Acting teachers may disagree about methodology, but they all concur about one thing without question: the quality of acting students’ focus has been at an all-time low ever since the era of smartphones. I am lucky to recall the pre-iPhone era. When I was in college, smartphones were not a thing. At the time, the technology that our professors complained about as “ruining the kids” were iPods. My generation would have our earbuds in, listening to Elliott Smith or Bjork or whatever the obsession was at the time. But, when class started, we turned our phones off, and that was that. Wifi hadn’t b ..read more

An actor-in-training, in pursuit of learning and eventually mastering her craft, will inevitably confront the learning curve multiple times along her way. The learning curve looks like this: the starting position is called “Unconscious Unknowing.” At this stage, you are on the top of a mountain, full of hubris. Unconscious Unknowing literally means you don’t know what you don’t know. When folks don’t know what is involved in acting training, they commonly misperceive acting as something that is easy to do, or it’s all about acting emotions, or they think it either comes naturally or not at al ..read more

Erick is a 46 year old actor originally from Northern California, now living in Huntington Beach. He started his training in the Beginning Acting class at The Acting School of Orange County and worked his way through the Advanced Acting courses. He has been coached by Sonya Cooke for 2.5 years. When did you become an actor? I have been told to become an actor my whole life by family and friends. I did some some stand-up in the past, but I never actually realized acting is what I wanted to do. I have always worked in finance and I run my own catering company. The turning point appeared three y ..read more

I'm finally blogging again! The book is written and now we are amping up for publication! More on that to come. I want to pick up where I left off years ago with the fifth Pillar: Objective. This blog is an excerpt from the chapter (you will have to buy it to get the whole thing!) I would like to focus on what essentially an Objective is, and on the concepts of the Target and Homeostasis... Up until this point, the actor has learned how to be in Contact with his partner, how to interpret Circumstances and how to emotionally connect to the Circumstances and Meanings of the story. (See previous ..read more

Acting is a game of negotiating how much to conceal or to reveal. Actors often allow for too much emotional vomit, when withholding how they feel is more truthful to the moment. Consider your own life: how often do you bare your soul? Don’t the obligations of life require some concealment? Only in the moments that require emotional honesty is opening up worthwhile. It’s the same for our characters, who similarly make choices regarding how much they can reveal and to what degree they must conceal their true feelings, their authenticity, or what they really think to those around them. This happe ..read more

My students' constant requests to read more about The Seven Pillars of Acting Technique, is now answered! Over the next several weeks, I will be writing about each Pillar in the Seven Pillar system. These are longer than normal, so please take breaks, make some tea, and enjoy...Let's start from the very beginning... Contact is the first tenet of acting, as essential as breathing out and breathing in. Contact is the actor's relationship to his partner and to himself, as well as his awareness of his partner’s and his own thoughts and feelings. The line of connection between yourself and your par ..read more

Seven Pillars Acting is not only a technique; it’s a philosophy on personal transformation. And, the cornerstone of that philosophy is compassion. One gains greater compassion when one learns to see without (meaning outside of oneself) as opposed to focusing within. To see outwardly, the self must be quieted. Listening is crucial. Openness is key. We teach this all in the Contact Pillar, and in Circumstance and Meaning, actors expand their tools in anchoring in external stimuli. If they can experience what the character sees from the character’s seat, then they cannot judge their characters, a ..read more

Actors today rarely know when to take a break. And the moment they do, suffering from FOMO, they thrust themselves into yet more creative activity in order to stave off the fear of doing too little. This pandemic, however, has forced us all into some degree of inactivity, if only we would relent. (The image of my toddler running laps inside his crib at naptime comes to mind.) And now we are compelled to examine our compulsions: when it comes to creative work, “When can I/should I/dare I rest?” It appears the former stigma of the lazy actor has finally faded. Long gone are the so-seeming days ..read more

I’d like to right a wrong that’s persisted ever since I published my book. I’ve had time to think thoroughly about how to address it, and I’d like to correct the misunderstanding here and now. A disclaimer: this blog is more technical than theoretical, so if you prefer to watch funny quarantining videos, now would be a good time. In the Meaning Pillar, there has been collective confusion regarding how to apply the tools it describes. First of all, the acting concept of “meaning” or “a meaning” has roots in the Meisner technique (to my knowledge and experience.) I recall my teacher Vicki Hart r ..read more

Don’t let social distancing become emotional distancing. Use this outbreak to breakout of your current boundaries and limitations by fighting through this isolation to connect not only to others in alternative ways but also to connect to your craft and yourself. Although this is a tremendous global emergency and a tragedy for so many afflicted people and their families, I personally insist upon an outlook that is hopeful. We mustn’t allow this virus to attack our spirits. Therefore, I have compiled a Top 10 list of recommendations for actor folks who aren’t sure how to continue to work on the ..read more