Happy Thursday! Welcome back to Acting Class Daily. Today we’re personalizing the work with a themed knicknack from this week’s class, a formative moment of magic … and, most importantly, Bauer’s chance to say hello.

Juliet’s Funeral (Romeo & Juliet - ECT, 2017)

When I think of one of my favorite sequences I’ve ever directed, my heart returns to Juliet’s Funeral.

The artists, words, and music.

The set, lighting and staging.

What a team. What a moment.

Magic.

Snapshots of the X Repertory Theatre Company, my first theatre, and birthplace of The Specific & Improvisational Acting Technique (first seed of the Elysium Aesthetic).

Happy Thursday! Welcome back to Acting Class Daily. Today we’re personalizing the work with a themed knicknack from this week’s class, a formative moment of magic … and, most importantly, Bauer’s chance to say hello.

Prologue (The Phantom Lady - XRT, 2011)

When I think of moments where an audience is transported from their theatre seats to atmospheric worlds, my mind turns to … The Phantom Lady .

Embracing the archetypal themes and characters from the play, and the decision to thread it with music from The Nutcracker Suite, we begin with two siblings discovering a hidden attic of dusty dolls forgotten to the world.

Here’s the Prologue … right through to our play’s first words.

Here’s a favorite picture of mine, capturing the taste of discovery in our Atmosphere Work.

Happy Thursday! Welcome back to Acting Class Daily. Today we’re personalizing the work with a themed knicknack from this week’s class, a formative moment of magic … and, most importantly, Bauer’s chance to say hello.

The Funeral Procession of King Henry (Richard III - Elysium Conservatory Theatre, 2018)

When I think of moments where an actor’s free, flexible and powerful (!) vocal instrument carried the day, my mind turns to Richard III.

Early in the play, the corpse of the fallen, former king is led through the streets.

Here’s the moment … fueled by the full sound of the artistic soul.

The sweet sound of the unapologetic sigh …

Happy Thursday! Welcome back to Acting Class Daily. Today we’re personalizing the work with a themed knicknack from this week’s class, a formative moment of magic … and, most importantly, Bauer’s chance to say hello.

Pas De Deux (The Phantom Lady - 2011)

When I think of actors with powerful Motivation Muscles, my mind turns to The Phantom Lady. The vision of the piece asked our actors to learn ballet (!) and infuse it into their physical vocabulary as they brought to life this classical, Spanish comedy.

Boom. They just went for it.

No matter what I threw their way. To them it was always “Game On!”

Here’s a taped dress rehearsal capturing the immense vocal, physical, and emotional colors they were asked to explore. We played off music from The Nutcracker including the pas de deux which fed the big reveal of the Phantom Lady in our play.

Happy Thursday! Welcome back to Acting Class Daily. Today we’re personalizing the work with a themed knicknack from this week’s class, a formative moment of magic … and, most importantly, Bauer’s chance to say hello.

The Tournament of Diamonds (The Lady of Shalott - 2014)

When I think of never settling for the first taste of success, but rather driving towards the click of knowing … my thoughts drift to the magic of rehearsal.

Here’s the early taste of the rehearsal concept behind “The Tournament of Diamonds” - where Sir Lancelot goes from hero to zero after Modred tells everyone he saw Lancelot and Queen Guinevere together.

We get to see Elaine - aka The Lady of Shalott - rescue Lancelot from the mob, setting in motion so much of what we now know of Arthurian legend.

It’s all below, followed by a taste of our finish line.

Here’s our first go in rehearsal …

And the click of knowing waiting at our finish line…

Happy Thursday! Welcome back to Acting Class Daily. Today we’re personalizing the work with a themed knicknack from this week’s class, a formative moment of magic … and, most importantly, Bauer’s chance to say hello.

The Battle For Galahad (The Lady of Shalott - 2014)

Darkness ready to extinguish The Light.

​The instinct of parents (and protectors) to do whatever it takes to save their child.

​Another beautiful moment, from a beautiful show, filled with beautiful artists, who radiated such beautiful work.

Here are a couple bonus tastes of the references from this week’s class.

Bauer Trait Walk

Can you guess the (modified) trait for this delicious, daily doing?

Down Memory Lane

Hanging with my sister Jennifer. You can clearly see (just there behind her eyes) the itch - the worry! - over the smudges she sees on the camera lens.

