La Ronde - LA

La Ronde... ...and ronde and ronde again...

Jobs my friends have: A List

• midwife / Douala
• chef
• sexual health educator
• military intelligence
• consultant
• sommelier
• principle oboe in the Chilean Philharmonic orchestra
• lawyer
• clown (actually... a few clowns...)
• diplomat
• diagnostician
• many mums and dads! 
• journalist 
• limo driver
• opera/wedding photographer
•      wedding/food photographer
•           theatrical photographer
• stunt man
• 3rd grade teacher 
• English teachers (3)
• award-winning drag queen
• grant writer
• spinal surgeon 
• sound designer and engineer
• nutritionist 
• world-renowned cabaret diva
• college professor (4)
• literary agents
•      theatrical agents
•           opera agents
• doctor of linguistics (working in dead and dying languages, attempting to maintain and develop worldwide programs to implement [or re-implement] native languages in their communities of origin.)
• COUNTLESS actors,
• singers,
• musicians,
• dancers,
• visual artists,
• performance artists,
• composers,
• writers,
• acrobats,
• directors,
• designers,
• producers,
• production people. . . of course . . .

With your permission m'lady, I'd like to "La Ronde" again*...

About to embark on another exciting theatrical experiment! In early 2011 I participated in the Off Broadway revival of Hello Again by Michael John LaChiusa based on Arthur Schnitzler's 1897 play, La Ronde, and I am so thrilled to announce I shall be joining one of my oldest friends and collaborators Michael Arden in his contemporary, Los Angeles-centered adaptation of the the piece as "The Actress."

Here is the info: 

* * *

Recently, Charlie Sheen indicated via Twitter that he was most definitely planning to attend a night of La Ronde, the adults-only LA theater experiment set for July 18-22. Not bad for a pilot production most people around town have yet to learn about...

THE PLAY:

Originally written by Arthur Schnitzler in 1897 and first printed in 1900 for his closest friends, Reigen, also known as La Ronde explores and scrutinizes the sexual morals and class ideology of its day through a series of encounters between pairs of characters (shown before or after a sexual encounter). Drawing from characters across all levels of society, the play offers social commentary on how sexual contact transgresses boundaries of class. In this production we take a look at these morals and ideologies as they reflect modern American culture.

THE EXPERIENCE:

One evening in July (18-22), people receive instructions to show up at a certain location in Hollywood not knowing who will be in the play, what's going to occur or where they might end up, simply knowing they must "Leave your inhibitions at home!" Only 12-14 people will watch each night’s performance, staged at at ten different locations where a cast of about a dozen actors, dancers and performers will put on the provocative live-performance pastiche.  

In this site-specific pilot workshop production of La Ronde, streets, insides of houses and places unimaginable become stages for a series of events not soon forgotten: a secret, sexy party planned just for you. A post-show soiree directly following each performance allows the audience to meet and mingle with the cast, creatives and fellow audience members. Make a friend... Take one home...

The small, invite-only, audience becomes a voyeur in the scenes, sometimes inches away from the performers. Utilizing storytelling through the mediums of music, dance, theater and even film, it is our goal to transport the audience literally and metaphorically through the private lives of the characters invented by Schnitzler and reinvented in 2012 Los Angeles.

* * *

*So, to off-quote the great Danny Kaye  from The Court Jester,

     "With your permission m'lady... I'd like to La Ronde again..."

Twenty-Nine

It has become an annual tradition (with myself, and I do suppose with all of you) to share my birthday reflections. I must say, this year, both the day itself and the reflection has snuck up on me.

Soooo.

29.

Hello there.

29:

The atomic number of copper

The number of days in a lunar month

The track from which the Chattanooga Choo Choo train departs in the Glenn Miller song.

Saturn's number of years to orbit around the Sun

 29 is a Markov,  Perrin, and Størmer number.

A beautiful prime number (technically the tenth prime number, a twin prime pair with thirty-one, the sixth Sophie Germain prime, a Lucas prime, a Pell prime, a Pillai prime, the 10th supersingular prime, and an Eisenstein prime!) Plus a tetranacci number. YO. 

