Read Plays
I’ve been watching a great webcast with Larry Moss. Now I was expecting Larry to be a giant asshole, because of the way he was in the Backstage article I posted a few weeks ago. After his berating of Mamet I immediately wanted to dislike him, but much of the webcast is excellent. It’s true that I don’t agree with about 40% of it, but he’s sincere and he’s passionate and he’s a proper acting teacher (rather than most of the charlatans that operate in our profession). It’s a very recent interview, so enjoy!
Practical Aesthetics people will find some very relevant and some very familiar sounding terminology. However, he does move towards the use of imagination. I find it difficult to find truth in imagination (my common sense sets off alarms). Being asked to believe in the pretend doesn’t work for me, it requires faith, a faith that I don’t think I need. Unfortunately towards the end of the webcast, Larry starts responding to a message (feels like a plant) about Mamet. He believes Mamet is misinformed and destructive. Has anyone actually read True and False, or do they just generalise?
Watch the Larry Moss webcast for yourself here.
In part of the excellent webcast, Larry Moss is talking about scene analysis and he says something like ‘You’ve got to fall in love with writers’. And how right he is. Acting is falling in love with language, because language is the only portal to action – language is the only portal to character for the actor. That makes a lot of sense. Only through your understanding of the play will have access to the role. Fall in love with great writers, Shakespeare, Ibsen, Miller, Williams, Shanley, Moliere, Aristophanes, they will teach you so much about words and language and good writing, that you will know what to do with all kinds of writing. Read plays, read great plays and if you want some suggestions, ask me and I’ll tell you some to read. Shakespeare is a great start. Think it’s difficult? It is! But you get used to it, and it demands your literacy. I noticed that my younger students suffer from a lack of literary awareness and this makes them much less sensitive to language, and particularly they don’t read easily.
I’m 100% serious. One of my Top 10 essential tips for an actor is READ PLAYS. Read lots of plays. If you can’t afford to buy them, go the library.