Inhabiting a Role.

Andrei came back today.  We had his class and zipped through the scenes that we had.  Everybody today was on point, perhaps refilling some of the confidence gauge all around.  Yeah, there's a gauge.  Afterwards we were treated to a little lecture of sorts by Mr. Serban reflective of one he delivered in Romania a few days prior about inhabiting role; the importance of elevating the character and the aspirations of theater, especially as a place of spiritual healing.  If you've been keeping up on some of my lengthier posts, you an probably imagine me grooving to this chat.  I did.

It turns out that this is just what I needed.  The past two weeks, or so, I've been in a bit of a funk where I often found myself thinking,"What the fuck am I doing here?  I don't belong here."  Admittedly, I still am not entirely sure, but the talk roused me out of my malaise and I'm now totally stoked to get back to work.  I'm working on a scene from Spring Storm with Kristie that I'm really thrilled about, even more so now that I've got a little fire back; and a scene from Last Days of Judas Iscariot with Zarif that I just returned home from rehearsing.  We may have drained a twelve during the scene.  It takes place in a bar.  Rehearsal was incredibly productive.  The scene's (on the surface) just two guys having out in a bar, having a chat.  What's really brilliant is that Zarif and I really jive as actors together, and honestly there's probably not too many people that I'd rather hang out in a bar with right now.

I'm going to turn in before the buzz (of the beer and of the lecture) wear off.  We'll be back tomorrow, I'm sure.

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant."
- Robert Louis Stevenson

Breathe in.  Breathe out.

-R

Meet The Fourteen - Zarif Kabier Sadiqi

I'm really excited to continue to share with you some more of the members of the class.  Today's interview is with one of my favorite human beings, Zarif Kabier Sadiqi.  Zarif is one of the most thoughtful, compassionate and compelling people that I've the absolute honor of working with.  I'm hope you'll really be as taken with him as I am... and, ladies, he's not hard on the eyes.  I could go on for a while, but I'll let Zarif speak for himself.  Enjoy!

My hope is that I'll be able to get at least another two interviews shot and posted this week.  MAYBE some of the girls will choose to grace us with an interview?

Time will tell.

-R

and Zee!

Race, Virtues & Vices.

Anika Chapin:  "So after that post, what did you think of Memphis?"


...  *dies.


Little did he know that one little question would launch him into a response that would take five days to properly compose.


Based on the parameters that I had set up for myself in last week's post (Arts & Entertainments), I can tell you, Anika, that the show was merely entertaining.  Broadway faithful, before you get up in arms, yes!!!  Yes, they sang well; yes, they danced brilliantly; yes, they did... other things.  What they didn't do was challenge me.  I couldn't remember any of the songs upon exiting the theater, but they were good when I was there.  I couldn't help but feel that they really feel that they missed an opportunity to really deal with racism in a way that wasn't kitchy and filled with only white people solving problems.  A lot of the more risky opportunities to shine a light on social injustice were glazed over or turned into a joke, some of which some people really ought to think about being uncomfortable at laughing at.  Just saying.


That's all!?  It took you five days to come around to composing that?  For real?


Well, yes and no.  I could go on giving my piffling revue of the show, or I can turn to the far more interesting conversation that the show did, in fact, spark.  I should say that there was a moment when we had stopped and considered that the show that we (Toni Ann, Zarif and myself) had been railing on, had indeed opened up a conversation about a greater problem, which forced us to reconsider it's status as art, but after some deliberation, we had decided to go with our first assessment.  No.


Many of the opinions I'm about to share may be a little touchy, so please feel free to set me straight if you disagree with anything I write hereafter.


