Acting Leads You to Crazy Places

“Go speed reader, go!” was just one of the headlines of my recent fling with 15 minutes of fame, and the funny thing is, it wasn’t for acting.

I recently made a brief appearance on Capitol Hill as a reader for the 950-page climate change bill that the Energy and Commerce Committee was debating. I was hired because I read fast, really fast, in fact, you can check out a clip of me reading on the Rachael Maddow show last Friday night if you want to catch a glimpse of what I mean.

It was really fun being semi-famous (at least amongst my friends and colleagues) for about a week and a half, and having people on the Web insult me for no reason, including a couple of my favorites, that I’m a “Muslim Terrorist”, and that I “sit in my parents’ basement practicing speed reading on Harry Potter.” On the brighter side, I was called an “amphetamine tongued warlock” and “an auctioneer on steroids” by national television and news outlets, and I couldn’t have done it without my NCDA training in voice.

It’s funny how living the life of an actor can make other opportunities play out in other parts of your life. So far, my acting career has taken me across the country, granted me untold hours of fun doing what I love to do professionally, given me the experience of sitting in Congress to watch how a bill is marked up, taught me how to juggle, how to do some acrobatics and gymnastics, given me an outlet for my comic songs, introduced me to the great cities of Philadelphia and Los Angeles, given me a host of lifelong friends all across the country, plentiful teaching opportunities and made me a director and artistic director. And now - a speed reader!

Crazy.

Creating Families

The life of an actor is hard. It’s hard for many reasons: the audition process is brutal, the craft itself is extremely challenging and many skirt the poverty line while waiting for their next job, which can get old pretty fast. Of course, the profession is rewarding, and the opening night applause is almost narcotically addictive. But in recently closing Heidi, the play I was in for eight weeks at Imagination Stage, I was reminded of yet another reason why this life is so difficult - I have to say goodbye to my new family.

It is incredible how close you get to the people you share the stage with, and how easy it is to become a best friend with everyone backstage. It’s no wonder that the theater community is so small, that people on the outside look at it like a high-school clique. We genuinely love one another. And actors are peerless; it doesn’t matter if you are 75 or 17. We all become brothers and sisters through the process, and we are family forever when the process ends.

I still keep in regular contact with people that I worked with for one or two months six years ago. We call one another, we check up on each others’ lives, We see each other’s shows, and it’s special. Wherever I go, I make new family members.

In Heidi, I worked with seven actors, five of whom I have never worked with before, and was blessed with three terrific backstage technicians, two of whom are just beginning their own theatrical journeys. I have shared advice and received it, told stories and listened to them, and gotten to know, in incredible detail, the people who I have walked the boards with all this time. Some of them I didn’t think would become my friends, some I had weird first impressions of, but every single member of our company has become so dear to me that I truly loathed the moment I had to say goodbye to seeing them every day.

I am grateful to them for making this process one of the best I’ve ever been a part of. I am grateful that they were as generous with their time, advice, and compassion as I could have hoped cast members would be and I hope that we all get to work together on a project in the future. But if we don’t, I’ll be checking their Facebook pages, reading their blogs, inviting them to parties and shows and calling each and every one of them to talk about life and art. Because that’s what family does, and in theatre, we create families wherever we go.

You Need An Objective Eye

Earlier I answered a question I am asked consistently and I’m excited to have that opportunity again.

Recently, a prospective student came to the school to learn more about it. The young woman was very prepared, with a whole list of questions. ( I LOVE that!) One question was whether students at the Conservatory were required or encouraged to rehearse alone with each other outside of class. She seemed so eager that I thought she might not like my answer, but I can’t tell people what I think they want to hear, I tell them the reality. So I told her: No. In fact, absolutely not! She didn’t respond, so I was determined to make sure she understood why I was - and could be - so emphatic about it.

I explained that actors in the first-year program do not rehearse outside of class without a teacher present because they will inevitably give each other notes (that is, for those who may not know, they’ll make suggestions about what the other actor should do at a certain point). And actors do not ever, rather should not ever, give each other notes.

