the craft of acting

It was less than 3 years ago that I made my first attempt at acting, and that was followed by a hiatus of nearly 2 years until last fall. It was a bit different the second time around.

I started picking apart the process. It’s what I’ve always done with everything…try to take it apart to understand to transmute the mysterious inner workings into something tangible. The productions I’ve been in haven’t necessarily been high art, but I’ve tried to approach them with some precision just the same.

Over the last 9 months the craft of acting and dramatic production in general has intrigued me more and more. I had never really looked at movies and theatre as anything more than banal entertainment until I stepped on a stage myself. Witnessing a great production is now a rich and inspiring event.

I just finished watching the special features on the Gosford Park DVD, and I’m taking note of how grateful I am that the DVD media format allows for glances behind the scenes: director’s commentary, The Making Of… special features, and so on — the people that make these things believable speaking frankly about their craft.

I’ve been out of the movie “loop” for a few years now, so my Netflix queue is packed with all of the best stuff that I never got around to seeing when people were still buzzing about it. It’s really pretty exciting to have the opportunity to see so much great material with what amounts to new eyes. And as for theatre…the more I do, the more I want to do. Casting directors willing, I have a feeling that I’ll be doing it and enjoying it for a long time.

Paul Potts

Let’s all shed a tear…

Fahrenheit 451 isn’t about censorship, according to Bradbury