Silueta

Well.... it's all happening so fast! I'm going to start updating this blog, and stop cluttering up my friend's Facebook feed!

Since last we met.....

"We are going to Nebraska for the Great Plains Theatre Conference! Our play was chosen out of 550 submissions to be a part of the GPTC Playlab. What is different about OUR piece?
We are taking a whole production! Most of the other plays are going to be read by local actors, but we get to perform our own material.
We are also finalists for The Ashland New Play Festival 2013"

Silueta, imagined from a true story.

In 1985 Ana Mendieta, Cuban performance artist, 36 years old, plunged 34 stories to her death from a SoHo apartment tower. Her husband Carl Andre, the famous Minimalist sculptor, was tried and acquitted of her murder, a verdict that polarized the New York art world: The establishment rallied to Carl's defense while Ana became a cause celebre for feminists, convinced of Carl's guilt.

"Silueta" imagines Carl Andre, 35 years later, riddled by frustration at the loss of his artistic potency and a gnawing suspicion about his complete innocence. The ghost of Ana, meanwhile, haunts him relentlessly at the scene of her death, the apartment they shared and where he still lives today. They are both obsessed with the same question, what really happened that fatal night?


 Silueta is a collaboration by Tom Shelton, Chris Shelton and Diana Burbano.

Tom is a writer/composer as well as an actor. He is one of the writers of Caddie Woodlawn, published by Samuel French, as well as other musicals, an opera and a string of successful murder mysteries for “The Gourmet Detective”. He has worked as a professional actor for 30 years.

Chris is a Directing Fellow at the Sundance Institute and has directed, produced and written many television programs and series for PBS, Discovery, National Geographic, TLC, Animal Planet, Home and Garden and Travel Channel.

Diana has been a working actress since the age of 12.  She was born in Colombia and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the Professional Actors Conservatory and the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain.  She has been in or directed many theatre productions, and has been on TV, most recently on "Betas".  She acts in both English and Spanish.

 

Silueta

My kid had a hard time falling asleep tonight so I put on KLOS and climbed up into his bunk with him.
Took me back to the nights with headphones on when the holiest sound was a ringing guitar lick, and rock music made me feel like there was more to the world than 4 walls and Catholic school.
I spent hours when I should've been sleeping spinning Bowie, or the Sex Pistols. The Beatles, or Iggy or Styx, or ACDC or the Scorpions. There was something about hard, achy, painful rock that made the world clear to a foggy headed teenager.
And tonight when Lilo fell asleep to metal played softly, it was so very, very good.

Kabookit: Booking: LUCK - Daily Talent

Kabookit: Booking: LUCK - Daily Talent: DIANA BURBANO Booked: LUCK Episode #201 Role: Neighbor Repped By: Daily Talent Casting Director: Creative Casting - Wendy Weidman ...

I recently started teaching a new Basics course at SCR. One I the first things I do is to have people introduce themselves by asking them what brought them to the theatre TODAY. I always get great answers. People who plunge themselves into beginning acting classes tend to be very interesting, brave and bold. There are, of course, the college age folks, who are trying to get into the industry. There are also retirees, ready to try something they always wanted to do. The people that really intrigue me, however, are people who are mid-career, and aren't looking to become ACTORS per se. They are the one who come to my class for other reasons. In the group was this guy, seems funny, a bright professional. We all know guys like him, they come off a little brusque, a little different. He is very successful in his field. When it came time for him to tell us why he was in the room, he told us that his son had been diagnosed with high functioning Aspergers and consequently so had he. I guess a lot of things fell into place for him when he found that out. He told me he has to force himself to look at people, that he wanted to learn what it was like to "feel" emotions and a doctor had suggested acting classes. He mentioned to me that he had trouble being "empathetic." When he said that to me, it sounded like something an evaluator had told him. I'm not sure the meaning of empathy really resonated with him.

I work with a lot of people on the autism spectrum. I'm not a psychologist or a therapist and I don't claim to be. I am an acting teacher. And speaking with an adult who was coping with the diagnosis gave me insights that I never had with my kids. He doesn't "feel" emotions the way you and I do. To me, a lay person, I thought his description of not feeling sounded like color-blindness or tone deafness. He wants to learn how to act like he's feeling. The guy is definitely bright, and very interesting.

