Rehearsal last night for Conference of the Birds was fabulous! I love theater when it's collaborative; it's in those moments that true magic happens. Those kids had it. The lights went on. The end of the play became crystal clear in a moment of pure epiphany.

the journey is the thing
not the outcome
have patience to be patient
love without holding back
we are what we seek

CRAFT NOTES
Robert DeNiro

The American Film Institute recently honored Robert DeNiro with its lifetime achievement award. The televised tribute featured praise from many of the actors and directors that have worked with him over the years - Martin Scorsese, Sean Penn, Jodi Foster, Robin Williams, Sandra Bernhardt, Leonardo DeCaprio and more. By the end of the show, there were no superlatives left in the dictionary. DeNiro, according to one of the speakers, is this generation's Brando; everybody said he inspired their art and, in a couple of cases, their very lives.

I, too, am a major fan of DeNiro's work having been studying him closely since "Hi, Mom" and "Bang the Drum Slowly" thirty years ago. "Godfather II" was awesomely excellent, and "Raging Bull" may have been his stronest performance on film. In a word, I like him. Therefore, nothing I say here is intended to detract. Robert DeNiro's work will outlive him, and that's the end of that.

The thing that bothers me is that new actors listening to all of that praise might get a wrong idea of what acting is all about. Again and again, the thrust of the televised comments had to do with DeNiro's ability to pare a role down to its bare bones. His work was described continually as "stark" and simple and honest. To be sure, it is all of those things, but new actors need to understand that simple honesty is far from enough. Excellent acting requires structure and significance and conflict, too.

CONFLICT WITH SELF AND CONFLICT WITH SITUATION

There are only three possible kinds of conflict (or obstacle) an actor can use in a scene:
Conflict with one self. ("Yes I will, no I won't, yes I will, no I won'tŠ.")
Conflict with the situation ("Here's neither bush nor shrub to bear off any weather at all, and another storm is brewing!" Trinculo in The Tempest, Act II, scene II)
Conflict with the other character ("I don't want to sleep with you, Bob!")

Stanislavsky once said that acting is playing an action in pursuit of an objective while overcoming an obstacle. Theatrical reality is not the same thing as regular reality. Regular reality is what they do at the shopping mall and it has zero theatrical currency. People do not go to the theatre or to the movies to see regular reality. (Šthe filmed documentary excepted, but I can talk about that at another time. For now, let's stick with fictional storytelling.) Theatrical reality is heightened reality, significent, compressed in time and space, oxygenated. And it necessarily contains the element of conflict. David Mamet astutely observes that a scene is a negotiation and, of course, all negotiations inherently contains conflict. Further, in any negotiation, there must be a way you can win and a way you can lose. Defining a scene as a negotiation automatically demands of the actor that she do something.

Now, with these principles in mind, take a closer look at Robert DeNiro's basic persona. Look closely at his craggy face and tortured demeanor. It is not for nothing that he makes such a good Mafia boss. DeNiro looks always like he doesn't sleep nights, that he is a cauldrum inside. (He shares this demeanor with Al Pacino, by the way.) In short, DeNiro appears - just walking around on the street - to be in conflict with himself about something. It is one of his fundamental qualities, and it has been like that since his earliest acting work. Not to put too fine a point on it, Robert DeNiro therefore has an advantage over most actors the way that Seabiscuit and Secretariat had advantages over the other horses at the race track. He doesn't have to work as hard at establishing conflict. He has it when he arrives on the soundstage. He has it when he goes to his favorite restaurant. He has it when he takes his drivers' license test. He looked like that in all those movies, and he looked like that at the AFI ceremonies when he was presumably not acting at all.

Honesty is not enough in acting. It is an element of good acting, but it is not in itself enough. You can be honest on stage and still bore the bejeezus out of the audience. They'll flee at intermission. Good acting is purposeful and involves conflict and objectives. Acting is doing something, it is not merely being.

And so I send my cyber-congratulations to Mister DeNiro on the occasion of his honor. I hope that this artist has many more performances in him before he puts away the grease paint. But hear me, please, new actors! Acting is only partially defined by being honest. It requires conflict.

Rehearsals for Conference of the Birds continue. What a physically grueling experience. Holding a bird pose for over an hour is trying, especially when your over 18! This years show has given me many ideas for Summer Youth next year...how can we reach out further with the program, how can it be more inclusive. all in all, I'm very excited about this work.

Kahlil Gibran; Tyranny:

Thus sings the she-dragon that guards the seven caves by the sea:
'My mate shall come riding on the waves. His thundering roar shall
fill the earth with fear, and the flames of his nostrils shall set the sky
afire. At the eclipse of the moon we shall be wedded, and at the eclipse of
the sun I shall birth to a Saint George, who shall slay me.'
Thus sings the she-dragon that guards the seven caves by the sea.

----
know what you are and what you do, will the needful change, dare to face the
unknowable without (much) fear and keep silence in the heart/mind
while working.