Workshop for actors in Copenhagen...

About my Workshop for actors here in Copenhagen...

Once, Regina Miranda (now a renowned Choreographer and Director of the Laban Institute in New York, then a dancer who had just had her foot reconstructed after a motorbike accident) asked Ivo Pitanguy why he was the best plastic surgeon in the world. "It is because I have lost count of the number of surgeries I have Performed throughout the years. Nowadays I can close my eyes and know the depth of the cut, I can visualize every step of the procedure and could almost operate with my eyes closed". That was his answer.

Years later, working with one of the most respected, feared and admired Theater Directors in Brazil, Antunes Filho, he also pointed out the fact that a painter has to paint and paint and paint and throw it all away and paint some more on top of old paints until there is something worth showing... in the same way a musician spends hours in solitude perfecting his instrument, tuning, honing, tearing strings and puncturing skin to master his skills. And what about actors? Why do people (some people) take for granted that "it will be there" when needed. The Talent, The Inspiration... George Furth a great friend and Writer (won a Tony award for his play "Company") told me: You've got to have talent to be talented (something that Einstein also said with slightly different words: Genius is 10% Inspiration and 90% action) Antunes Filho really made us all understand that acting is a refined form of art that needs the same attention, same dedication as any other means of expression. The body, the mind, the presence, the voice... it should all be constantly trimmed, adjusted, developed!

That is what the great Theater Thinkers, Philosophers, creators did. Too bad they all died and the whole research and project of their lives became stagnant with followers "perpetuating" their unfinished, ongoing trajectory! It is impossible not to think that "Stanislavski system" would not have suffered severe changes had Stanislavski himself lived to be 200 years old. And the same goes for Grotowski, Brecht and you name it!!! We are lucky to still have living masters that are urging us to revisit the classics with a more critical mind... These are people that took seriously the previous efforts of the "Great ones" but did not get satisfied with the "Development" (or the lack of it) of such "laws".

Peter Brook, Tadashi Susuki, Antunes Filho, Gerald Thomas, Kike Diaz, Pina Bausch (I still count her as a living force since she only died very recently and never stopped provoking and challenging the minds and hearts of the audience), Kazuo Ohno, these are artists that offer us an unique chance of rethinking the meaning of being actors nowadays. I do consider a privilege to have gotten to know some of them personally, to have worked with some of them. They are inspiring forces that motivate me to keep on creating spaces where, just as musicians do, just as writers and sculptures do, we too, actors can spend time in action: doubting, discovering, exploring and celebrating our art!

I am creating a space (just like I had in Brazil) where we will spend time together, analyzing, practicing and experimenting some contemporary styles and let's see where it will lead us. I will start a group now in the middle of September. To begin with it will happen twice a week, in the evenings. I am thrilled and really looking forward to starting this dialogue! Join in, jump on board, let's do it!

nothing at all

SOMETIMES, MORE THAN A GOOD THERAPIST ALL YOU NEED IS A GOOD OLD DRAG QUEEN SCREAMING IN YOUR EARS THAT "YOU CAN DO IT CAUSE YOU ARE STRONG ENOUGH". SIMPLY REMINDING YOU THAT, EVEN THOUGH AT FIRST YOU WERE AFRAID AND PETRIFIED, AT THE END YOU WILL SURVIVE CAUSE... let me heeeaaaaaar yoooouuuuu!!!!!

I whisper things in your ears... sweet nothings... Brenda Lee used to sing! Something like that... Memories, like the lalalalala... sang a cat in Cats and Barbra Streisand in 189 different records... I am just a broken juke box sometimes, a little refrain here, a little line there, Judy garland on a Duet with myself and Liza with a Z, not Lisa with an S spying on us... singers, bands, D.I.S.C.O. (She is D... divine, she is I... incredible, she is S... special, she is C... cute... OOOOOOOOO, He is D... delirious, he is I... impatient, he is S...suspicious, he is C... cellullitical, OOOOOOOOO...) and just like that, when i do not know the lyrics I simply fill in with something else. Just as I deliberately change very depressive and moody lyrics just because I believe that we shape our own destiny through words we keep on repeating (be it a favorite song, or a quote or a memory of harsh words that were once spread all over our face). Yes, If a song says: I feel miserable, life is grey and clouds abound blablabla... of course I am not going to sing it like this, sorry, hmmm-hmmm... I am not crazy, thank you very much. I might even like the song but nooooo, not I, I will survive, for as long as I know how to love I know I will stay alive, and so on and so forth... and this is all cause this posting is being written during a very very hot summer night in Copenhagen... which makes me so delighted to say: A very hot summer night in Copenhagen. Do you know how many times you will actually hear (or read) these 2 words put together: HOT and Copenhagen??? I am telling you not really often! But coming back to my broken juke box and my almost obsessive awareness of not singing depressive songs: Thing is: The brain sometimes can be smart as a Genius but it can also be dumb as a lolly pop. Yes, this is my very revolucionary theory... based on the knowledge that if we keep on repeating out loud: Life is Hell shubbydubbydooo, I will always be alone, duubby duubbydaw... the brain kind of registers this precious info, records it somewhere in it's hard disk and... good luck! YES, SAY YES! LIFE KEEPS HAPPENING EVERYDAY, SAY YES! WHEN OPPORTUNITY COMES YOUR WAY YOU CAN'T STOP AND WONDER WHAT TO SAY YOU WILL NEVER WIN IF YOU NEVER SAY: YES! This is the stuff I kind of surround myself with (although I must confess I indulge in a little Smiths here and there... an Anthony once in a while and maybe even half a song from Leonard Cohen - but friends be aware of Mr Cohen. It should even be prohibited by the Psychiatric convention in Geneva for causing sudden suicidal urges and instant depression if you listen to a whole CD on a rainy day in Denmark...) I am not talking about painting the world Pink and Blue and only eating peaches and cream but whenever I face potential disaster (in my relationship, job, etc...) I'd much rather listen to something that will command me to Lift my chin up, search for the light at the end of a tunnel, tap dance on top of somebody's favorite records and move on!!!! And OM NAMAH SHIVAYA cause at the end, the only thing that matters is that: God dwells within you, as you!