Know something about lighting design, about set design, about stage management, about writing. The actors get most of the praise—but there are all these other artists. Acting is important and you have to work hard at it, but you’re not working any harder than anyone else. — Alan Mandell On the show today is Alan […]
Text Work: Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 with Tony Amendola
The following is the text work session taken from the full episode with Tony. In this excerpt, Tony discusses Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare. As Tony shares, it’s almost like an “anti-love” sonnet, that it makes fun of sonnets that are too flowery, as it has a very different tone and style with its message. You’ll hear […]
Ep #18: Tony Amendola (Regional Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Stargate SG-1) on Stamping Your Own Passport and Following the Work
Being an actor in Los Angeles can be—if you’re not careful—living off the interest of your talent and experience. And every so often, you need to make a deposit, and that can be doing theatre in LA, New York, in the regions, or it can be a self-generated project, but you do need to do […]
Ep #17: Robert Goldsby (Columbia/ACT/UC Berkeley; Directed 150+ plays, 60+ years in theatre) on the Aliveness of Molière, Clear Transitions, and Being Blissfully Happy
Plays are intensely personal to the writers—when they write them, they’re imagining something that’s very vivid to them. You have to get into their head and try to find another vividness that’s truthful to the original. I’m all for the playwright; that’s where you go to study. — Robert Goldsby On the show today is […]
Behind the Podcast: Paden Fallis of In and [Out of] the Arena
It took me way too long to realize that nobody wears one hat in this business. Nobody. Denzel Washington doesn’t. Tom Cruise doesn’t. The Rock doesn’t. They’re either producing or script-writing, but nobody is just a one-trick pony. — Paden Fallis Today we have a bit of a different episode: it’s a great chat with […]
Text Work: John Webster’s The White Devil with Ray Porter
So don't be surprised!
The following is the text work session taken from the full episode with Ray. In this excerpt, Ray will be discussing a speech from John Webster’s The White Devil, which is a Jacobean play and comes in the period right after Shakespeare. As Ray shared, plays in this period were much darker and a definite […]
Ep #16: Ray Porter (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 300+ Audiobooks) on Delivering the Mail, Being Your Advocate, and Good-Natured Arrogance
So don't be surprised!
The biggest downfall of actors is when they start to get very pleased with themselves because they’re actors; having something else that will keep you a bit humble is a good thing. — Ray Porter On the show today is Ray Porter, an actor who spent 18 seasons with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival playing all sorts […]
A Tribute to Philip Bosco, with Armin Shimerman and Peter Van Norden
A lot of actors my age thought of Phil Bosco as a god. ~ Armin Shimerman No one spoke better than Phil Bosco. ~ Peter Van Norden We have a special episode today. It’s a tribute to the actor Philip Bosco. In this, you’ll hear the voices of Armin Shimerman, Peter Van Norden, and Phil […]
Ep #15: Dawn Didawick (Regional Theatre, Erin Brockovich, Pretty Little Liars) on Being a Sponge, No Credentials, and Daring to Fail
If you do your work, people will want to work with you again, if they can, if they have the power to do it—and they’ll want to work with you years later. — Dawn Didawick On the show today is Dawn Didawick, an LA-based actor who has worked at numerous regional theatres, has lived and worked […]
Text Work: Jessica Dickey’s The Rembrandt with Francis Guinan
The following is the text work session taken from the full episode with Francis. In this excerpt we discuss performing a speech from Jessica Dickey’s The Rembrandt, which premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago in 2017 with Francis in the cast, alongside John Mahoney (known by many as the dad on Frasier), and who is also another longtime […]