Please explore the writings of our creative director and founder.
The director usually begins rehearsals by giving the student exercises to open and deepen their imagination. The student will then express the feelings, ideas, and images that come up as a result of his work in the imagination. At this point, the student’s creative instrument is malleable enough to be able to go into the rehearsal process, because now he is able to feel real feelings, see real images, think real thoughts, and feel intuitive, creative impressions of the playwright’s words and actions, or have understandings and impressions of whatever situation he may be confronting.
In this process, you lose your fears and overcome tentativeness because you feel and express everything in action. You are not holding onto yourself or holding back. You are putting what you feel and think into a physicalized expression. You are not locked inside of yourself. If you are doing, feeling, and expressing, you can’t be locked in fear because you are in action. This allows you to express your intention and intellect in the world. When the world feels your power, you can’t be overcome by fear or tentativeness.
In our next post, discover how the rehearsal process builds confidence and prepares us for success.
The rehearsal process is the time to take the theoretical beliefs you’ve been taught and experiment with the different ideas, steps, and actions to see what best serves to bring this situation or this character to life. The rehearsal process is a direct microcosm of life, because in life we’re continuously trying new avenues to see what best suits our particular needs. The rehearsal process gives us the luxury of failing. And within moments of failure, you sometimes find a profound insight into the journey of life.
By studying and participating in a rehearsal process, we learn that life is a series of steps and sequences that lead to understanding the action of a play or situation. One often begins the rehearsal process, or any new situation, feeling fear and insecurity. The more you rehearse, dissect, analyze, and understand that situation or play, you begin to break free of the fear.
A teacher or director’s first responsibility is to create a safe environment where the professional theatre artist or student can feel secure. Most situations in life dictate that we compete to the highest level possible. Experience tells us that if we use our powers of competition, will, and dogged ability to get the job done, we’ll probably come out on top. In creative situations, this approach is very destructive. Creativity and talent don’t mix with competition or will. That is why the director or teacher must create an atmosphere that makes the student feel accepted, relaxed and provides a sense of certainty.
Exploring the rehearsal process and the role the director plays leads us to how the Circle of Concentration fosters originality, which we’ll examine in our next post.
The essays below were written at the founding of The Actors Theatre Workshop and explain many of the central principles surrounding our mission and approach.
The American theatre and American society as a whole have tremendous potential to create.
Read More…I have always had to find a very creative way to run our business. For nearly twenty years, before we were located at 145 West 28th Street in New York City, we were creating new material and searching for new, alternative, original techniques with which to develop our expressions in the written word and in creative action. Our collective struggle kept us in an on-going creative process.
Read More…One of the foundations of my life on earth, since I was a small child in the backfields of Cora Peak, North Carolina, was the time I spent at night gazing from the rooftops into the outer reaches of space, dreaming and wondering, hoping for the opportunity to put into a practical, visionary expression my faith, my dreams and my deep longing to contribute to the enlightenment and support of human expression.
Read More…When you dream you open up to a new world of ideas and possibilities. Your new insights will inspire and reveal to you your greater self, and make you want to challenge and open up new frontiers that will serve both you and humanity.
Read More…We live in a time of broken form. The tradition of family life is broken. Children frequently grow up in a broken family structure. I created The Young Peoples Creative Workshop to teach children some guidelines for living through the techniques of acting and writing.
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