That Tom Waits sure can turn a phrase. He said one of the best things about the creative process (as told though Elizabeth Gilbert here, among other places): |
According to Waits, every song has a distinctive identity that it comes into the world with: there are songs that you have to sneak up on like a rare bird, there are songs that come fully formed like a dream taken through a straw, there are songs like bits of chewing gums you scrape off the bottom of a chair that you have to put together, and there are songs that need to be bullied into shape.
I'm not a songwriter, I'm an actor. But I know the feeling of a role coming to you fully formed, a dream through a straw. In thirty plus years of acting, I've known that feeling maybe twice.
All other parts have been rare birds or, more often, in need of bullying.
And that's why actors need training. Because if you pick up a script and find that the dream seems to be stuck in the straw, you're in big trouble if you don't have a plan.
You panic. "I don't get this, it doesn't speak to me." You feel stuck, so you start to ask questions. "Well, what are they looking for? What would another actor do with this?" And those questions, they are poison.
That's why I teach specific techniques that you can implement every time you pick up a script. Simple, practical skills that grow stronger with repetition. Ways to bully, ways to be sneaky. Ways to not give up when it doesn't come to you right away.
And once you have that - that plan, that practicable set of skills, you are suddenly exited by roles that once scared you. A difficult script is not a burden; it's an chance to coax something into existence.
Being creative means you'll sometimes need to bully the muse. Sign up for my creative self defense class and let's have some fun sparring.
I'm not a songwriter, I'm an actor. But I know the feeling of a role coming to you fully formed, a dream through a straw. In thirty plus years of acting, I've known that feeling maybe twice.
All other parts have been rare birds or, more often, in need of bullying.
And that's why actors need training. Because if you pick up a script and find that the dream seems to be stuck in the straw, you're in big trouble if you don't have a plan.
You panic. "I don't get this, it doesn't speak to me." You feel stuck, so you start to ask questions. "Well, what are they looking for? What would another actor do with this?" And those questions, they are poison.
That's why I teach specific techniques that you can implement every time you pick up a script. Simple, practical skills that grow stronger with repetition. Ways to bully, ways to be sneaky. Ways to not give up when it doesn't come to you right away.
And once you have that - that plan, that practicable set of skills, you are suddenly exited by roles that once scared you. A difficult script is not a burden; it's an chance to coax something into existence.
Being creative means you'll sometimes need to bully the muse. Sign up for my creative self defense class and let's have some fun sparring.