GOING TO CALIFORNIA

With an aching in my heart...la, da, da, da...

San Francisco to be more precise. The people from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia (near LA) will be there watching hundreds of actors auditioning to get into their school. I'm trying to get into their MFA acting program and I'm nervous as hell about it. So, wish me luck, or tell me to "break a leg" as we say in the theater. (For some reason, telling somebody "good luck" is considered to be bad luck in the theater, but I digress.) My audition is on Saturday at 1:30 PT--send out your prayers or good vibes; any little bit will help.

Anyway, no blogging until Monday most likely. Until then, I'm posting my statement of purpose for graduate school. Most master's degree programs require an essay of some sort which gives the lowdown on who you are and why you want to go to grad school. I labored on mine for weeks. I hope you like it (I also hope it helps get me in).

Here it is:

FULL CIRCLE
A Statement of Purpose

Acting teacher Sanford Meisner used to say, “it takes twenty years to become an actor.” This makes a lot of sense to me: twenty years ago, as a high school freshman, I started taking myself seriously as an actor. When I was a child, seeing Neil Simon’s The Goodbye Girl started a process that would eventually result in my investing much personal identity in a romanticized concept of “actor.” It wasn’t until my first high school play, however, that I encountered others who focused more on the work than on themselves. That was when I first began to understand that acting is about creating great shows, rather than self-aggrandizement. Indeed, this sense artistry in theater, of professionalism, is what now drives me to seek a Master of Fine Arts in acting.

A few years ago, while watching a television series on the history of jazz, I had a realization. Trumpeter Miles Davis was attempting a comeback in the late 1950s following personal troubles that had sidelined him for a while. During this time, he saw Joe Louis box: Louis’ no-nonsense, professional approach to boxing greatly impressed Davis—this experience inspired him to treat his own career as a musician in the same way. That is, Davis was revitalized, achieving greater artistic heights, because he focused thoroughly on the work, no distractions, no fooling around. Davis’ newfound philosophy of consummate professionalism rekindled my excitement about acting: seeing his resuscitation gave me the wherewithal to overcome the cold feet that had steered me away from pursuing an acting career when I was younger. It made me want to be a professional actor.

I’ve always loved acting. I’ve spent my years since college finding ways to be on stage, working with the theater people I love. In situations with untrained actors, I’ve tried to use my own training to set an example. Indeed, I’ve been fortunate enough to work recently with two other trained actors in a local amateur company; the three of us have set a standard of artistry that has helped to improve the company’s work overall. I have also been teaching high school theater for the last five years. The job has provided unexpected rewards: gradually, I have gained a firm intellectual mastery of acting basics that I first learned when I was getting my BFA—developing and using multiple strategies to explain such fundamentals has forced me to ponder these ideas in ways that I would not have otherwise.

Twenty years after my first high school play, I have come full circle. That is, as a student, I first began to explore the artistry of acting; as a teacher, I continue that exploration. However, I think I’ve learned as much as I can in that realm: now I want to go to graduate school.

Indeed, the Cal Arts MFA acting program offers learning opportunities that could result in my becoming a great actor, a true theater artist. I am excited about the school’s emphasis on the individual-as-artist; after five years as a high school teacher, I now believe that authority impedes creativity: to be seen by the faculty as a colleague rather than an apprentice is a refreshing thought. I am also excited by Cal Arts’ emphasis on interdisciplinary work—the socially constructed barriers between the arts, the rigid specializations within the arts, have frustrated me since I was a teenager. Finally, because in addition to studying acting, I have also studied television production and film criticism, I am excited about the Acting for the Camera course, which offers the chance to extend my understanding of those media. Truly, Cal Arts can give me the skills, environment, and knowledge to prepare me to attain what I so very much want, to be a professional actor.

Cue the Real Art theme song: "Solfeggio" go.

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