Acting Without the Drama

January 27, 2009.  I’m learning a lot right now.  When we formed our production company, we brought in people that could help us with the things we didn’t know.

First off, they didn’t know it either.  Secondly, when it became clear that we were about to figure out that they didn’t know it either, they jettisoned.

Which has left us with many, many, MANY wonderful opportunities to learn all those things that we just didn’t want to be bothered with.  Good times.

And actually, it is.  Learning is pretty cool.  I’ve often thought that if I had unlimited funds, I would love to just be a perpetual student, learning whatever struck my fancy in the moment.  And that’s pretty much exactly what I’m doing right now, minus the stricking my fancy part.

But all the stuff we’re doing is pretty directly related to what I love.  It’s been fascinating to learn more about the editing process, the writing process, the filmmaking process, etc.  And I love it.  I don’t love it all equally, but I do indeed love it.

As actors, we can get pretty myopic at times.  We only see what’s right in front of our faces.  We learn dialects because we have to for a role.  We fake our way through script analysis because we’re told that we need to know it.  We make half-hearted attempts at things, because (like the whiny kids in high-school) we don’t see how we’re ever going to use this…

I think we might want to develop a thirst for knowledge that goes outside of what it takes to create a good performance.  I’ve been amazed at some of the things that have come in handy to me in my art.  Things that I never would have though applied.

So, rather than whine about all of the hard stuff I’m doing right now, I’m choosing to be excited about how much knowledge I’m gaining.

And I didn’t even have to pay tuition! 

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