And intriguing, since my job is to teach basic acting techniques. There are styles that he could definitely apply, outside in, the British method. Commedia maybe. And anyway, how many of us actors haven't relied on the ghost of a sensation to twist our face into the proper expression of concern or interest when we are not feeling it? I can't teach him to feel, but perhaps a little like Henry Higgins, I can teach him to pretend he's feeling.

So much of emotion is bound up in muscle memory. A tense forehead indicates anxiety, tightly drawn lips equals hurt. Maybe I could invent a modern Del Sartre type method? I did have a kid once whose mother swore he became more affectionate after taking acting classes, because he learned to take the cues he was given, and would smile at the right time, or look like he was listening. Was he? Is teaching person with autism the gestures of emotion going to help him feel the emotions somewhere? And is he faking out if he pretends to be interested when in fact he really isn't? If so, we are ALL consummate fakers.

I'm sure much smarter people thy I have better answers, but really empathy is a taught emotion. Little kids aren't empathetic at all. And acting isn't an easy thing to teach to anybody. Fascinatingly enough, certain autistic people pick it up faster and are quicker to understand the purpose of things like objectives, getting what you want, sticking to your goal in a scene. A lot of the autistic kids I know become very fine actors indeed. Maybe because their slate is so blank, they have no bad habits to get rid of. Starting without their own emotions they can become a character without bruising or sacrificing their own ego. And become a gift to their acting teachers in the process.

I am drawn to these folk on the spectrum. I enjoy working with them, mostly because they can and do put their own feelings aside and become complete characters when in character.  I also really love teaching the Basics class. It is about teaching people to act, but more importantly, to connect. The flaws people come in with are usually the gems that just need polishing. Diamonds in the rough.

Resolves

I promise myself to have more fun and worry less about money.
(I almost didn't buy a hardback book today, because of the price. When did books become luxury goods? It's Murakami's 1Q84 and I've wanted it for months. And I had a gift certificate, and yet...)
I will break out of being boring. Last year was all about money, making it, keeping it, spending it. I was so panicked about staying within the margins that I had very little "fun". Not acceptable. I don't buy anything new, except food. Fun should be a priority.
I will try and be more like Lionel in his sheer good nature and willingness to throw himself into a crowd. And talk to strangers. I'm so shy, I hide when he's speaking to someone. So I miss out on human interaction, which I crave. And I will attempt to speak to the playground mommy's even though I find them a bit scary and normal for me. I'm sure we have nothing in common. Yet I am turning into a bit of a hermit. Why is it so hard to meet new people? Where are the gentle weirdos?
I will be bold about my dreams.
I will keep working on crazy fulfilling projects that will probably go nowhere.
I will engage my mind, to stave off dementia if nothing else.
I will do a theatre project that I can't afford (babysitting) for my soul.
I will continue to dress the way I want, even if I am getting a little old to pull it off. If I keep my legs looking nice I should be able to get away with it. I might even go big this year and shave my head into a Mohawk.
I will no longer sit full of jealousy and or schadenfreude while reading about other peoples successes/failures. I'm not allowed to think snarky thoughts if I'm not throwing myself out there the way I want.
I shall wash the sheets more often.
I shall be nicer to people who irritate me, even though I'm not that good an actress, and oh so VERY easily irritated.
I will write, a lot, since it's something I can do without a babysitter. There are a lot of episodes of Phineas and Ferb to help me out.
I will be very kind to L and T, since I love them so very much, even when they both drive me to distraction.
(as in right now when L steals my laptop to watch a video and I have to download and install a new app on my iPhone to keep writing.)
I will keep the bathroom clean, even though it fills me with a searing anger and loathing of all mankind. Or maybe, back to the second point, a housekeeper can be classified as fun?
I will read more. Which means getting the heck away from cyberspace.
I will play my guitar. It's one thing that gives me genuine pleasure, yet I rarely touch it. What the heck?
And I will eat whatever the hell I want, because I always get food poisoning with normal things like packaged lunch meat, which happened yesterday which rendered me way too sick to enjoy New Years eve. The point is, I'm going to eat as much crazy food as I can.
And then I will go to the gym, which isn't a resolution, I actually like it there, but I do vow to be nice to the resolutioners in there this month, even if they are using all the cardio machines in awkward manners.
And I will make the effort to see the people I love away from cyberspace.
And finally, I will dance as much as I can, because dancing makes me happy and is fun. And I need to have fun before the world ends. (again)