Interview with Carmen López and Marian Ottonello, students of the Stage and Camera workshop

 What do the students feel about their progress at the workshop on theatre and acting before cameras which began in Buenos Aires three months ago? We have asked them their opinions and here are some of the answers:

CARMEN LOPEZ

 What led you to participate in the theatre workshop?

My love for the English language along with a need I felt to enhance my ability to express myself better –in any language- was what made me decide to participate in the theatre workshop. As a journalist, I have always enjoyed reading British/American news articles. Besides, I like contemporary English literature (particularly authors such as David Lodge and Philip Roth, who write satires). As before taking up this workshop, I had never attended theatre classes, I thought (and still think) that in a foreign language I might be able to lose my inhibitions more easily. In a word, joining the theatre workshop is part of a personal quest for both enjoyment and self-development.   

 Do you feel this experience has improved your English? Has it increased your knowledge about acting and creativity?

While I didn’t take this workshop in order to improve my English, it certainly has helped! As regards my knowledge about acting, this is my first experience, so I know that there’s a long way left to run. However, I feel that I immediately experienced an improvement in my creativity. The activities in the workshop have helped me a lot to be less stuck in my ways and become more mindful of everyday life (perhaps looking for ideas to perform better)!

 Does doing both theatre and acting in front of cameras produce confusion or uncertainity? Which do you prefer and why?

It’s been quite difficult for me to act in front of cameras, particularly because of my complete lack of experience in “ordinary” acting. I guess that, as soon as I learn the basics (which is taking me quite a long time!), I will enjoy it. Anyway this experience is going to be very useful for my professional career –as a journalist—I mean learning how to act in front of cameras can obviously be important for journalists!  Nevertheless, for now I think I prefer developing my skills in for acting on stage. But one never knows. Maybe later on I will change my mind!

 MARIAN OTTONELLO

What made you decide to participate in the theatre workshop?

I started loving theatre at a very early age, when I attended an English school where our school plays were all in English. After I finished School I started began studying theatre in different Theatre Schools and also took some seminaries. However, when I heard about the possibility to act in front of cameras in English, I wanted to try it because it would give me the opportunity to do what I had done in school but now as a grown-up. As I don´t often use the language now, this is an opportuity to freshen up or  practice my English in the way I most enjoy, through acting. I think this workshop will also be important for my my acting CV.

Do you feel this experience has improved your English? Has it increased your knowledge about acting and creativity?

           
 In my case, I’m not sure if it has improved my English but it has helped to  keep in practice and use the language well. Concerning the acting aspect, I think I’m learning  how to act in front of cameras, as I feel I am already attached to the theatrical way of acting. For example, I’m getting more used to the idea of economizing my actions and facial expressions. Sometimes I´m really afraid of exaggerating things, and maybe before the camera things must be a bit more “bigger” in order for the spectator to notice those actions and reactions. The idea of the workshop is to learn by playing, to play in order to find the character we are working on, so exaggerating things is part of the exploration we carry out in working on  our characters.  

Does doing both theatre and acting in front of cameras produce confusion or uncertainty? Which do you prefer and why?

I love the idea of being in front of cameras, always did. But now that I have the experience of both theatre and cameras, I really enjoying it and believe it´s useful for my acting overall experience. Of the two I realize I prefer theatre, because that´s what I always have always done.I feel more comfortable and have always enjoyed being there at that exact moment, all the feelings it provokes and the public in front of us. I prefer the whole story taking place right there, than filming on scenes. Of course I understand that´s how it is working with cameras and find it interesting and can benifit from mis stakes; yet I prefer to improvise something fast on the moment if I’ve made a mistake and carry on, because solving issues on stage is part of being a theatre actor.  

There are many ways of acting, diverse notions concerning how the actor should move on stage, how she should use her body, her voice, whether the an actor should reproduce reality, distort it, play with it or use it to subvert standarized or stereotyped notions of the world we live in. Although Sarah Bernhardt believed in a natural acting technique, in "The Art of the Theatre" she also gave us some important clues concerning what bad acting is:

"An actor cannot be natural unless he really has power to project his personality. He must in a way forget himself, and divest himself of his proper attributes in order to assume those of his part. He must forget the emotion of the moment, the joy or the sorrow born of the events of the day...

"If the actor retains his mode of living, of  thinking and of behaving throughout the manifold characters that he successively impersonates, he cannot feel the passions of these characters; and, unless he can enter into the feelings of his heroes, however violent they may be, however cruel and vindictive they may seem, he will never be anything but a bad actor.  Coldness will be his portion, and not the impetuous ardor which carries away an audience and which is the hallmark of genius. If he does not really feel the anguish of the betrayed lover or of the dishonored father, if he does not temporarily escape from the dullness of his existence in order to throw himself wholeheartedly into the most acute crisies, he will move nobody. How can he convince another of his emotion, of the sincerity of his passions, if he is unable to convince himself to the point of actually becoming the character that he has to impersonate?"

Although Sarah speaks from her own vast experience, she does so in the context of the historical period that influenced her life. We believe that acting should and must include a strong dosis of mental control over the emotions. Otherwise, except for very talented persons such as Sarah Bernhardt, the danger is to fall into psychological role play. The mind must act as the actor's guide; his body and voice the tools of his/her trade.

