saturday looks good to me
This is my New Favorite Band That I Just Found Out About.
Their sound is a throwback to lost 60’s AM pop, with a little
experimental whatevah thrown in for good measure. Sometimes he
sings, sometimes she does. The lyrics are great, check out in
particular “When the Party Ends”. Some other great song titles
include “We Can’t Work It Out”, “You Work All Weekend”, “No
Good With Secrets”, “Dialtone”, and “When You Got to New
York.” The album to start with is “Every Night.” They have a
new album coming out AND they’re coming to SF in the fall.
Yippee!
Cheers,
A
—–
Andrew Wood Acting Studio
clothes make the pimp
This article from the New York Times talks about the recent
legislative backlash agains wearing your jeans low. Officials
are arguing that it’s indecent. Well, whatever you think about
that, it does make the point that what you are wearing
MATTERS, particularly if you are an actor. The article talks
about how wearing the baggy pants is sometimes a statement of
disrespect for the Man. It also briefly recounts the history
of the zoot suit, the uniform of urban minorities in the US in
the mid-twentieth century. During WWII wearers of zoot suits
were actually the victims of riots in L.A. Who knew that
Rodney King happened before it happened?
Anyway, given all of this, I have to say that the relectance
of students to go to the thrift store and find themselves some
appropriate rehearsal clothes for the characters is thrown
into sharp relief. I spend precious time in class speaking to
this issue, and send Group Posts about it as well, and it’s
still not unusual for people to show up to class to do their
scene in their street clothes. I see this as symptomatic of a
largely unconscious reluctance to transform, to take up
someone else’s PART. This unconscious reluctance is the
actor’s spiritual public enemy number one. We have to be
ruthless with, and give no quarter to, this nasty demon who
tempts us into the doldrums of inaction and “I’ve already
thought about it/dealt with it.” Fortune, as a wise man once
said, favors the bold!
Cheers,
A
—–
Andrew Wood Acting Studio
cassie
powell
shakes gig
books
cal
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
—
Andrew Wood Acting Studio
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
Andrew Wood Acting Studio
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
Andrew Wood Acting Studio
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 Wood. 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 Andrew Wood Acting Studio
(www.andrewwoodla.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 Wood 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.
Andrew Wood Acting Studio
Acting as a Spiritual Path
(This post is from the blog of the Andrew Wood Acting Studio
in San Francisco (www.utteracting.com): an acting class in San
Francisco for serious, motivated students.)
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
——
Andrew Wood Acting Studio
actor shoes!!!
I had a coffee date with a guy who does a lot of Pilates, and
Pilates is something that I am always encouraging students to
do, because it is all about learning to engage the core
abdominal muscles strongly and keep the rest of the body
expanded and open simultaneously, a skill that is at the core
of great acting. This guy was wearing these shoes that looked
a little like some kind of platform sneakers, and it turned
out they were special shoes, called MBT (Masai Barefoot
Technology) shoes, designed with a curve in the sole. The
effect of this is to force the person wearing them to use
their abdominal muscles to stabilize themselves. Strengthening
the core in this manner is sure to build the actor’s
capability to release their vital energy onto their partner,
and provide for more commanding performances. You may be able
to find these with a google search, or you can drop me a line
at [email protected] and I can send you info on where
you can get them.
A related point is that when I talk to my students about
choosing rehearsal clothes for their scene, I urge them to pay
special attention to the choice of shoes. Shoes often define
the physical relationship to the floor and the comportment of
the spine, and everything else, really, follows form this, so
it is a decision to give careful thought to.
Cheers,
Andrew
—Andrew Wood Acting Studio
altered barbie
Hi all,
I was walking on Market St last night and I passed a
storefront. I immediately recognized the vibe emerging from it
to be that of a gallery opening. I looked more closely and
realized that this must be the opening of the Altered Barbie
show, for which I had seen postcards at my favorite local
haunt, Cafe La Vie. I was on my way somewhere, so I didn’t get
to go in, but what I saw in the front display windows looked
like it would be worth revisiting…Barbie with lots of burningman like body mods and apparel. The card shows Barbie wearing
a tutu, striking a balletic pose, but with a birdcage for a
head. Rene Magritte would be proud. And there’s plenty of
altered Ken as well, so there’s something for everyone. 1554
Market is what I saw, and postcard says there is also
something at 580 Hayes at Laguna. Checkit.
xoxox
A
——–
Andrew Wood Acting Studio