New York Neo-Classical Ensemble

The Act of Listening/Active Listening

When I first found out I’d be looking at Celia for the workshop, I was quite pleased. I felt like I got the whole “girl-whose-best-friend-is-going-through-a-MAJOR-crisis-and-she’s-really-really-trying-to-be-there-for-her-but-MY-GOD-is-it-hard” thing. I was ready to jump into a lot of love, frustration, joy, and jealousy.

And then I started re-reading the play. I had a lot of moments of “Really? I’m in this scene too? And I don’t say anything? Really, Shakespeare?”. I’ve done a lot of plays where I’m part of a CROWD on stage, listening to someone speak, overhearing, etc. But to be the only other person onstage. During MANY incredibly personal, awkward moments between two people that really like each other? And one of them is dressed as a boy? AND I KNOW HER TRUE IDENTITY? Yeah, nope, never really done that before.

Needless to say, it was a challenge. And Steve definitely didn’t let me off the hook (like, why can’t Celia go and do the washing or something?). In fact, I spent a lot of time in these scenes standing BETWEEN Marc and Grace, watching a very rapid fire tennis match.

I feel like this is the perfect moment to note that I studied at the Meisner Studio at NYU. Which deals a lot with listening and taking things personally. And particularizing moments and things that are said to you, so that you have an emotional response to them. So, like a good student, I went home and tried to particularize how I felt about specific moments between Rosalind and Orlando. I’d go into rehearsal, patting myself on the back that I’d done my homework, and would be totally thrown for a loop. Why? Those bloody actors would change what they were doing! AND they were playing very strong actions, which didn’t go along with what I had particularized. Curse you, Marc and Grace!

Harumph.

This went on for a while. Me trying to PROJECT a reaction, instead of actually having an organic one, not based in something I was actually experiencing, but with something I fantasized about alone in my room (don’t get any ideas). So I decided to (gasp) throw out the homework. I decided to trust my fellow actors. I knew that they were doing great, specific work. And I realized that I was there to support them, not to fight against them. And I decided to trust myself. Hey, I’m an emotional person (some would say too emotional). Hey, I take things personally. Hey, I know Grace and Marc quite well and I care what happens to them. So when Grace is on the verge of tears and Marc is yelling at her, I feel uncomfortable and I get upset. And when it looks like Grace might finally spill the beans about her true identity, and Marc is singing her praises, I get ridiculously happy.

Sometimes I get wrapped up in controlling the situation, and controlling what’s happening on stage. Homework can be good, but actually listening to what is going on, and using what is in front of you is infinitely more interesting. Yes, you might fail, but at least you’ll be honest (And I do thank the gods that I am honest). And the truth is always more specific than something you’ve concocted in your head.

The day after we finished this workshop, I found this quote from Tilda Swinton in New York Magazine about acting:


“I am very interested in a certain aspect of performance, in the idea of trying to affect being unwatched. It’s a constant experiment for me. I’m so allergic to seeing acting onscreen. If one has to be banal and think of a favorite filmmaker, mine is Robert Bresson, who so often looks at people who have never seen themselves onscreen and who of course made a film about a donkey, which I think is the greatest performance ever. The donkey. That’s what one should aspire to be: the donkey.”

Hee Haw.
-Gillian

AYLI - From Zach Webber (Oliver) in AYLI May ‘10 Workshop

Leaving the Classical Studio at Tisch and going straight to a Big Kids Classical Workshop was threatening even as an idea, at least previous to my starting rehearsal (and even throughout the whole workshop perhaps). It was a little like going into Junior High, because everyone else isn’t THAT much older than you, but they’re just old enough to have clearly leapt  certain walls that you haven’t. Back then it was blowjobs and marijuana, now it’s… well I cannot quite say. But there is something going on with everyone at Neo-Classical that distinguishes them from any other Classical actors I’ve ever seen.

This is weird, but sit tight while I try to explain this.

I have heard (and therefore implemented into essays and any possible class discussion that will raise my grade or at least my teacher’s opinion about me) that there are greater biological differences between some African tribes than there are between one of those African tribes and say, Englishmen. Or Americans. Or anyone that you would never think would have “biological similarities.” But don’t start assuming that “biological similarities” are based on your own notions of how alike people are, because then you just might start to appear, or even be, racist. Anyway, when this fact was discovered it of course this provoked a lot of discussion amongst people who were trying to figure out whether or not they should enslave all Africans ever (???) due to the fact that it now appeared as if (GASSSSSSPPPPP!!!!) we were all kind of made to be equal and shit.

Here’s where I get to the point. You old kids and I originate from the same place (except Dom. Sorry Dom. You’re the white man in this metaphor) but we may be more different than we are alike. And THAT is why I think the Classical studio is very similar to whatever created the universe (stay with me PLEASE). Louis Scheeder has made it so that our DNA can transform into literally anything. Perhaps unbeknownst to him (but most likely benownst to him at this point), he has made it so that any actor that passes through the Classical Studio is given the right, and perhaps the secret steroidal injection, that allows them to become precisely different than the people who did exactly what they did the year before. The trick is repetition of the same 10-15 things over and over and over and over again. We change by doing the same things repeatedly.

All I can really say is (and just ignore everything I said before if it was complete nonsense in actuality) I can’t wait to see what I’m doing in 3-5 years, when I’m the same age as most of you guys. The reason for that is I think you are all fantastic and aMAZINGly talented. You shine like the sun whenever you want. I admire all your individualities, because they are so clear, and unprocessed, and good. It’s almost a little intimidating to be around. But, unlike Africans, I won’t start enslaving your children and handing them AK-47s to use against you. I cannot wait to work with you again.

Z

AYLI - We Start On Friday

Eeeeeeeeee.