Prague Playhouse Acting Studio

Author: brian

  • Feedback from the Summer Intensive Course

    I would like to thank you that I have the opportunity  to learn this method of acting. In my opinion it has benefits in real life as well.  Sometimes it was demainding but I think it strengthened us. I think it was good that we have Brian at the beginning and Boris taught us the second half. For me this was really great experience. I met new people (I think we had special moments with the others), I obtained new informations about acting  and I learned how to act.  Acting in this way is so amazing! If I knew someone who would like to be an actor, I would certainly recommend your school. I am really glad that in Prague is your school and the chance to learn this method.:) THANK YOU BRIAN:) THANK YOU BORIS:) GREAT EXPERIENCE!!!:)

    The Summer Intensive Program was a great time that I spent with awesome people who shared the same interest in acting as me. Two well experienced teachers Brian and Boris, were those who helped me to realize what acting is truly about. They guided me all way long on the exciting “emotional roller-coaster” that I got on the 1st day of the course. Together with my friends we made a little progress every single day and learned the basics of the Meisner Technique, which is a renowned acting method famous for its efficiency around the world. The twelve days were full of emotional freedom, new attitudes and interesting ideas, and I truly recommend it to everyone, who is either serious with acting and wants to learn more, or who just wants to explore this art and have fun. All in all, the Summer Intensive Programme rocks! =)

    Completed the intensive summer programe in Prague Playhouse. Such an amazing experience which will be hard to drop. I look forward to continue on this path, since I found it so amazing. Thanks to the fellow actors/friends for helping me. I really enjoyed every day spent with you to the fullest. I also thank Brian Caspe and Boris Tanko Wilke for teaching me and more.You make me smile.You make me smile.You make me smile 😀

  • Acting class photo shoot July 10th at 21:00!

    If you are a current member of the Prague Playhouse Acting Studio, then you are welcome to come by the Studio on July 10th at 21:00 for a photo shoot. We will be taking pictures of exercises to put online (there will be a redesign of the website as well) as well as up at the studio.

    We will also be taking headshots for actors to use in getting work.

    Please bring a black or white button down shirt for the photos and possibly one other change for the headshot photos.

  • Text vs. Behavior

    As students are working through our scene work (we’re working on “Key Exchange” by Kevin Wade), we are coming up against the inevitable problem of remembering the text while still maintaining contact and connection with your partner. While I wouldn’t go so far as to call the text our “enemy”, it is certainly true that text, even at the best of times, can serve to get in the way of the moment. Even when actors are completely comfortable with the words, simply the knowledge of where the scene is going or what the other person is going to say can be enough of a reason to stop listening to what is happening around you. The scenework we’re doing in class tries to show students how to move the focus from remembering and saying words back and forth to each other towards actually working off of each other the way we would do in a repetition exercise.

    To that end, we use repetition exercises when working on scenes. After doing the first reading, students are asked to go off and memorize the scene. There are various ways of doing this, but the best ways are ones that don’t impose any one way of saying the lines (ie, it’s bad if you always emphasize one word in a phrase). How you say the line will come from what your partner is doing in the moment and how that works into the circumstances that you are living out. When the partners come to work again, we can start with something that looks like a first reading, but when one partner says something that the other person doesn’t believe (and that happens when the person who’s speaking is only doing so because that’s what it says to do on the page: “oh, I’m supposed to say this bit of text now, so I’m going to say it” rather than in response to anything their partner is doing), the line or phrase gets repeated back and forth until it touches some true place in the person who’s line it is. Then the partners move on to the next line.

    A variation on this would be using a repetition exercise to get into the scene. That is, start with a repetition exercise and forget about the text. When you are connected and working truthfully off of your partner, throw in a line of the text. It can be from anywhere in the text, just something that fits with what is going on in the moment. Repeat that line back and forth or, if it already causes a response in you, say the next line. As soon as one partner has to go up into his head to get the next line or to think of what should happen next or how you messed up, go back to behavior. Behavioral repetition will bring partners together and connect them. Text will tend to put you in your head and move you apart. Only say text, then, when you are connected and go back to behavior when you get disconnected.

    This way, you will build up a habit of being connected all the time regardless of how the scene is supposed to go.

  • Contact is key

    As we enter the last two weeks of the Spring Term, we have started working again on text. It is amazing how having the words you need to use with your partner given to you makes actually listening to what they have to say (and really saying what it is you have to say) so difficult.

