The objects of my fandom -- Mike, Joey, Travis, (me), Treykia, Brittany, Jane, Andrea, Kayle, Steph and Carly

The end of the semester for a teacher — and I know I’m not alone in this — is bittersweet. The kids graduating have become “our” kids. At NYCDA, Film and Television year students have Scene Study for Film & Television twice a week all year. So we teachers spend many, many hours focused intently on our students’ performances. It’s inevitable that we often become their fans. Think about it; what movie and television actors do you stare at? Whose performances do you watch over and over? Which actors’ every word and action absorb you for untold hours ? Your fav’s, that’s who. The only thing that keeps me (hopefully) objective is the passion to improve my kids’ work so they all fulfill their highest potentials.
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I have always been a huge television fan. As the youngest of much older siblings (aka an “almost only” child) growing up in the household of a hard-working single parent, I was the Queen of all latch-key kids and proud of it. It was only natural that TV had my back on all those lonely unsupervised afternoons of neglecting my chores and avoiding my French homework.  Now of course, there was only TV brilliance airing back in my day: “Saved By The Bell,” “Boy Meets World,” “Moesha,” “Family Matters,” and of course, the opus “Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper.” These were just a few of the gems that have formed me into the well-adjusted first-year acting student that I am.
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Day to day we are reminded of our true calling…through practice, discipline, and love for the craft…however there are things that go beyond just pure inspiration and remind us of our purpose.  For me, watching my fellow classmates, watching plays like The Pride, movies like Gangs of New York, and TV shows do it for me.

I think it can be easy to get lost in this business.  Once we leave this school we have to constantly reinforce everything that we have learned and hopefully build upon it.  We cannot afford to slack or get lazy.  I have noticed that the more people I tell that I am an actor the more determined I become.  Some of those people have asked me what will I do if this doesn’t work out?  What will I do if I do not make enough money?
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Same photo shoot that I was discussing earlier.  Same smeary makeup and teased up hair.  Same emotional prep of being chased by a werewolf. 

But here’s another difficult challenge for the actress (Hannah Driscoll).  Can she keep the emotion full, the image in focus, her breath free and full so she doesn’t look fake and frozen?  And, as if that isn’t enough, can she also continue doing all of this for about 30 minutes while Doug Gorenstein snaps away trying to capture the perfect photo? 

Answer:  Yes, she can. 

You can see Hannah doing all this and more when The Duchess of Malfi opens on April 30.  Stay tuned for more info.

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COMMITMENT.  That’s my word for the day.

Whether it’s a rehearsal or a photo shoot or a performance, what an actor needs most is commitment.  A commitment to be brave and to take risks.  The above pictures were taken by Douglas Gorenstein (he also snaps some really nice headshots, by the way!) and feature Dannie Flanagan.  I needed to get some publicity photos.  We arrive at Doug’s studio.  Dannie does some pretty makeup and hair.  And then I say, “No.  Smear your face and tease up your hair.  Imagine that a werewolf has been chasing you through the woods and you’re about to die.”  And then she says, “Sure.  No problem.  Can I have a minute?” 

60 seconds later she’s straining and breathing and crying and we’re getting some fantastic shots!  Scary?  I’m sure.  Fun?  You bet!  Dannie is a good example of someone who likes to take risks, and who has fun working.

Don’t you want to give it a try, too?  Sure you do.  I’ll give you a minute to get ready.

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Hugh Dancy and Ben Wishaw in 'The Pride.'

Hello all,

I wanted to share with you the truly mesmerizing and inspirational evening that I had.

I finally got tickets to see The Pride last week and I was utterly blown away, as I knew I would be, by everything about it. I can’t even list the things that I loved about it to you. One, because It would take more that just this one blog and two, because I honestly wouldn’t know where to start. I saw everything we were learning and school and more, there were all the techniques that I have become so familiar with and then there was the true passion, art and mastery that accompanies a cast of actors who are so exquisite. I went alone as I often do to see shows, which is great, except the experience lacks a person to talk about it with.
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Acting Challenge: You’re playing a werewolf with an anger management problem.

