In an era when videotapes, DVDs, CDs, and audiocassette recordings are available for virtually every self-help and self-improvement project under the sun (from slimming exercises to building kitchen cabinets), can teaching acting via recording—or attempting to—be far behind? Well, it's not. Indeed, there is an ample handful ready to be plucked—at a price of $20 to $60 on average—at various theatre bookstores and on the Internet right now. The best known, perhaps, are "Uta Hagen's Acting Class" and Michael Caine's "Acting in Film."
But there are many others and they run the gamut in terms of what they purport to do and how they do it. Consider "Mike Fenton's Acting Workshop." He is a casting director in the film industry offering, with lectures and demonstrations, a how-to guide to making it in Hollywood. He talks about headshots, cold readings, and managers, among many other relevant subjects. And then there's "Acting 101," a series of suggestions for the beginning actor (offered by actors) on how to get launched in the business without getting scammed. "The ABCs of Acting," a hot seller, addresses the concerns and questions of parents attempting to get their kids on stage and in film and, most often, TV commercials.
The fact is that how-to acting instruction on video is not all that new. Indeed, the aforementioned Michael Caine tape, which is part of a larger BBC videotape series of master classes—including instruction in Restoration comedy, high comedy, and tragedy—was launched in 1985. And, according to Glenn Young, a producer and distributor of those BBC tapes and owner of the New York City theatre bookstore Applause, "Tapes that teach acting have been around for years, but until fairly recently, they were archival and subcultural. Now they're common knowledge. We've sold tens of thousands of the BBC tapes."
Undoubtedly, a fair number of these teaching tapes are fascinating documentations of acting classes in progress. Everyone we talked with—including actors who use the tapes and acting teachers who have created tapes, as well as those who have not—noted the Michael Caine and Uta Hagen tapes as classics of the genre. Interestingly, film critic Roger Ebert went so far as to review the Michael Caine tape on his TV show (formerly called "Siskel & Ebert") and raved about it, maintaining that it would be of interest to a lay audience, not simply those in the business.
And even those videos that are less successful as informative documentaries still are, arguably, curiosities as a cultural-sociological trend. These recordings also testify to just how widespread and sophisticated self-promotion has become.
After all, every expert (and alleged expert) has a website today, and often a how-to book out there or in the works, so why not a how-to video as well? From a marketing perspective, it's a natural, with its tie-in potential. Think video, book, and class—all advertised on the website.
Still, the fundamental questions remain: Do any of these videos really teach acting? Is it even possible to learn acting from a video?
Acting student Ann Hammond won't say she learns how to act from watching these videos, but she loves them nevertheless, especially if the teacher is a great teacher "like José Quintero, or a great character, like Stella Adler. But if the teacher isn't very interesting, I don't really get too much out of it."
Not unexpectedly, there is little consensus about the value of these videos. There are those who believe actors can learn how to act from a video if the teacher is knowledgeable and knows how to communicate; indeed, some suggest that a good teacher on video is far more useful than a mediocre acting teacher in the classroom. Others contend that the videos have value, but only for a relatively seasoned acting student, and still others assert that these recordings are a complete waste of time, and that the only way to learn acting is through doing.
Quick Fix
Sande Shurin, an acting teacher who heads the Sande Shurin Acting Studio in New York, most vehemently voices the latter view; in fact, she finds the trend disturbing because it's emblematic of larger issues. "From the teacher's point of view, it's an easy way to make money. For the acting student, the tapes represent fast food. The students who use tapes are lazy; they're not interested in study and development. The tape becomes a quick fix and it's certainly less expensive than going to a class."
That said, Shurin acknowledges that she records on audiotape her own classes, but only for the benefit of those who missed the class, she stresses. "Its purpose is informational and that's all." She adds that some of the videos on the market—specifically the Michael Caine tape—have value as informational tools.
"After seeing the Michael Caine tape, I would then want to study with him in the classroom," she says. "Acting is not the passing along of information. It's the experience of doing, the transfer of energy from the teacher to the student. It's the energy between two people that makes for the transformation and growth, and that's highly individual and cannot be gotten from a tape."
Shurin admits frankly that some of the things that are discussed on these videos—such as sense-memory exercises or imagining the character—do not speak to her in any case. "I'm interested in transformational acting, which means the actor creates the character and experience by being in the moment. Acting is not about the past or future; it's about a personal experience in the present."
Richard Southern, director of full-time studies at New York's School for Film & Television, is not quite as turned off to these videos as Shurin. He suggests that the good ones—Michael Caine's and Uta Hagen's—"are useful as a series of tips to supplement what's taught in the acting class. But we do feel you need a teacher in the room to make the personal adjustments."
Terry Schreiber, of the T. Schreiber Studio in New York, also champions the Michael Caine tape, conceding it is the only one he has seen. Nonetheless, he is ambiguous about the trend in general. "Our society has created individuals who are geared to doing everything alone, like running, biking, and sitting home and watching tapes," he observes. "Acting is not a solo art; it's a communal art. So, for that reason alone, I find the tapes suspect. Also, acting is doing. There is the danger of acting training on a tape becoming a correspondence course."
