David H. Lawrence, XVII

Coming soon: The Secrets of Screen Acting Podcast

I'm very excited to be the presenter of a new premium podcast, powered by ShowTaxi.com, with world renowned author and BBC television and film director Patrick Tucker. It's called The Secrets of Screen Acting Podcast, and it makes it's debut on May 21, 2007.

If you haven't yet read Patrick's book of the same name, you're missing out on what is arguably the most insightful guide to real-world, on-camera job skills. He can, in five minutes, arm you with any number of potentially career-changing techniques.

New scene, new partner

I'm doing a second scene contemporaneously with the scene from Brilliant Traces. This one is with Amie, a dancer whose acting just blows me away. She's so believable it frightening.

This scene is from a play called The Balcony Scene by Will Calhoun. The WGN connection is going to come in handy: I play an agoraphobic writer who is a die hard Cubs fan. Amie is a new neighbor of mine whose boyfriend won't take no for an answer.

I went to Amie's apartment on Friday for the first table reading. We then did the scene this morning in class, and it was great to get Laura's feedback on what we both want and need from each other in the scene.

Learning and using firsthand the Method changes how you look at actors and their work - especially the finished product.

I fear telvision and films are going to suffer the same fate as club jocks and radio shows in my life: I'll be paying far more attention to the technique/lack of technique than the actual finished product.

There is no "He..."

My scene partner, Katrina, and I did the first table reading of our current scene tonight at class.

It's from a play by Cindy Lou Johnson called Brilliant Traces. Here are some reviews.

It's about two people who find each other, literally and figuratively, in the wilderness. It's incredible, and is bringing up some serious personal issues for me around children's safety, the safety of isolation and what relationships need to survive. And my scene partner is an actor who is smart, funny, charming and very focused. We had a great reading at my house, and it's carried over into class.

So we're doing our first table reading. Laura, my instructor, is talking to me about my character, Harry.

And I can't stop saying "He is..." and "He would..." when I discuss with her how I think Harry would play a moment.

Bad form for a Method actor. It's all about "I". "I am..." And "I would..."

Five times I say "He...", completely involuntarily. And five times Laura says, very calmly, "There is no he."

It was great work on stage, and yet I can't get past this aerial view of the character. And I'm kicking myself inside for being serially stupid.

So Laura takes me aside after class, and says "You weren't really concerned about the I/He thing, were you? It will take a bit of time to get used to it. Don't let it worry you. Just notice it, and choose to change it."

When it comes to this, that's pretty much all I do - worry. In a good way, of course.

And then the good news. I'm doing great. She's telling me that the work I've done so far is brilliant. And she wants me to do an extra scene with one of the other actors, Amie, who has no partner since her partner got booked for a kid's show for the summer and had to drop out of class.

"I was..." ecstatic. I am so loving this new chapter in my life.