Review: "The Shadow of a Gunman" at the Irish Repertory Theater, Meg Hennessy
“The Shadow of a Gunman,” Sean O’Casey’s tragicomic 1923 play about gun violence, patriotism and empty rhetoric, has returned to the Irish Repertory Theater, the first production in a season devoted to his work. And like most Irish Rep shows, there’s little interest in reinterrogating the play: This is a revival, not a reinvention.
Instead, the director Ciaran O’Reilly aims to show how playable “The Shadow of a Gunman” remains. Its context — the Irish war of independence — won’t be especially familiar to most audiences, but the idea of people fighting and dying for beliefs they may understand only imperfectly isn’t exactly dated.
O’Casey, a luminary of the Anglo-Irish renaissance, was a satiro-comic writer with a big-time dark side and an enduring faith in human self-deception. He practiced the kind of realism in which you can smell how filthy the sheets are. Despite the comedy, the Dublin slum-dwellers who populate his plays are fully realized characters, not shabby cartoons, and he had a cocked ear for the absurd poetry of their speech. He also knew how quickly and ruinously a joke might go wrong, how comedy can in an instant turn its face to tragedy.
In “The Shadow of a Gunman,” Donal Davoren (James Russell), a would-be poet, and Seumas Shields (Michael Mellamphy), a threadbare peddler with I.R.A. sympathies, share a grungy tenement room. During an ordinary morning, Seumas’s friend Mr. Maguire, an I.R.A. gunman, comes to drop off a bag, and Seumas tells Donal that everyone in the building thinks Donal is a gunman on the run. Donal doesn’t hate the idea, especially when Minnie Powell (Meg Hennessy), the Republican babe a few rooms over, implies that she finds gunmen sexy. “What danger can there be in being the shadow of a gunman,” he wonders to himself. Maybe he should look inside Maguire’s bag.
Mr. O’Reilly’s production doesn’t hit any of the themes too hard. If he does locate the brutality in much of the comedy, he treats a grim play lightly. If you’re worried that you may not find gun violence especially funny, just lean back and luxuriate in the language. (The accents may take a minute to suss; you’ll get there.) Besides, the Irish Rep remains one of the most reliable places to enjoy rowdy, all-in character acting, and it’s here in plenty. The Irish Rep’s great clown John Keating, an exuberant string bean with a shock of curly hair, is nearly upstaged by Ed Malone, a younger actor built along the same pleasantly absurd lines and a deft physical comedian. Robert Langdon Lloyd does fine work, too.
But when the play takes its uncorrectable skid into tragedy, there’s enough dramatic force to make you feel for the characters, even the ones you laughed at. At nearly 100 years old, O’Casey’s play still packs heat.
Meg Hennessy – Alumni News – Maggie Flanigan Studio
Review: “The Shadow of a Gunman” at the Irish Repertory Theater, Meg Hennessy
“The Shadow of a Gunman,” Sean O’Casey’s tragicomic 1923 play about gun violence, patriotism and empty rhetoric, has returned to the Irish Repertory Theater, the first production in a season devoted to his work. And like most Irish Rep shows, there’s little interest in reinterrogating the play: This is a revival, not a reinvention.
“Meg Hennessy is an engaging Minnie, sweet and passionate enough to make even the silliest of poets rise up and take arms.”
NEWSWEEK
Instead, the director Ciaran O’Reilly aims to show how playable “The Shadow of a Gunman” remains. Its context — the Irish war of independence — won’t be especially familiar to most audiences, but the idea of people fighting and dying for beliefs they may understand only imperfectly isn’t exactly dated.
O’Casey, a luminary of the Anglo-Irish renaissance, was a satiro-comic writer with a big-time dark side and an enduring faith in human self-deception. He practiced the kind of realism in which you can smell how filthy the sheets are. Despite the comedy, the Dublin slum-dwellers who populate his plays are fully realized characters, not shabby cartoons, and he had a cocked ear for the absurd poetry of their speech. He also knew how quickly and ruinously a joke might go wrong, how comedy can in an instant turn its face to tragedy.
In “The Shadow of a Gunman,” Donal Davoren (James Russell), a would-be poet, and Seumas Shields (Michael Mellamphy), a threadbare peddler with I.R.A. sympathies, share a grungy tenement room. During an ordinary morning, Seumas’s friend Mr. Maguire, an I.R.A. gunman, comes to drop off a bag, and Seumas tells Donal that everyone in the building thinks Donal is a gunman on the run. Donal doesn’t hate the idea, especially when Minnie Powell (Meg Hennessy), the Republican babe a few rooms over, implies that she finds gunmen sexy. “What danger can there be in being the shadow of a gunman,” he wonders to himself. Maybe he should look inside Maguire’s bag.