I started in on the show and it's treatment of the subject of racism.  I really feel that the show was more brimming with sentimental hufflepuff and feel-good, "everybody gets along", ideology where we can all leave the theater feeling like we've accomplished something and that we no longer live in small-minded,  barbaric times where people drink at different water fountains based on the color of their skin.  I feel that anything or anyone that presents a message that we live in a post-racial society is immensely dangerous.  
You may be the type of person, that I would like to consider myself to be, where you don't have any particularly hostilities towards people of a different race or openly hate "the other" or use derogatory, demeaning, hurtful language.  That's a brilliant thing.  Truly.  But what I believe is important to remember is that there are still people out there who openly and actively believe that certain races are superior to others, or have warped perceptions, like "Korean people are good at math", or "Irish people are really bad at showering daily", or "All Pakistani people want to destroy your neighborhood."  The worst thing that can possibly happen is turning a blind eye to these things.  The problem isn't gone, it's only not "as bad" as it used to be according to our current social paradigm, but the problem isn't gone. 


There has been a convention, in the contemporary theater that, in my opinion, has been one of the biggest perpetrators of this idea that we live in a post-racial society: the idea of color-blind casting.  Allow me to explain, I'm not against the concept entirely.  Can a Romeo of one racial background romance a Juliet of another?  Absolutely!  Bring it on!  But if I see a production of All My Sons where Chris is white and Ann is Asian and that fact is not somehow addressed, I'm distracted because, to me, it defies the reality of the period (1940's America, it would have been a big deal).  I recognize that this is not, in fact a family as they are written.  I'm taken out of the show for a moment, as I have to consider this, and for me, it's a rather mammoth distraction.  To go back to 'Arts & Entertainments', it's an added layer that possibly distracts or confuses the audience from the thought and intent of the play.  
  


Can the show not be performed by a mixed cast?  Not at all!  As long as it makes some sort of sense for the benefit of the story;  let's do it.  But as Zarif and I agreed on, there's no believable way (I think we were talking about film) that we could ever pass as blood-related.  Well, maybe but it's a stretch.  I mean, if you've seen Zarif, you'd know immediately that he's way to attractive to be related to me.  FACT.  Now, can Zarif and I play brothers in a scene in class?  Of course; that's how we learn.  In the outside world, however, if there simply are no suitable actors to audition for a play with a clearly defined part in a text, is it ok to cast someone who doesn't outwardly suit the part?  If the theater must do the show, then yes, of course.  But to establish a hard and fast rule set where people who are perfectly suited to play a part have the possibility to be passed on for someone whiter or thinner or, I dunno... blonder is a shame, and a terrible one. 

I've seen fantastic black actors turned away from playing slaves in a slave drama in favor of a multicultural cast;  I've seen a white Tituba (she was 'darkened' which lent itself to a whole different set of uncomfortable feelings) in The Crucible when a incredibly capable actress could have taken the part.  I had a friend once tell me that the director that she auditioned for had told her that she was the best actress for the part, but she was to "big" to be cast. I know this isn't racial, but I'm questioning the thought of verisimilitude here; she was auditioning for Helen in Fat Pig... the titular fat pig of the show.  How does that make any sense?  Is it fair?  In these particular cases, I certainly feel that much of the gravity of the situation is taken away and that we disrespect and dishonor the our shared history and the mistakes and cheat ourselves of the opportunity to remind ourselves where we are, where we were, and where it is possible for us to go, when we do these things.  Do I enjoy seeing people enslaved?  Absolutely not, but in these cases, I believe that the color-blind casting was not color-blind, but very color-aware and a gruesome mistake.  I can totally wrap my head around non-traditional casting.  It may, perhaps, take an added level in suspension of disbelief, admittedly, but as long as the truth and the intent is not usurped, I think it's amazing.  The abuses that are made, waving the flag of homogeny, I take issue with.  We are not all the same, but we are all beautiful; and if we lie to ourselves, how can we be honest for the audience?


Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this
special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature:
for any thing so o'erdone is from the purpose of playing, whose
end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold as 'twere the
mirror up to nature: to show virtue her feature, scorn her own
image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.