The number of letters in the Turkish, Finnish, Swedish, Faroese, Danish and Norwegian alphabets.

"$29.00" - A on the album Blue Valentine by Tom Waits.

AND, the iiiiiiiiinfamous N-29 night bus that got me home so MANY a time from Central London all the way north to Wood Green. 

*

You know, every seven years we have a complete new body of cells-- our bodies are literally fully transformed, our cells completely turned over, a complete body chemistry change and a need for unfolding. Twenty-nine is the first step in external integration with the rest of the world. 
It is a cycle. 
It does not come to "get you." 
It comes to present you with an opportunity.

And every age has special things to be known, understood, and worked with. There is no time in your life that does not have validity.

This year I know I actually felt my cells turning over--every single one of them. My mind, my body, my outlook, my spirit, has been transformed. As I stand here, a new body, a new self, I also realize that for the last 20 years or so, I have been in "survival" mode: frankly, using achievement and a driving sense of life purpose to keep away pain and fear.

I am no longer surviving. This year (through particularly uncomfortably difficult inner work), I healed those wounds. I am moving into a phase of life where I can expect more than survival. I can choose to thrive. To build a positive life, throw light along the dark and unknown tunnel of the future full of the knowledge that there is nothing to fear that I have not already met, seen and conquered.

...That is the best birthday gift of all.
To look ahead with such extraordinary inner peace...
              and excitement. 

Hello Again [NOT] at Circle in the Square

The genius that comes from yet another Hello Again email chain...

Ask Al: Contemporary Speeches

Every once in a while I get emails from people asking for help or for advice. With their permission, I always think it is helpful to share these Q&As with everyone just in case any of you have the same questions out there.

This on was from a young woman about to audition for drama school in the UK.

* * *


Hey Al,

...Loved your blog on Auditions but is there any chance that you could recommend a couple of contemporary speeches? I have an audition for Mountview coming up and am struggling to find something.

A


* * *

Dear A,

The best I can offer you is to think about a "type" you fit. Think about a film actor whose personality/type represents the truest sense of you--your essence, a kind of kernel of your inner self. It is important that you distinguish the difference between
     who/what you want to be
or
     WHO AND WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE
but dig deep and think about
     WHO AND WHAT YOU ARE 
and also importantly,  
     HOW YOU ARE PERCEIVED
This takes a fair bit of self-awareness and sometimes quite strict self assessment.
And Dude: it can be brutal.

So. Sometimes I play a game with students when I am teaching that attacks this issue with a bit of whimsy (that's right, I just said whimsy)-- I ask them what Muppet they think they are. [*She pauses a moment for you to take that in....*] This covers all the Jim Henson canon from your straight up Muppet movies to Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, Fraggle Rock and beyond. Go for gold, people! Then we sit in a circle and WE TALK IT OUT AS A GROUP. Yes. Like, as in, yep-I-am-aware-this-is-higher-education-acting-class-and-we're-supposed-to-be-discussing-Meyerhold-but-let's-talk-Muppets-instead kind of talk. Real, serious, gritty talk.
For over two hours.

Things progress thus:

Blonde Guy: I think I am Animal.
Al: Okay, great. Why?
Blonde Guy: Because I don't like to say a lot, but I like to act out. 
Al: Alright. Is that it? 
Blonde Guy: What do you mean? 

Then we talk about how he is so much more than just that one sentence, and how actually, he just wants to be Animal because, let's face it-- Animal is awesome.

Then things continue:

Al: So what do you guys think of Blonde Guy as Animal?
Dark-Lipstick Girl: I dunno.
Al: Why?
Dark-Lipstick Girl: I see him more as Bert from Seasame Street.
Blonde Guy: WHAT?!
Al: Why do you say that Dark-Lipstick Girl?
Dark-Lipstick Girl: Because even though I agree he is quiet and can act out at times, I think it comes from a sort of adorable "fussiness" that reminds me a lot of Felix from The Odd Couple-- you know, the way you like to have all your pencils in a special order, and the way you dress so impeccably even for movement class and the way you never like to get sticky?! THAT IS TOTALLY BERT!

