The following is a re-airing of Nike’s text work session taken from the full episode with her. In this excerpt we discuss performing a speech from Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III. Nike Doukas is a fantastic actress, director, teacher, and accent coach. Originally from Massachusetts (same as me!), Nike studied at the University of […]
Text Work: Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead with Geoffrey Wade
The following is a re-airing of Geoffrey’s text work session taken from the full episode with him. In this excerpt we discuss performing THE PLAYER from Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Geoffrey Wade (@geoffreywade) is an actor, director, teacher, photographer, and acting coach, and he was recently in the national tour of The Curious […]
Text Work: Noel Coward’s Mrs. Worthington and Shakespeare’s King Lear with Harry Groener
The following is a re-airing of Harry’s text work session taken from the full episode with him. In this excerpt we discuss singing a Noel Coward song and performing Shakespeare’s King Lear. Harry Groener is probably most familiar to audiences for his musical theatre work in New York, as well as being a series […]
Text Work: Shakespeare’s Henry VI with Armin Shimerman
The following is a re-airing of Armin’s text work session taken from the full episode with him. You wanted these text work sessions as separate episodes and I’m happy to accommodate! First up, Armin talks about his general approach to Shakespeare and some of the overall principles he teaches in classes. In this excerpt we […]
Text Work: Mini-Shakespeare Master Class with Dakin Matthews
A great speech is like an aria: it has a musical structure, and it is normally clearly marked where the emotional climaxes are, if you know how to read the rhetoric. — Dakin Matthews We have a BONUS episode today with a mini-Shakespeare master class with Dakin! This “class” is taken from the full conversation with […]
Ep #12: Dakin Matthews (Shakespeare scholar/actor/teacher, Broadway plays/musicals) on Acting the Classics and Your Artistic Family
Actors are challenged to bring their instrument to the highest level of availability—their voice, their movement, their psyche, their understanding, their emotional life—so that if they are doing a great play that deals with great issues and great emotions, they can fill that greatness with their instrument. — Dakin Matthews I’m thrilled to welcome Dakin […]
Ep #7: Peter Van Norden on Finding Vulnerability and Work Making Work
Be supportive, be kind, be the person who is there for people, who is there to help, who is there to make it a pleasurable and joyful experience. — Peter Van Norden I’m thrilled to welcome Peter to the show: an actor with over 45 years in the business, on both stage and screen. One of […]
Ep #6: Nike Doukas on Determination and the Bigness of Emotion
“This is a business and it’s a huge part of being an actor. We go around thinking we’re artists—and we are—but we have to know how to make a career out of it, too.”
Nike Doukas is an actress, director, teacher, and accent coach. She studied at University of Wisconsin, Madison and has an MFA from the American Conservatory Theatre. She works regularly in regional theatre and has nearly 40 credits on IMDb, including work on Modern Family and a recurring role on Desperate Housewives.
Ep #4: Harry Groener on Versatility and Learning Lines Quickly
If in your first week you can begin to experience what it’s like in your fourth week, how far along would you be, by the time you actually get to your fourth week, in terms of what you’ve discovered? — Harry Groener I’m thrilled to welcome Harry to the show: he’s a 3x Tony nominee, […]
Ep #2: Armin Shimerman on Gratitude and Trusting Fate
Take the small opportunities as well because you never know what project you encounter now may branch out to be a much larger, beneficial, and profitable project later. —Armin Shimerman Armin (@ShimermanArmin) is perhaps best known to audiences for playing Quark on the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series. I consider myself quite fortunate […]