As another year draws to a close – and what a crazy one it’s been – I just wanted to share some thoughts for the Holiday Season that will hopefully keep everyone sane, inspired and at peace.
As some of you may know, I taught at the Moscow Art Theatre a couple weeks ago. It was an honor to be the guest at a school with such a storied history. It was even perhaps more inspiring because my approach to the work is quite contrary to the traditional approach the school has been steeped in for decades.
Here were two takeaways:
1) This art form has been around forever. I was literally teaching at the school whose founder – 120 years ago – put contemporary acting in a context that was original and forward-thinking for it’s time. Art evolves. So does it’s understanding and practical application. To be alive at such a time that is ushering in a whole new consciousness and approach to the work today is just as immediate and exciting as the time must have been sitting in a classroom with Stanislavski himself 100 years
ago. We’re a part of something magical here and I’m completely humbled that I fell into some sort of blessing to realize this 20 years ago and began teaching.
(Oh by the way, did I mention 2018 is our 20th Anniversary!)
2) Perspective. Russia has gone through two huge revolutions, and countless political, ideological and geographical conflicts. The Russian people have endured pain, hardship, starvation, famine, incarceration, Lenin and Stalin (!) and being sent to Siberia. They have survived two World Wars and Communism – dictatorship and censorship and the abolishment of freedom.
And yet, a century later, they have survived and evolved. They have overcome things difficult to imagine. And art is still being made. Stories are still being told. Actors are being taught to act – or rather they should be taught to be – but you get the picture.
It’s all moving forward. Sometimes in the midst of tumult, and huge cultural and political change it’s hard to find our bearings. We get caught up in mass collective consciousness and take on the fear and anxiety and triggered reactions they induce. Before we know it, we’re walking around in a constant state of low level panic and dread. About the state of our country, and most often, then, our own personal lives.
I’m sure Russian peasants felt the same way in 1917 about the Bolsheviks (and Lenin) as we do now of Trump.
Taking stock in this is important – as it allows us to course correct and make changes where we discover they need to be made. In between being pushed from one pendulum mood swing to the next – we may start to decide what’s important, and slow the pendulum swing down.
Love. Kindness. Compassion. Forgiveness. Tolerance. Empathy. Grace.
Those are thing things that matter. And ultimately evoke transformation.
So we continue to stand up for what’s right. We become activists for change and hopefully help make enough noise to reverse human rights infractions and other terrible global mistakes our leaders are making. This just happened a couple weeks ago when Trump lifted an elephant trophy ban from Zimbabwe. (Which was going through a coupe at the time and had no functioning government!) Because of our vocal opposition and protests he reversed the decision within 24 hours.
So we find causes we stand up for. And we create work that’s meaningful and important and uplifts as many people as possible because of its inspiration and beauty and universality.
Actors are fucking special and emissaries of this kind of humanity.
I had a student at our London studio challenge me on this precept saying I was projecting my hopes for him onto his work. Damn right I was! My job as a teacher is to stand in the truth that we are much more powerful and glorious than we ever allow ourselves to think. We’re more than an actor-for- hire. Or getting paid SAG-scale. We have unique voices and insights into the human condition. We are activists and creators who are hopefully changing the course of history. We are poets and
brave ones and sensitive souls in a world that often doesn’t care much about those types of beings.
The Stalinists sent those kinds of people to the gulags.
So why would I not want to discuss the higher aspirations of being an artist? Isn’t that what Stanislavski did in his small theatre on Kamergerskiy Lane in 1898?
Teachers don’t just teach technique.
Real teachers educate about the potential in every artist. In every human being. So maybe you’re not ready to take on that much responsibility yet. That’s fine. Maybe your goals are a little closer to home. To just get a better agent or book a freaking commercial, or get into SAG, or book a guest-star role. All are important goals, especially when pursued with presence and a desire to do it for oneself and not the approval of others. That’s making a difference too. The more you can do things from that intuitive voice within – you’re helping other people find that within themselves too.
And now more than ever we need less Sheep-people. We need artists who lead and give zero fucks.
So crappy national (and world) events can help us to focus on cleaning up our tiny part of the neighborhood. Overwhelming news about climate change can help us to be more mindful of turning off the lights or rejecting a plastic straw with our iced coffee or sometimes going for a walk rather than driving to the gym only to walk on the treadmill.
Maybe it includes removing yourself from toxic relationships or standing up for yourself a little more or demanding just a little bit more from others. When we take the global and distill it into the personal, the emotional events that can cause so much strife at an international or political level can liberate you into a new you. Because you feel that there are things you can do.
Take heart. Courage. It will all work out.
As Stanislavski said, “The fundamental aim of our art is the creation of the inner life of the human spirit and its expression in an artistic form.”
I guess we weren’t that different in our approach, after all.
Wishing you all a joyful and restful Holiday and safe New Year and excited to see you all in 2018.
We have a lot of wonderful things planned to celebrate our 20th !
Love, Tony
