WEBVTT - In Memoriam: Wynn Handman 0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:08.720 I'm Alec Baldwin, and you were listening to Here's the Thing. 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:12.360 When I was coming up in the acting profession, there 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:16.720 were two teachers you had to take classes from. Milton 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:20.599 could sell Us in Los Angeles and Win Handman in 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:24.479 New York. I studied with both, and both contributed to 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:28.960 my technique. But Handman also influenced my approach to life 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:32.600 and to my co workers on screen and on stage. 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:39.400 His goodness, kindness, and generosity shown through in a professional 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:45.160 world too often characterized by cutthroat competition and one upmanship. 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:50.680 Over the years, an astonishing array of talent passed through 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:57.040 Handman's studio. Christopher Walken, Raoul, Julia Richard, gere Anna Davie Smith, 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:02.800 Joanne Woodward, Mia Farrow, and on and on. But after 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:09.160 seventy years, yes seventy, enrollment is finally closed. In April, 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:13.800 Hammon became one of New York's victims lost to COVID nineteen. 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:17.600 I was finally able to get him to record an 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:20.600 interview for Here's the Thing in two thousand eighteen, and 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:26.240 I'm bringing you our conversation today. I witnessed as when 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:31.039 made real progress with some marginally talented actors. But He 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:35.319 remained humble about what teachers can do. If they don't 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:39.360 have the right stuff inside them, I can't do it. 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:42.759 That's the basic thing they need. Yeah, the basic thing 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:47.680 is act as a highly suggestible people. If I suggest 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:50.640 something to you, you'll go with it. We're too gullible 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:53.880 for everyday of life. So one of the things they 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:58.960 have to draw upon is the ability to be suggestible, 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:03.440 because what is it You're suggesting something to yourself, so 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:09.040 you inhabit the reality in an imaginary situation. And if 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:11.680 you can do that, then you can take people on 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:16.320 the journey. I have recently noted people I took who 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:20.480 had no background and not that much going and now 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:25.320 they're doing Shakespeare and the Greeks, and said, hey, that's good. 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:29.440 And uh, I recently said to one, I said, you know, 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:34.480 I've been congratulating myself because where I've taken you in 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:39.639 your acting. Yes, the tremendous improvements can be made. What's 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:42.440 interesting to me when I'm with my children, you see 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:46.960 the actor's nature they want to believe. See that's what 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:51.080 Sandy minds. Uh. Well, way back, Sandy was my mentor, 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:54.560 and uh, he would say, it's like when you play 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:57.160 Cops and Robbers, or when you played house when you 0:02:57.200 --> 0:03:01.600 were a kid. Get that back, that not eve innocence 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:05.240 of believing. Where did you meet meister and tell people 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:08.120 who Meisner was? Then he was a member of the 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:14.600 Group Theater, and the Group Theater embraced the Santarslawski system 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:18.480 and they they trained with that. But Sandy was best 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:22.160 known for teaching at the Neighborhood play Out School of 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:26.040 the Theater, and he had been teaching there maybe from 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:30.040 the late thirties. Uh. I got to him in forties 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:34.360 six as a returning g I. I had been in 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:39.360 the service four years, so I had the wonderful g. 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:42.200 I Bill. I wanted to say, that's one of the 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:45.920 best things that America produced, was the G. I Bill. 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:50.920 I went there under the G. I Bill, and uh 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:54.760 when I got there, I had no experience whatsoever and 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:57.960 only seen a few plays. You discovered the theater yourself 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:00.080 in Boston when you came home from the war. I 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:05.320 saw Paul Robeson in a fellow with Uda Hogan and 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:10.520 Jose Ferrare. I was just on leave and there wasn't 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:13.240 maybe about the fourth play I had seen in my life. 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:15.520 When I was in the service. I was there for 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:19.320 four years. I had been a jazz musician, but I 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:24.880 realized I was a yeah, second rate. I wouldn't have that. 