Mr. O’Reilly’s production doesn’t hit any of the themes too hard. If he does locate the brutality in much of the comedy, he treats a grim play lightly. If you’re worried that you may not find gun violence especially funny, just lean back and luxuriate in the language. (The accents may take a minute to suss; you’ll get there.) Besides, the Irish Rep remains one of the most reliable places to enjoy rowdy, all-in character acting, and it’s here in plenty. The Irish Rep’s great clown John Keating, an exuberant string bean with a shock of curly hair, is nearly upstaged by Ed Malone, a younger actor built along the same pleasantly absurd lines and a deft physical comedian. Robert Langdon Lloyd does fine work, too.
Meg Hennessy – ‘The Shadow of a Gunman’ – Maggie Flanigan Studio
But when the play takes its uncorrectable skid into tragedy, there’s enough dramatic force to make you feel for the characters, even the ones you laughed at. At nearly 100 years old, O’Casey’s play still packs heat.
The New York summer acting program at the Maggie Flanigan Studio includes the Six-Week Meisner Summer Intensive. The acting intensive is based on the training that Sanford Meisner created to teach professional actors. Here in this video, Andrel McPherson discusses the acting program.
Andrel McPherson Interview: New York Summer Acting Program
Q: Andrel, what did you think it meant to train as an actor before you started the Six-Week Summer Intensive at the Maggie Flanigan Studio?
A: I thought it was about taking your own time to read as many plays as possible, studying other actors and then getting on stage and just figuring it out for yourself and hoping that a moment happens or you feel something by yourself. I had no idea nor did I ever imagine that it would take so much of myself to bring it out there then, which makes sense. Before you started doing work like this, you think that you're doing that and then when you start doing it, it's like, "Oh my gosh, that's a lot more work than I thought it would be."
Q: Well, what do you think it means now to train?
A: Making everything so personal for yourself and being able to focus tremendously on, not yourself, but what everyone else is giving you in the moment, which is hard because you're always in your head. You're trying to make sure that you're giving the best to them, but then you have to feel it and be in that moment, paying attention to every single detail which is exhausting when you're starting off this type of training. I guess just the most significant thing I've taken away from this is trying to pay attention to my point of view and how I'm feeling in a moment and how I can express that improv through whatever.
Q: What happened throughout the six weeks that changed your perspective on acting and training?
A: Charlie going off on me. It was exactly what I needed. Not because I didn't realize, I did not know that it would take that much out of me until someone was just like, "You're giving us a lot of bull, let's not do that anymore." Then there was this moment where I'm like, "Crap, but no, I want this. I want to try." Then you continue to dig deeper and deeper in yourself. That's when you find one little nugget of something, and it's like, "Okay. I see it now. I see what he was talking about." A lot of those good moments.
Q: What did you learn about yourself, that was a surprise or that changed you?
A: How willing I am to be open? I wasn't expecting myself to allow so much of someone else to come into me just because that's not how the world works. We're huge on trying to protect everything that we have. To know that I have it in me to pay attention and to experience what someone else is feeling and giving me was honestly just-- It's so exciting.
Q: Now that you've just trained for the past six weeks with the Meisner technique what resonates with you the most?
A: Process, really and truly, knowing that there has to be one and there's just no way around it because everything else in life has a process. I don't know why I thought that I couldn't be any different.
I'm so mad about myself. I've wasted so much time, but it's okay.
Q: A lot of people do have that misconception about being an actor.
A: Exactly. Yes, the process would be it for me. It's so exciting to know that there is one and it's working for me. It's not just something I made up on my own. It's like there is tradition behind it. There's the reasoning behind it. There's an explanation for everything as to why you should do it and why you shouldn't. It's literally like you're given a map to go out and have fun.
Q: You're also a writer. How has what you've learned throughout these six weeks helped you as a writer and not just an actor?
A: I don't write about what I don't care about anymore if that makes sense. It's straightforward to get caught up in writing what you think you should be writing about. If anything, I learned in Meisner that what I think I care about and what I care about are two completely different things. It's been nice to see myself be a lot rawer and honest with what I'm writing and not being so afraid to put it on the page and being comfortable with all ugly sides of myself, all pretty sides, just like every form that there is in me.
Q: You've also studied at other studios with other teachers. What's been the most significant difference between Maggie Flanigan and other studios?
A: The attention and the dedication to not caring about ego and just being there and putting in the work to make sure that I'm putting in my work. It's easy at other places that I've trained at to get lost in the crowd there. Charlie was just so adamant about giving everyone their time and making sure that you had what you needed. He wasn't trying to do it off of the whole class. It's an individual. It helped you grow in the way that you needed to build, and not necessarily in what other people may need.