[flabbergasted and thoughtful, Blonde Guy thinks this over...]

Blonde Guy: Is all of that true?
Al: No. The pencil thing is true. I don't really want to know if the sticky thing is true. But ultimately, the character behaviors are only ever a reflection of what is happening inside. The person's essence moves them to make certain choices. So. No, it is what they perceive to be true.
Blonde Guy: I am Bert?!
Al: Look. I need you to breathe. I'm not trying to crush your Animal dreams here. You could be a little bit of Bert as well as Animal. We could throw in a healthy side dish of Prairie Dawn if you're feeling frisky. That's possible. These people might not know you as well as you or they think they do.
Blonde Guy: ...I guess I am a little bit like Bert. I didn't know people saw me that way.
Al: Well...that is what this whole incredibly ridiculous exercise is about.

Yeeeeeep. That's why they pay me the big bucks people: to get real about Muppets (and to sing loud, cry on cue and throw tarot cards at Danny Pino's head...of course.).

Now. Just so we're clear, this is genuinely a helpful exercise for any kind of material because it is important for us to understand our strengths and natural abilities, as well as the things we need to work on. I make it about Muppets because it is non-threatening and creates a levity in the classrooms of the English speaking world's most serious acting environments...and also because I love the Muppets...duh. 

But the exercise can be as "Oprah Aha-moment" as you deem it necessary to be. Get a journal. Talk it out with your close pals. But be prepared for a few surprises. Proceed with caution.

This knowledge, incidentally, is not always as important for classical material because naturally there will be an acting adjustment made for the time period, heightened language, etc. Contemporary stuff is deceptively challenging because you have to be your in touch with your natural, present-day self in a different set of contemporary circumstances. (This naturally applies to all acting, but these discrepancies can be ever more evident in contemporary work.)

For instance, the second I came to grips with the fact that I am a "Meg Ryan" a whole world of contemporary stuff opened up for me....

Now what the hell does that mean, exactly? I'm a well-read, highly educated neurotic American young woman with a penchant for word-sparring, situational and physical comedy that turns on a dime to become deeply affecting and emotionally serious, usually about matters of the heart. Bazinga. Obviously there are other actors out there that fit this category, and I draw from them too-- but mostly, I'm a Meg Ryan. (I'm also a Valerie Harper).
Whatever. It's a place to start.

Once you have this figured out, then, start by adapting a speech from one of their films. It is just a place to start. You can branch out from there. I find contemporary speeches very difficult (let's just take one little look at my professional work thus far and you will see that I pretty much always cry and wear corsets-- that is a strength of mine). So, when the contemporary going gets tough, I steal from Meg Ryan films. My RSAMD showcase scene was from French Kiss. It was a hit.

Oh, and for contemporary, my advice (particularly in the UK where this issue can get hairy) is to stick to your own accent. It is just better in a million ways. As you begin to feel more at ease with the genre, you can branch out and try other stuff. But always begin "close to home."

End of the day, do something you know you are going to rock at no matter what it is... even if it is from, like, Evil Dead 2, Felicity, or something you patched together from The Corrections.

That's my advice. I hope it's helpful.

Al

* * *


Honestly, that is possibly the best advice I've been given! Thank you, will let you know what I end up doing! Just got to work out my type- feel plenty of discussion will ensue.

A

I did it.

I. 

WROTE. 

 

A.

BOOK.

...over and out. 

San Francisco

Back from a great weekend with family in one of the most beautiful places on earth. In the glow of my big brother's identical laugh, Maggie's kind and gentle beauty, nieces laughing, handstands in the pool and local wine at the tops of mountains, I realized: family is made up of far more than blood, it is made of an infinite collection of the tiniest of moments just like these.

