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***After teaching for 23 years, I am now ready to build a Theatre Company at the Lost Studio. I am forming a Company Class in addition to the Daytime Intensive. I invite you to contact me if any of the above resonates with you. The Studio IS where such work can take place. Please call 323-933-6944 or email me at cindajackson@gmail.com.
* * * BODY AND VOICE WORK by Cinda Jackson
An actor must be connected physically and vocally in order to be connected emotionally.
* The whole spectrum of tension needs to be explored, as each extreme renders us incapable of real freedom of expression.
* I think of tension as a continuum; on one extreme, you have tightness to the point of immobility. On the other extreme, you have numbness and lack of sensation, resulting in a slackening deadness. They are both forms of tension. They both apply to the body and the voice.
* The key is to find the appropriate use of muscle tonus...both active and passive. For an actor, the body and the voice are our instrument. An instrument is a machine and it must be finely tuned to function efficiently. This is where the degree of active and passive muscle tonus comes into play. Using more energy (effort) than is called for results in "pushing, indicating, and overacting." A lack of active energy manifests as lethargy, weakness, and a lack of clarity. There must be a fine balance, so that the actor is neither on a runaway train nor hidden under water.
* An actor's body must, above all, be responsive. The voice is part of the body. If there are blocks, physical or psychological, our ability to be present and responsive is impaired.
The idea is to be energetically aligned, so that we are "at the ready", not anticipating and jumping the gun, or dully behind the beat and missing the moment. Being present and be responsive to what's happening NOW...IN THE MOMENT.
*** Those of you who have worked with me in the past know what I always say...that you cannot be at the height of your power, if you're not working on your acting every day. Every other artist knows this. A singer or musician wouldn't dream of auditioning for the Met, if they weren't practicing and playing every day. A dancer wouldn't dream of performing, if they were not in class and training every day. It's the same for writers and painters and sculptors. Professional artists work at their art form every day. An amateur does it every once in a while. That's the difference. A professional plays for keeps. For an amateur, it's a part-time hobby sort of thing. Which are you?
*** I am looking for actors who are artists, who want to become the best they can be.
An excerpt from Peter Brook's THE EMPTY SPACE:"The dilemma of the actor...Singers and dancers often keep their teachers by them to the end of their days: actors once launched have nothing whatsoever to help them to develop their talents. After he reaches a certain position the actor does no more homework. Take a young actor, unformed, undeveloped, but bursting with talent, full of latent possibilities. Quite rapidly he discovers what he can do, and, mastering his initial difficulties, with a bit of luck he may find himself in the enviable position of having a job which he loves, doing it well while getting paid and admired at the same time. If he is to develop, his next stage must be to go beyond his apparent range, and to begin to explore what really comes hard. But no one has time for this sort of problem. Building a career and artistic development do not necessarily go hand in hand; often the actor, as his career grows, begins to turn in work that gets more and more similar.
How does the average actor spend his days? Of course, it's a wide range: from lying in bed, drinking, going to the hairdresser, to the agent, filming, recording, reading, sometimes studying. But whether his use of time is frivolous or earnest is beside the point: little that he does relates to his main preoccupation--not to stand still as an actor--which means not to stand still as a human being, which means work aimed at his artistic growth--and where can such work take place? Time after time I have worked with actors who after the usual preamble that they 'put themselves in my hands' are tragically incapable however hard they try of laying down for one brief instant even in rehearsal the image of themselves that has hardened round an inner emptiness. On the occasions that it is possible to penetrate this shell, it is like smashing the picture on a television set.
The tragedy is that the professional status of actors over the age of 30 is seldom a true reflection of their talents. There are countless actors who never have the chance to develop their inborn potential to its proper fruition. It has long been recognized that without a permanent company few actors can thrive indefinitely. However, it must also be faced that even a permanent company is doomed to deadliness in the long run if it is without an aim, and thus without a method, and thus without a school. And by a school, naturally I don't mean a gymnasium where the actor exercises his limbs in limbo. Flexing muscles alone cannot develop an art; scales don't make a pianist nor does finger work help a painter's brush: yet a great pianist practices finger exercises for many hours a day, and Japanese painters spend their lives practicing to draw a perfect circle. The art of acting is in some ways the most exacting one of all, and without constant schooling, the actor will stop half-way."
Cinda Jackson, Artistic Director and acting teacher at the Lost Studio starts new acting classes in September and January. If you are interested, call her at the Lost Studio 323 933 6944.
