I teach because it makes me happy, it gives me pleasure. I teach because I have always enjoyed watching someone or something grow, something evolve. Being a father and now a grandfather is my place of deepest joy. Watching my son teach my grandsons what I attempted to teach him is a place of profound serenity for me.
As a kid I have such fond memories of working with my mom in her garden, planting tulip bulbs and then seeing them work their way out of the ground into beautiful blossoms. I had an equally pleasurable time helping my dad build a dog house or change the Buick’s oil. I’ve had many a sanguine hour building a model boat from bits of balsa wood, wire, string and glue. I even enjoy mowing a lawn or raking leaves.
I love a scenic designer’s ground plans and white models, and a costume designer’s rough sketches and colored plates. I’ve worked in a scene shop building flats, painting drops, meticulously jig sawing patterns in quarter inch plywood for wallpaper daubing. I love the whole process of creating a project from scratch. Nail by nail, brush stroke by brush stroke, stitch by stitch. Being a member of a company putting together the mosaic pieces of a story from the script into authentic human exchange.
But I have found that my really happy theater place is in a studio with an ensemble of talented, fearless actors who are ready, willing and able to explore the craft of acting. Ask any acting teacher and that coach will tell you there is nothing quite like the moment an actor in front of you makes a breakthrough be it a great leap by a newbie or a minutely discovered refinement by an advanced actor. I call that moment “the still point.” It’s the human thing that happens in a studio when something vulnerably real is created by two actors in a scene. If I, as the teacher, have created the conditions for that moment of discovery then I’m doing my job.
I teach because acting is a very difficult art to master. It requires tremendous will and imaginative powers. It demands vulnerability and courage. Actors fail a lot. Actors are rejected from work a lot. At times I feel like an officer sending a young one into battle. Other times I know that a young one’s commitment to acting is as noble and important as a doctor or a minister. I want to encourage and support that.
I teach actors because I like being around them. They tend to be lively, imaginative, ambitious, outspoken, unique and bold. They are empathetic and articulate in mind, body and emotions. They let you know how they feel. Some are quiet and cool. Others are rascals, class clowns. And most have been called to acting because they have the audacity to believe they have stories to share. I like seeing, hearing, and feeling those stories.
