Q: What requirements do you have for students?
A: Acceptance into the studio is through audition. Once accepted, I ask that students stay the entire duration of the 14 week class which meets twice a week, each class being 3 1/2 hours with a short break. I treat entering into this class as a commitment and contract to finish the work. Students are paired up and are required to rehearse with their partner in between classes.

Q: What is the curriculum at your studio?
A: The goal of the program is for the student to be able to get out of the pedestrian mindset, that appropriate way of responding to life, and to develop their own point of view. At the core of the curriculum is the “talk and listen” approach. As Meisner would say, your attention is “to, off and on the other person.” You work off of what the other person is doing and develop responsiveness.
Let me give you a peek inside my classes. The first thing that I do with people is a warm-up at the beginning of the class. The whole point of the exercise is to let what happened in your day go. These exercises bring us into the room with the people that we will be working with. I create a place where we can make contact with that artist space so that they can do their best work. This is a vital tool that is developed in our studio.
Every student I have met is looking for an imprint of the instruction. A step by step intellectual breakdown and explanation of the work they will be doing which is the (domain of the mind). What they are looking for is knowledge and you can find that anywhere. I will say this, that we do follow Meisner's progression of repetition, activities, door work and finish of the 14 weeks with a scene night. Having said this, you are not going to figure this course out in your head. How we differ from other teachers is that we bring a student into their wisdom which is the (domain of the heart). It is the instincts of their humanity which I work to bring alive. A student will risk as much as their teacher is willing to risk and this is the hard work that many teachers are not willing to do. I am deeply committed to giving everything I can bring.
The plus in working with me is the emotional life. As a young actor, I remember going outside the door in a scene working desperately to get the emotional prep of joy. We really had no tools to get to the feeling. It wasn’t something the training really supported beyond one demonstration of the process in class. This continues to be a weakness with other Meisner teachers. The emotional life is like a violin’s strings and bow. They must constantly be adjusted and tuned to produce warmth in their vibration. We all know what a violin sounds like when it’s not in tune. Emotions are the same. Through exercises in the Emotional release class we work the feelings so they can flow freely in an uninhibited way. I have a background in working with people emotionally, which most teachers do not have, so I’m not afraid of what students bring to the class.

Q: So I want to ask you about one’s response comes from the other actors’ performance. What if the other actor is not really that good?
A: (Laughs) You mean there are lifeless actors out there? Meisner once said “After I’ve trained you, you’ll be able to work off a dog”. I was studying as an actor with Kathryn Gately in New York ages ago. I ran into this difficulty with someone in a scene. I was judging her performance. She was supposed to be in a deep place of pain and I was supposed to give a heartfelt “I’m so sorry” for hurting her. I remember this clearly. I looked at her and my inner life at that moment was, “judgment” you aren’t hurt!

Q: Was she in pain?
A: No she wasn’t, but that’s not the point. The point is that I was given a tool here. An “Adjustment”. My teacher said to me privately “When this person is hurt and you can’t see the deep agonizing pain…it is this hidden…this is how she looks when her heart is broken.” It is important to have a leap of faith when you are working in the imaginary world.

Q: You talked about developing a point of view.
A: Yes and a strong one. In the beginning of the work. Two people, with independent emotional lines, in one room on a collision course. What happens is the full spectrum of emotional response, not an argument which some misinterpret what the exercise is doing, but all the colors of our human response. Now that is drama!

Q: What is the biggest obstacle in becoming an actor?
A: Well. In my opinion there are two. Acting can be thought of as an intangible craft and because of this many actors don’t understand or miss the necessary elements that are needed to work their craft. They think they can get by on talent alone. The first thing I ask actors when I meet them is this: “What’s in your tool box?”. What I often get in response is the “deer in the headlights” look. If you asked a carpenter the same question he’d have an answer for you right away. I often find that actors have very little to work with. A Carpenter wouldn’t show up to a job with just a hammer and pliers in his tool box, nor should the actor. So how do you fill your tool box? I work with the body, the voice, and the emotions. I use the notes from your previous directors and teachers, hopefully you have some, to create and plan what you need to work on. Your body is a vessel of expression. These are your tools and they have value and need to be developed and like the carpenter you need to have the best tools available to get the job and keep it! The second obstacle is fear and inaction. This is one of the reasons I chose Meisner’s approach to acting. It has built in elements that coincide with my teaching and supports artists in their path.