    Again and again, we come back to this: The contact with your partner is the most important thing. It is more important than the lines you have to say. It is more important than any accent or external characterization that you have thought up. It is far more important than how you think the scene “should” go. The contact with your partner, which you get from really putting your attention on him or her, really listening to what they say and how they say it, really picking up on their behavior even at its most subtle, will allow you to take the pressure off of how you’re saying the words.

    With a script that is even remotely well written, when actors simply listen to each other and respond instinctively to each other, the scene comes alive. When we let that be at the foundation of the scene, then we always have a core truth to fall back on. Then on top of that core truth we can add all the bells and whistles which move the actors from a simple doing of the script to really performing it.

    But without the foundation, the scene feels flat. It feels like work. It misfires and sputters like an engine that’s out of tune. It doesn’t feel like fun, like you’re on a roller coaster. It might even be boring to you to go through it!

    So actors, when doing a scene (and there is a large portion of work that is technical and requires your intellect as well as your intuition that happens before you “do” the scene), forget about everything else but listening to your partner. They will give you everything you need!

  • Purposelessness

    We are starting to look at the concept of Purposelessness in class. It is such a simple concept, but it is so hard to get there. The idea came up as part of our examination of the book “Zen in the Art of Archery” and how that applies to the work we’re doing in class. In brief, the idea means that the student should start work from a place of simply being without a purpose. (more…)

  • Getting Clean

    A student just sent in this thought about what the repetition exercise feels like:

    This exercise is becoming like taking shower. You go in that room 3-4 times a week, sometimes the water is ice cold, or doesn’t flow enough, sometimes it is cut in the middle leaving you cold and sudsy, or you slip on the wet floor and get injured, or you just go in that tub to take a warm, pearly bubble bath which you want to submerge, melt in it and get lost. No matter which way you do it, you get out clean at the end.

    Do you agree? What are you experiences like? Share in the comments!

  • Performing Shakespeare Workshop

    Presented in cooperation with the Prague Playhouse and led by Guy Roberts, Artistic Director of the Prague Shakespeare Festival and director of the PSF productions of King Lear and As You Like It, this is a performance focused workshop exploring the unique demands of taking the next step in Shakespearean character creation–out of the classroom, into the rehearsal hall and onto the performance stage.

    Shakespeare’s characters express themselves moment to moment through language, not action, to convey thought. The workshop will explore the link between the structure of the language and the thought the structure expresses as the principal means of characterization. Once the actor fully understands and commands the tools of Shakespeare’s language the possibilities are limitless. The aim is to empower actors to make Shakespeare’s language roll “trippingly” from their tongues.

    Space in the workshop is limited. The workshop will be in English although care will be taken to ensure that non-native English speakers are welcome as well.

    Friday June 3rd – 18:00-22:00
    Saturday June 4th – 10:00-14:00
    Sunday June 5th – 10:00-14:00

    Cost: 3.000cz total or 1.000cz Daily

    For more info and to register for Performing Shakespeare email:
    Guy Roberts
    guy@pragueshakespeare.cz

  • Acting workshop with Art Malik

    Art Malik talking to the class

    Art Malik and Brian Caspe taking questions from the group

    Workshop participants

  • Auditions for “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown”

    We are going to be having auditions for our upcoming production of “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown” on March 19 and 20. The show is a fun, silly musical based on the Peanuts cartoon. All of the characters are children played by adults. We are looking for singing actors: there is quite a bit of harmony in the group numbers. There is some dance/movement as well. All actors should be fairly fluent in English.

    If you are interested, please write to me (brian@pragueplayhouse.com or 608 577 012) for an audition time (please state whether you would like to come Saturday or Sunday). Prepare a 1-2 minute comedic monologue and 32 bars of a song. There will not be a piano at the auditions so please be prepared to sing A-Capella or bring an instrument with you.

    The roles are:

    Charlie Brown: Baritone
    Lucy: Alto
    Snoopy: Tenor
    Linus: Baritone
    Schroeder: Tenor
    Patty: Soprano

    Rehearsals will begin at the end of March and there will be 6 performances in May (May 13,14,20, and 21).

    Thanks and hope to see you at the audition!

    Brian

  • The “I Don’t Know” Reflex

    In everyday life, it’s often good to say “I don’t know.” It is humble. It shows a beginner’s mind. It allows you to be open to an answer. Lately in class we have been looking at what saying “I don’t know” does when it comes out as a reflex and why, in some cases, it’s better not to say anything until you know! (more…)