Here, there has been so much attention, so much specificity as to what I needed which is what I came here for. It's been great just having someone and a group of artists, able to hone in on what I could bring out of myself.
Q: What about the sense of community within your class?
A: They're my family. I love so many of them now. It's been- oh, gosh. I love them. I do. I can't believe-- For one, it's bizarre now that we can talk about whatever we want to because you break down so many of the walls. In the first two weeks, you'll cry [laughs] for whatever reason. That was just like, "You know things about me that my own family doesn't know about me." It's been so rewarding to be a part of this environment, which is another reason why I love acting. You're always steadily building a new family. I have another one now.
Q: How would you describe Charlie as a teacher?
A: Charlie is fantastic. He is so tough. You will walk away from some classes feeling down, but you have to remember that it's never out of place of malice. He's just really not going to give you any crap about what he thinks that you need. The man knows what he's doing, I think, at least from my perspective. He's been so tough when needed, but also so soft when I needed him to.
It's almost scary where he knows the line. Like right when I'm like really getting into my head, that's when he'll say something that I need to hear. He is good at balancing, and I would say — a great, great person to learn from.
Q: What would you say to someone who says, "Oh, I don't need more training," or, "It's too expensive?
A: If you think you don't need class then I'm sorry for you. You always need to be training. Always. Even the greats say that. You can't ever stop, ever. If you don't think you have the money, that's such a hard thing, but it's worth it. I guess, really worth it. I know in the beginning, I was like, "Oh my God. Am I doing this? Am I about to drop this money?" Now, here I am and I would drop it all over again if I had it and if I could. Every time, I would. It's been so giving to what I'm trying to work towards. It's been more so an investment thing like, "Is it worth the money?"
Q: You are moving to LA in a few weeks?
A: Yes.
Q: How do you feel going out there? Do you feel more confident than you did six weeks ago?
Interviewee: I feel excited, very excited to know that now I have this other part of me to bring over there. I also have the knowledge that I want to keep training. I'm going out there, and I'm not just going to be doing what I was doing before and just sitting around and waiting for a blessing to fall on my lap. It's a good feeling to know that I'm going over somewhere else with all this energy, all this excitement, and I'm pumped. Yes, I'm excited for sure.
The New York Summer Acting Program at the Maggie Flanigan Studio
The New York summer acting program at the Maggie Flanigan Studio includes the Six-Week Meisner Summer Intensive. The acting intensive is based on the training that Sanford Meisner created to teach professional actors. Here in this video, Andrel McPherson discusses the acting program.
New York Summer Acting Program – Andrel McPherson – Maggie Flanigan Studio 02
Andrel McPherson Interview: New York Summer Acting Program
Q: Andrel, what did you think it meant to train as an actor before you started the Six-Week Summer Intensive at the Maggie Flanigan Studio?
A: I thought it was about taking your own time to read as many plays as possible, studying other actors and then getting on stage and just figuring it out for yourself and hoping that a moment happens or you feel something by yourself. I had no idea nor did I ever imagine that it would take so much of myself to bring it out there then, which makes sense. Before you started doing work like this, you think that you’re doing that and then when you start doing it, it’s like, “Oh my gosh, that’s a lot more work than I thought it would be.”
Q: Well, what do you think it means now to train?
A: Making everything so personal for yourself and being able to focus tremendously on, not yourself, but what everyone else is giving you in the moment, which is hard because you’re always in your head. You’re trying to make sure that you’re giving the best to them, but then you have to feel it and be in that moment, paying attention to every single detail which is exhausting when you’re starting off this type of training. I guess just the most significant thing I’ve taken away from this is trying to pay attention to my point of view and how I’m feeling in a moment and how I can express that improv through whatever.
It's so exciting to know that there is process to acting and it's working for me. The process has a reasoning and tradition behind it. It is not just something I made up on my own.
Andrel McPhersonNew York Summer Acting Program
Q: What happened throughout the six weeks that changed your perspective on acting and training?
A: Charlie going off on me. It was exactly what I needed. Not because I didn’t realize, I did not know that it would take that much out of me until someone was just like, “You’re giving us a lot of bull, let’s not do that anymore.” Then there was this moment where I’m like, “Crap, but no, I want this. I want to try.” Then you continue to dig deeper and deeper in yourself. That’s when you find one little nugget of something, and it’s like, “Okay. I see it now. I see what he was talking about.” A lot of those good moments.
Q: What did you learn about yourself, that was a surprise or that changed you?
