September 26, 2005
-
Lessons from THOR!
While working with other actors, the inevitable question that eventually pops up in conversation is, “So, who’d you study with?”
And very quickly, you begin to hear a lot of the same names: Larry Moss, Janet Alhanti, Howard Fine, Milton Katselas, Ivana Chubbuck, Margie Haber, John Kirby, Robert Carnergie (I can’t believe all these instructors had websites I could link to–would’ve made my life a lot easier finding them back in the day!)
But lately I’ve been hearing Cameron Thor’s name pop up a lot (obviously not the God of Thunder “Thor” that I led you to believe) . Over the years I’ve known several friends that have come from his classes but I’d never paid much particular attention because I was happy with my own acting coach.
So while checking out his site, I discovered he has 14 mini-acting lessons on Quicktime. The files show clips of him teaching and speaking on various acting topics ranging from: “Rehearsals” and “Script Analysis” to “Playing Comedy” and “Film Acting”. These free snippets are a cool little crash course for any readers that are interested in acting.
S
ome of it will sound familiar if you’ve read my Acting Skool entries (Part I, Part II, Part III). It’s just that every instructor has a slightly different take/technique/terminology. For example: I mentioned using a process called “Substitution” (that I learned from Howard Fine) when you need to zero in on a similar life experience that is being played in a scene – However, Thor prefers to use the word “trigger” instead because he feels the word “substitution” insinuates entirely replacing what’s been established.
But as I’ve had exposure to all of the instructors above (either through
reading their books or attending their classes), they all generally gear you towards achieving 
the same thing: An organically motivated performance.
So you really can’t go “wrong” with any of the instructors above. Almost all of them allow an audit of a class for you to find the best fit. Fine’s lessons are derived from HB Studio’s Uta Hagen, Carnegie and Alhanti from Sanford Meisner, Thor comes from the teachings of Roy London (I know that last sentence was just a bunch of blabba-de-blah to anyone outside the acting world).
In the end, you just basically wind up taking bits from here and there that work for you – until you eventually compile a “Unique Technique” that’s specifically tailored.
Comments (10)
I love that someone gave props but didn’t leave a comment. But what I’m wondering is what happens if you haven’t studied with anyone? You know, you were one of those chance people that fell into acting without actually meaning to? I’m guessing that’s frowned upon among actors. It must be embarrassing.
Thats smart of you to keep learning when you already accomplished so much in your career. I guess it doesn’t hurt to keep going or refresh your mind. =0 (Good times from the A&M workshop you did.)
Just curious, is that what is referred to as ‘method’ acting? How is that different from an actor who is ‘classically’ trained?
interesting
Very interesting !!
bookworm!
hi perry!
This is my sister’s xanga, I really did not know how to communicate with you and this was the most logical way to. I believe that it dosent hurt to ask, Im sorry for being so informal about it but a friend of mine had told me last semester that you had attended A&M’s Asian American Heritage week and at UT Austin this semester, I have the opportunity to take part of a Launch 2005 conference that we have been planning that is set on Nov 4-6. As part of the Launch committee here at UT Austin, we are organizing a nation-wide conference event to bring Asian American students together under one city to be able to come together, encourage dialogue concerning diversity, prepare students for the business aspects that they may encounter in the future such as interviewing skills, creating resumes, gaining a sense of leadership and so much more. We encourage students from many universities to come out and join us for this special weekend to share same interests as well as to form relationships that will last throughout their college career. But in order for our conference to be a success and for students to form interest, we suggested bringing in a special (V.I.P) guest so that students who come and experience will be glad that they came. It would be more appealing to the students if we had an influential Asian American guest speaker come to Austin and speak of their experiences, life, advice, conflicts, and how they went about to achieve their goals.
It would be an honor if you were part of our 1st annual Launch 2005 conference. If you are interested and willing, please email me @ jeena.lee@bba04.mccombs.utexas.edu. I would greatly appreciate it. I will further let you know more information through via email.
i would be more than happy to send you our flyer of the conference and give you more details.
Thank you for your time.
-jeena~
thanks for the links! the cartoon with the skull is cute. alas, poor yorick!
heh, uta hagen’s got some great methods (got to check out her book). Are you still going to continue teaching?
So when will we be seeing your one on one w/ James Lipton? That would be schweeet. (wonder if he’s ever had an Asian American actor on before?)