Sunday, August 26, 2007
cassie powell books cal shakes gig
Hi all,
I am happy to report that longtime Mother of Inventioner Cassie Powell will be playing Viola in the California Shakespeare Festival's touring production of Twelfth Night. The show will tour to schools thoughout California. AND it's a musical production, and Cassie landed the role with NO prior musical experience or training. This means that for the next year Cassie's primary income will come from acting! Right on, Cassie!
A
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Saturday, August 25, 2007
SURPRISE!!!
"I've been to a marvelous party; I couldn't have liked it more."
--Noel Coward
Tonight, I joined longtime Mother of Inventioners Cassie Powell and Larry Guth in Sausalito for a surprise party for their classmate and former scene partner Dawn Scott, who is heading off to Denver to the National Theater Conservatory to embark on her acting MFA there. It's a FANTASTIC deal because all of her tuition is paid, and she gets a stipend. An MFA program that doesn't leave you enmired in debt! What a concept! She will be studying with a longtime student of Earl Gister's, one of my teachers at Yale. She is also going to be taking a class in TRAPEZE! As if Dawn could possibly be MORE fabulous than she already is, but if there is a way, I guess Dawn on a trapeze would be it. Anyway, the party was great to be a part of, because people from every corner of Dawn's multifarious life were present, at a beautiful waterside restaurant, where we got to watch the sun set on our beautiful city, and smile for the last time in a long while on our friend as she leaves to walk the road of happy destiny. We are all with you Dawn!
xoxox
A
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
learning to love you more dot com
This is the site of the truly awesome Miranda July, an art world sensation/filmmaker/actor. Maybe you caught her movie Me and You and Everyone We Know, a couple of years ago. If so: ))<>(( If not, it's definitely worth a look. On her website, she has all of these assignments that you can do, to sort of get your creativity, introspection, and self-expression on, such as interview someone who has experienced war, or write a press release for an everyday event, or take a picture of what's under your bed. I saw her do a kind of show at Yerba Buena a couple of years ago (Cassie Powell took me to it), and it was something that, in the words of the Smiths, I won't forget too soon.
Cheers,
A
Acting Can Save the World!
Acting Can Save the World!
Acting Teacher Speaks to Acting as a Road to Spiritual Development for Everyone
The failures of the world, at many levels, stem from the inability of people to step back from their own point of view and look momentarily at a situation from the point of view of another. Acting challenges people to do precisely that, argues acting teacher, actor, director and Yale Drama School alum Andrew Utter. To play a role is, first and foremost, Utter says, to be able to see and connect with why a character finds it necessary to do what it is he or she actually does. Utter found this notion to be so compelling that he named his San Francisco acting studio the Mother of Invention Acting School (www.utteracting.com), necessity being, according to Plato, the mother of invention. Utter will be speaking at 7:30 on Monday, September 10th at Ft Mason, room D100, on the distinctive benefits of acting as a spiritual path. The talk is free and open to the public.
In addition to asking people to be able to change perspective, acting challenges practitioners to develop many other qualities and abilities widely associated with spiritual life: transformation, courage, adaptation, absorption, stamina, possibility, vitality, joie de vivre, vulnerability, and imagination. Acting is also unique in that it depends on both introversion and extroversion: actors have to be able to look inward to get at what makes people tick, but they also have to be able to manifest outwardly what they learn by looking inwards. These faculties are invaluable to everyone, no matter what their daily life asks of them, so Utter asserts that the pursuit of acting can be of great benefit to people in all walks of life. "It's about getting your truth on, and someone else's, at the same time," he quips. "It's not just for actors anymore!"
Andrew Utter holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama's directing program. He recently appeared at the Magic Theater in the world premier of Chantal Bilodeau's play Pleasure and Pain. He has worked, in various capacities at Yale Repertory Theater, Manhattan Class Company, Syracuse Stage, and Mabou Mines New York, among others.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Acting as a Spiritual Path
Hi all,
I am very eager to announce a free public talk I will be giving on Acting as a Spiritual Path. It will be held on September 10, 2007, at Fort Mason, room C205 at 7:30 PM. You will be able to gaze out the window at a view of the GG Bridge as I entice you to survey the landscape of challenge and growth that the path of acting affords. Topics will include at least some of the following: transformation, adaptation, absorption, stamina, possibility, vitality, joie de vivre, vulnerability, imagination, and that most hackneyed of acting class cliches, connection, which I will try to breathe some new life into. I hope you will join me.
Cheers,
Andrew
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