A: How willing I am to be open? I wasn’t expecting myself to allow so much of someone else to come into me just because that’s not how the world works. We’re huge on trying to protect everything that we have. To know that I have it in me to pay attention and to experience what someone else is feeling and giving me was honestly just– It’s so exciting.
Q: Now that you’ve just trained for the past six weeks with the Meisner technique what resonates with you the most?
A: Process, really and truly, knowing that there has to be one and there’s just no way around it because everything else in life has a process. I don’t know why I thought that I couldn’t be any different.
I’m so mad about myself. I’ve wasted so much time, but it’s okay.
Q: A lot of people do have that misconception about being an actor.
A: Exactly. Yes, the process would be it for me. It’s so exciting to know that there is one and it’s working for me. It’s not just something I made up on my own. It’s like there is tradition behind it. There’s the reasoning behind it. There’s an explanation for everything as to why you should do it and why you shouldn’t. It’s literally like you’re given a map to go out and have fun.
New York Summer Acting Program – The 2019 Meisner Summer Intensive Begins
Q: You’re also a writer. How has what you’ve learned throughout these six weeks helped you as a writer and not just an actor?
A: I don’t write about what I don’t care about anymore if that makes sense. It’s straightforward to get caught up in writing what you think you should be writing about. If anything, I learned in Meisner that what I think I care about and what I care about are two completely different things. It’s been nice to see myself be a lot rawer and honest with what I’m writing and not being so afraid to put it on the page and being comfortable with all ugly sides of myself, all pretty sides, just like every form that there is in me.
Q: You’ve also studied at other studios with other teachers. What’s been the most significant difference between Maggie Flanigan and other studios?
A: The attention and the dedication to not caring about ego and just being there and putting in the work to make sure that I’m putting in my work. It’s easy at other places that I’ve trained at to get lost in the crowd there. Charlie was just so adamant about giving everyone their time and making sure that you had what you needed. He wasn’t trying to do it off of the whole class. It’s an individual. It helped you grow in the way that you needed to build, and not necessarily in what other people may need.
Here, there has been so much attention, so much specificity as to what I needed which is what I came here for. It’s been great just having someone and a group of artists, able to hone in on what I could bring out of myself.
Q: What about the sense of community within your class?
A: They’re my family. I love so many of them now. It’s been- oh, gosh. I love them. I do. I can’t believe– For one, it’s bizarre now that we can talk about whatever we want to because you break down so many of the walls. In the first two weeks, you’ll cry [laughs] for whatever reason. That was just like, “You know things about me that my own family doesn’t know about me.” It’s been so rewarding to be a part of this environment, which is another reason why I love acting. You’re always steadily building a new family. I have another one now.
New York Summer Acting Program – Andrel McPherson – Maggie Flanigan Studio 01
Q: How would you describe Charlie as a teacher?
A: Charlie is fantastic. He is so tough. You will walk away from some classes feeling down, but you have to remember that it’s never out of place of malice. He’s just really not going to give you any crap about what he thinks that you need. The man knows what he’s doing, I think, at least from my perspective. He’s been so tough when needed, but also so soft when I needed him to.
It’s almost scary where he knows the line. Like right when I’m like really getting into my head, that’s when he’ll say something that I need to hear. He is good at balancing, and I would say — a great, great person to learn from.
Q: What would you say to someone who says, “Oh, I don’t need more training,” or, “It’s too expensive?
A: If you think you don’t need class then I’m sorry for you. You always need to be training. Always. Even the greats say that. You can’t ever stop, ever. If you don’t think you have the money, that’s such a hard thing, but it’s worth it. I guess, really worth it. I know in the beginning, I was like, “Oh my God. Am I doing this? Am I about to drop this money?” Now, here I am and I would drop it all over again if I had it and if I could. Every time, I would. It’s been so giving to what I’m trying to work towards. It’s been more so an investment thing like, “Is it worth the money?”
Q: You are moving to LA in a few weeks?
A: Yes.
Q: How do you feel going out there? Do you feel more confident than you did six weeks ago?
Interviewee: I feel excited, very excited to know that now I have this other part of me to bring over there. I also have the knowledge that I want to keep training. I’m going out there, and I’m not just going to be doing what I was doing before and just sitting around and waiting for a blessing to fall on my lap. It’s a good feeling to know that I’m going over somewhere else with all this energy, all this excitement, and I’m pumped. Yes, I’m excited for sure.
Summer Acting Program – Maggie Flanigan Studio
The New York Summer Acting Program at the Maggie Flanigan Studio
The New York summer acting programs at the Maggie Flanigan studio train professionals actors based on the acting technique that was created by Sanford Meisner. In this interview Angie Elliston discusses how Meisner training during the six week program was different than she expected.
