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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Asher Lev V: Preparation

Sitting in a coffee shop on St. Clair next to rehearsal hall. It has been a long day and my mind drifts to struggles artists face. Many actors are fortunate or talented or know the right people or some combination of that and as a result have the luxury of working on shows full time. In which I mean they are contracted and paid such that they don't need other work and their day is full of rehearsal. I have been in those shoes and it is a wonderful feeling. Unfortunately my, and other actors, experience is that it is the rare case to be in those shoes. As such we do many other things to pay the bills and get ready for shows. As I look back on this long day I feel tired for having done so much work; work I am proud of but work I wish could have been done with dedicated focus not broken by other tasks to help me meet the necessities of life

Last week on Sunday night I spent two and a half hours of my night  creating, designing and printing the invites to casting agents and important persons whom I would live to see the show. Now I agree that is not a long time, not by itself. It was Sunday I wanted to watch a movie and relax but did not feel I could. Monday to Friday I had worked 9-4 at a day job Saturday 9-5 I worked a different day job and those two things combined pay the bills.  Tuesday and Thursday night 6-10 I am diligently rehearsing the show.  Sunday 10-6 is rehearsal. The gaps of free time between those time slots I was sleeping, learning lines, developing character, understanding and delving deeper into the text, or traveling to location.  So Sunday night was creating invites

Yesterday was a day off which I spent figuring out how to use a bulk email program so I could efficiently email all my friends and family show information. In the end it will save me time on the next show but I would have rather slept in, cooked a hearty breakfast and relaxedly house cleaned while running my monologues. 

Today I worked 9-4 and now I am in a coffee shop taking a break to type this before I run lines for my rehearsal tonight. I would rather of had the whole day to rehearse 10-6 and typed this later. 

I am tired that is all. I wish for acting to be my full time job. Not a job on top of various day jobs. It is the quest of all artists. It is my experience that in Canada the arts support and our worldly position helps support this model of struggling artists.  We always work with what we have got and in doing so these steps to preparation become extras in a day. Today I am tired of doing extras and wishing for acting and it's preparations to be my undivided focus

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Asher Lev IV: Questions

Jacob Kahn says to Asher: An artist either reflects his life, or comments on it.  
Jacob Kahn says to Asher: Every great artist has freed himself from something - his family, his nation, his race. Something. A truly great artist must be tied to only his art!
Jacob Kahn says to Asher: An artist is responsible to his art! To his art! Just that!

These are powerful statements from a mentor that guide Asher in becoming who he becomes.  

In playing every role, the text, for me anyway, slowly takes on meaning.  I will be part way through a run, rehearsal, reading and hear the line for the thousandth time when, DING, it hits me, "ahh, that is what the line means."  And so in rehearsal on Sunday, I was struck by these lines, and Asher was effected in the scenes.

In turn, I was effected in my life.  I am an artist.  Does my work reflect or comment on my life?  Have I freed myself from something?  Am I tied only to my art?  Are these valid questions or just the musings of an old bitter man in a play?

I think they are both valid and coming from a bitter man, so I must take them with some salt. However, I believe I must take them.  I have always spoke to the struggle which artists undertake, and here I am doing a show, portraying a character, who faces that struggle in its extremes.  Has the universe drawn me to a show, given me a voice to reach out and speak through my art, to diatribe, a point, a heart felt pain, to a larger audience than just a friend over coffee?

I have noted and wondered about my being the only artistic soul in my family; that is to say the only artistic soul who pursued professionally his art.  (My family screams in art).  Is this a sense of freeing myself from the confines that lead my family members to traditional work; something I believe would kill me?  Have I freed myself from my family?

Do I feel a responsibility to anything other than acting?  If so am I a weaker actor for it? Possibly.

In examining these questions have I, through the answers, defined myself as an artist?  Taking these statements from the character, or the voice of the playwright, to equal the requirements for artist, it would seem so.

In the end, I feel that these are philosophical discussions, which have great purpose in defining and leading to greater understanding of the self.  They could lead to a belief system for some.  For me, they, I believe, will remain philosophical thoughts and queries.  In this state, they leave me open, they leave me thoughtful.  As a person, they deepen me.  As a character named Asher Lev, they inform my argument in the play.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Asher Lev III: Progress


Where are we?  Ah, yes the middle of page thirty five, the first section of my monster three page monologue, my explanation of why I have done the paintings.

Where are we? Page twenty three, the end of the first act, the impact my art has on family.
Where are we? Page forty five, the final plea to the audience.

And so this question comes up time and time again, and the responses run in my head as I piece the show together.  Two weeks ago, pages equalled lines of text, that I was working to remember.  Today, when I am off book, as is the rest of the cast, and we have been running bits of the show together, pages are places in time, notices to where we are in the story.  

The show is becoming cohesive.  The lines are no longer lines but parts of a story which I am telling, and hoping you will be caught up in, that you will relate too.  I have gone beyond memorization to a point of understanding, of being, of sharing my Asher Lev life because it is who I am for a little while.  It is exciting to feel it coming together.  To hear myself, my fellow actors, and have it all pulling together, gathering steam, to a show that opens in twenty five ish days.

Thank you: A response to blogs on Asher Lev

 A few days ago I was talking to a friend, a fellow climber, at the gym.  As we chatted he let me know that he followed this blog, that occasionally he would pop on and catch up with some of my posts.  He said he enjoyed reading about the process and getting insight into my actor's mind, that it was interesting to see another side of me, outside of my climber self that he knows.  I was shocked, pleasantly, someone; who I would not think of as reading my blog, is reading it.  

In my mind, a few of my actor friends would be my readers, if someone was thinking of casting me they may have look at it; basically if someone had an acting link to me then there was a chance it would get read.  I was definitively wrong.  In being so I was reminded that as a performer I appeal to a wide variety of people, that my craft and my talent can affect those outside of my acting circle.  It was humbling to be reminded of this.  Why?  Because I follow my craft for a love of the craft itself and part of that love, part of what the craft entails for me is effecting my audience.  I had that as a view of audience and performer on stage.  But it goes beyond that:  Stage, Film, TV, Commercial, Blog...one in the same; they are ways in which I potentially effect.

So I send out a special thank you to N. for bringing this point home to me.  I also thank anyone who reads, who skims, who visits this blog.  I appreciate that you are there, I am pleased to know that in some way I effect and that you participate by allowing yourself to be effected.

With Gratitude