Geraldine Page: the value of improvisation

• In an interview with Richard Schechner of the Tulane Drama Review, Geraldine Page said she thought improvisation was marvelous:
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• "Oh, I think it's marvelous! I love it. As a matter of fact, I adore it in performance...If you just say the lines as written, you often have to leap from mountain crag to mountain crag in your own thinking. But if you can improvise and stretch the fabric and poke around in it for a while, then you find  the links that aren't immediately observable."
  

Richard Boleslavsky: "Spiritual Concentration"

          What should an actor do to concentrate and to relax at the same time? Richard Boleslavsky (1889-1937) was a Polish born actor and exponent of the Moscow Art Theatre who believed in something he called "Spiritual Concentration," the ability to say to your feelings: "Stop and fill my entire being." He was convinced that this faculty can be developed and trained as much as one can train the human body. As a consequence, he developed a series of exercises aimed at enhancing inner concentration. 

          First, he asserted, the actor should concentrate his/her thoughts on each separate group of muscles, bringing them from the state of tension into one of relaxation.

          Second: "The verifying of your muscles in the sense of supplying them only with the necessary amount of strength during ther performance of the following exercises: walking, sitting down, the lifting up of different articles from the floor, taking down of same from a high shelf, pointing at different things, calling, greeting, lighting a cigarette, the handing of a burning match to someone while a third person tries to blow it out, kicking with your foot articles of a different weight, lacing a shoe, any physical exercise, hollowed by complete rest, the taking of an intricate position followed by an immediate relaxation of all the muscles with its natural result--the fall of the body, the giving of a blow, the defense from a real or imaginary blow.

"In doing all these exercises you must follow exclusively the example of nature and perform them in a high spirit and in a joyous frame of mind. You must understand as well that the relaxation of you muscles does not mean by any means their weakening. You must train your muscles every day without making it a meaningless series of physical exercises. Each of your muscles must understand the reason for its particular training."

True. A pianist practices every day. So does a singer, a sportsman. The actor's tool is his body. Some of our body functions are automatic--the beating of the heart, our breath. Others are learned: riding a bycycle, walking, dancing. We must develop the ability to tell our mind to send to each of our muscles the energy needed to perform each task we do in the process of a role-play or show. We do this intentionally in the exercises so that when we act we can send the precise amount of energy needed to express  the emotional state required in each segment of the play we are performing.

STAGE AND CAMERA

Stage and Camera, theatre and acting in English, was created in Buenos Aires in the year 2013. It is an educational and artistic endeavor, under the direction of U.S. born professor Alfred Seymour Hopkins, with the technical assistance of musician and actor Kiran Sharbis, dedicated to organizing classes of theatre and acting before the camera. It also generates projects of an educational nature in English. The schedule for the classes at Teleactuar, 2444 Mendoza street, Buenos Aires: from 3 to 5pm, theatre and from 5 to 7pm acting before the camera. Stage and Camera is open to all those who want to improve their English language skills and acquire creative and artistic abilities. More information: (011) 4342-3588 / (011) 1562521028 or via email:
info@stageandcamera.com

www.stageandcamera.com

Stage and Camera. Acting and Theatre in english in Buenos Aires Argentina.

Description.

Stage and Camera, theatre and acting in English, was created in Buenos Aires in the year 2013. It is an educational and artistic endeavor, under the direction of U.S. born professor Alfred Seymour Hopkins, with the technical assistance of musician and actor Kiran Sharbis, dedicated to organizing classes of theatre and acting before the camera. It also generates projects of an educational nature in English. The schedule for the classes at Teleactuar, 2444 Mendoza street, Buenos Aires: from 3 to 5pm, theatre and from 5 to 7pm acting before the camera. Stage and Camera is open to all those who want to improve their English language skills and acquire creative and artistic abilities. More information: (011) 4342-3588 / (011) 1562521028 or via email info@stageandcamera.com

www.stageandcamera.com

https://www.facebook.com/StageandCamera

Bertolt Brecht introduced what he called the Epic actor, a sort of narrator.

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) introduced what he called the Epic actor, a sort of narrator.

He said that the actor should not dedicate himself to warming up the audience with a flood of feeling: "...no effort is made to put the audience in a trance and give them the illusion of witnessing natural, unrehearsed events."

On the contrary, the actor should dedicate himself "to show the audience with clear gestures of 'showing' ." Thus, the actor maintains a more frank and direct relationship with the audience, than with the tradition approach base on the supposed 'fourth wall.'

This notion is of great importance to us because it supposes an entirely different attitude, the idea being to appeal not just to the sensibilities of the spectators but above all to their rational comprehension of the situation being dealt with on stage.
Sometimes we wrongly suppose that acting is for "emotional" people and forget that an actor must work with mind, body and emotions.

Brecht also demanded that actors use clear diction: "the actor must be able to speak clearly, and this is not just a matter of vowels and consonants but also (and primarily) a matter of the meaning. Unless he learns at the same time how to bring out the meaning of his lines he will simply be articulating like a machine and destroying the sense with his 'beautiful speaking voice.'"

Brecht, who lived in East Germany and was clearly influenced by Marxism, also expressed clear guidlines with respect to accent and local variations in speech:

"...within clarity there are all kins of degrees and distinctions. Different social classes have different kinds of clarity: a peasant may speak clearly in comparison with a second peasant, but his clarity will not be the same as that of an engineer. This means that actors learning to speak must always take care to see that their voice is pliant and flexible. They must never lose sight of the way people really talk."

What does this mean for those of us whose mother tongue is not English? Although it is important to speak with clear diction, it is more important that the idea or feeling of a character or situation be transmitted clearly to the audience.

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