Happy Thursday! Welcome back to Acting Class Daily. Today we’re personalizing the work with a themed knicknack from this week’s class, a formative moment of magic … and, most importantly, Bauer’s chance to say hello.

The Curse (The Lady of Shalott - 2014)

A woman trapped in a tower.

Cursed.

Entranced.

Sitting before a mirror, forced to weave its sights into the loom of a “magic web.”

What would that be like? Trapped in your own mind? Unable to forget those you’ve left behind? Unable to find your way to them?

What is echoing beneath her surface?

At the end of our story we get the taste … going under “the veil” into the horrors and chaos of The Curse.

Here’s another one of my favorite posters, designed by Company Member Mark Kopitzke, that honors the painting, artwork, and our storytelling device. Plus, I’ve included our behind-the-curtain featurette, show teaser, and full trailer of The Lady of Shalott.

What a poster. What a teaser. What a trailer.

What a show.

Enjoy!

Behind-The-Curtain

The Teaser

The Trailer

Happy Thursday! Welcome back to Acting Class Daily. Today we’re personalizing the work with a themed knicknack from this week’s class, a formative moment of magic … and, most importantly, Bauer’s chance to say hello.

The Lady of Shalott (Theatrum Elysium - 2014)

The song by Loreena McKennitt of the poem by Lord Alfred Tennyson, ignited the mythos.

​And the painting by John William Waterhouse made me want to know The Lady of Shalott … to find the truth of that moment, that look in her eyes.

​But it was this picture here of an Elysium Company Member visiting the painting at the Tate Museum years earlier, that inspired how we’d bring our magnificent story to life.

Below is the picture from the Tate, along with movement piece and moment in our story where our Modern Girl connects with the painting, leading us all on the first steps towards a journey beyond Arthurian legend …

The Poem

Click here to read the full poem by Lord Alfred Tennyson

The Painting

The Song

Happy Thursday! Welcome back to Acting Class Daily. Today we’re personalizing the work with a themed knicknack from this week’s class, a formative moment of magic … and, most importantly, Bauer’s chance to say hello.

Romeo and Juliet Curtain Call (Elysium Conservatory Theatre - 2017)

Sticking with the theme of Curtain Calls … and bookending the Romeo & Juliet videos I shared just a couple weeks back of our show’s opening moments …

Here’s how we brought the greatest love story of all time to a close:

Did you know … my niece is quite the artist! Here are a few recently discovered tastes of her creative heart. Find more here.

Happy Thursday! Welcome back to Acting Class Daily. Today we’re personalizing the work with a themed knicknack from this week’s class, a formative moment of magic … and, most importantly, Bauer’s chance to say hello.

Curtain Call (Dr. Anthony Beukas)

Talking about Lord of the Flies also reminded me of how much I was shaped by the passions of my first director.

The great Dr. Anthony Beukas was known for his curtain calls.

They were elaborate celebrations of whatever just transpired on stage - a greatest hits of everything we loved about each show.

What stuck with me was how Dr. Beukas felt responsible for the audience experience through the very last interaction with the cast.

As a director, I feel my responsibility begins from the moment an audience member enters the space, through intermission, all the way until our last actor is off stage and our final light dims.

Just as Dr. Beukas inspired.

Here’s a curtain call taste from Much Ado About Nothing (2015) - celebrating our show, the double-casting of our actors, and the echoes of Shakespeare’s soul carried to conclusion by our Narrator.

Talking about the vocal madness of Lord of the Flies got me searching through my things, and look what I found! The actual script from way back:

Reminiscing With My Lord of the Flies Acting Script

Happy Thursday! Welcome back to Acting Class Daily. Today we’re personalizing the work with a themed knicknack from this week’s class, a formative moment of magic … and, most importantly, Bauer’s chance to say hello.

Romeo and Juliet (Elysium Conservatory Theatre - 2017)

I know my directing talent lies in my imagination’s ability to fight off every no, every impossible, and stick with my instincts wherever they lead.

This playground of possibility reveals our way to “yes” … shows how something can be possible … and gives me vision to guide rehearsal, and direction to get us there.

Forgive the audio, my friends (theatre, warehouse, you get it) … here’s a taste of the imaginative hand-off and shared Actor’s Faith filling the art of rehearsal:

First Rehearsal

Taking a cast willing to really go for it with a first rehearsal idea …

Dance Call

To everyone so imaginatively alive at dance call, just before our opening night …

Performance

To finding the freedom within form of a fully realized vision …

Here’s a look at 3 year old me (fresh off my first haircut!) … my taste of what appears when my Elysium Artist waits for me beyond the threshold.