Acting Rehearsal Checklist:  Breathe like a panting wolf and growl like you’re gonna rip someone’s throat out.  Check.  Find athletic wolf-like grounded walk.  Check.  Find low pitched, chest resonance for a powerful fear-inducing yet sexual character.  Check.

But you left something out!

Can you guess what it is?

Sorrow.  Lonliness.  If you only play a werewolf like a werewolf, then you’ll leave your audience unsatisfied.  The audience wants to see a real person.  A flawed person.  A person like them.  Not a werewolf.   …Or, at lease that’s what we’ve decided we’re working on for our upcoming The Duchess of Malfi. 

P.S.  That’s Andhy Mendez as the sad and lonely sexy and powerful Duke Ferdinand in The Duchess of Malfi… and he’s more than just a werewolf.  He dances, too!

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I was watching a couple of my guy friends watch their football team play today and I was totally fascinated. It was just as entertaining watching them as it was watching the game. They were so invested in the game and it got me thinking about acting because they were so committed to the game and their team!

If we could all be this committed to a scene and our partner the outcome would be amazing. So why was it so engaging watching them?
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As a theater director, I’m used to dealing with what is right in front of me.  So, you can imagine how excited I was to watch Edgar Santiago create some film moments for the upcoming multi-media The Duchess of Malfi.  It’s like wonderland!  The camera makes it all magic. 

Here’s some crazy red-lit moment with Dannie Flanagan, as “the Watcher”, wearing psycho clown makeup.  I love film!!!! It’s so fun. 
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Movies, movies, movies.

Here are some movies that you should all watch, because they will change your life and make you better people.

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In honor of St. Patrick, Spring Break and Women’s History Month, I have decided to consciously work on curbing my actor and non-actor related bad habits.
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I love the overwelming beginning phase of any creative project.  So many ideas, so many options.  I read the play over and over and over.  I read other plays about the same issues.  I watch films dealing with the same topics.  I feed my creative monster.  I research, I collect: images, sounds, thoughts, feelings.  I fill notebooks.  Then…ideas begin to firm up and the production begins to have a life of its own. 

I’m working on The Duchess of Malfi.  It’s the Theater Year’s spring production.  It’s a “revenge tragedy.”  Well, if it’s about revenge, then it’s also about victims.  I spent a lot of preparation time studying how we as a society see and deal with victims.  And, I found a surprising twist.  I kept observing instances in the media where people were eager to cry with the victim of a hate crime, but I also saw how people love to relish hating the criminal.  Naturally, I can see why.  They’re criminals after all.  They’ve done us some wrong.  And, I’m the first to admit that I often lack sympathy in this area.  So, this rehearsal preparation process has been difficult as I examine myself brutally and honestly; and, what I see isn’t always pleasant.  I find it easy to get angry.  I’m Irish.  In this play, The Duchess of Malfi, it is very easy for me to get angry at a man who kills his sister. I can really muster up some hate for the killer.  But, on the other hand, certainly there was something that someone could have done to have averted this crime!  Couldn’t someone do something?  Would I have done something? Or, would I have stood on the sidelines and let it happen?
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I love the fact that movement and body awareness play such an important role in an actor’s training. For many years, I worked and trained as a dancer; mainly in hip hop and street styles, but also in jazz, tap, ballet and West African. It’s strange, I am more bodily and spacially aware NOW than I ever was then, which I’m sure was behind many of my frustrations with my own abilities.

However, the work we do in Movement class is not all dance related. In fact, many forms of movement are explored- from grand gesture to the pedestrian, and with it the ability to understand and connect it with your own movement. It’s a study of self image, of asking questions, of understanding where movement is initiated from and why, and I find that this way of looking at movement often crosses over into my every day life when I least expect it.
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The Duchess of Malfi is considered one of John Webster’s great revenge tragedies. 

Remember that little kid character in the movie Shakespeare in Love? The one that’s always torturing rats?  The one that claims to have “seen her boobies?”  That was John Webster.  He grew up to write some of the bloodiest and grossest plays in England.  You might even call him the father of future slasher films.  He set the bar for disgusting violence.  No one chops up his victims like Webster.
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I will take my rightful place on stage
and I will be myself.
I am not a cosmic orphan.
I have no reason to be timid.
I will respond as I feel;
awkwardly, vulgarly,
but respond.
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