This week’s show is dedicated to the spirit of the Holiday Season!

This week’s show features our second installment of The Shaw Report, where we discuss acting books, DVDs and whatever else comes our way! We also focus on Nashville’s own People’s Branch Theatre!

We’ve added a new feature to the site!  On the right-hand side of the page, you’ll see a section for a poll.  It will change periodically and we will report the results on the podcast.

Oh yeah, if you are curious about this poll, you’ll have to listen to the Episode 18 to find out what it’s about!

There is a problem with the site and it’s taking me a while to sort it out. For now, the theme of the site will be this “generic” thing. When I track down the problem, we will go back to our standard look for the site.

Continue to enjoy the content here and listen to the podcast!!

UPDATE:  I fixed it.  Thanks!

This week’s show features a new segment called The Shaw Report, where we discuss acting books, DVDs and whatever else comes our way!

Title: Sanford Meisner Master Class
Producer: The Sanford Meisner Center with Open Road Films
ISBN: 80074-07152

Copyright: 2006, Sanford Meisner Estate
My Advice: Go buy it right now.

“Acting is the ability to live truthfully under the given imaginary circumstances.” - Sanford Meisner

The name Sanford Meisner has become iconic in the world of Acting. He co-founded the Group Theatre in 1931 along with other theatrical heavyweights as Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg. The Group Theatre was established, in part, to bring the teachings of Stanislavsky’s “Method” of Acting Training to America. Not long after the Group was founded, Meisner branched off and began work on his own acting technique and history was made. His list of celebrity alumni reads like a Who’s Who of Hollywood. Thankfully, in 1980, a group of his alumni got together to record his teachings for posterity. They simply could not allow Mr. Meisner to pass away without capturing his method and teaching style on video.

This DVD represents the first time this video recording has been made available to the general public. It consists of nearly 8 hours of training with Meisner and a small group of students in one of his classes across two DVDs and it is nothing short of magic. The viewer should be aware however, that the audio and video quality is not up to today’s standards. To make matters worse, Mr. Meisner himself is shown here after having gone through three surgeries to circumvent cancer and after having to re-teach himself how to speak. The beauty of this is that he becomes a living representation of one of his own maxims: “An ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words.” Still, without the provided subtitles, he would be nearly unintelligible on this recording. Adapting your ears to Mr. Meisner does not take long and you quickly understand that it’s well worth the effort. In order to facilitate this training for the viewer, the original recording of 1980 contains commentary with Martin Barter (Artistic Director of the Meisner Center and acting instructor). Anywhere its needed, Mr. Barter interjects his comments and explanations of Mr. Meisner’s theories and exercises. This commentary is invaluable.

There are no “special features” on this two disc set. Normally, that would be a huge sticking point for me. I’m a sucker for good bonus material on DVDs. However, on this set, not one ounce of the space of the DVDs is wasted. The primary content is all that matters in this set. The mere fact that these lessons have been captured are paramount to any other material that could have been added. Really, what bonus material would be worthy of this DVD? Interviews with some of his alumni would be pointless (and just cost money) because the video of the training literally speaks for itself. Any other information about the Sanford Meisner Center can be found by visiting the website which is listed on the outside of the DVD case. All it takes is a bit of effort to type the address into your web browser. They didn’t even waste time providing you with a scene access menu. There is one item on the main menu page of each disc and that’s to start the video. You do have the ability to track through the chapters of the disc, which is good given that most people probably won’t have time to sit down and watch all 8 hours (or even in two 4 hour chunks) at once!

Anyone pursuing acting training should own this DVD and watch it often. The DVD will never replace acting training in a studio with an instructor and scene partners, but by observing, a serious actor will be able to see these “traps” that are always lurking in their path towards mastery of their craft. After all, one can not overcome those traps without first being aware of them.

Buy it from Amazon!

Buy it from MeisnerDVD.com!

Title: How to Stage a Play, Make a Fortune, Win a Tony, and become a Theatrical Icon

Author: Charles Marowitz

ISBN: 0-87910-322-1

My advice: Don’t break your neck to buy it.

Mr. Marowitz is an internationally known director, author, and critic. His backlog of books tips the scales at over 30 published works. He has worked closely with Peter Brook at the Royal Shakespeare Company Experimental Group. His credits include Joe Orton’s Loot, Sam Shepard’s The Tooth of Crime, Saul Bellow’s The Bellow Plays, David Pinner’s Fangborn, and Crawling Arnold by Jules Feiffer. So needless to say, he has the credentials to pen a fantastic book on the directing craft. However, this was not one. As he acknowledeges himself, this book was written as an “…unconscionable act of self-promotion.”

Judging by the introduction, I was prepared for this to have a sense of tongue in cheek, wink wink, nudge, nudge know what I mean…know what I mean…to it. Afterall, the book’s appeal was meant for those “who desperately crave fame and fortune and pursue theatre as a means of self-glorification rather than artistic mastery.” Instead, he paints a picture of a somewhat degrading and demoralizing experience for those interested in being directors. Perhaps this is Marowitz’s attempt to disuade his target audience from ever entering into the theatre in the first place… which I can appreciate and I agree with completely.
In this 152 page book, Marowitz starts the director’s trials and tribulations with how to choose a script and carries on through to surviving the reviews. The chapters are short and to the point which is greatly apreciated by this reviewer. Each chapter has an illustration by Cliff Mott which are superbly done. It is quite apparent that Marowitz has a decidely European feel for directing which is reflected in his tone towards dealing with the playwright, the designers and more specifically lighting designers. He even takes a swipe at American actors when discussing line prompts:

In European rehearsals, the prompter frequently whispers the text along with the actor mouthing it. This practice would drive American actors out of their squeaking little minds, as they are accustomed merely for calling for cues as they need them, but continental actors seem to rely on the custom and are inured to it.

Perhaps one of the most sage pieces of advice Marowitz offers concerns the director’s bullshit detector. He states that it “…must always be turned on and scouring the work of the company. When it finds crap, it must bleep loudly.” I found this to be solid and useful guidance.

How to Stage a Play…does for directors what “Waiting for Guffman” does for actors. If you have been through the process before then you will appreciate most of the antidotes Marowitz proffers. It is a “How to” book written in a sardonic manner and where this book falters a lttle bit is that it seems to blend the fine line between irony and instruction. Marowitz wants to mentor but loses sight of his intended audience of fame craving self-absorbed egotists which causes his book to split its focus and struggle against itself.

Buy it from Amazon!

Buy it from Limelight Editions!

This week’s show features a discussion of Suzan Lori Parks’ 365 plays/365 days and we take a look at Shenadoah Shakespeare’s Blackfriars Playhouse.