Hamlet Act III, Scene 2 
-William Shakespeare


I realize that I may not be qualified at all to posit anything on this subject.  I might be getting a bit "big for my britches" to put these thoughts out into the world, but the fact that the bard agrees gives me a little comfort.  I'm not sure there is a perfect answer.  There are is a lot of grey area, but I want to examine it and see if there is a perfect answer.  The search for it is meaningful.  I do feel, deep in my soul, that if we ignore the problem, not only do things not improve for us as one human race, but we suffer the possibility of backsliding in to the same old mistakes.  Let's continue to embrace and delight in our differences.  If you made it this far, thank you for indulging me in my semi-theater-related rant.  Tomorrow I promise a return to form!




The discussion makes us stronger.

-R

DeNoble. (Imagi-ninja)

Today was a stressful day.  For quite a while this afternoon, I was fretting having to come home and write about it because I really didn't want to relive it for you in front of my computer screen.  Much of what I was planning on revolved around the idea of teaching and terror as a tool to accomplish that goal...  I'll leave it at that.

I hadn't slept much last night.  This is an admission: I may have done a little too much blogging (re:journaling) last night.  There.  I said it.  After class today my sole purpose in life was to get home as fast humanly and MTA-ingly possible and enact Operation: Nap Time (which was a resounding success), but I found myself falling in to my usual pattern of engaging in a little verbal horseplay on the way to fetch things out of my locker.  I ended up in a conversation with Ms. Toni Ann DeNoble.  She's an actor in my class, and she's spectacular.

On a quick tangent:  I did the exercise in Larry's class that I had posted about earlier this week with Toni Ann and made a comment to her about having three fully-grown imaginations.  Seriously, the woman in imagining on planes of existence that only three-year-olds can fully harness, such is the power of her imagination.  It's a flabbergasting thing to see.  It's a little like being a ninja in ninja school and watching one of your fellow student-ninjas ninja-sword fight with her feet... and win.  It's ninja-impressive.

Back to the conversation: we had gotten involved in a conversation about the concept of age and what it means to people.  I found that she's of  like mind with me, where it becomes an annoyance to be constantly asked, "How old are you?"

I, for my part, have a bit of fun with this, and generally don't share right away with people my true count of sun-revolutions because, to me, it becomes an instant label to be confined in.  In my life, it's almost always one of the first questions asked when meeting some one.  It's like being sorted for future reference.  Ideas are formed and my personality gets assigned weights based on measures of other people, rather than just being allowed to have someone learn about who I am the old-fashioned way.  It's almost like:

Name: Jim
Age: 34
Political: Conservative
Religion: Mormon
Marital: Married
Children: Yes
Job: Dentist
Education: College Graduate; Dental school
... and so on and so forth

And, yes, these things come up; and, yes, they do define us, but there can be certain judgements that arise when certain other factors don't add up to a person's age.  There's an assessment based on someone else's standards, like when you hear that there's a woman who's thirty-six that's never been married/no kids and is a manager at a watch store in the mall in the town she grew up in.  You might think to yourself, "What's wrong with her?  She should be doing a lot better for herself at thirty-six."  I find that it's usually people in their fifties and people younger than their early twenties that tend (to me, at least) to assign so much significance to this number.  The 50+ like to remind me about how I'm not married (because that's a fail, right) and how "much more" they had accomplished by the time they were my age.  By people not old enough to drink in bars, I'm, "Old-as-shit, dude.", before I get assaulted with a litany of things that this person is going to do to be in a much better place when they reach my age.

This was essentially the nature of the conversation, and how this one little piece of information can so quickly define you in the eyes of others.  It's such an inconsequential thing.  It's nothing to be ashamed of, and yet it becomes the heavily-guarded secret by someone like myself, and as I discovered, Toni Ann, because you want people to know who you are and what you're about before offer them a little nugget of information that can help them make a snap decision.  It's like a way of respecting yourself... maybe.  Besides, isn't it much more exciting what you can learn about a person when you don't ask the expected questions?  Anyway, that's the philosophy behind it, and one that we both, I found, share.  I was so rapt in our chat, that I opted to take the train home (which adds an extra 20 minutes on to my commute to Astoria from the Upper West Side, just so I could squeeze in about ten extra minutes of brilliant conversation with her.  It was good.