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:27.960 He wasn't going to make that my profession. And I 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:30.800 absolutely did not know what to do. And I was 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:34.280 on the ship waiting for it d be decommissioned. Then 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:37.720 I faced the reality that I should have a future. 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:42.000 What am I going to do? And I decided to 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:47.720 try acting. I had never acted. I had nice experience, 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:52.800 but whose idea was that mine? Because I had good experiences, 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:56.640 because I didn't do many things that my father felt 0:04:56.680 --> 0:04:59.600 I did well. But when I did you my talka 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:02.840 Jean in po when you're courted safe out here and 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:05.440 you sent to penny fights and old de shot it, 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:08.960 then you'll do your work on etcetera, or the face on. 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:12.159 When I did those poems for him, he liked it 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:14.880 a lot, and so was your first audience. And I 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:18.520 got a good, good response. What your dad do? He 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:22.479 had a printing business. Yeah, I lived on a dirt 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:25.839 road in an apartment house, you know Wherefore a Triumph 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:29.479 Parks was right across the street from what became for 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:32.000 a Triumph Park. But when I was a child, it 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:35.360 was woods and we had a dirt road and was 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:39.680 a farm across the way, a farm with chickens and 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:43.280 all kinds of things. When the depression came along, the 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:47.680 farm left. The dirt road got paved and it became 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:51.120 a miniature golf course. And I was a caddy and 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:57.520 a minute ago I kept the score. But anyway, when 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:02.080 I was on a ship was North Atlanta anti submarine duty, 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:08.400 escorting convoys up to northeast Greenland. Uh, you are spent 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:12.160 a lot of time in the ward room with your shipmates. 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:16.440 They play cards, things to do while you're not on watch. 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:21.760 And we had some records on the ship that were 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:25.000 of minologists. In those days, they were called Yes. The 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:29.320 people performed at nightclubs and there's usually a little body, 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:32.080 and there was one that I was particularly attracted to. 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:36.320 His name was Dwight Fisk and Uh he had been 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:40.880 performing at the Monkey Bar at the hotel what Hotel 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:49.520 Elisa when Tennessee Williams died. Anyway, I uh memorized the monologues. 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:52.120 I listened to the records and I did him from 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:55.839 my shipmates and they liked it. And you like getting laughs. 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:58.280 And this is a short when you win the military. 0:06:58.320 --> 0:06:59.760 When you win, when you win the you win the 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:02.960 Are you in the navy? Well it was the coast Guard, 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:07.039 So you're there and with the guys there during the war, 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:10.280 you're cracking them up and entertaining that what kind of 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:14.160 material did Fisk do? Body's songs? Here's a one line 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:19.160 from it an outstepped Mr petty Bone just as naked 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:23.880 as a child and twice as cocky. You would have 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:28.080 liked to have done that monologue. Anyway. That encouraged me. 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:31.640 So when I was waiting to get out they could 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:35.680 be turned to civilian life, I said, well, what I 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:39.720 enjoyed was when my shipmates and they enjoyed my doing 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:43.480 those monologues. And when my father like that when I 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:47.240 did Gunga, then oh I don't I try acting. That's 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:50.200 the only thing. How did it go? You tried it? 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:53.360 And what happened? I went to the I Luckily I 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:56.720 didn't know. I didn't know one school, I didn't know anything. 0:07:57.200 --> 0:07:59.120 There was a guy on the ship with me who 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:02.120 seems to fistic catered And while we were waiting for 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:05.760 the ship to be decommissioned in Norfolk, Virginia, and I 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.960 said to him, I said, I want to try acting. 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:11.520 When I get out, I have the g I bill 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:13.800 I can go to school. He said, well, there's only 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:17.040 one school to go to, and I said, what's that. 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:21.800 He said, the American Academy and Dramatic Arts. So as 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:26.840 soon as I got out in May forty six, I 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:29.560 went to the American Academy. You know where it was. 