Plans Change

I’ve always been one of those people who has indulged in chaos. Indulged in the unknown. And part of my attraction to acting was that you could enter a scene, give yourself over, and not know what was going to happen. Certain things would come out of me that I would never expect. Emotions that I didn’t know I had, related to a particular scene. Or just the sheer enjoyment... Read More

Keep Record

By now, hopefully you’ve tapped back into your Mojo and are exploring your impulses.  It’s time to start analyzing all those discoveries, so that later we can track change, and set new goals. Keeping an acting journal is a very important part of your process.  It’s one of the best ways to take your work to an even deeper level.  Recognizing and becoming aware... Read More

A Million Little Pieces

So you’ve found your honeycomb.  Your artistic residence.  No cave is built in a day, but you’ve got things inside.  Your inspirational quote, a painting by your favorite artist.  If you live in LA… maybe your vision board   So now what do you do?  Since we’re talking about impulses, a great place to start is plastique work by Jerzy Grotowski.  It’s... Read More

Honey Comb

Time to put some of those impulses to the test my friends. Stimulate your impulses. Find a dark space and just go for it. If you want to punch, punch the air. if you want to swear, curse to your hearts content. Right now you need a clubhouse, like when you were 8 years old. You need a place where you can go to explore these impulses where you won’t feel judged. Where if you... Read More

The Creative Mood

So many different acting methods.  So many different schools of thought.  Which one is right?  Which religion should I follow?  Oh God! Well, TV,Bitch! wouldn’t call himself an expert, but from all the different teachers I’ve met, books I’ve read, conversations I’ve had, ALL agree that relaxation is key.  When the body is relaxed and there is a connection... Read More

Truthdig

Lead Follow lead Follow. Who’s doing what? Your Brain or your body. Am I talking about dancing, or acting? For every action there is an equal and opposing reaction. So how does this apply when you’re buying a soda in the store? When you see someone attractive in your building? When someone gives you the finger on the highway? Is it a natural response? Is it controlled?... Read More

Mimic

Remember seeing Michael Jordan play ball?  Or the acrobats in Cirque de Soleil?  The true capacity of the human body exposed.  Countless hours of fine tuning until finally… perfection. So we give you something fun for Friday.  Aries Spears, a human mimic. …Yeah. And he’s free-styling. Now play it one more time, close your eyes, and just listen. …Yeah. See... Read More

Breaking Through

Imagine! You’re an instrument (non musical), like a pen or a pencil, that can move at it’s own will. Being the pencil that you are, you love to write! So you write and write and write all day long. Move around on the page. But you’re constantly making boxes. Small boxes, big boxes. You find yourself moving around on the page in perpendicular lines. It’s not that you can’t... Read More

The Inner Recesses

Let’s go deeper. You know you want to. Where’s the core, the root of your being? Or… Let’s just take a step in that direction What do you like? What don’t you like? Why? What pisses you off? What, might even drive you to murder? Scary but necessary questions to ask yourself. As an actor, you must be connected to your lightness and darkness, so all... Read More

ATF

Exploring your instrument should be fun. If it’s not, then ya might have the wrong technique, the wrong exercises, the wrong profession?  A very reputable acting teacher claims, “everything the actor does on stage has to stimulate the actor.  It might not necessarily excite the character, but it gets the actor’s fingers and toes tingling with ecstasy.”  The... Read More