My Elysium Artist

Happy Thursday! Welcome back to Acting Class Daily. Today we’re personalizing the work with a themed knicknack from this week’s class, a formative moment of magic … and, most importantly, Bauer’s chance to say hello.

Studio XRT (X Repertory Theatre - 2010)

Speaking of rockin’ a warm cup of coffee in hand …

The shot we use here on Substack for “Aaron’s Notes” is of me teaching at my first company, and first theatre space, the X Repertory Theatre Company in downtown Los Angeles.

This shot, more than any other, captures how at home I feel - and how comfortable I am in my own skin - when sharing the work.

Or, maybe it’s all the coffee … :-)

Here’s a special (and rare!) look back at Studio XRT and the X Repertory Theatre Company.

Happy Thursday! Welcome back to Acting Class Daily. Today we’re personalizing the work with a themed knicknack from this week’s class, a formative moment of magic … and, most importantly, Bauer’s chance to say hello.

Uncle Vanya (Elysium Conservatory Theatre - 2018)

Still thinking of Uncle Vanya, and the many tastes of simple truth alive in the work.

​Here’s one of our Movement Pieces - used to transition between the play’s third and four acts - celebrating the muscle of Actor’s Faith. 

​From the weapon, to the vodka, to the morphine, to the world, circumstances and relationships … we taste, we live … through the belief before us.

The Polka Dot Door (Class Clip)

Here’s the world of imagination as seen through the eyes of little Aaron (along with young, beady-eyed Canadians everywhere).

Happy Thursday! Welcome back to Acting Class Daily. Today we’re personalizing the work with a themed knicknack from this week’s class, a formative moment of magic … and, most importantly, Bauer’s chance to say hello.

Uncle Vanya (Elysium Conservatory Theatre - 2018)

When thinking of how beautiful the work is when lines don’t get in the way … I think of Uncle Vanya, the last play we did at Elysium Conservatory Theatre.

Here’s one of the (many, many) moments of simple, beautiful freedom within form.

When lines live in the soul … called up and shaped by the texture of the moment.

Here’s the Movement Piece that opened our production of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya.

An introductory tone-setter to a world where character truths live “beneath the lines.”

Happy Thursday! Welcome back to Acting Class Daily. Today we’re personalizing the work with a themed knicknack from this week’s class, a formative moment of magic … and, most importantly, Bauer’s chance to say hello.

Shakespeare’s Soul (Cymbeline Rehearsal - 2016)

Still thinking about rehearsals when something so true, so worthwhile … provides new direction.

In an early rehearsal for Cymbeline, I asked the cast to prepare a song, or sound, or music … something raw … something speaking the soul of an older, wisened Shakespeare.

Here’s a taste of surrender and acceptance I’ll always remember … when preparation met willingness … and “no apologies” inspired the sound of fearless collaborative expression.

One teammate shares an idea, and her teammates jump in to enhance, support, and create something … more … something … special.

Rehearsal is the best.

Go team.

Here’s another memorable poster, this time from Cymbeline aboard the USS Iowa. Plus, I’ve included the teaser we produced for this once-in-a-lifetime event.

Since our production was crafted to honor and celebrate Shakespeare’s entire canon AND was scheduled to open on the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth/death … I wanted the cast to film their favorite piece of Shakespearean text on location, spanning the nooks and crannies of our playing space aboard the Battleship.

What a poster. What a teaser. Enjoy!

Happy Thursday! Welcome back to Acting Class Daily. Today we’re personalizing the work with a themed knicknack from this week’s class, a formative moment of magic … and, most importantly, Bauer’s chance to say hello.

Sound of the Spirits (Joan of Arc Rehearsal - 2016)

Joan (class clip)

Still thinking about the tastes of Joan of Arc and remembering back to the rehearsal when we first found the Sound of the Spirits.

Sure, we’d go on to find new levels of subtlety and expression.

Rehearsal is a blossoming flower.

But there’s nothing like the moment when something true, something lasting, is born out of the soul of a company.

Here’s the poster from Joan, one of my all-time favorites.

