Acting: Walking the Tightrope of an Illusion: Zen Lessons for Actors in Life and Onstage

by Michael Beckett

Overview

Michael Beckett, renowned acting teacher of New York City's HB Studio, investigates the many mysteries of the noble art of acting. Compiled from live recorded transcripts from his invitational experimental master class, the actor's craft is studied through deep inquiry into the actor's psyche. Emotional blocks, insecurities and universal concerns of the beginner and advanced actor are observed with the intent to unravel the entanglement of mind itself. Zen stories and esoteric principles are explored as life lessons to shed light on the actor’s understanding of human nature.

Universal concerns of the actor's process are explored from a perspective that goes far beyond technique. Conversations cover such topics as the joy of being confused, working from emptiness, playing the action not the concept, turning yourself on, loving the character as yourself, and dealing with self-consciousness and performance jitters. For example:

Student: "What do you mean the actor has to have an empty mind?"

Teacher: "There are two ways to listen. And in acting, one of the ways is listening to the person and to the inner conversation one is having in relation to the expectation or condition one is setting up for that person. Another way of listening is coming to it with nothing, with no expectation or condition. It's a very different kind of listening – the way you listen to a great piece of music, or the way you listen to the wind in the trees. The actor wants to listen in relation to a condition that he sets up, an expectation."

***

Teacher: Know yourself. Make mistakes. Run risks. Any place where you're challenged, even threatened--it's good. And if you get pissed off and upset, that's a good sign. it means something's getting to you. Watch--usually when you're being "gotten to," there's a lot of negativity that starts surfacing because you start to defend your position finding reasons to stay protected. And it's very easy to find justifications. But when you don't go that way--when you surrender to all of it and don't defend yourself, you can learn something about yourself. Why am I pissed off? Why am I angry? it's got nothing to do with what's going on out there, it must have something to do with me.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781624884191
Publisher:	BookBaby
Publication date:	11/26/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	120
File size:	435 KB

About the Author

Michael Beckett began his study of acting at the age of 17. He trained with several fine acting teachers, each with a diversity of styles. He finally came upon two who opened doors of perception that otherwise might have remained closed. One was Academy Award nominee William Hickey; the other was the eminent and renowned Herbert Berghof. It was Mr. Berghof who invited Michael to start teaching classes at New York's HB Studio, which he had founded in 1945 with his partner Uta Hagen.

So, in 1966, while acting in and directing various projects, Michael also started teaching. In addition to his classes at HB Studio, he accepted invitations from the prestigious Singers Forum to direct actor/singers in the craft of acting, and to direct students in "The Actor's Craft" and "Directing the Actor" as a guest professor in NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Kanbar Institute of Film & TV. As years went by, more and more students found his teaching approach to be unique with its emphasis on the psychological. They kept pushing him to write a book. Not being a writer, he did finally agree to have his Advanced Acting class audio recorded, from which Acting: Walking the Tightrope of an Illusion was compiled.
Michael's teaching approach is to focus not just on technique but on moving into the deeper and more mysterious realm that lies at the core of art itself.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Prologue: The Sound of One Hand Clapping 1

Chapter 1 Working From Emptiness 3

Live Desperately but Not Seriously 6

Mind In Control 12

Fine Tuning 15

Full Cup / Empty Cup 18

Chapter 2 Hearts and Minds 33

Play the Action Not the Concept 35

Turn Yourself On 39

From Theory to Practice 47

Loving the Character as Yourself 55

Chapter 3 Real and Unreal 59

Nothing to be Done 59

The Actor's Canvas 69

The Other / Myself 73

Fallen Angels 78

Shoot For the Stars 84

Chapter 4 In Search of Freedom 89

Information or Transformation 90

The Joy of Being Confused 94

Dealing with Self-Consciousness 101

Stop Trying to "Make It Happen" 114

Aware and Unaware 117

Chapter 5 The "Business" of Acting 125

Sex, Lies and Videotape 125

Art for Art's Sake 128

Audition Jitters 129

Chapter 6 Walking the Tightrope of an Illusion 137

Two Is One (on "making progress") 138

The Truth Is What Works 148

The Action Before the Action 149

No Mind / Empty Mind 156

What Is the "It" that Works? 165

On the Back Burner 178

Star Quality 181

Epilogue 183

About the Author 199