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:33.080 He had two flaws on the top of Carnegie Hall 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:38.679 and uh. They said, we have too many returning gies. 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:41.520 You can't apply. I say, I can't even apply. No, 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:46.160 you do monologue. So I saw the pack of monologues 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:48.480 and I learned it, but they never let me do 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:53.079 my audition monologue. So I was disconsolate because I didn't 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:56.319 know of any other school for the American Academy. No, 0:08:56.920 --> 0:09:00.240 where'd you go? Then? Well, I was dating a Whiman, 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.920 I believe her name was Doris Well. I said, you know, 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:07.559 I can't. I can't even apply at the American Academy. 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:10.680 I want to try acting. She said, we'll go try 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:14.000 the Neighborhood Playouts. I hear, that's the best school, and 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:17.880 that's the first acting school you attended, the first and only. 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:20.920 And what happened was Sandy you know interviewed me and 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:24.160 took me. I think he took me because I talked 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:28.520 about improvisation, because I did it as a saxophonist. But 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:31.959 also I had written one poem when I was on 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:35.480 the ship waiting to get out, and he I think 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:40.960 that impressed them. Here's a short poem home now, feeling 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:45.960 the years of war spent youth, not time apart, nor 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:52.760 interlude furiously lived forgotten now like motion picture with yawning 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:57.559 exit two routine. I knew I didn't want the yawning 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:00.520 exit two routine, so I wanted to try I acting. 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:05.280 So I got into the playhouse. I immediately caught on. 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:07.679 How many people are in the program? When you're there, 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:12.000 you woke into a classroom. How many are there? It 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:13.840 is now there's a couple of maybe a couple of dozen. 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:19.559 And uh, inside of two weeks. Because Sandy saw I 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:22.079 was catching on, and a lot of them didn't to 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:26.000 what he was trying to get at. Uh, he said, 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:28.240 you work with her, you work with him. He had 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:31.679 no patience with them. I had such an affinity for 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:35.080 what was going on that it was the first time 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:38.719 in my life I felt this is what I can do, 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:43.840 which is to teach, teach direct, Yeah, work with acting. 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:45.800 You no longer want to be an actor. You want 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:49.679 to be an acting teacher. Does that happen quickly? Uh? No, No, 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:53.120 I wanted to be an actor. And how much acting 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:57.400 did you do? Not that much? Because I moved it 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:04.120 into directing. Sandy. Sandy was like my guardian angel, very smart. 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:08.199 He latched onto me. I was assisting him at the 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:11.320 at the end of the first year, he was doing 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:15.280 a play called truck Line Cafe, which had been Yeah 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:19.520 brandam was successful on Broadway, and so that was the 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:23.800 second year classes graduation and there was an eight year 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:26.600 old child in it. He had no patience to work 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.080 with that eight year old child. He said, you work 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:31.920 with it. It turned out to be someone whose name 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:37.520 was Susan Pushett. Oh my goodness. Now when you're there, Uh, 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:40.840 you look back now, and you've been teaching for quite 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:45.720 a long time. Sandy started me in in the nineteen 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:49.520 of fifty. Okay, so you've been teaching for since the 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:53.600 stagecoach years without a stop. And so with that in mind, 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:56.079 can you look back now from your perspective and say, 0:11:56.200 --> 0:12:00.720 what were Meisner's strengths and weaknesses as a teacher. Well, 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:07.000 he was enormously perceptive, uh, and could pick out what 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:10.520 you weren't doing and what kind of suggests what you 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:15.599 should be doing, and expressing it in ways that you 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:20.360 could hold on to, Like he'd say, uh, everything prepared 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:26.800 but the acting or as if um, you know a metaphors. 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:32.920 He had good ways of suggesting that his criticism sometime 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:38.679 could be cutting. He was direct to direct. Uh when 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:41.319 when he was gonna see I had been in a 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:45.400 naval officer and on a ship if it was gonna 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:51.880 ram and hit something, stand by for a ram. Sandy 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:55.520 would uh put his glasses on his forehead and I 0:12:55.600 --> 0:13:00.880 would say, stand by for a ram. I'm gonna use that. 