Angie Elliston Interview: New York Summer Acting Programs
Q: Angie, what did you think it meant to train as an actor before you started the six weeks summer intensive?
A: What did I think it meant to train as an actor? I suppose that I knew it had a lot to do with not just getting in tune with your emotions, but also it had things to do with movements and voice. I know it had a lot to do with a lot of other things. Sometimes I thought when I'm growing up; I would watch on TV how actors would train. It's just like looking at each other like marrying what you're doing and stuff, and you got this cliche about it.
When I first got here, I did not expect that it would be this way because I remember Charlie came in the first day and he didn't even tell us how it was going to be. He just started telling us that you're going to repeat what I'm saying, but you're going to change the plurals. He does like that first Meisner technique which is the repetition. We were all just in shock. We were all amazed at how it worked so well. We learned how to hear, how to pay attention to the other person.
We started realizing that in everyday life, these are things that we think we do, but we don't. You also learn a lot about yourself and the behavior of other people. I guess I did not know much about acting mostly because of where I come from. Then, coming here I thought it would be more about movement and expression, but it was not. It's more about internal. When you work with what's inside, you start working with the outside. It just automatically it starts showing the outside and that's the acting process. I just had to say that it was very unexpected everything I've learned.
Q: What do you think training as an actor means now?
Angela: Training as an actor now, after everything that we've learned and just these six weeks, I've determined that training has a lot to do with the relationship you have with yourself and accepting your emotions and learning how to just dive into different types of-- I don't know how I could put this. I would say like the relationship that you have with yourself and understanding how you work and accepting any emotions.
Charlie made an example like suppressing your feelings. I had that problem at the beginning with certain emotions. I learned to accept those emotions and told myself that it's okay for them to come because it's me. It's my emotions. I'm entitled to my feelings. That's something that he kept repeating along through the semester and the summer. It stayed with me.
I learned that it's just more about the relationship you have with yourself and observing other people. People watching is essential, listening and just paying attention and just trying to see and read the other person. That's like a ride. He used this metaphor. It's always going to stay with me. Acting is like a water skier. The other person is the boat that guides you around the water, and you were the water skier. You flow wherever the ship goes- it takes you.
Q: What happened during the six weeks that changed your perspective? Was there a particular moment in the exercise? Was there a moment of rehearsal, a personal discovery that changed your view of what it means to train as an actor?
Angela: I learned a lot in many different ways in rehearsals and class. In class, I would say that I learned, mostly when I would see Charlie teach the others, like my classmates. When I'm on the scene, I can't see myself. I don't know what I'm doing. I heart what he says, and his feedback and I write that down, and I consider them and then everyone else, I see what they're doing.
Well, we're all on the same level. We're all making the same mistakes. I learned mostly by looking at everyone else helped me. It worked better because we were an intimate group. We were a small group. We got to know each other better that way. Just seeing everyone grow from day one to now, the last days it's pretty amazing. We're all proud of each other as well. There's no competition or anything. We're all helping each other.
Rehearsals, well the first day, Charlie immediately gave us an active partner. It was weird because I didn't know him, but we got to know each other well through the exercises, which is the Meisner of asking each other questions, repetition, and we grew together. I learned a lot just through my partner, helping each other, watering each other like we were plants. That's how I viewed that. I learned a lot through rehearsals, and Charlie says that's where you grow, and it's genuine. You build through repetitions and through seeing other people's mistakes in class, and that's mostly how I think I've grown in this summer.
Q: What did you learn about yourself that was a surprise or that changed you?
Angela: Yes, that's what I was about to say. I was surprised on how certain types of feelings, mostly feelings of intense sadness or-- Something that shocked me, something that I did not know about myself that I learned here was because I didn't know how to stand up for myself. I didn't know that. He said it. I guess everyone noticed, but I had no idea. He speaks through the repetition and the conflict exercises that, this Meisners, I wouldn't have to stand up for myself.
Here I had my partner just fighting with me, and Charlie's told me to take things personally, take it in because as an actor, you have to take things personally and be comfortable with conflict. How is there going to be any conflict if you don't stand up for yourself? I didn't, I would just let this pass, and I noticed that I just brushed off any insult or conflict that was trying to happen. I didn't want anything to do with it.
I realized that I run away from my problems and I don't stand up for myself. Instead, I walk away from it. I finally learned to confront it, and when I did eventually stand up for myself and face my partner on the scene, I was blown away, and I almost had hysteria. I wouldn't stop crying, and it felt so real. Then after we finished, I had to review everything that had just happened because I had forgotten entirely. That's how it felt like to be in the moment and be out of your head and focus on the other person, which is what acting is all about.
