureka Theatre in SF. Runs through Oct. 1st. For more info see http://www.liquidsoap.com/ or call (415)441-2492. JO MCGINLEY (all classes - '96) is has been hired by Sprint, to do some voice-overs, industrials and a commercial. PEACHES HUCHINSON (comml - '96) shot two independent films, "Stonewashed" and "The Lost Pearls". KEVIN LASIT did 40 sponsor tags for the NFL, airing on ESPN/TNT. MARNIE LEVEE (s.stdy - current) has been cast in "Waiting for Lefty." PHIL SHERIDAN (f/tv - '97) plays The Coffin-Maker in an upcoming psychological thriller "Recoil", written & directed by Jarek Kupsc and produced by Immigrant Films/San Francisco. ANNAN PATERSON (comml - '97) performs her solo show, "Deep Canyon" at an upcoming conference in San Rafael, Ca. The event, "Cancer as a Turning Point -- From Surviving to Thriving in a World of Wisdom", is sponsored by Healing Journeys and the Marin General Hospital Institute for Health and Healing Humanities Program and is designed "to celebrate, empower, awaken and network all those whose lives have been touched by cancer." Admission is free, donations welcome. Call 1-800-423-9882, or e-mail jadrian@healingjourneys.com for more info.

CRAFT NOTES
NEW YORK, NEW YORK!

New York City is utterly and instantly addictive, a fact that was brought home to me with the force of a body slam when I spent a recent week there with my 15-year old daughter, Dagny. For me, the visit marked the end of an unjustifiable sixteen year absence and, for her, it was astonishment at first sight. From Broadway to SoHo, from Christopher Street to Second Avenue, from the West Side to the East Side, New York struts its muscular self, literally vibrating with confidence and high style. Times Square no longer bears any resemblance at all to John Schlesinger's seedy black and white images in "Midnight Cowboy", having morphed into a gigantic neon theatrical wonderland -- with clean streets!

It was on Broadway, affectionately known to us in the biz as Mecca, that Dagny and I saw, from expensive mezzanine seats, the Generation-Y hit show "Rent", still selling out after a three year run. Dagny can recite for you all the words to the songs, which were amplified way too loud for my ears (I'm old enough to remember when Broadway musicals were not miked at all!), but I can tell you about the energy. Energy, as in "life force", energy as in "why does one become an actor in the first place?"

Energy equates to "caring". Lethargy equates to "I don't care" or "I'm too tired to care." If you want your performance to be more energetic, raise the stakes, care more about the subject, and the net result will be an increase in energy. (This, instead of trying to act more energetically, which invites "result" acting.) From the moment the actors in "Rent" take the stage, you know they -- like the New Yorkers on the streets outside -- care a LOT! They're wearing their hearts on their sleeves, pumping extra extension into every dance step, every phrase of every song, reaching out to the world with their message.

It has been far too long since I have been immersed in this kind of energy. Touring shows and national companies too often have a worn-at-the-edges, tomorrow-it's-Cincinnati feel to them, and most community theatre doesn't seem have a clue, being content with the Mickey Rooney "Let's put on a show, kids!!" kind of thing.

Theatre, when it works, has purpose and heart to spare, so much energy that it will seem the production has been plugged into a wall socket back stage. A really compelling show will grab you by the shirt and not let you go until the final curtain call is over, at which point you will collapse into your seat. "Rent" -- the Broadway production, anyway -- delivers the goods, in spades; and so does New York. I'm grateful for -- and re-inspired by -- the experience.

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