March 26th, 2016

Around Valentine's Day, I am moved by all the things I love in my life. This poem made me think of the film Under the Tuscan Sun, where this woman spends all of her time looking for love in all the wrong places. When she finally stands still, she realizes that love has been all around her all along; she was simply moving too fast to see it, to be in it...to be present with it. When she finally stood still, love was sitting in her garden waiting for her. It made me think of all the places, as artists, we go looking for love: audition rooms, stages, in front of cameras, awards ceremonies. All these places that don't exist to love you, but rather to give you a place to share your love. Listening & Responding is Love in Action What happens when you take all of the attention off of yourself in the audition room or on stage or in any scene and put your focus on falling in love with your scene partner? Suddenly, you become beautiful, easy, tender, open and honest... Pretty cool how that happens, huh? The key components of acting are: Listening & Responding. Listening is the greatest form of love there is I'm not talking about listening to wait for your turn to talk, but rather, really taking in the other human being across from you. Their fear, their broken heart, their joy, the things they are not saying, the feelings written across their faces and hearts...the knowledge that they actually need something from you that you are completely willing and able to give: you. And then responding from an open, truthful honest heart. You can't do that without opening your heart to them first and deeply listening. Acting is kind of magical when you think of it that way. It's an act of love. Acting is compassion, empathy, patience & love in action. Try it...tell me how it goes... Learn more @ http://bit.ly/1XjeE1P http://bit.ly/1XjeG9Y