On the other hand, he feels that observing major teachers in action is useful, even if it's on video. "I would love to have seen teaching tapes by Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Bobby Lewis, or Sanford Meisner. The Michael Caine tape is wonderful. He's teaching a class and his ideas are right on: specifically, how to focus when working in front of a camera. I'd recommend that tape to every actor interested in working on film, although, for the most part, I feel tapes are most meaningful to advanced acting students who are familiar with the techniques that are being described, and are watching the tape, not unlike reading a book by an acting teacher, to sum up the exercises that they already know."
Interestingly, however, Schreiber has one suggestion in connection with the Caine tape. "He's using scenes from 'Alfie'—the students are performing the scenes from the movie [which starred Michael Caine]—to make his points. I think that has to be intimidating. I also wonder if having a camera in the room is intimidating to students."
Creating the Tape
Although many of the teaching videos (including the aforementioned Caine tape) are filmed classes, a great deal of thinking and editing has gone into them. Glenn Young recalls his initial role as consultant to the BBC series. "I was struck by the fact that so many students in the Michael Caine master class were treating him as a grand celestial being—and that was all wrong. The fact is that these students were experienced actors in their own right. I had to remind them that I had seen them at the National Theatre, for example.
"When I watched Brian Cox's class on tragedy," Young continues, "I felt he should talk about the concept of Aristotelian tragedy. I was not suggesting a lecture, far from it. It was an acting class that was being videotaped, but it was important for the tape—and class—that he describe the ideas behind Aristotelian tragedy and how that applies to acting."
Clearly, as someone who owns the rights to the BBC tapes, Young is biased, yet he makes a compelling argument on their behalf. "If you have access to teachers as good as those on the tape, of course I'd suggest taking the class as opposed to viewing the tape," he says. "But if you don't have access to these people, I believe you are better off—will learn more—by watching the tape than by taking the class with a less distinguished teacher. Watching one hour of Simon Callow teaching Restoration comedy on tape is invaluable, certainly more meaningful than eight weeks with someone else." He adds, "Not everyone wants to take—or necessarily should take—an eight-week course when the tape is not only just as good, but oftentimes better than some course."
Young acknowledges that he flies in the face of received wisdom in another significant way. "There is the popularly held belief that the one thing you want to avoid in acting training is demonstration. I don't know why. I believe that when you see great actors demonstrating, you can learn a great deal. I believe the value of the tape is derived from the artistry of the teacher."
And the tapes are also a record for posterity. "It's great that we have Uta Hagen teaching on tape. There will never be anyone like her again."
To Access Feeling
One of the more striking recordings—it's a CD, to be precise—is acting teacher Jim Bonney's "Emotional Preparations for the Actor: How to Get Into the Emotional Life of a Scene." Put simply, this CD attempts to arouse feelings in the listener. Strictly speaking, Bonney, founder of New York City's Jim Bonney Acting Studio, is not teaching acting on the CD. Instead, he is helping the actor hook into certain emotions that may have application to something the actor is working on—whether he is rehearsing a scene or preparing for an audition.
"Through guided imagery, the CD evokes four basic emotions—sadness, fear, anger, and happiness," Bonney insists. "I call these audiotapes an emotional tune-up. They help the actor become emotionally alive before he even starts to perform."
To conjure a feeling of well-being ("happiness") in the actor, Bonney describes a beach scene, complete with warm sun and lapping water. In his "fear" track, he vocally recreates the world of a haunted house at three in the morning: the sense of darkness, isolation, and things that unaccountably go bump in the night. For "sadness," he talks about irrevocable loss, reminding the listener of people he or she loved who are no longer present. In the "anger" section, Bonney brings to life a scenario in which a woman hands over her baby to an unsuspecting person on the street and tells him to take care of it.
"My challenge was to create a CD with a common language that would translate the words into feelings," Bonney says. "I don't believe you can learn acting from a book or tape. But you can evoke feelings, which is a first major step. You are not acting unless you are feeling something. I am in the process of writing a book that will accompany the audiotapes and offer a step-by-step approach to getting at your feelings. These CDs and the upcoming book are not in lieu of an acting class. They are in addition to an acting class."
Actor Jeffry Denman ("Cats," "The Producers"), who uses Bonney's CD to generate the appropriate feelings prior to an audition, a rehearsal, or a performance, suggests that it does indeed work for him. "It is a palpable way of getting to the essence of acting quickly. I've used it on sets and in dressing rooms. I continue to take acting classes, but the CD keeps the emotional cells going. What I like most about the CD," he continues, "is that you're not reliant on it. After you've listened to it a few times, you can recreate the experience of the CD on your own, without listening to it."
What Next?
So what will the future bring?
Short of more and more acting teachers hopping on the bandwagon, making video or audio recordings with increasingly state-of-the-art technology, it's anybody's guess how the trend will evolve. No one thinks it will disappear. In a somewhat different but tangentially related development, Richard Southern (of the School for Film & Television) speculates that in the not-too-distant future, cameras will facilitate long-distance learning in acting classes.
"That means that a teacher in California will be able to watch on video an acting class in Cincinnati as it occurs. But the California teacher is not simply watching a class. He will have the technological savvy to move the camera around—view the actors at certain angles, do close-ups, for example—and therefore be able to pick up on what the teacher in Cincinnati may be missing. From California, he will be able to approach the actors from a whole other angle."
Whether these long-distance acting classes will be videotaped—featuring both the California and Cincinnati acting teachers watching, responding, and interacting—and then put on the market to be sold remains to be seen.