EMOTIONAL COURAGE AND THE VULNERABILITY OF ACTING with MARILYN MCINTYRE
“Here Be Dragons”
Live and online from Los Angeles
As actors, we must have the courage to show up and be seen; each and every time we sail off into the fictional world. It is not our job to create the dragons – our emotions. They already exist.
Our job is to build the boat, sail to the edge of the map and navigate them.
When we have the emotional courage to explore and experience the internal life of our character, we are able to take our audience on a journey into the unknown, to let them experience the character’s world.
This lecture examines and explores some of the concepts and vocabulary we use to understand the difference between internal and external, and how those concepts apply to acting.
Internal contemplation:
Living
Passion and need
Emotion
Empathy
Instinctive - heart and soul
External contemplation
Watching
Desire and want
Feeling
Sympathy
Intellectual - mind
It is never about “playing an emotion” or “having a feeling”. It’s about having an instrument that is ready to serve the script, and create the fiction, through a unique, living human being.
“Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.”
--Brené Brown
CONTACT HOURS AND DATES
Wednesday 29 July, 10am-12pm*
*All class times are in listed Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST)
CLASS FEE
FREE
HOW TO ATTEND
This class will be hosted on Zoom. As some of our classes are hosted in LA and some in Australia, you may not receive your Zoom link until a few hours before the class begins. Typically Zoom links are sent 10-24 hours before a class begins. You do not need to have a Zoom account to participate. You will however need a desktop, laptop, tablet or phone to attend.
CLASS TUTOR
As a member of the Howard Fine Acting Studio faculty, Marilyn McIntyre specialises in teaching Scene Study, Foundation and Personalisation. Marilyn developed the Personalisation program at Howard Fine’s request, as a way of helping actors harness their personal experiences to bring their most authentic selves to their work.
Marilyn studied at HB Studio in New York, with Michael Shurtleff and was also a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Actors Workshop. In Los Angeles, Marilyn had the privilege of studying with Uta Hagen, and is featured on Uta Hagen’s ‘Acting Class’ DVD, performing Hagen’s tenth object exercise: Historical Imagination, in which she plays Charlotta from the Cherry Orchard. She has also trained with esteemed director Anna Bogart and leading members of the SITI Company, as well as holding a Master of Fine Arts (Penn State University) and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (University of North Carolina School of the Arts).
Marilyn is a multi-award-winning actor, whose credits include leading roles on and off Broadway as well as in Los Angeles, where she garnered multiple Ovation, LA Drama Critics Circle, LA Weekly and BackStage Garland awards, and several nominations for her work with companies such as Rogue Machine Theatre, VS. Theatre Company, Matrix, Open Fist, Deaf West and Interact among others. Most recently she made her fourth appearance in Rogue Machine’s ‘Around-the-Clock’ play festival. Her film and television credits include ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, ‘Cold Case’, ‘Watch Over Me’ (series regular), ‘Judging Amy’, ‘LA Law’ ‘X-Files’, ‘Shuffle’, ‘Heaven’s Rain’, ‘On Holiday’, ‘The Ring Two’, the hit short ‘George Lucas in Love’ and many more. Most recently she worked opposite Brenda Vaccaro in the independent feature ‘30-Love’.
In addition to the Howard Fine Acting Studio, Marilyn also teaches at the Los Angeles SAG-AFTRA Conservatory at AFI, and is the coordinator of the acting program for Elon in LA: ‘Climbing the LAdder’ at Elon University. She has taught at California State University-Northridge (CSUN), the Old Globe/University of San Diego MFA Program, University of Southern California, University of Texas-Austin and Los Angeles City College Theatre Academy, among others.