“It seemed like a matter of minutes when we began rolling in the foothills before Oakland and suddenly reached a height and saw stretched out ahead of us the fabulous white city of San Francisco on her eleven mystic hills with the blue Pacific and its advancing wall of potato-patch fog beyond, and smoke and goldenness in the late afternoon of time.”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

Subject: MacRae vs. Raitt - A Hello Again Thread

"If I've told you ONCE Bob Lenzi I've told you a THOUSAND TIMES! MacRAE!"

So there is this thing we do. 

The cast (and creatives) of Hello Again fell in love. 
That we knew. 
That happens when you take your clothes off and take naked photos for the poster five minutes after you meet one another.
We reunite all the time-- for the 12th of May (a significant date in the play for those of you who do not know), the holidays (see our Easter "Hello Again Jesus!" party), to see The Muppet Movie. You know-- like normals. 

But there is this thing we do...

We, and I really do mean ALL of us, continue to write emails to one another-- and I do not just mean the odd "Happy Birthday Whoever" emails but LONG (sometimes over 60 messages long) email chains. 
About any ol' thing. 
I love a healthy Hello Again email chain. 
Just your run-of-the-mill, Homeric-long-form-poem-esque, epic Hello Again email chain.

So: once upon a time, a very very healthy (read: strooooong) debate began among us regarding the Billy Bigelows of original John Raitt and film version Gordon MacRae (and obviously this Julie Jordan had quiiiiite a bit to say about it thankyouverymuch). It was legendary--as all good Hello Again  conversations seem to be.

Below, is the MacRae vs. Raitt Hello Again  email chain.

En. JOY.

____________________________________

From: Jack Cummings III

Subject: MacRae vs. Raitt

The controversial court case continues--check this out:

Notice this is #3 while #4 is...I rest my case.

http://playbill.com/news/article/165106-THE-SCREENING-ROOM-A-Look-Back-at-Carousel-On-Its-67th-Broadway-Anniversary/pg3

--

Jack Cummings III

Artistic Director

Transport Group Theatre Co.

____________________________________

From: Bob Lenzi

Subject: MacRae vs. Raitt

 

 Well take a peak at #8 when you have the chance.  At the 7:25 mark, I believe the subtext is "Alright all you ignorant MacRae loving shits.  Listen to what I'm about to do live, no sissy film sets with vocal dubbing.  MacRae could never dream of the vocal brilliance I am about to display.  Enjoy my extra B-flat bitches..."

______________________________________

From: Bob Stillman

Subject: MacRae vs. Raitt

So, MacRae gets to sing all of "If I Loved You," plus the reprise,"in #3, and Raitt gets his verse cut out of #4, and you're making comparisons?

______________________________________

From: Chris F

Subject: MacRae vs. Raitt

Don't be silly, Jack.  John Raitt.  End of story.

______________________________________

From: Alan Campbell

Subject: MacRae vs. Raitt

Make it stop!

______________________________________

From: Jonathan Hammond

Subject: MacRae vs. Raitt

Jack.

You have broken our sacred Playbill rule.

Hi all!

Xxx

______________________________________

From: Chris H

Subject: MacRae vs. Raitt
 
Well, if we're talking numbers...

Google Search:

Gordon MacRae - 686,000

John Raitt - 8,620,000 

______________________________________

From: Chris F

Subject: MacRae vs. Raitt

 

Thank you, Chris.  I always could rely on you.

______________________________________

From: Alan Campbell

Subject: MacRae vs. Raitt

Wow. Haberl gets in the weeds with that one!


______________________________________

From: Donald Butchko, Stage Manager

Subject: MacRae vs. Raitt

...is it too late to vote for Michael Hayden?

______________________________________

From: Jack Cummings III

Subject: MacRae vs. Raitt

Sure--that was such a robustly sung performance--and by robust I mean...not.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

The cuts were decided upon based on quality.

No further questions your honor.

Bam!

End of story!? Oh hell to the no Fenwick!
Not in a million years so sit back down in that wheelchair Blanche!

Nice made up figures Haberl--why don't you run along and play with your Fischer Price airport while we settle this.

Look @ Lenzi trying to exert authority--how droll...how VERY droll. Don't you have some cheeks you need to rouge LENZI!!??

