School Zone! Kids at Play! This week we are ensconced in the chalk-scented halls of our school location. (Thank you Seattle Public Schools, Senator Frockt, the teachers and administrators and all our neighbors for being so generous with this marvelous location.) Of course, you can’t film school scenes without students, and this week we add about forty tween-age kids and twenty faux parents and teachers into the mix. These folks are Background Actors. They are the actors that help us give a room, or street, its particular flavor and atmosphere. Think of the patrons in the Cantina on Tatooine. Our kids are just like that - only with less make-up and prosthesis. :)
As I watch our Background Actors, and especially as I work with our Cast, (the kids who have speaking lines), I am filled with awe, sympathy and gratitude for the real-life parents of these kids. Raising a child takes a delicate balance of release and support. Giving your kid freedom to explore and learn about themselves and the world, and enough love and clear guidance that they feel safe in themselves and in the community, is a challenge. Back in the day, when the two stars of my life were just little guys, I was a ballet mom and a theater mom. As a “recovering actor” myself, I had to find the balance between being helpful and being too helpful. I could have offered thoughts, suggestions, notes on their acting and occasionally they asked me to do that. But the first time I gave in to questioning and did so, it was a mistake. I learned that my function, as my child worked in this art form, was to just be a mom. To enfold the lads with love and support, and make sure they stayed hydrated, but to stay away from any acting coaching or directing, or even advice from another professional. My kids needed to forge that relationship with their directors and their acting instructors. Not with me.
The parents who are on set with our talent are so fantastic. During breaks, they are there with water and snacks, of course, but also with high-fives and hugs. They are there with engaging, but not taxing, games and riddles to keep the kids energy up and focused. They are awesome parents. And then, when their kid heads off to set, they take out their books or laptops and let their kids go do their work. They are a beautiful reminder of the kind of give and take, of trust and love that goes into good parenting and good art.
To my glee today, we got to really work for the first time with Jane Ryan, who is a delight to our fair city. I have been her fan for years and now I get to direct her! So happy.
Tomorrow more joys await, as a glorious actress has arrived to our set and it is her first day tomorrow. *happy face*
And today was our 100th roll shot, our "Champagne Roll"! Much happiness ensued. I guess we are really making a movie or something.
Yep it was at the construction site...and it was hot...and exhausting...and Terry and I were in it...and so were some other awesome actors...and it was so so much the fun.
I had partially forgotten what an actor can go through on a film set, as it has been awhile since I have appeared in a film as an actor. So, it was a good day to revisit the experience, outside, in much heat and mugginess, in period clothes that do not breathe. Trying to retain the immediacy of a moment after many repetitions, again and again.
The WORK part of an actor's work, though, is often less than glamorous. You are dressed up in sometimes-uncomfortable clothing, while people pinion you under super hot lights in a half-finished worksite in the high heat of summer, and then they expect you to be open and emotionally connected and visit the highs and lows of human experience, and they expect you to be kind and patient the whole time, no matter how uncomfortable. It’s much harder than it looks.
As an actor, you are not in charge of your own fate. You have to lean back into the flow of the show and let it lead you. I guess a lot of creative work is that way. I have great respect for the art form I know best, the art of the performer.
These actors that I am blessed to work with are open, game, experimental, and joyous in the face of their difficulties. They asked, today, to do a very difficult and demanding emotional scene first, so that we could all relax a bit more for the rest of the day. We had already scheduled it that way, so it was a win-win! They nailed a beautiful scene, and the rest of the day rolled on like a smooth river. And we all leaned into the flow of the show, borne up by their dedication.