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:04.440 When he did that, it was bad because he didn't 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:08.760 something You don't get over that fast. Uh. And criticism 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:12.599 at that level, you see, it is a tremendous responsibility 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:16.840 to be an acting teacher because you can say one 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:24.400 thing I could damage someone for life. It's so By 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:27.440 the way, I want to interject from my listeners here, 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:29.640 I mean why I was so keen on doing this 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:33.760 with you was because that that nurturing and that kindness, 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:36.400 your reputation in New York when I first came here 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:40.560 was you were a very supportive and kind and nurturing teacher. 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:49.400 The late director and teaching legend when happen more coming up, 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.839 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to. Here's the 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:10.280 thing when handman shares with his mentor Sanford Meisner, the 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:15.120 move away from so called effective memory. That's the method 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:20.080 acting staple of summoning one's own emotional experiences in order 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:24.920 to channel the characters trauma or joy. But Hammond's warm 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:28.800 embrace of his students stood in sharp contrast to the 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:32.920 man who first gave him his shot. Well, it's not 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:37.640 my nature to hurt people, and it's in my nature 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:42.760 to bring people along and know how vulnerable they are. 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:46.880 See when I be Sandy said you will, He said, 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:51.320 you will become my assistant, and you will have an 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:57.280 apprenticeship of humility. He said that that directly, and he 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:00.920 said you will watch every one of my class and 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:04.520 do your own. And I did that. So I saw 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:08.480 more Sandford Meisner classes than anyone because he ordered me 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:11.280 to do it. And I thank him for it because 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:15.000 I learned from it. But I could see where he 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:18.600 set people back because the tension, and I felt it. 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:20.760 I mean, why do you think he did that? Did 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:23.640 you believe that was in their interest? He had that nature. 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:29.160 He could be very mean. And so Meisner was known, 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:31.600 obviously in a very kind of a basic sense for 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:35.880 this repetition technique, the Meisnerian tank. Did you not see that, President, No, 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.040 that wasn't done. Then it wasn't He didn't do it 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:42.720 when And I know why he developed it because it 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:47.240 was a period of naturalism and you know, strong realism, 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:52.880 living off the other person. What the repetition does is 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:56.720 he it makes you go off the other person. Fuck you. Well, 0:15:56.800 --> 0:15:59.400 I said, you know that kind of thing. But then 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:03.080 they became his whole system, this whole method, which is 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:06.240 absolutely ridiculous. Did you think that's true? That did become 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:11.800 his whole system. Aren't they teachers around who they teach Meisner? 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:14.680 And so what do you do? Well, what you do repetition? 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:20.200 How long can you do repetition? Maybe a week or something, No, 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:25.200 the whole semester. Well, I think it's for teachers who 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:28.520 don't have the chops to really teach, so they watch 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:31.960 these people go back and forth with their repetition. With 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:34.960 Sandy was everything to me. You know, he trained me, 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:38.920 and uh, he moved me right along. He could be 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:42.800 very tender. So when my first child, Laura was born, 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:46.760 he gave her a little thing from Tiffany, a pearl, 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:51.760 and every birthday he gave her another pearl. And I may, 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:55.040 I said, he's our godfather. And he got me so 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:58.160 out of directing because he there was up in the 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:02.560 at Irondack so was a was a leftist adult camp 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:09.600 lest it was very He said, you you should direct 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:13.840 that company. I was not married yet, but my wife 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:18.480 to be was a truly great woman. Anyway, I sat 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:22.520 on a bench with her up at Columbia University where 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:26.160 she was a Barnard said, Sandy wants me to direct im. 