Je regrette rien.

______________________________________

From: Alexandra Silber

Subject: Re: MacRae vs. Raitt

Gah!!

I leave you children alone

For 2 MINUTES!!! 

Look. Raitt had a B-flat. It did rock. He was a beast and the original and could sing Verdi of you asked him to. 

MacRae was so fucking sexy-- like  Christian Bale french kissing you with a mouthful of Scotch sexy--and crooned like a psychopath. 

I want you to know that I have KNOWN some Billy Bigelows in my time... Believe. You. Me. 

These two were both amazeballs. 

My overall verdict?

  Rait for My Boy Bill and the money note 

  MacRae for My Little Girl

Done. 

And Donald...? If you mention Michael Hayden again we are finished. 

I say one blew it high, the other blew it low...for many and many a long long day. 

Over and out.

______________________________________

From: Jack Cummings III

Subject: MacRae vs. Raitt

Silber in da' house y'all! Heeeeeeaaaay!

______________________________________

From: Alexandra Silber
Subject: MacRae vs. Raitt
 

Oh my god did I silence the crowd...?

______________________________________

From: Nikka Lanzarone

Subject: MacRae vs. Raitt

You did just basically drop the microphone and walk away...

______________________________________

From: Bob Stillman

Subject: MacRae vs. Raitt

Put it this way, Al: if this thread were an air mattress, it'd be punctured. 

BAM!

______________________________________

From: Donald Butchko

Subject: MacRae vs. Raitt

I want to frame this.  or perhaps stitch it into a sampler?

______________________________________

From: Jack Cummings III

Subject: MacRae vs. Raitt

End Scene. 

West Side Story: An Exploration

I recently returned from Interlochen Arts Academy, and talked with the students about, among many other things, their current production of West Side Story. Several of them followed up after I left, wanting to talk further, dig a little deeper about their characters and how to practically approach them. So we continued the conversation. I thought it might be interesting to share with all of you!

*

Dear All,

Write this next bit down, commit it to memory: 

We should never be afraid of knowledge.

Gather it with a healthy appetite like ephemera for a collage.

*

All of you:

The wonderful thing about working on WSS as a teenager is that the characters you are playing are exactly your age. This is a unique experience when you are in High School, for so often you are playing older adults in situations far exceeding your life experience. This is such an exciting opportunity to soul search: if you were in these (exciting, violent, confusing, frightening) situations right this moment, how would you feel and how would you react?

These are extreme circumstances. Struggling for survival (either "on the streets of New York" survival, or "making it in America without a penny to my name and I've come from San Juan with nothing but my wits" survival). Life and death circumstances--literally. People could die at any moment. People do die. Brothers, lovers, best friends--die. Take that in. Because of that, you must think in terms of extremities and levels of human desperation.

So. How can you push yourself as an actor to a similar place of that kind of desperation?
Head-work:
How can you make every single given circumstance of the highest possible stakes?

Example: When Lieutenant Schrank says "How's the action on your mother's mattress Action?"
--the actor playing Action could choose to just be "offended" or a "hot head," OR, he could conceive of a history with the actor playing Schrank-- perhaps Action's mother is in prison for solicitation. And perhaps it was Schrank who arrested Action's mother six months ago for the prostitution. OR, perhaps Schrank is his mother's customer. Perhaps all of the above. How can you load those moments and relationships so that they are swollen with meaning and high stakes?

Body work:
I suggest using exercise taken to an extreme. Running until every muscle and lung cell burns . I would try asking a friend to accompany you as you actually sprint in circles around the theatre--have the "spotter" push you physically until you actually feel you are going to burst. Then sing or recite (without music) your lines or songs. How does that change the experience?

By having a friend with you they can
a. Push you further. If they are there egging you on saying "you can run faster" or "You can dig deeper--say it again!" you will go to a new place. They keep you accountable.

b. They can make sure you don't actually get hurt.

