Does anyone know of any Practical Aesthetics/Mamet based courses here in London? I took part in one just before I left Melbourne and that in conjunction with "True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor" changed my acting for the better. It's something I want to keep up.
I know there's some Meisner stuff around, which is in a similar vein, but I really want to get back to this.
I have no answer either, sorry!! As a theory, I figure it might be difficult to find a course in this country that actually is bold enough to call itself 'Practical Aesthetics'. Although it's a generalisation, I suspect that the British acting establishment (and this goes for tutors too) likes to think of itself as avoiding an overreliance on anything that is too rigidly related to one school of thought. In this sense, it's very different to America, where the school is all important. Brits, it seems to me, like mixing and matching techniques, in order that no - one can accuse them of being beholden to a particular system, so you may find that someone will do 'Practical Aesthetic' style teaching/exercises in the context of some more broad based teaching.
Even Meisner is far from being universally popular - I recently found it informative to note that all the major books on Meisner Technique sold in this country seem to be American imports - there isn't much of a home grown industry in it (although that's slowly changing).
Claire: Heh. I was curious as to your patience comment as I posted the original query a week or so ago...yet when I look at the posting date it shows today. But thank you for at least looking.
Lee: I was interested to read your reply, because my experience with establishments here so far has been the opposite! Perhaps I'm looking in the wrong places, but the ones I have approached said they were 'classically based' with specific reference to Stanislavsky. My background is an eclectic mix of approaches and indeed that's what I prefer myself. I don't believe any one strand can cater to all the needs of our profession. I'm simply keen to do a bit more exploration of this one as it gave me a lot. Thanks also for taking an interest.
Due to the workings of incompetent landlords, gas, electric and delivery companies, my focus has unfortunately been elsewhere in the recent past, so I haven't been able to get to the Actors Centre yet. Hopefully, with the arrival of this weekend all that will be sorted and I can get to the Centre.
Have a look at "True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor" by Mamet. It's an interesting read.
I run the Actors Temple and our actor training is very much the Meisner technique, however our text analysis is very much practical aesthetics. Mamet trained with Meisner and there are so many similarites between their approaches. We have found through experience that elements of both are useful tools to the actor, we are even developing our own 'practical handbook' which we feel is more inline with 'today'. Gaby Santinelli trained with the Atlanyic theatre company and teaches text analysis for us.
You are welcome to come down watch the work we do here, all in all it is very exciting... Give me a call on 0207 383 3535 if you want to chat more.. or go to our website at www.actorstemple.com
I saw your post the other day, and took a good look at the Actors Temple website. You are certainly part of the movement towards adopting more of the 'Transatlantic approach' in this country I was thinking of! I thought the idea of your courses sounded great, but I'll need a bit more cash in the bank, before I'm ready to enroll full - time. At the risk of hijacking this thread a bit, can I confirm how your levels of attendance work? (It might be uesful for other actors on site as well).
As far as I could tell, you can come in to observe classes that you don't take part in fairly cheaply, you can pay towards attending specific workshops which rotate over a yearly timetable, and you can also train 'for a year'. This last, I confess, I wasn't certain about - I assume you pay a lump sum at the beginning of a 'year', and then attend a regimen of classes at certain times over that year. Those classes are split into six specific modules, each of which run at different times in the year?
There are also week long training options, but the whole week is dedicated to practising the work from a single module, rather than getting six modules done over a week??
Is the full - time training set up to parallel a drama school training? Do you accept people only on the basis that they have an initial level of training, or is the work open to everyone?
Lee,
Thanks for your reply. To be honest it will take me ages to answer all your questions and there does seem to be some confusion... The best thing I can suggest is for you to come down to the studio and watch a class (for free) and then chat to myself or Ellie and we can explain all. We like people to actually come and meet us because I feel our ethos and passion for what we do can be properly appreciated that way. Just call and ask for me and we can arrange..
Hi Monty, it's a pretty cool coincidence that i saw this post. I just subscribed to another cycle of Mamet/practical aesthetics classes.
Lee Lomas runs a pure Practical Aesthetics for screen acting workshop and it has been one of the best workshops I've attended: https://twitter.com/LeeGLomas?s=09
6 years ago
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