These are the reviews for John Steppling's recent play:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/11/theater-review-phantom-luck-at-the-lost-studio.html
http://www.laweekly.com/2010-11-04/stage/time-travelers/
http://www.stageandcinema.com/2010/11/04/phantom-luck/
LOS ANGELES, CA - Celebrated American playwright John Steppling returns from Europe to the Los Angeles stage after an eleven-year absence with the American premiere of his newest play, Phantom Luck. Steppling and Wes Walker direct Jim Storm, George Gerdes, Kadina De Elejalde, and Mark Rolston. Phantom Luck opens a six-week run from October 22 through November 28th, at The Lost Studio in Los Angeles. The new collective, Gunfighter Nation, produces in association with the Lost Studio. Three good reviews on this play:
In Phantom Luck, an aging professional gambler and his partner, a terminally ill ex-convict, decide to take the ultimate chance by robbing a high end card game. An ambiguously identified gangster and fellow shill weaves spectrally in and out of the story watching the two with both contempt and wonder. A young woman from El Salvador observes and warns. Deep dialogue about the faces on the cards, the numbers on a racing form, and the buying of a gun help form Steppling's spiritual and mystical landscape.
"The play came out of a desire to write about gamblers. My mother was a bookie and my father gambled a lot. I've wanted to express something of the existential nature of this obsession." comments Steppling from his home in Yucca Valley. Beyond that, the choice seems to entail a rejection of conventional bourgeois family values and goals - that's why it's appealing. And the play is about mortality. In a society with ever fewer outlets for creativity or opportunities for making money, gambling is very seductive. And actually, of course, the secret is that losing is even more seductive."
"The world, says a character in the play, is about 'propositions'," he continues, "and so we bet on this or that or that and this". John Steppling is one of America's most significant playwrights, yet Los Angeles audiences have not seen a fully-staged production of his work since 2004 when Padua Playwrights produced DogMouth at the Evidence Room.
"John is on everyone's short list as one of Los Angeles' defining literary voices," comments fellow playwright Guy Zimmerman. "This is the first main-stage play he has done here in almost ten years - it is an event. The hallmark of John's work is the dignity he grants those who have been marginalized, by their choice or by accidents of birth. Whatever their level of criminality, John's characters speak to us with an undeniable humanity. His work is always sophisticated, grounded in a comprehensive theater aesthetic that is both infused with knowledge of theater history and entirely original."
Cinda Jackson/Lost Studio
The Lost Studio, 130 South La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90036-2910
Artistic Director and teacher, Cinda Jackson, announces the return of John Steppling to the Lost Theatre. The Lost Studio will be the new home for his Gunfighter Nation, a theatre and film consortium, with a September-October production of the LA History Project followed by his new play Phantom Luck in November and a Christmas Festival in December 2010.
Their first production is the LA History Project: the Secret Procession of Los Angeles runs from September 17, through October 3rd playing Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 7 pm. This guerilla theatre piece is linked to John's teachings and writers from his Gunfighter Nation theatre and film consortium*.
John Steppling is planning a series of intensive writing workshops. For information, contact Gunfighter Nation jsteppling@gmail.com or the Lost Studio at 323 933 6944. The workshops will include playwriting workshops as well as specific weekends focused on specific topics (adaptation of classics, writers and directors, etc.).
Written and performed by Gunfighter Nation.
Gunfighter Nation's inaugural production
was The Alamo Project, performed at the venerable Odyssey
Theatre in L.A., this last May. The group has found a new home
at The Lost Studio in Hollywood. In addition to ongoing
workshops for writing and directing, Gunfighter Nation is planning
The L.A. History Project
(in September of this year) and The 12 Days of Christmas, Minus
One, in December. Gunnhild Steppling and Gunfighter
Nation are developing a joint project with Joanna Kloss of the
Witkacy Foundation in Warsaw to bring polish acting legend Marian Opania
to do a dual language King Lear with Mick Collins, a production originally
staged in Lodz Poland at Film School Student Theatre to universal acclaim
in the Polish press". And a series of experimental film workshops
for teens. This is just in the first year of Gunfighter Nation.
Please visit our blog at www.gfnation.wordpress.com Artistic director John Stepping. The Norway/US
link for John and Gunnhild is http://www.steppling.net/
Meet John and Cinda after each performance. This is the beginning of an ongoing series of dynamic plays and future seminars. You can find out more about Cinda and John's classes.
Anyone from From the Heart can get a ticket for a FREE treat at intermission by emailing CaroleEDean@att.net. I took a class at the Lost Studio in the early 90's, the Circus Minimus Interdisciplinary workshop for writers/directors/actors which John and Cinda founded along with Mick Collins. Cinda taught acting and John taught writing and they both taught directing. The interconnectedness of these three elements is what allowed me to break though my rigid concepts of art. It gave me a better understanding of all of the elements needed to make it work. I promise you this work will open your creative channels.
Cinda Jackson has owned the Lost Studio for over 20 years, serving as Artistic Director and teacher. She studied with Peggy Feury and William Traylor for 10 years before she began teaching. Ms. Jackson also has a Masters degree in modern dance and was part of the dance faculty at Indiana University before moving to Los Angeles.