Also, like I said before, remember that these characters are teenagers. Young people dancing on the line of childhood and adulthood in a quickly changing world who think they know it all, and fear they don't know a thing. They are young people just like you.You truly have to ask yourselves hard questions: if this were happening to me right now, what would I feel/think/do? 

When it comes to tangible research, use other young people (or older people when they were young) as a point of reference. Baz Lurman's Romeo & Juliet is a great guide because he was brave/practical enough to cast actual young (incredible) people in the major roles. Not to mention tremendous early teen/early 20s work from Johnny Depp, James Dean, Marlon Brando, Jodi Foster, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Patty Duke and Thora Birch.

*

Riff:

Check out Leonardo DiCaprio.

DiCaprio shares a lot of qualities with Riff-- but the most important is that wily, passionate charisma. At his best Riff is DiCaprio in Catch Me If you Can, at his worst (and in that darkest hours, when literally possessed by secret fears), he is screaming in a puddle of his own snot like DiCaprio in Romeo & Juliet or Basketball Diaries. YouTube this stuff. It'll help. It'll give you a point of reference. 

Crucially: Riff is a kid. You are also a kid. Wonderful: you have that unique quality in common-- you get to look inside yourself and ask "have I ever seen any of my friends on a slab at the morgue?"

Plus Riff has some serious family problems--to say the least. Flesh out and establish what those are.

The truth is every single one of these boys are afraid--left alone, they'd be paralyzed by fear. But they have one another. That is why Tony and Riff started the Jets: together, in their gangs, they can do anything. They believe-- they must believe-- that together they are untouchable.

As true impending violence gets closer and closer (and they can feel it) the tensions and fear build. And each Jet manifests that fear in a different way-- Action has his anger. Tony has his ideals and dreams. Riff has charisma and it exponentially mounts and mounts and mounts. It grows in its grandiosity and is deeply tactical. From wild highs (check out Baz Lurhmann's Romeo & Juliet, Mercutio's Queen Mab speech, brilliant performed by Harold Perrineau) to the "cool" lows (which are not low, they are merely subdued fear-- check out Marlon Brando being astonishing in "Wild One")

Practically:

1. How can you push yourself as an actor to a similar place of that kind of controlled and reigned in desperation? Use the sprinting exercise. Then singing/reciting/dancing "Cool" with as much mastery as if the audience were present. How does that change the experience? (Please make sure you don't get hurt!)

I also highly recommend doing this exercise with the actor playing Bernardo, and then doing your final knife fight.  If you are both "out of your minds on the edge" (controlled controlled), it will be electric. And true. (You do not want to have it look like ballet when really it is the end of their Universe.)

2. How can every dance move become a tangible sentence of articulate gesture? What does each and every movement "say?" Know the answers.

3. Lead that group of actors/Jets. You guys aren't a group yet and it's all on you baby doll. Get pizza. Walk around campus in a gang. Identify the weaker relationships in the group and and create little secrets that bond you. It won't take as long as you think. Give it a few hours. You are their leader: lead them.

4. Finally: stand up straight. You hunch your shoulders. But motivate standing up straight-- "If I stand tall and look at broad and tall as I possibly can, no one will touch me, or know that I am vulnerable." Standing up straight then becomes a motivated need.

*

Bernardo / Anita:

Bernardo and Anita are both unsafe in this new country and world without the other. Remember: What they share is that they both look after others. Not just often. But ALL THE TIME. No one looks after them. No one keeps them safe and secure and cherished. No one except the other.

Also crucially: they have a physical relationship exceeding merely sex. What I mean is their most articulate language is physical. The secret to the dialogue is in the dance at the gym. those aren't dance moves-- they are love making and war mongering. Practically do the running exercise, then recite (and I know this seems a little odd) the first few lines of the balcony scene (WSS or R&J) even though it isn't yours because Bernardo and Anita are THAT in love. Then do the Mambo. Ask one another/work out together how each step and move can have an actual "sentence" attached to it.

B:

1. Lead your boys (see #3 for Riff in reference to the Jets) Come up with a handshake and a Sharks gang "all for one" type slogan. And puh-lease: make sure it is in Spanish.

