The Craft of Acting

Driving Miss Daisy photo (c) 2008 by Tina M. Harris


"I go back to the (Actor's) Studio every chance I get. You never stop learning and you never stop needing to learn. And you can't learn in front of a camera. To grow, you need the stage." Robert De Niro on Inside the Actor's Studio

I don’t know Robert De Niro, but I do know a lot of actors like him. Excellent professional actors who have never stopped needing or desiring the opportunity to practice and study their craft. Perhaps, more than anything else, this is why these actors have built successful careers.

I have been lucky to have had several great experiences working with many of the terrific community actors here in Central Oregon and have nothing but respect and admiration for what they do. And they do what they do more for true love of theatre than for anything else. The community theatre is the backbone of theatre in America. It builds the audiences, keeps alive the great canon of theatrical literature and contributes to the training of theatre professionals to be. Chris and I believe ITW has an opportunity to add real value to the community theatre scene by providing access not only to our experience, but to the experience of other professionals in town and those that we bring in to work on our productions.

When I talk or work with the actors here in town, I am left with the impression that they all want to become better, more focused actors. Indeed, I am blessed to have developed a core of people who have been mainstays in the workshops I have offered. But that group is small and has not grown much since the very first workshop 2 years ago. And I wonder about that. I believe that you can never stop growing as a theatre artist, but I’m not sure others feel the same. ITW recently offered 4 workshops led by some very excellent professionals with much to give both in talent and experience, but we were forced to cancel them all for lack of enrollment. There are also other classes being offered by Film Oregon Alliance, COCC and elsewhere, but our understanding is that these others are most often populated by people who have not been prominent players in the community theatre world.

So we’d like to ask you -- what prevents you from taking a class? Please help us out by taking a moment to fill out the adjoining survey. Innovation Theatre Works is here to serve this community and we can best do that by applying our own expertise where it will do the most good.

Brad

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