Q: Explain that.
A: Meisner was known for teaching actors the art of “talking and listening”, but the root or essence of the work is in the activities. The process of doing the activity! Doing the actions, do the doing and your attention is off yourself and on the doing. The same goes for fear. Fear is a paralysis, and inability to move. Do the doing of life and you’re out of the paralyzing grip of fear. In other words, if you do the doing your attention is no longer on yourself, which is the killer, you become selfless. This is drilled into students and becomes second nature building a strong fundamental ground for one's life as an actor and artist. We all forget this and we have to remind ourselves of this daily. Some of us, me included, have this integrated in certain aspects of our life, but not in others. Every time I gave up the focus on myself and took action my life expanded exponentially both spiritually and financially. We have to remember to be fearless and take action in all aspects of our life. This is center to my teaching.

Q: So it is fear that stops most actors.
A: That and a preoccupation with self.

Q: You are talking about Actors who are full of themselves?
A: No not exactly. Self-centeredness is something that affects many artists, actors, writers, directors and teachers, but I am not talking about this. Let me bring my own experience into this. It’s not Dean here that is teaching, it is something working through Dean.

Q: So it’s channeling?
A: This sense within an artist is very hard to explain in words. Unless you have been there it may be difficult to comprehend. In terms of the actor, artistry and the creative process start as stillness. In that stillness, there is a connectedness that occurs, a groundedness and clarity which invites warmth, much like being wrapped in a blanket. The warmth moves through the artist as they create. It is a safe place of pure uninhibited creativity. It starts off as an intangible at first, but the actor learns how to create from that place of stillness. It’s the job of the Artist to get out of their own way….to create the tangible from the intangible. As a teacher, I help them open up to the deepest part of their human experience in performance, helping them to discover that place which allows their gift to emerge unselfishly.

Q: But there is a selfish component to an actor’s expression. I mean it does come from their life experience. How can someone separate from themselves? It is about us?
A: It is, but it isn’t……at the risk of sounding mystical here. Let me explain it this way. If I take credit for one of my actors’ performance, then I am looking to be recognized as if this is my own work. I’m looking for satisfaction outside myself. A Teacher/ Mentor needs to be whole within themselves to hold the space for others, otherwise they will be feeding off of their students accomplishments to fill a void within themselves. Not to mention that they would be taking and not giving. The fact that I have the gift of teaching, in its dynamic expression, is satisfaction enough. Is there someone out there who takes credit for my gift? This is where it can become selfish. Why would I need to take credit for someone else’s talent…for their gift? I am just part of a larger process at work here if I cooperate. I help students embrace their gifts and share it. The sharing is the selfless act.

Q: I’m not sure I understand what you are getting at?
A: It’s important to Teach, to Mentor. It is more important to realize oneself as part in part of a greater whole. I’ll use this analogy to make this clear. If you ever have a moment, peel off the back cover of an old watch. What you’ll see is a bunch of large and small gears all moving together in complete harmony and cooperation. You may suppose that the larger gears are more important than the smaller. However, if you remove anyone of them the watch will stop working. A Teacher/Mentor needs to think of their work as being one piece of a greater whole…like the watch. We also have to remember the flip side to our work, which is that the student eventually surpasses us and if you are in an Ego place around this you’re going to get into a fight. You are still part of the greater whole even though the student may have moved on.

Q: So this is back to something that works through us.
A: Exactly. It is a partnership, a cooperation. This is what I teach. This is what the work is about. Everyone has a gift for something. Let’s talk more about the gift. I am suggesting that the gift is something that is shared.

Q: Sounds like you are teaching a class in spiritual ideas not acting.
A: Actually the expression of oneself as an artist is deeply spiritual. It is the foundational building blocks for the work of all artists. If you can get this part of the process, then everything else will follow. Look, if you are an actor that is focused on having your own television show or being on the red carpet or seeing yourself in the fan magazines that’s fine. That is icing on the cake for some people, but these things are not what build a stable and sustainable foundation that an artist can work from. How many wonderful actors fall into drug addiction and alcoholism that have made it and are successful, yet deeply dissatisfied? The reason is that satisfaction does not come from outside of oneself. It comes from a richness that is within you in the shared experience of your gift and that no one can ever take away. Actors and artists that find this and can find their humility in their craft are gracious and giving. They share the space creatively. They’re very powerful and that is the kind of artist I look for and train.