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:31.600 She says do it. Yeah. And when I said, Bobby, 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:37.000 that was so right for me. I had my own company. 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:41.280 I did play aff to play and Uh, I said, 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:43.480 I knew I was a director. Now what do you 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:48.680 think Lee's strength was? Uh? Were you critical with him? Yeah? 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:54.760 I'm not a fan of Leasia. His speaking gave me 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:58.879 a headache. He is an example. I had a student 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:03.160 who took his direct acting course and and he used 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:06.560 two of my students. One of them was Dallas from 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:11.920 North Carolina. And another woman from Jackson, Mississippi. They did 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:15.360 a scene and he was very critical. So he had 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:19.240 them do what he had his his emotion memory, and 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:24.320 they did it and then he was very pleased. But 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:29.160 she said to him, yeah, but Dallas was in North 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:36.080 Carolina and I was in Mississippi. He didn't transfer into saying, well, 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:39.399 whatever you're getting from that, now move it into you 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:42.399 are now. One of the things you learn in basic 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:45.600 acting and acting is doing because you have an intention, 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:50.199 a purpose because out of your want. Well, they they 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:55.840 got so preoccupied with physical things like itches and and 0:18:56.200 --> 0:19:02.119 pains and behavior behavior that they us the intention and 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:04.359 that was no good. I was critical of that, but 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:07.119 he let that go. Well. There are people who do 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:09.240 scene work in classes that can that could be scene 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:11.840 work at the actor's studio, which isn't really scene work. 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:16.040 It's more like previous circumstances or prior circumstances. They do 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:19.040 a lot of different kind of exercises there. Uh for 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:21.239 those who don't know what I mean, do you take 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:24.600 a scene from uh Cataona hot Tin Roof and let's 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:26.200 go back and do the scene that happened a couple 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:28.160 of days before that. We make up and we improvise 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:31.240 what are known as the prior circumstances, and we improvise that. 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:34.680 But these exercises, which is really the bread and butter 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:40.000 of the studio, inhabiting the character. If you get in 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:43.639 the character, then the character does the work for you. 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:46.880 It's a difficult thing to do. Yeah, well that's training. 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:51.119 So I've developed something called the character interview. So if 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:54.920 you're working on the role, I say, well, before you 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:58.920 come back in, put down four questions you want to 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:03.679 be asked about yourself. Oh well, they make them up 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:08.640 for their own, but then I know what the Yeah, 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:12.080 I know what the material is about. So then I 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:15.320 have my own questions in bon and I don't let 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:19.399 them do the scene, but I only get them improvising 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:23.000 in this character that we're developing. So then when they 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:28.240 get to the scene, the character is inside. People remember 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:31.400 it when it's inhabitant. When do things end with Meisner? 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:34.720 You're done with Meisner? You guys part ways? When and 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:40.399 then in between exactly what happened? Uh? He taught first 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:45.720 year was basic acting. Now, basic acting it's important, but 0:20:45.840 --> 0:20:49.600 it got boring to me, and I was teaching more 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:54.120 basic acting causes than he was So when the new 0:20:54.240 --> 0:21:00.800 season began and uh I saw the schedule, I said, hey, 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:04.159 I can't do this much basic acting anymore. It's like 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:07.639 mountains ahead of me. I just can't take it. So 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:10.919 he flew. He got very angry, and I got angry, 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:15.720 and uh I left. I had a certain independence which 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:21.080 he gave me because I am between fifty five. And 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:22.800 when you open American Place, what do you do? You 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:26.920 start teaching privately, no teaching classes. I was teaching four 0:21:27.119 --> 0:21:30.800 classes each with twenty or more people. I had my 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:35.680 own studio what was it called? Just to win him 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:38.840 in studio? And when you started American Place theater, I 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:42.000 started in the early sixties sixty Why do you want 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:45.399 to start a theater? Because it wasn't enough for me 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:50.320 to teach. I was reaching I guess it was midlife crisis. 