This was the beginning of my second year in grad school. My second year was all about my acting class with Sam. A man who changed my life – just one of those amazing mentors you find – a real “fan” – and yet a person who will make you work harder, who is such a fan that he can say, ‘Well, your acting just really bored me. What is going on?” – making me work harder, probe deeper, and also lighten up, laugh a little bit, trust that I had talent – I didn’t have to work so hard – How on earth he was able to do all of this, I will never know, and I don’t even care. It was a rough year for me on many levels – but I thank God that I found Sam. He’s still there for me. It’s intense.
So these are notes from his class – and also notes from the 2nd Year Playwriting/Director’s Unit. This Unit was led by David Garfield – it was the beginning percolatings of putting together thesis projects, and it was a big drag, I’ll tell you that. Drudgery. It wasn’t until the next year that I started doing what I wanted to do, and declaring myself – keeping myself independent from those who wanted to either drag me down (Kate, Mitchell – if you’re reading this, please think: “How are you, Isis???”), own me, or … whatever, freeze me out of projects.
This is the beginning of the Summer and Smoke obsession. Just the beginning. I still get goosebumps thinking about that play.
Sept. 5 Sam’s Class
“Acting can be like a hand reaching out in the darkness.” – Sam
Sept. 6 PD Unit
Lights off. All seems grey. The sky outside, the roofs below us, the floor. Even the air seems grey. The green blackboard has a greyish tint to it. Good energy here. Quiet. Grey. Cool.
Read Garfield’s book History of the Actors Studio
Garfield – taught at the Strasberg Institute – studied with Lee, Meisner, Uta Hagen – in the road company of Fiddler on the Roof with Luther Adler
This unit has got to be terrifying to the playwrights.
Garfield: “I was waiting for some brilliant Kazanian insights … and he said, ‘Do it faster.’ And it was better.
Sept. 9 Sam’s Class
Maybe work on Beirut with Charley
“I have never subscribed to the ‘Colors School of Acting.'” – Sam [This is such a funny statement. Basically – a lot of teachers, and actors – believe that an actor needs to show all these different “colors”. That an audition monologue should show different “colors” – your “mad” color, your ‘sad” color – and so material is chosen because it shows different “colors”. This is almost an accepted creed of the craft. Sam was not a big fan of “colors” – but I just thought it was so funny how he said it.]
Sam: “In every scene, pick an objective. A strong one. ATTACK. SEDUCE. BEG.”
Sept. 11 Sam’s Class
“The difficult must become habit, habit easy, and the easy beautiful.” – Sergei Volkonski
Sam: “Acting craft is there if you need it. It’s like any carpenter. You don’t obsess about hammers. You can use a screw driver if you need one.”
Sam: “This business of sucking …”
Objective. Play the objective. Don’t act. DO.
“It’s not that important to know who are you are. It’s important to know what you do – and then do it like Hercules.” – Stella Adler
Sept. 16 Sam’s Class
Don’t worry about feeling, or emotion. Do.
God, I am so happy here. I can’t even express it.
Isolate issues. Then re-combine.
“In what ways are you and the character different?”
Sam: “There is a difference between pushing and expressing.”
Mind in 2 places at once.
Behavior – It’s not there to be interesting. You do it to explore the predicament of your character.
Sept. 16 MARK RYDELL
– leads Actors Studio West
Sandy Meisner: really doing something, as opposed to imitating doing something.
No one wants to talk about Lee Strasberg!
Rydell worked on As the World Turns as an actor. He said it was great training. “Conversational reality.”
Movies: “Movies are like trying to catch lightning in a bottle.”
On The Fox – Sandy Dennis – “I was the talk of the town for a minute.”
On The Rievers and Steve McQueen: “He was psychotic. A wonderful actor. But he was really crazy.”
“The material makes its own demands.”
On The Cowboys – “I learned very quickly. You don’t say to cows: ‘Go.'”
“It’s all personal. The work is all personal.”
On The Rose:
He said to Bette: “Try to fill the bottomless pit every day.”
To the cinematographer: “I want the picture to be like an abdominal operation.”
On Bette Midler: “She is so precious that I think she should be protected. Like a National monument. Funds should be taken up so that she remains protected. She’s that preciolus to me.”
