Uta Hagen has been one of my distant mentors for a while now – maybe it’s because she’s German (as am I), and maybe it’s because she got the opportunity to play some unbelievable roles at an early age but she remained logical and practical and realistic about her career afterward. She also saw the value in sharing her knowledge with the next generation of artists and that’s just always a noble (and not always easy) thing to do.
I’ve been recently revisiting the great teachers, partly because I’m older and think I’ll benefit from them in a deeper manner, and I was reminded how much I enjoy Uta Hagen’s writing.
Maybe some of you are familiar with her books from the exercises they teach, maybe some from their philosophy. While I do think that one can communicate a practical lesson through the written word, it’s far less tangible than a real-life flesh-and-blood real-world experience. So here I shall focus on some of the philosophy, and today I will focus mainly on “Respect for Acting.”
At the beginning of her book, she defines what it takes for a person to be an actor. Acting takes a high sensitivity and responsiveness to sight, sound, touch, taste and smell, an exceptional sensitivity to others, the ability to be easily moved by both beauty and pain and having a soaring imagination without losing a control of reality.
But she goes on that, in addition to being blessed with these endowments, it takes AN UNSHAKABLE DESIRE TO BE AN ACTOR along with a NEED TO EXPRESS in order to make one a true actor. I would never discourage one of my students from becoming an actor because it’s ultimately up to them whether or not they do. I will happily tell you it’s not easy. Some days it’s the most frustrating experience and the injustices of the world depress you to no end. But I cannot see myself doing anything else. And if one of my students comes up with the same thought, so be it! But if I can teach someone the craft and encourage them to be a little more tuned in and attentive to the world, I feel as though I’ve succeeded.
She also states, more eloquently than I, that teaching others will force you into clarification of your personal work and raise your standards. I will personally attest to this.
Still, before getting into the exercises (which may be why many purchase her book), she gets into a bit of a history lesson about Theater in America. We can easily discuss the names of artists and playwrights and companies that have produced paradigm-shifting works, but there is something more subtle in her observations about American theater in the last century. Perhaps, because she is German, she brings a European perspective our situation: she states that when you despair about the condition of the present American theatre, we need to remind ourselves how very young our country is. Puritans thought all forms of theatre were immoral; performers were vagabonds, harlots and charlatans, and in a lot of ways we’re still moving beyond this. In fact, if one goes back to Quintilian in the first century AD and the belief that humans should upset the 4 humors and their mind-body connection, actors have had an uphill battle standardizing and establishing themselves as reputable human beings. No one should trust anyone who can control their emotions and if someone can make themselves visibly upset on stage MUST be doing bad things to their overall system.
But Uta Hagen’s history lesson moves beyond the history of the art and brings up the economic history and implications behind our star system and the evolution of the actor-director into a business minded producer.
I was fortunate to recently travel to Moscow to study with the American Studio over there – we discussed briefly the differences between the state theater system in Russia and the commercial system of Broadway and regional houses over here. Bottom line: they’re different. As an actor aspiring to be a part of a strong ensemble theater and still have a predictable salary with health and benefits, I can tell you the chances for that are slim over here – McCarthyism did an excellent job at making us fear anything other than our current structure. The fact is, the tenets upon which our country was founded: freedom of speech, freedom of enterprise…. they’re the arguments keeping this structure running. If you’re a government run establishment, you have to keep the government happy and they have to keep the people happy. But commercial theaters have to keep the people happy as well, or else they don’t make any money. But consider: only 30% of Broadway shows ever turn a profit. How many venture capitalists do you know would actually be willing to take that chance?
Art makes us better people; people who think about the bigger questions in life, people who question the unjust treatment of their neighbors, people who ultimately stand up to say “this isn’t right.” And Uta Hagen is one of the most inspiring artists I know. I highly recommend her books to anyone wanting to better understand our craft.
Erika Diane 