Actors giving other actors notes just isn’t done. Not because of some lofty actor rule but for very practical reasons – you need an objective eye. The objective eye is the teacher or director watching the scene who can see what is unclear or not working . An actor who is IN the scene can’t possibly know that. Too often, when an actor in a scene gives another actor a note, it’s because they are seeking a response from their scene partner that clicks with something they want to do. But they can’t know if that choice works for the audience, or for the other actors.

I was excited when she immediately expressed relief! Apparently, she had just finished a class where this exact scenario had played out and she wasn’t very happy about it.

Acting is a collaborative process but collaborative does not mean suggesting what each other should do. Every play, every film, every piece of entertainment, has a director – an objective eye – the person charged with seeing what the audience will see and making sure the story is clear.

There is plenty for an actor to do outside of class – study the text, the literal action, the given circumstance, etc., and certainly it’s always useful to get together to run lines. But actors should really never rehearse – you need an objective eye!

If I had a dime for every time I’ve answered this question I’d be a millionaire! Do you have another question I’ve probably answered a million times? Let me know – I’m happy to help!

Hip Hip… Hoowrong!

One of the things I like about life is how frequently I’m wrong. Maybe it’s due to my generally pessimistic outlook, and the fact that things usually work out better than I assume. Maybe it’s nature’s way of saying I should never assume things. Or maybe it’s that I have horrible judgment.

Well, whatever it is, it’s happened again. I went to an audition, and I landed the part. So, cool, yes? Well, I wasn’t sure. See, I almost immediately started having second thoughts: The theatre is a long haul away. The part is so small for that kind of time commitment. I have no connection to any of these people. What did I get myself into? Am I going to regret this?

In a word, no. In a few additional words, I’m a doofus.

The experience has been great. It’s a brand new play, and the director has shown a deft hand at letting us explore – including dedicating big blocks of rehearsal to letting us make discoveries to inform the characters we play – while at the same time crafting her vision of the work. The part is smaller, but it’s far from being a background role. It’s a nice journey through the show, and has some great moments. I was a fool to think in the small community of D.C. theatre that I had no connection – and Facebook quickly dispelled that notion. Hell, I even found out someone at my day job knows the director. Not to mention that the cast has been a blast to work with.

And, sure the drive is long, but now I’ve learned all kinds of alternate ways to get out of D.C. during rush hour! (None of them are faster, naturally, but a change of scenery is always nice.)

Of course, a few of them were the result of wrong turns. See? It never stops.

A Blank Canvas

Smoke billows upstage and pools along the theater floor, as the dimly lit stage begins to glow an eerie blue and we hear soft chanting in a whisper that sounds like it’s coming from behind an upstage veil. As the sense of mystery begins to grow, along comes our guide, our chorus leader, to pull us into the story… at least that’s how I see it in my mind.

As we prepare at The Conservatory to go “into the breach” once more, I am reminded how exciting it is to be part of a play, and in this circumstance, I am in the unique situation of being the director, and it is the images that I see in my mind that I will be charged with bringing to life on the to the stage. Currently, our black box theater, and our actors are serving as a blank canvas for our opening play of the ART season, Echoes of Troy, which draws from several Greek myths to create a drama based on the stories of those who played a major role in shaping the Trojan war.

As an actor, I love the sense of wonder and excitement thinking about how I will approach a new role, and the week leading up to a first rehearsal is a stimulating experience where I finalize my work on character and determine the choices that will guide me through the early part of the rehearsal process. As the director for this project, now it’s my job to help shape the choices that our terrific actors will bring to the rehearsal process, and make the images I see for the scenes match the work of the actors.

I am thrilled for the opportunity and can’t wait to get started. Starting on May 11, we have 92 rehearsal hours to bring the show to life. I’ll be updating weekly on our progress, so check back regularly to find out how it’s going!

My First Year as Artistic Director - The Ride Begins!