On working with actors: “Find the button that frees them to say, ‘Oh! I know what to do now!’
Movies: RECORD THE EVENT. That’s it. Be very clear what the event actually is. And then record it.
Sam’s class
Sam to Stephen: “You’re addicted to suffering.”
Stephen: “It’s the only thing I know.”
Sam to Stephen: “You have a quality of latent aggression and vague intensity.” !!!!!
Philadelphia Story
Moment before the scene: I have been talking with Mike. I have read his stories. I find them “damned beautiful, almost poetry.” I say to him, “I believe you put the toughness on, to save your skin.” I recognize a kindred spirit in him. I offer him my little house in Unionville for a place to work. I’m only there in hunting season. I want Mike to stay with me during my conversation with Dexter.
Me and Dexter
He drank whiskey
His drinking made him unattractive to me
I got drunk once on champagne, climbed out on the roof, stood there naked, and wailed at the moon. I have absolutely no recollection of doing this.
Dexter said it was an “affair of the spirit”.
Was I frigid?
I despise weakness.
Summer and Smoke
1916
Glorious Hill, Mississippi
On the Gulf
Miss Alma Winemiller – had an adult quality as a child
now prematurely spinsterish
excessive propriety and self-consciousness
nervous laughter
years of playing hostess at Rectory
belongs to a more elegant age
airy, graceful
I have attacks of “nervous heart trouble” – panic attacks? I run over to see Dr. Buchanan at 2 or 3 a.m.
I teach singing. I sing in church, at weddings.
I belong to an intellectual group that meets every Wednesday
Father didn’t want me to take Nellie Ewell on as a pupil because of her mother’s reputation – but I did it anyway. “No one should presume to judge and condemn anyone else.”
I keep saying, ‘I have a touch of malaria” – True? I am responding to John’s observation that I am shaking.
John and I grew up together. “It used to delight you to embarrass me.”
John has been away in medical school (Johns Hopkins) – his father has raved to me about his accomplishments (graduated magna cum laude). How long has he been away? How many years?
My mother had a nervous breakdown when I was in high school. I managed the rectory ever since. “In a way, it may have – deprived me of – my youth.”
When I go out – it’s to the public library or to the park. I have to be selective.
I say to John: “Most of us have no choice but to lead useless lives.” He is wasting his divine gift!
John to me: “Sometimes when I come home late at night I look over at the rectory and I see something white at the window.”
Insomnia
Heartache
I wait up till he comes home
Dr. John Sr. is a father-figure to me. I say to him, “I don’t think I will be able to get thru the summer.”
Do people think: “Miss Alma’s fading this summer”?
Roger proposed to me. This may be my last proposal. He is:
— an active church worker
— he lives with his mother
— they just moved here
— he plays the French horn
— has a position at the bank
Dr. John Sr. is “the one person in town that I have ever been able to rely on for a kind and honest and understanding discussion of my —– problems.”
I am sexually frustrated. And I cannot picture myself in bed with Roger.
All the girls I grew up with have married.
My aunt: “a mysteriously colorful career” in New Orleans “on the old side of town”. Shades of Blanche?
I may accept Roger’s proposal. I am afraid of being left “high and dry”
I believe in the possibility of deep love between a man and a woman – but with me it could not be based on physical passion.
It offends me when Roger touches me.
When John touches me, I am not offended. “I am not a cold person.”
I watch over him at night – every night – sometimes at daybreak when he comes home, sprawled on the steps – whenever he comes in at night I rush downstairs to peek out at him from behind the curtain
I am pitied. People thnk I am an old maid. “I’m still young!” My mother has taken my youth away from me. She never says thank you.
27 Wagons
Blue Mountain, Mississippi
gnats
Masochism – I like pain
Think child!!!
Saint Joan
Orders from my Lord – Capt. Robert de Baudricourt is to give me armor/horse and some soldiers – and send me to the dauphin. I am being sent to the Dauphin to raise the siege of Orleans. Bertrand de Porlengey and John of Metz have agreed to go with me.
My Lord is the King of Heaven
Faith!
My real father is a farmer.
The English – hold half of the country – right down to the Loire – they have Paris
The Dauphin is in Chinon – like a rat in a corner – and he won’t fight