Q: How would you describe Charlie as a teacher?
Angela: Charlie is-- I guess what I liked about him is that he's passionate about his students. He takes everything very seriously, and since day one, he says that you've got to want this. Almost in every class, he always finishes the course with something to take home with, some nice motivation, which was still really lovely. He's harsh. He will challenge you. He doesn't have much patience, but that's only because he has a lot of passion, and he does explain that. That's just how he is.
That's important because if you want to be an actor, it is a challenging industry, and no one is going to give you mercy; no one's that nice to you. It's very raw. It's very harsh, and Charlie teaches you that, and he says it from the beginning like this is how it is. He challenges you If you need to want this, and you're going to get so frustrated with yourself, and he will make you frustrated with yourself. That's the point, that's how you grow. Once you finally achieve that stuff, you feel so much-- You build, you feel so much better, and you realize that everything he did, he knows exactly what he's doing. I think that's how I would describe him. He challenges you, and he is super passionate about all of his students and what he teaches.
Q: There are a lot of summer intensives in Manhattan, a lot of Meisner summer intensives. Why did you decide Maggie Flanigan Studio was the place for you?
Angela: Maggie Flanagan is not trying to sell you the school and the classes or anything. It's all just very genuine and authentic. I think that's what I liked about it. When I did more research on it, and I had heard of other people who studied here, I was intrigued. When I met Charlie, I saw that he was genuine about this. He wasn't trying to sell me anything. Instead, he said, "I want to see if I want to teach you. I want to see if you are passionate about this because you have to be because this is intense. This is real life. This is acting." I guess that was my impression of it.
Q: You mentioned before how your class helped you watching the other students and the sense of community since you were a small class. How did that closeness to the other students help you through the six weeks?
Angela: I would say that because there were fewer students, there was less competition, more time for one another. More time for my partner and me, and also for the others. It's always like there's more time for one another. You feel closer to Charlie as well. We all realized that we're in this together. I think it's just you feel more intimate. You feel like more closer to them. If there were more people, it wouldn't be the same at all.
I like that it was a small group and we all got to know each other better. We all are so different from different places around the United States. The age gaps are enormous, but we're all at the same level, and we were all struggling. At the same time, I felt like we were all holding hands together and we were getting through this. That's what I liked about it. Because it was small, we were closer.
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The New York summer acting programs at the Maggie Flanigan studio train professionals actors based on the acting technique that was created by Sanford Meisner. In this interview Angie Elliston discusses how Meisner training during the six week program was different than she expected.
Best Summer Acting Program – Angie Elliston – Maggie Flanigan Studio – Call (917) 789-1599
Angie Elliston Interview: New York Summer Acting Programs
Q: Angie, what did you think it meant to train as an actor before you started the six weeks summer intensive?
A: What did I think it meant to train as an actor? I suppose that I knew it had a lot to do with not just getting in tune with your emotions, but also it had things to do with movements and voice. I know it had a lot to do with a lot of other things. Sometimes I thought when I’m growing up; I would watch on TV how actors would train. It’s just like looking at each other like marrying what you’re doing and stuff, and you got this cliche about it.
"I would say that because there were fewer students, there was less competition. I felt like we were all holding hands together and we were getting through this. That's what I liked about it. Because it was small, we were closer."
Angie EllistonSummer Acting Program
When I first got here, I did not expect that it would be this way because I remember Charlie came in the first day and he didn’t even tell us how it was going to be. He just started telling us that you’re going to repeat what I’m saying, but you’re going to change the plurals. He does like that first Meisner technique which is the repetition. We were all just in shock. We were all amazed at how it worked so well. We learned how to hear, how to pay attention to the other person.
We started realizing that in everyday life, these are things that we think we do, but we don’t. You also learn a lot about yourself and the behavior of other people. I guess I did not know much about acting mostly because of where I come from. Then, coming here I thought it would be more about movement and expression, but it was not. It’s more about internal. When you work with what’s inside, you start working with the outside. It just automatically it starts showing the outside and that’s the acting process. I just had to say that it was very unexpected everything I’ve learned.
Q: What do you think training as an actor means now?
Angela: Training as an actor now, after everything that we’ve learned and just these six weeks, I’ve determined that training has a lot to do with the relationship you have with yourself and accepting your emotions and learning how to just dive into different types of– I don’t know how I could put this. I would say like the relationship that you have with yourself and understanding how you work and accepting any emotions.
