I finished the run of Feiffer's People and had overcome my first and last experience with stage fright. By my last performance I was having fun on stage and started to take some chances which led to spontaneity.
Now that I had a taste of acting before a neutral audience and a legitimate credit on my resume, I wanted more.Every Thursday I would pick up a copy of Backstage and go on every open audition that I was anywhere in the ballpark, type wise.After a couple of weeks at this I got into a original play "Up up and away" which was a spoof on Superman and I played Jimmy Olson. The theater was in a basement on 14 street between 8th and 9th avenue. Believe it or not, it was a serious play and it went well enough for me that the producer Tanden invited me back to do another original play "The Two sided Triangle" which was as bad as the title but it was a learning experience in that it is a good idea to read a play before agreeing to do it.
I switched my acting classes, at Theresa's suggestion, from The New York Academy of Theatrical Arts to HB Studios. It was a more reputable acting school with professional actors teaching. This was a real commitment on my part because, for some reason, the VA wouldn't reimburse my tuition at HB, so it came out of my own pocket.
At HB, I was introduced to the "Method". Here they talked about playing an action, inner objects, who am I,what do I want and where am I. A lot of it didn't make sense at the time but I did as many scenes as I could handle. One particular scene from Edward Albee's "Everything in the Garden" comes to mind. In the scene my character finds money hidden all over his home and discovers his wife is prostituting on the side for extra money to go shopping. I saw this play as a great tragedy.When my scene partner and I were doing the scene in front of the class for the first time, they were laughing hysterically and it was really throwing me. What are they laughing at? I just found out my wife is a hooker. It made me go in a rage during the scene which is wrong for the character and the laughter stopped as when I let loose with rage it can be scary. Albee writes dramatic scenes with strong underlying black humor which I didn't realize at the time. It further reinforced in me that humor comes out of honesty. I didn't see it as funny because, from my background, if you find out your wife is a hooker is no laughing matter.
After jumping around with different instructors at HB, I did find one, Alice, that seemed to understand me.She was a Brooklyn girl, born and bred and her insight recognized a emerging talent in me.
Acting classes can be valuable when starting out but cannot replace performing in front of a paying audience. You can learn the basics in class but there were students that only took classes which can be deceiving in that you may think you are better than you really are.Even though it is stressed in most acting class as a nurturing environment, I found most to be very competitive and political.If you were popular, the students would respond positively, no matter how bad the scene. I learned early on, not to trust acting students responses to you, good or bad. The ones I trust were the paying theater goer. If they laugh or cry, or worst of all, are bored, I can learn from that response. Off off Broadway theater, back in the day, only charged 3$, so the audience were mainly locals in the area and if they didn't like the performance, they would just get up and walk out in the middle of a scene and make noise as they are leaving.
The main negative comment I received was that I had too thick New York accent. Some had called it lazy speech. As I couldn't afford a speech teacher, I started reading the NY Times out loud and making sure I pronounced every syllable clearly.While a trace of a NY accent stayed with me my whole career, my diction was greatly improved. It is my belief when you grow up on the streets of New York, the accent is ingrained in your genes. Later in my career I got many jobs doing other accents, Italian, Spanish, southern and English, believe it or not. It was the plain general American that I found to be the hardest. Why I don't know.
Now that I had a taste of acting before a neutral audience and a legitimate credit on my resume, I wanted more.Every Thursday I would pick up a copy of Backstage and go on every open audition that I was anywhere in the ballpark, type wise.After a couple of weeks at this I got into a original play "Up up and away" which was a spoof on Superman and I played Jimmy Olson. The theater was in a basement on 14 street between 8th and 9th avenue. Believe it or not, it was a serious play and it went well enough for me that the producer Tanden invited me back to do another original play "The Two sided Triangle" which was as bad as the title but it was a learning experience in that it is a good idea to read a play before agreeing to do it.
I switched my acting classes, at Theresa's suggestion, from The New York Academy of Theatrical Arts to HB Studios. It was a more reputable acting school with professional actors teaching. This was a real commitment on my part because, for some reason, the VA wouldn't reimburse my tuition at HB, so it came out of my own pocket.
At HB, I was introduced to the "Method". Here they talked about playing an action, inner objects, who am I,what do I want and where am I. A lot of it didn't make sense at the time but I did as many scenes as I could handle. One particular scene from Edward Albee's "Everything in the Garden" comes to mind. In the scene my character finds money hidden all over his home and discovers his wife is prostituting on the side for extra money to go shopping. I saw this play as a great tragedy.When my scene partner and I were doing the scene in front of the class for the first time, they were laughing hysterically and it was really throwing me. What are they laughing at? I just found out my wife is a hooker. It made me go in a rage during the scene which is wrong for the character and the laughter stopped as when I let loose with rage it can be scary. Albee writes dramatic scenes with strong underlying black humor which I didn't realize at the time. It further reinforced in me that humor comes out of honesty. I didn't see it as funny because, from my background, if you find out your wife is a hooker is no laughing matter.
After jumping around with different instructors at HB, I did find one, Alice, that seemed to understand me.She was a Brooklyn girl, born and bred and her insight recognized a emerging talent in me.
Acting classes can be valuable when starting out but cannot replace performing in front of a paying audience. You can learn the basics in class but there were students that only took classes which can be deceiving in that you may think you are better than you really are.Even though it is stressed in most acting class as a nurturing environment, I found most to be very competitive and political.If you were popular, the students would respond positively, no matter how bad the scene. I learned early on, not to trust acting students responses to you, good or bad. The ones I trust were the paying theater goer. If they laugh or cry, or worst of all, are bored, I can learn from that response. Off off Broadway theater, back in the day, only charged 3$, so the audience were mainly locals in the area and if they didn't like the performance, they would just get up and walk out in the middle of a scene and make noise as they are leaving.
The main negative comment I received was that I had too thick New York accent. Some had called it lazy speech. As I couldn't afford a speech teacher, I started reading the NY Times out loud and making sure I pronounced every syllable clearly.While a trace of a NY accent stayed with me my whole career, my diction was greatly improved. It is my belief when you grow up on the streets of New York, the accent is ingrained in your genes. Later in my career I got many jobs doing other accents, Italian, Spanish, southern and English, believe it or not. It was the plain general American that I found to be the hardest. Why I don't know.
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