Old Acting Blog

I subscribe to the free email from Backstage ‘espresso’. In it they link to interesting articles.

Today I opened up the article by David Dean Bottrell entitled 3 ways to improve your luck as an actor

He writes, “Ambition will not make you better in the room—only skill gets their attention. And skill is gained through practice and by observing what works.”

I read this shortly after watching the Uta Hagen acting class DVD and there she mentions the agony of an actor (disc 2). An actress talks about wanting to show it all at once, then lose the grounding.

Uta tells her it’s because “you aren’t functioning as an actress”. After a moment of confusion by the actress Uta continues, ‘That’s the agony of being an actor and not getting the chance to show’ and “that’s why we need to make our own theaters.”

That was the moment when she and the actors onstage (as well as myself) began to tear up. [as I am again while writing this, hoping no one in this waiting room is noticing me as I type on my iPhone].

How absolutely true! It is AGONY to love to do something and not be doing it. I LOVE acting and I’m not doing it as much as I’d like and it hurts!

Who is to blame though? I am so fortunate to live in an age where I can make my own things, share my own ideas and possibly touch so many people’s lives.

I think the obstacle I am working on overcoming is to make ACTING and CREATING MY OWN PROJECTS a higher priority. Otherwise things get lost in the ‘fill’ of my own life. The daily tasks or distractions that whittle my days away.

My girlfriend and roommates probably get sick of hearing me talk about all things I want to do, that I haven’t made time to do. No one is more sick of it than me.

Instead of looking what I’m not doing, I can be thankful at the experiences I currently have. I’m taking an acting class at Howard Fine Studios (I’m even performing an exercise tonight). Friday I am performing at an improv show. I teach improv every Monday (where I learn a lot), and every other week I practice improv with my roommate.

I just know there is so much more I want to share.

The way out of this agony is to perform.

And I will.

hmatt all

Melissa, John, Darryl and Matt being spies.

Unrelated information: John, Melissa and I watched Superman beforehand, so we started the night later than usual. My birthday is this month, and I too am 33 years old. See? Superman and I are very similar.

We ordered a couple pizzas, then Darryl came back from some party, and we began the one show for the night.

The Americans, a 1980s spy drama from the FX channel.

The show just got picked up for a second season, and none of us had seen it before. It was really engaging. Although there was some confusion over whether they were indeed spies or double-agents, the show was intriguing to follow. I can see where the nosey-neighbor drama will create all sorts of tension throughout the series. For some reason I was reminded of the neighbor on Bewitched when the FBI agent moves in across the street. There’s also that type of high stakes in other shows like the near misses of Stanley Roper on Three’s Company .. of course those are all comedies and the Americans is not funny at all. Still good though.

John noted that the main girl, was speaking English when no one was around. It may be just a technique to be able to tell the story to an American audience without requiring subtitles.

The pilot was an hour, and I’m glad we didn’t have to deal with commercials.. that would have been ridiculous. Pilots are usually long because they have so much ground to cover.

In my acting class, Laura mentioned this show in regards to how the agents have to act ‘normal’. I’m sure I’d find all sorts of interesting analogies for acting and undercover spy acting, and in this case actors-playing-undercover-spies-attempting-to-be-normal.

Anyway, the night was fun, and the show was a hit.

Thanks guys!

hmatt Pop Culture Night