Charlie made an example like suppressing your feelings. I had that problem at the beginning with certain emotions. I learned to accept those emotions and told myself that it’s okay for them to come because it’s me. It’s my emotions. I’m entitled to my feelings. That’s something that he kept repeating along through the semester and the summer. It stayed with me.
I learned that it’s just more about the relationship you have with yourself and observing other people. People watching is essential, listening and just paying attention and just trying to see and read the other person. That’s like a ride. He used this metaphor. It’s always going to stay with me. Acting is like a water skier. The other person is the boat that guides you around the water, and you were the water skier. You flow wherever the ship goes- it takes you.
Q: What happened during the six weeks that changed your perspective? Was there a particular moment in the exercise? Was there a moment of rehearsal, a personal discovery that changed your view of what it means to train as an actor?
Angela: I learned a lot in many different ways in rehearsals and class. In class, I would say that I learned, mostly when I would see Charlie teach the others, like my classmates. When I’m on the scene, I can’t see myself. I don’t know what I’m doing. I heart what he says, and his feedback and I write that down, and I consider them and then everyone else, I see what they’re doing.
Well, we’re all on the same level. We’re all making the same mistakes. I learned mostly by looking at everyone else helped me. It worked better because we were an intimate group. We were a small group. We got to know each other better that way. Just seeing everyone grow from day one to now, the last days it’s pretty amazing. We’re all proud of each other as well. There’s no competition or anything. We’re all helping each other.
NYC Summer Acting Program – Angie Elliston – Maggie Flanigan Studio
Rehearsals, well the first day, Charlie immediately gave us an active partner. It was weird because I didn’t know him, but we got to know each other well through the exercises, which is the Meisner of asking each other questions, repetition, and we grew together. I learned a lot just through my partner, helping each other, watering each other like we were plants. That’s how I viewed that. I learned a lot through rehearsals, and Charlie says that’s where you grow, and it’s genuine. You build through repetitions and through seeing other people’s mistakes in class, and that’s mostly how I think I’ve grown in this summer.
Q: What did you learn about yourself that was a surprise or that changed you?
Angela: Yes, that’s what I was about to say. I was surprised on how certain types of feelings, mostly feelings of intense sadness or– Something that shocked me, something that I did not know about myself that I learned here was because I didn’t know how to stand up for myself. I didn’t know that. He said it. I guess everyone noticed, but I had no idea. He speaks through the repetition and the conflict exercises that, this Meisners, I wouldn’t have to stand up for myself.
Here I had my partner just fighting with me, and Charlie’s told me to take things personally, take it in because as an actor, you have to take things personally and be comfortable with conflict. How is there going to be any conflict if you don’t stand up for yourself? I didn’t, I would just let this pass, and I noticed that I just brushed off any insult or conflict that was trying to happen. I didn’t want anything to do with it.
I realized that I run away from my problems and I don’t stand up for myself. Instead, I walk away from it. I finally learned to confront it, and when I did eventually stand up for myself and face my partner on the scene, I was blown away, and I almost had hysteria. I wouldn’t stop crying, and it felt so real. Then after we finished, I had to review everything that had just happened because I had forgotten entirely. That’s how it felt like to be in the moment and be out of your head and focus on the other person, which is what acting is all about.
Q: How would you describe Charlie as a teacher?
Angela: Charlie is– I guess what I liked about him is that he’s passionate about his students. He takes everything very seriously, and since day one, he says that you’ve got to want this. Almost in every class, he always finishes the course with something to take home with, some nice motivation, which was still really lovely. He’s harsh. He will challenge you. He doesn’t have much patience, but that’s only because he has a lot of passion, and he does explain that. That’s just how he is.
That’s important because if you want to be an actor, it is a challenging industry, and no one is going to give you mercy; no one’s that nice to you. It’s very raw. It’s very harsh, and Charlie teaches you that, and he says it from the beginning like this is how it is. He challenges you If you need to want this, and you’re going to get so frustrated with yourself, and he will make you frustrated with yourself. That’s the point, that’s how you grow. Once you finally achieve that stuff, you feel so much– You build, you feel so much better, and you realize that everything he did, he knows exactly what he’s doing. I think that’s how I would describe him. He challenges you, and he is super passionate about all of his students and what he teaches.
Q: There are a lot of summer intensives in Manhattan, a lot of Meisner summer intensives. Why did you decide Maggie Flanigan Studio was the place for you?
Angela: Maggie Flanagan is not trying to sell you the school and the classes or anything. It’s all just very genuine and authentic. I think that’s what I liked about it. When I did more research on it, and I had heard of other people who studied here, I was intrigued. When I met Charlie, I saw that he was genuine about this. He wasn’t trying to sell me anything. Instead, he said, “I want to see if I want to teach you. I want to see if you are passionate about this because you have to be because this is intense. This is real life. This is acting.” I guess that was my impression of it.