Cinda Jackson received the Best Director Dramalogue award for her production of Danny and the Deep Blue Sea which also garnered best acting ensemble and lighting awards. She has also received La Weekly's pick of the week for her directing efforts on 4-H Club, Neck, The Lost Studio Christmas Festival and Night School, part of the Lost Studio Pinter Project. Cinda has directed everything from the classics to avant-garde post modern writers, from Shakespeare, Chekhov, Schnitzler, Shaw, Pinter, and Shepard to Steppling.
The Lost Studio Pinter Project began in 2000 exploring the body of this writer's work and has thus far included productions of seven of Pinter's plays. These award winning and critically acclaimed productions have been directed by Cinda Jackson and some by John Pleshette.
She is also artistic director of Les Enfants Magiques!, the highly successful children's classical theatre workshops at the Lost Studio created and managed by Cinda.
Cinda's classes start in September and January of each year. She is looking for aspiring, dedicated actors to join her intensive scene study classes. Call 323 933 6944.
*Gunfighter Nation was formed in 2009 as a response to the stifling of theatre opportunities on the LA cultural map and the arid and trivial landscape of most institutional theatre. Artistic Director, John Steppling is a native of Southern California and a Rockefeller Fellow and two times NEA recipient, who recently returned from a decade in Europe where he taught at the Polish National Film School and in Norway in conjunction with the Mid-Nordic Film fund. He met with his son, Alexis Steppling, a community organizer and founder of Soul Rebel Radio on KPFK, and with veteran New York playwright, critic and actor, Harvey Perr, as well as Guy Zimmerman, artistic director of a variety of award-winning actors (James Storm, Mark Rolston, Lisa Denke, Gray Palmer, Heidi Darchuk, among others) and young filmmakers (Norway's Gunnhild Skrodal, and Jeptha Storm of L.A.) and musicians as varied as jazz and avant-garde legend Don Preston, and drummer Efe Agin-dotan, born into a noted family of Nigerian drummers and now head of how to own touring drum ensemble, writer and designer Rita Valencia, established Southern California writers such as Sharon Yablon and Leon Martell, and a host of young enthusiasts.
Gunfighter Nation continues to see itself as a laboratory for all things cultural There is a decided pedagogical aspect and the process of teaching is guided by a desire to illuminate the anti-commoditized realm of that particular dimension of the creative that looks to awaken the audience as well as to entertain. We believe art should start with questions, and with attention to process. Everything is not a product, but should be an experiment.
John Steppling
Interview with John by Times Quotidian contributor Rita Valencia
John's Awards and Grants:
Rockefeller Fellowship (Theatre) 1985,NEA Grants (Playwriting and Directing) , PEN-West Award (Best Play, Teenage Wedding) 1991, MacDowell Colony Residency , LA Weekly Award for Best Play (twice) ,Dramalogue Awards for Writing and Directing
Publications: Sea of Cortez and Other Plays (Sun & Moon Press) 1996 ,The Thrill (TCG Press) ,Dream Coast Dramatists Play Service) 1985 Anthologized in Best of the West (Padua Press, Theory of Miracles) Plays From Padua Hills (Padua Press, two volumes 1987, 2002, Understanding the Dead, Neck)
Film and TV: Wrote and directed short, Then They Recognized Me, 2009, Norway, Screenplay (adaptation of Eddie Bunker novel) for Animal Factory, directed by Steve Buscemi and starring Wilhem DaFoe. 2000, Screenplay for (adaptation of Elmore Leonard novel) for 52-Pick-Up, directed by John Frankenheimer, 1985. Staff writer for ABC network series Cracker (1998), Staff writer for FOX-TV series Key West, (1994), Freelance scripts for various network shows, and cable shows, Episodes for HBO Viet Nam War Stories and USA's Sins of the City.
Theatre Productions: Dog Mouth
(White Bear Theatre Club, London 2000 and The Evidence Room, LA, 2001
(see www.paduaplaywrightes.
Teaching:
PWSTiF im. L Schillera w Lodzi, screenwriting 2003-2007 (Polish National Film School). Mark Taper Forum, Mentors Program, LA, 1987-88, Thirteen summers at the Padua Hills Playwrights Workshop and Festival, 1981-1994, Seminars at University of Toledo, Sangaroon Arts Center, Bangkok, and at the New Vic (Screenwriters Lab) London. Private Workshops taught with Murray Mednick, LA, 1999. Screenwriting lab, Kino Lab, Warsaw 2005, English Literature at College of New Rochelle, NY, 1982, La Guardia Community College, NY Queens, 1982, and UCLA Extension (Creative Writing and English) 1986-87
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