2. Unlike Anita, you can take a great deal of juice from referencing Tybalt from Shakespeare. Check out the perfect 'Latin-ized' modern reference once again in Baz Lurhmann's Romeo & Juliet played brilliantly by John Leguiziamo.


Also, there are (sadly) a great many modern manifestations of Latin gangs-- check out Gang Wars 2, a Discovery Channel documentary about Oakland, California Latino gangs (The Nortenos, The Surenos and The Border Brothers), as well as the HBO series Oz: the Latin gang (El Norte) is a great point of reference.

*

Action:

Check out at this clip of Leonardo DiCaprio in Basketball Diaries. It is Action-- inside, he is a frightened, angry kid. Action probably feels the same way about his mother (whom he defends in the soda shop so ferociously to Lieutenant Schrank) as DiCaprio feels about the mother in this clip.You clearly have a really great back story worked out about your mother, particularly with the actor playing Schrank, but flesh it out even further.

With tension and fear building Action has nothing but anger. The more fear he feels the shorter his fuse, the more violent his visions and solutions and dreams.

It is important to remember that Action is not a leader. He needs Riff and he knows it. So by the time Tony is off in LaLa Land consorting with the enemy, and Riff is actually dead, Action is left alone to lead a group when he is scared to death to lead. Because he is scared to death to DIE. Action spends every second dancing on the edge--"Officer Kruptke" is not so much a comedic song as a desperate attempt to quell the fear that at that point in the show is threatening to destroy him before a Shark does.

Action doesn't have Riff's charisma, he doesn't have Tony's ability to dream. He has his muscles, the ability to crush someone's throat with his bare hands just to keep himself safe. I don't think you would have to look hard to find a contemporary parallel anywhere in the world. Violence...fueled completely by soul-chilling fear.

Practically:

1. Work on your Levels of Tension. ("Levels of Tension" is a wonderful basic acting tool from the Le Coq tradition). Actually number them-- from 1-7, 1 being asleep, 7 being a nervous murdering psychopath (which is where Action goes-- he is like Romeo or Hotspur in Shakespeare).

Interlochen Arts Academy West Side Story costume parade

The “Hogwarts Incident”

Birmingham Palladium Cinema

[In which Lilly drove up five hours in a minivan from Oberlin only to be instantaneously whisked away]

*

[At rise: Deepest winter. Al, Mom, Kent, Grey and Lilly sit around the dining room table discussing various life events. All but Lilly have been in the house solidly for nearly six weeks, contemplating existence as well as preparing their various college re-auditions, but mostly obsessively reading the first four Harry Potter books, attending the local premier of the first film, and then re-attending it every-other-day or so, particularly after going to Greek Islands diner because the movie theatre is right around the corner.]

Lilly: So Grey, you’re applying for a school in Australia?
Grey: Yep. I want it.
Lilly: That’s amazing!
Grey I just wish we could all go to school at Hogwarts.
Al/Kent/Mom: [in unison] T O T A L L Y. 

[Pause.]

Lilly: …Um…What’s Hogwarts?

[—Record scratch—crashing pause—mouths agape—plates are dropped.]

Grey: [deadly serious] Lilly get in the car.
Lilly: —What?!
Grey: [action movie, Bruce Willis, intense] —GET IN THE CAR!!
Lilly: [laughing a little, albeit nervously] Where are we going?

[Everyone begins standing, moving mechanically, like a car service team at the Indy 500]

Kent: [taking her by the arm] We’re going to the movies—
Grey: —Taking care of a serious problem.
Kent: Jesus!

[They are at the door]

Al: I’ve got her coat.
Grey: Good.
Mom: [calling from the driveway, honking, already in the car] WE CAN STILL MAKE THE 8:30!!
Kent: Buckle her in. I’ll lock up.

[They drive off down the street getaway-car-style, and “christen” Lilly to her very first Harry Potter experience. A trip we would repeat dozens of times before the winter was out. Phew. Crisis averted.]

In My Life: Alley

alley scott
oxford, england, 2006