Q: You mentioned before how your class helped you watching the other students and the sense of community since you were a small class. How did that closeness to the other students help you through the six weeks?
Angela: I would say that because there were fewer students, there was less competition, more time for one another. More time for my partner and me, and also for the others. It’s always like there’s more time for one another. You feel closer to Charlie as well. We all realized that we’re in this together. I think it’s just you feel more intimate. You feel like more closer to them. If there were more people, it wouldn’t be the same at all.
I like that it was a small group and we all got to know each other better. We all are so different from different places around the United States. The age gaps are enormous, but we’re all at the same level, and we were all struggling. At the same time, I felt like we were all holding hands together and we were getting through this. That’s what I liked about it. Because it was small, we were closer.
Summer Acting Program in New York NY – Maggie Flanigan Studio
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Actors who commit to the professional actor training at the Maggie Flanigan Studio establish the skills and tools that they need to succeed as professional actors. Hailey Vest talks to Katie about the confidence that she has gained at auditions and the actors who are inspiring her right now. Q: Hailey, you mentioned you were auditioning before you started the 18-month program. How were your auditions before you came to this studio? A: I felt pretty good with them. Like you leave the room, and it's this moment of like, "I did the best I could. Okay. Cool." Or, "That was horrendous." We've all had those auditions like it's just not great [laughs]. With the training that I have here is you walk into the audition, you are so emotionally prepared, "I know exactly what I'm doing. I know what I want to do." I do it, and it's like, "I did it. Okay. That was it. I could have-- maybe I was off maybe by 10%, but I know what I need to fix," or you leave the room, "I nailed that, that was the best I could have done." I feel it's that euphoric energy that you have. I want to leave every audition room feeling that way, and that's what this studio provides. Q: Who was one person that influenced your decision to become an actor? A: It always changes. I think the first person was Judy Garland. When I was younger, I wanted to be just like her. Because I grew up watching The Wizard of Oz and my first lead role as Dorothy, which made me love her that much more. Just like being able to see her, she goes on stage, and it's effortless. She's singing, she's dancing, and she's just having the time of her life. It just looks so simple, that's what it should be. They were talking about this in class the other day of like, our job is to make the complicated look simple, and it's just she nailed it. Someone who I love right now, I love Claire Foy. She's incredible-- Oh, my God, she kills me. I love her. I also got to see a panel with Olivia Wilde recently, about a year ago. It's just her passion and even just this like female drive of like, "I'm tired of sitting on the sidelines now. Come on, ladies, let's do this." It's just so inspiring. I'm like, "Yes, we're going to write our material, we're going, telling the truth, and I'm not just going to be here to look pretty for you." It's just like, "Let's do this." It's just I'm allowed to feel my emotions, I'm allowed to explore them thoroughly. I think that we're stepping into a time of theater and film where that's actually what people want to see, and people want to play with. These are the only roles I can play. It's a little, and I like that. Q: What artists inspire your scene work right now? A: My scene right now, it's very messy. It's taken me a good couple of weeks to wrap my head around from where I'm coming from because, in the beginning, I could not understand my character, Allison, at all. I didn't follow her. I recently saw an interview with Amy Adams because she's in Sharp Objects which is on HBO right now, which is fantastic. She's had this super long career and how her rules have changed, and she's like, "I am a mess in real life, and this is the first time I've ever been able to play someone who's a mess. It's refreshing, and also I get to capitalize on because everybody's a mess in their way. To be able to walk into a room and not apologize for it." That translated over to my scene because I was just in this situation I'm in this room, I am uncomfortable, I want so many different things. I am a mess, and I am ashamed for it and embarrassed for it. Then at the same time, it's me, and it's my truth, and I have to live it through and not know what's on the other side. That resonated with me very recently. The January New York acting program at the Maggie Flanigan Studio is an acting program created for serious actors that lasts for 18 months. Students who are ready to commit to developing the work ethic of professional actors should apply online for acceptance into the studio programs. Actors who have questions about the January acting program should call the studio at 917-789-1599. Maggie Flanigan Studio 153 W 27th St #803 New York, New York 10001 (917) 789-1599 http://bit.ly/1f8nOu4 https://goo.gl/maps/JTA9n7oHbNT2 acting classes NYC, acting classes in NYC, maggie flanigan studio, actors, maggie flanigan, Meisner technique training, Meisner technique, Meisner training, Meisner, Meisner work, Meisner acting, Meisner acting classes, acting conservatory, best acting studio in NYC
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