The book has only been out a few weeks and I’m pleased to say I’ve been on KVMD’s SoCal Life talking about the book and a few signings are being arranged by the publisher right now. I have an invitation to come to Arizona and appear on AM AZ when I’m in town promoting the book. That’s all fun stuff.
The thing that makes it so worthwhile is that with this exposure more of the people who can really benefit from this book will become aware of it. Acting is a world where influences are not exactly welcomed. We say we keep our eyes open, but don’t we also protect ourselves by becoming snobs to techniques and theories on how to improve? It stands to reason that we protect our ego’s by shutting out a lot of the dreck that comes our way.
That’s not a bad policy actually. We’re fragile. Sifting through and looking for the gems of information that improve our quality of life is a talent in it’s self.
What I think we do with most of this information is use it to confirm or deny our talent. It shouldn’t be used that way. It should only be used to improve our depth of understanding. If it doesn’t do that, then it’s worth ignoring.
So every technique idea, or snippet of advice that enters your personal space should be looked at like a scientist, not like a defender of your teacher, or college program, or core belief about your ability. It’s all going to build a deeper artist if you let it. If it starts to overwhelm you, that’s a good sign. It means you want to know all you can, but you’re just overwhelmed because you’re not seeing the specifics, you’re stuck on the enormity of the concept. The Meisner technique is a big concept. The details are that it’s a technique based on listening. Not so scary, eh?
Investigate everything for that little (or large) gem that will make you understand yourself or your scene or that play you did a year ago, better. That’s the only way we get better, by trying on new things and seeing what helps, every day.