I had discovered myself thinking while listening to Zarif today in Andrei's class that I really do enjoy the faces of the people who I get to share these next three years with.  I mean, they have some really excellent, look-worthy faces; and thanks to these great little accidental moments with Toni Ann, I get to appreciate what goes on behind the faces that I'm coming to adore so much.

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To continue to honor Anika's demand for "More Photos!", here's a picture of some faces back from collaboration weekend.  Tonia Ann, sadly, whom this post has been titled for is not present, but you can see for yourself some of the look-worthy faces that I mentioned earlier.  Aren't they a good-looking group!?!?  Also, this should please Sheyenne who constantly reminds me that I don't give her the attention she deserves.

"I hope that posterity will judge me kindly, not only as to the things which I have explained, but also to those which I have intentionally omitted so as to leave to others the pleasure of discovery."
- Rene Descartes 


Doo zee Fool!


-R

It's All Going So Well!!!

A quote from the mighty Jessica Kausen, which, in turn, is a quote from the film "Moulin Rouge".

I wanted to begin a journal of sorts to chronicle My experiences in Columbia University's Graduate Acting Class of 2014.  That's where "The Fourteen" comes from.  There are actually eighteen of us, but "The Fourteen" indicates the year as well as sounds ominous an a little sexy.  There's been a lot of stuff happening in the last four days, so for the sake of a brief first post, I'll... well... try to keep it brief.

Day One:  It was brilliant meeting everybody.  There are some amazingly brilliant, beautiful people that I'm going to be working with over the next three years.  I had a meeting with Arnold Aronson and... well, it was just great. Privacy.  But the entire staff and faculty have been so warm and welcoming that it-  it really just makes the entire energy of the place a place where you want to work and be.

Day Two:  Boring orientation day.  Let us never speak of this again.  :D

Day Three:  We continued work on collaboration week, and both of the groups that I was sorted into, just... again, have such amazing talent that it really blows my mind.  Celine Song wrote this amazing script, which is par for the course for her, but on top of that getting to know and hang out and work with Joan Wilks has been amazing.  This chick knows what's up about life.  I'm... kind of a fan of that.  And, working with Zarif and Greg has been just the best.  All of the dudes in my class are just choice.  Like, I want to go a little gay for them.  I mean just top-calibre.  I'm really excited to see what happens when classes really start.

*I should make a quick note that the ladies of the acting class are also quite amazing.  But seriously, the bro-love is THICK.  I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if it made people nauseous.

Day Four:  Continuing to work on everything.  We're also doing some extra little group project based around some abstract concepts.  I mean, I won't really explain it, but it's really just rad.  Sina, our directing cohort for the piece is just really creative and fun to work with.  And she's German.  Did I mention that we have people from all over the world happening here.  I could just listen to people talk all day long and be totally satisfied.  I would say the only bummer of the day was a convo with an upperclassman.  I don't know if she was trying to be funny or reassuring or whatever, but the general thesis was, "Look, don't worry about collaboration weekend, because you're not going to impress anybody."  I just thought to myself "What an asshole." and smiled and made a joke about how amazing I am... situation: DEFUSED!, but really, c'mon now, way to try to bring down the party.

So that's it for right now.  I wish I had started earlier so that I could have really made some detailed and poignant remarks about each day, but... I'm off to bed.

Stay tuned for more on this channel and keep an eye open for another blog coming up that'll tackle world politics, social issues and economics that I'll get an assist from by the brilliant Alex Gillette (Credits: Teacher; historian; sex-machine).