It's been almost two months since I posted. Yes, things have happened that have merited posting; I just haven't gotten around to it. Last night really warranted an entry.

I went to my first acing class.

There is a series of classes held at the Burt Reynolds and Friends Museum in Jupiter. I don't really know if "museum" is really what this place is; it's more like Burt's closet. It is a collection of all kinds of memorabilia and probably every award Burt has ever won.

In the midst of all this is a series of classes run by professional actors and teachers. Since this was my first "real" acting class I decided to start in the shallow end with a class which goes through the basics of "The Method" as taught by Sanford Meiser and Stella Adler. (Google them if you have no idea) I was nervous and slightly intimidated as about 10 other actors showed up. A few got on stage and talked about why they wanted to be an actor. Some of them had real experience, some had been through community theatre, a few students and one guy who just tried too hard.

I was called to the stage to do a repetition exercise. I was seated opposite another actor and we were told to simply repeat the same word or phrase the other person started back and forth over and over again. The purpose of the exercise is to get beyond the words of a script and to the real emotions and create a relationship between these two characters.

And we did.

We repeated the same words over and over again. First it was "tired" and then "stop". These two words turned into a tense scene between one person reaching out to another troubled person. I focused directly on the other person and completely forgot the other people were there. It was just him and me and the emotion between us the the reality of the moment got stronger.

It was amazing and it continues to affect me. All day today I was walking around rerunning the scene in my mind; imaging it going on longer and all the different angles I could have taken. Taking this class may have been one of the choices I have made recently. While I do like my 9 to 5 job I never find myself walking around thinking about it days later. I was in my element and it felt right.

As I said before, some things have been going on in the past two months and I will update you and keep up with my postings.