Happy Thursday! Welcome back to Acting Class Daily. Today we’re personalizing the work with a themed knicknack from this week’s class, a formative moment of magic … and, most importantly, Bauer’s chance to say hello.

Romeo and Juliet “Goodbye” (Elysium Conservatory Theatre - 2017)

Romeo & Juliet (class clip)

Here’s what I know of their letting go.

That final taste of touch, as their hands part.

The very last moment they’d ever have together.

Here’s a shot of the Harvey Theatre at The Brooklyn Academy of Music. It’s almost my exact vantage point from the audience during the Cymbeline moment from this week’s episode.

Cymbeline (class clip)

Happy Thursday! Welcome back to Acting Class Daily. Today we’re personalizing the work with a themed knicknack from this week’s class, a formative moment of magic … and, most importantly, Bauer’s chance to say hello.

Richard III Rehearsal Report (Elysium Conservatory Theatre - 2018)

This is one of my favorite pictures. Ever.

I’m so proud of the humility, focus, work ethic, and kindred connection it captures.

A cast fresh off a full run-through of Richard III, pouring their experiences into their rehearsal reports.

Artists who hunger to grow, to move themselves forward, to make the most of every chance they get to live in character.

It’s the blossoming of the rehearsal flower.

It’s what we mean by Earned Excellence.

A moment of rehearsal magic.

Happy Thursday! Welcome back to Acting Class Daily. Today we’re personalizing the work with a themed knicknack from this week’s class, a formative moment of magic … and, most importantly, Bauer’s chance to say hello.

Lloyd Williamson’s Cabin Retreat (NYU - 2001)

Towards the end of our time at NYU’s Meisner Studio, our graduating class scored an invitation to Lloyd Williamson’s retreat cabin in Upstate New York for a weekend of training, celebrating and relaxing.

During the retreat, each day began with the Williamson Warm-Up (no surprise there!).

The first morning was magical with all of us lying on wooden floors, in a room surrounded by wide windows, with natural light spilling into the space. When the work was finished, Lloyd had little pieces of fruit waiting by our side ready for us to taste.

Wow.

It wasn’t until that moment that I ever really tasted a strawberry!

The work removed the sleep-walking-automaticness of life and brought me to the unfiltered present … something I could then feel carrying over from my “touch-buds” to my tastebuds.

Later that day, we were given time to stroll along the grounds.

Everything was covered in snow.

I found myself lying on my back under a massive tree next to a frozen lake.

In that moment, I believe I was the most present I ever was.

From the sunlight, to the temperature on my skin, from the swoop of a bird’s wing, to the rustle of leaves.

Whatever existed … landed.

That taste remains my baseline to this day and a reminder of how much of life lives untasted in the world around me.

Happy Thursday! Welcome back to Acting Class Daily. Today we’re personalizing the work with a themed knicknack from this week’s class, a formative moment of magic … and, most importantly, Bauer’s chance to say hello.

Henry Woronicz (Utah Shakespeare Festival, 2003)

When I think back to moments that have inspired my most treasured puzzle pieces, one of my favorites was the first rehearsal of Richard III at Utah Shakespeare Festival.

Henry Woronicz was cast as Richard, and he showed up to our table-read with quite the reputation. He was the former Artistic Director of Ashland (Oregon Shakespeare Festival) and spoken of as a huge talent, consulate professional, and really fun castmate.

Henry came to play, we were warned.

As a young, “non-equity” actor I was excited to see what he’d bring to the role. How he’d go about his business.

Henry showed up to the table-read almost completely off-book. More than that … he sat there as Richard unencumbered by the (feeble) scripts people around him couldn’t leave behind. It’s as if he saw through Richard’s eyes during that whole read, sneering at our unworthiness.

In every blocking rehearsal after that his script was off to the side, ready to be picked up and noted when given direction. But in the moment, he was always free. The lines lived in him.

I wanted that.

I watched as he experienced and absorbed the world around him. If someone had a thought … he tasted all of it. He heard it all. Felt it all. Toyed with it all.

Nothing was in his way.

From that show on I made it my personal mission to always show up completely off-book. Especially for the table read. Anyone who’s worked with me recognizes this puzzle piece.

Maybe they thought it was because I have an easy time learning lines.

It was Henry.

A moment of magic in rehearsal pointing me towards who I wanted to be when I grew up.

It gave me the direction to roar. And now I get to know a bit of the best of myself, today.

My Grandfather (class clip)