Guest blogger and Conservatory President Ray Ficca sent this along on May 4th - as he set off for Totem Pole Playhouse.

What a whirlwind weekend! Today I came to Pennsylvania to begin my first year as artistic director at Totem Pole Playhouse in Fayetteville, Pa. Totem Pole Playhouse has been graced by many great actors, designers, and technicians since opening in 1950, including: Jean Stapleton, John Ritter, Harry Groener (one of my favorite actors), Sada Thompson, and Sandy Dennis. I have also been lucky enough to work here as an actor over the last five years . I have taken the reins from my dear friends Carl Schurr and Wil Love. Thankfully, they still are lending their talents to the playhouse - both acting and directing in the upcoming season. It's absolutely humbling and also very exciting every time I walk into the theatre. Many members of the staff with whom I've worked over the last five years will be returning as well. These folks are both great friends, and some of the most talented folks I have ever worked with professionally.

Saturday morning, Nan - my wife and fellow Conservatory staffer - and I traveled to PA to prep for the more than 30 artists who will arrive at the Playhouse over the next couple of weeks for the 59th season. Our charge this weekend was to check in on the skeleton crew that has been at the theatre for the last few weeks getting the place ready for the tech crew and first actors who will begin to arrive in the coming days.

Our first stop was the office, where they’d been busy answering phones and selling tickets. Seeing that the ladies there had things well in hand, we moved on to the houses where actors and technicians stay for the summer, to make sure they were ready for the onslaught of folks who will be arriving in the coming days. We couldn’t have been more impressed! The houses were in fine shape thanks to the crew: fresh paint, beds made, cable connected.

After making sure the tech and actor crew were taken care of we set off to find the house where I would be living this summer. I think we pulled into about nine driveways in the state park before we found our house - generously rented to us by a long time playhouse supporter. (These houses have names (like the Cottage, the Tavern, the Annex – not numbers – and sometimes it’s not easy to see the name and without sequential numbers – you can’t just count…) Nan cracked that we were annoying the neighbors by pulling into their driveways and staring into their houses...wondering. We found it finally after a friend Sue Powell saw us at a loss and drove us to the right house. This house is amazing – were it not for the fact that we have so much cool work coming up putting up six plays this summer, I’d feel like I'm on vacation!

After making sure all of the houses were ready to be occupied by artists and technicians - who are coming from places like California, Indiana, Rhode Island, Kentucky, and New York – our little crew had some supper and time to relax before calling it a night.

As exciting as it is to be starting my first season at the Playhouse as Artistic Director – I’m also sad to be separated from my Conservatory family in DC. It’s not complete separation – Nan and I are in constant contact and I’ll be back each week to work with staff on the progress of the summer semester, the ART season, working with the Advisory Board and seeing final student projects – but still. I’ll miss seeing student progress every day. But I know that Nan, Hope and Doug have everything well in hand. And when I do return to school after being at the Playhouse - one of the oldest and most professional summer stock companies in our great country – I am always delighted to find that the same professionalism and collaborative artistic process are in play at the Conservatory that I am used to at the Playhouse and the many professional theatres where I have worked over the last 18 years - since I myself graduated from the Conservatory’s third year program in 1991. I feel proud to have been able to help create that positive, professional atmosphere at my alma mater. Rock-On artists of the future in training! I’m here for you! Reach me at RFicca@aol.com.

I’ll be blogging this summer about the Playhouse and the work I’m doing here. If you are near Caledonia State Park and looking for some great entertainment come on by! Check out our performance schedule at www.totempoleplayhouse.org and let me know if you are coming I’d love to meet you before the show!

I know Nan is planning a school field trip to see our production of I Hate Hamlet starring (me) and Alum Matt Eisenberg ('05) on July 12th - 3 pm (including back stage tour and lunch in the pavillion on the west lawn) - hope to see lots of you here (there were 30 of us on this feild trip last year. love it!) Contact Nan NFicca@TheConservatory.org to get in on the fun.