Steve Winter's Monologue Workshop

Center: Steve Winter

Yesterday, I took part in a monologue workshop with Steve Winter, the Head of the Old Vic New Voices and Education Manager. I must say that Steve is one cool guy. Often, when attending workshops the instructor can be intimidating and the environment stifling. (It was a little stifling but the heater was the cause of that.) Steve was warm, positive and very encouraging. I found this quote from a TDF article, "In all the community work that we do, we're eager to get to know our local people," says Winter. "They are our future audiences, and if we nurture them they'll come back." It is that nurturing quality that everyone felt in the room. It made me a better actor and everyone else as well. The biggest lesson he taught us was to take full advantage of those few precious seconds we have in an audition to reveal a little bit about ourselves through our dramaturgical knowledge of the monologue chosen and why it resonates with us.

PROUD ALLY

This past Saturday I shot a couple of videos for Proud Ally, a group of straight people supporting gay marriage. What I took most out of working with this group is that this cause has been taken up by a diverse group of people from all sorts of backgrounds and walks of life. It makes me wonder if we can look past our differences to support this cause, why do those who oppose gay marriage get stuck on one little difference?

We shot a little music video and this was my costume.

Tugboat

Ships embark on a solo journey across vast oceans and down running rivers. Through hurricanes and floods; north and south; east and west; night and day. By themselves...alone from port to port. But on occasion a ship, large and flashy, comes across a boat, small and simple. The two exchange transmissions. And the small and simple boat leads the large and flashy ship to port. Individually, they are useless but together they have purpose.

Thank you for being my tugboat.

John Lahr Lecture

Last night, I attended the Old Vic New Voices Lecture series at The Players Club. The guest speaker was award winning critic John Lahr of The New Yorker. He is best known for his biography of Joe Orton. I was a little hesitant to attend this lecture because I thought, "what can a reviewer tell me, an actor, about theater." I pictured the critic from Ratatouille: old, decrepit and angry with the world. I couldn't have been more wrong, at least about the decrepit and angry part. He comes across more like a university professor rather than a critic. His lecture reflected that quality. Often times he was entertaining as well as insightful. His view of the role of the critic, not to be confused with reviewer, is to 'interpret the metaphor the playwright has created' to society and to the playwright himself. To reflect the creation to the creator. Much like how a person doesn't know who they really are until it is reflected back to them. The critic does not make the theater rather the theater makes the critic.

What do you need to enjoy your life?

I have to make a confession...I am not a rich man. Never have been, might never be. I bring this up today because I told a friend of mine that I'm on a budget right now and not able to continue taking my martial arts class. It is just not a priority right now. His response was basically along the lines of: 'once you make more money then you can go back to enjoying your life.' To a certain point he is right but it occurred to me that he is also wrong.

Having money doesn't necessarily equal having an enjoyable life. If one day I became broke and was living in a cardboard box without a penny in the world to enjoy myself, I know that as long as I have Jennie by my side in that Maytag box that I would still have a great life. We would turn that box into a mansion that would rival anything on MTV Cribs. Money might make the world go round but it doesn't keep me going every morning. For me, it's knowing that I have a great person to share this life with. A life without love isn't worth living.