0:21:51.080 --> 0:21:53.440 What am I going to do with my life? I'm 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:56.280 teaching very well and I like doing it, and I 0:21:56.400 --> 0:21:58.760 can do it, But is there more I can be 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:01.840 doing well? What was in the era at the time 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:06.280 was not to just do Broadway kind of theater, but 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:09.800 to do others. So Bruce Stein had an article about 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:14.400 you know, Robert bruce Stein, the critic and Uh. There 0:22:14.560 --> 0:22:18.080 was an article called the Plight of the Serious Play 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:22.480 which I saw in the New York Times, and uh 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:27.080 quotes from George Bernard Shaw, which I'll do one which 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:30.800 meant a lot to me, and I'd like to record it. Uh. 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:34.800 You see, George Bernard Shaw was a theater critic in 0:22:34.880 --> 0:22:40.040 the eighteen nineties and he for three years, and when 0:22:40.080 --> 0:22:43.840 he finished with that he started writing plays. But they 0:22:43.960 --> 0:22:48.200 published all of his criticism in the collection Our Theater 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:53.840 in the nineties. He said this, more people went to 0:22:54.000 --> 0:22:58.160 the theater in London when I was reviewing, then went 0:22:58.240 --> 0:23:02.320 to church. This would be a very good thing if 0:23:03.320 --> 0:23:08.119 the theater took itself seriously as a factory of thought, 0:23:09.040 --> 0:23:15.639 an elucidator of social conduct, and armory against despair and dullness, 0:23:16.119 --> 0:23:20.200 and the temple of the ascent of a man. Well, 0:23:20.280 --> 0:23:23.159 I carried that around. I said, this is what I 0:23:23.280 --> 0:23:26.840 have to fulfill. So it got me started looking for 0:23:27.040 --> 0:23:30.960 plays that well. That He also, in one of his reviews, 0:23:31.520 --> 0:23:34.560 said something very meaningful to me. He said, well, this 0:23:34.720 --> 0:23:38.320 play is an entertainment, nothing wrong with that, not a 0:23:38.520 --> 0:23:47.439 serious revelation of mankind to itself. That's what we're really about. 0:23:47.920 --> 0:23:51.400 Give us two examples male female who came through your 0:23:51.440 --> 0:23:54.480 doors who you just excited you. You knew they had it. 0:23:54.560 --> 0:23:58.639 They went on to become great act Michael Douglas. He 0:23:58.800 --> 0:24:02.560 said us me, if it was all right, if I 0:24:02.680 --> 0:24:05.200 could call your mother and tell her how good you are. 0:24:06.119 --> 0:24:10.600 I knew his mother, and yes he was. He was 0:24:10.800 --> 0:24:13.000 very good. Right. A woman? What's an actress who came 0:24:13.040 --> 0:24:19.000 through your doors? Alison? Janny, Alison Janny. Yeah, you just 0:24:19.160 --> 0:24:21.320 give him a role and she can do it all. 0:24:23.240 --> 0:24:26.199 And I should mention one you never heard of. Her 0:24:26.320 --> 0:24:30.800 name is Mary Alice By, and I directed her in 0:24:30.920 --> 0:24:34.840 a summer theater up in the Bosch Belt area in 0:24:34.960 --> 0:24:39.720 the fifties and I just couldn't get over her talents 0:24:40.480 --> 0:24:45.280 with one word, this actress. It was a summerstar play 0:24:45.359 --> 0:24:49.120 four poster the Evolution of a marriage. And then there's 0:24:49.160 --> 0:24:51.840 one sequence where the man has gone off and been 0:24:51.880 --> 0:24:55.680 with another woman. Now he came back. She loved that man. 0:24:56.440 --> 0:25:02.200 All she said was you and that you was still 0:25:02.320 --> 0:25:05.800 with me. It just bounced off every wall of every 0:25:05.960 --> 0:25:10.320 theater because she had so much going down here for 0:25:10.480 --> 0:25:15.560 her love for this man. Mary Alice. Now I caught 0:25:15.720 --> 0:25:22.760 Laurence Olivier at a performance of The Entertainer which was 0:25:22.920 --> 0:25:27.680 on a Thursday, and David Merrick uh New York in 0:25:27.760 --> 0:25:31.240 New York, and the word was out, well, he missed 0:25:31.280 --> 0:25:34.000 his performer. He wasn't as good as he had been 0:25:34.040 --> 0:25:37.520 in England on the opening night on Wednesday. Well, Mary 0:25:37.600 --> 0:25:40.480 wanted to gate eight performances in so he had a 0:25:40.560 --> 0:25:42.879 Thursday matinee and he had a phil of theater, so 0:25:43.000 --> 0:25:47.400 it was all actors. And when Olivier walked on stage, 0:25:48.160 --> 0:25:53.800 they applauded and uh and greeted him. And from that 0:25:54.520 --> 0:25:59.120 entrance on he was so in that character. He's never 0:25:59.359 --> 0:26:04.080 been in a character like that. That was absolutely memorable. 0:26:05.400 --> 0:26:08.760 Not just one moment, but memorable. But there are moments 0:26:08.920 --> 0:26:13.120 like when I saw the original street Car, when when 0:26:13.240 --> 0:26:17.200 Malan was hearing the sisters talk about how an animal, 0:26:18.119 --> 0:26:20.680 Blanche would saying he's an animal. Don't hold back with 0:26:20.760 --> 0:26:27.840 the apes. He was out there listening. You got so 0:26:28.359 --> 0:26:31.320 much from him that you see. It's still in the air. 0:26:31.480 --> 0:26:36.840 Pig pollock, disgusting, vulgar boards on your lips and your 0:26:36.880 --> 0:26:40.240 sisters too much around here. Remember what you long said, 0:26:40.359 --> 0:26:42.800 every man is a king and I am the king. 0:26:42.880 --> 0:26:45.440 Around even you and I snashed my hand. I go backstage. 0:26:45.480 --> 0:26:48.800 All my knuckle was all bleeding, but I didn't give 0:26:48.800 --> 0:26:52.720 a ship that was so happy. I remember how good 0:26:52.800 --> 0:26:55.480 you were your class. I always remember because you were 0:26:55.560 --> 0:26:58.040 so encouraging. I mean, but we got into it. You 0:26:58.119 --> 0:27:02.720 mean that freedom to who just explore each other emotionally, 0:27:02.840 --> 0:27:05.639 you know, and that love you know, which you just 0:27:05.720 --> 0:27:08.360 can't fake on stage. When I teach. Now, I say 0:27:08.720 --> 0:27:11.879 do yourself a favor. I say, really luxuriate in this now, 0:27:12.040 --> 0:27:14.440 this process, because when you get older and you go 0:27:14.520 --> 0:27:18.520 to work, it's all Arthur Murray, It's all steps on 0:27:18.600 --> 0:27:23.480 the floor and dancing. Hurry. R had a we despair. 0:27:24.000 --> 0:27:26.840