I studied acting with Mark for 2 years (1987 & 1988). He took 1989 off and I studied with him again in 1990 until I departed NYC and moved to California. It was one of the best experiences of my life.
What I noticed was that the man had an enormous amount of wisdom that he shared each class. While it was great hearing it at the time, there was nothing permanent to look back on, study and absorb. So, I began to take class notes during every session. Mark's words on paper. To remember what he said. I would then type them up, Xerox them and hand them out to everyone at the next week's class. Mark loved it and so did everyone else.
While his wisdom is in reference to the acting class, the man's words are quite powerful at times. Even applying to every day life situations. Hell, I've even used some of his quotes in my own fiction that I've written (an original universe).
Whenever I felt he said something worth remembering, I wrote it down. So, the pages are lines of his wisdom.
I've decided that I'll
post Mark's quotes from his acting class by date beginning with the first
time I started taking down the notes.
Quotes:[June
2, 1987]
"A monologue is not a monologue. There's no such thing."
"There are other ways to do it."
"It was big fun."
"There is no such thing as magic."
"Monologues are difficult because the actor has to do both parts."
"We'll do it again. But not right now. Think about it."
"The trick is to keep it alive, fresh, every time you do it. And it's hard. It's very hard. Especially with a long run."
"An emotion always outlives itself."
"You can't depend on emotion to carry you through. You have to live it."
"Don't be a director."
"Let it happen."
"Get the feeling of it."
"Don't censor it."
"You're an actor. Act!"
"It goes through different stages."
"Go to where you make the transitions. That's where the truth of the scene comes out."
"Don't depend on dialogue."
"There's nothing wrong with doing the same thing over and over again. As long as you re-create it every time."
"As an actor you want to be interesting. You 'do' something and you'll be interesting."
"That's the excitement in the theatre. The moment of living."
"The function of acting is to kind of illuminate lives."
"Don't feel like you have to talk all the time."
"I would just keep my mouth shut."
"People talk too much."
"It could be a lot of things. That's what you're rehearsing it for."
"How can you insist? What is there to insist about?"
"Soliloquies are always a problem. You have to decide how to do them."
"I think your best bet is to do what you feel."
"You can pause all you want as long as you do it in the right places."
"You can't just say words in a vacuum."
"I guess you just haven't really found the right thing."
"When someone asks, 'who was that?' it was nobody really. It was a piece of something. Of somebody."
"You have to find the right words to reach out."
"They say if you're in love, or if you're not in love, you don't propose in the midst of making love. Or in the middle of making love. Or before or immediately after.It colors everything."
"True feelings are not exposed very much. Not without a lot of embarrassment."
"I think real feeling is very difficult, very precious. A little thing. It's embarrassing. It makes you vulnerable."
"Don't do too much."
"You have to feel things."
"You have to play in the framework of your personality."
"What is acting? Imagination. It's your creativity and imagination that bring something to this."
"You learn a tremendous amount from the audience."
"It's a simple thing but it's not."
"Farce requires great technique."
"Once you decide what your characters are and how to play them it will all open up."
"You should be able to play it no matter what it is."
"You've got to feel something before you can cover up."
"There's no drama unless there is something at stake."
"We go through this all the time. You know the end of the play because you've read it."
"I love that."
"I just want you to tell me what it is."
"The better you do it, the better actor you are."
"You have to create the feeling, the need, the emotion. And then overcome it."
"See what happens. Then you'll see how much you have."
"I did a show with this one actress. I put my arm around her. I was playing her brother. And she didn't like it. Some actors are like that. They don't understand physical. She had just come out of college. She didn't know her ass from third base."
"You have to do things."
"You're playing the end. You're playing something you've already decided in your head."
"When you're here you don't have to perform."
"Very good."
"Actors are this way a lot. Dreams, dreams, and dreams. It's right around the corner."
"Try different things."
"There's a lot there. That's the reward of working with something that's not that obvious."
"See if you can develop it."
"What are you trying to do?"
"It's more important that you work from within yourself."
"It costs. You pay a price for it -- making a gesture, a rebellion."
"It's more important how you get the message across."
"Just a little kind of adjustment and it became a new scene."
"Same old dribble."
"You really came to life."
"Emotion is what the theatre is all about. It's the key to everything."
"It happened so quickly. That's what's so interesting."
"You've got to go further than you ever think you should go."
"As you get involved you dare more and more."
"It's harder. It's more work. You really have to give of yourself."
"When you're doing something, things happen."
"I think it needs to get to another level."
"Allow yourself to explore this other area that you don't do so much."
"Allow your imagination to run rampant."
"It's refreshingly short."
"Anything you do is appropriate."
"You have to decide just very simple things."
"That's one of the problems. You can't play all that complication. You have to simplify it."
"If you complicate it too much as an actor with your thoughts, you can't play it. You can only play the one thing. It's very simple."
"Try it again. Right now."
"Everything be damned. I'm going to do this."
"Talk to him."
"I feel you should talk and listen."
"Are you listening to what he said? Did you hear what he said?"
"You did it well, but I anticipated the way you were going to do it."
"It's hard. It's not so easy. It's a game. You take center stage and you tell your story."
"You've got to fight. You've got to overcome something."
"The kind of energy nervousness gave was good. Keep it. The energy."
"You're too close."
"Dig down in there and get sure of these feelings you're talking about."
"Women know more than men."
"The atmosphere brings out certain things."
"This is a farce. It's pretty farcical. It's pretty funny."
"The character is a little nebulous. I don't know that the hell she is. What sex ... Well, you know."
"Be more specific."
"Add a little dimension to the scene."
"Make a real character out of everything you do."
"Some people have a need to tell all. Some people are chased by others."
"You were very good."
"Movement. I get the sense that it needs movement. Not you moving. Emotional moving."
"It's gotta happen somehow."
"All the stuff that you're re-counting is an experience you had. You don't necessarily re-live it, but it happened."
"Look into what you're trying to say."
"You will make an impression. But only if you reach out."
"It's a very minute little thing."
"You have to grab it in a second and make it live!"
"You have to do it with truth and simplicity."
"You can't count on a mood carrying it. It has to be a living thing that happens."
"You have to choose how you're going to express it."
"What is this?"
"It's a real play?"
"There's a lot you can do with it."
"A comedy routine is all right -- sometimes."
"You have a sense of the comedy, but you need to bring the person into it."
"You have to create the character and the character has to live there."
"You over-stepped your bounds. You are the receptor. Let her work off of your reactions."
"It's all right. It's a start."
"Just dig in there."
"That was quite a different scene. You made it your own and it has an entirely different quality."
"It's the fundamentals that count."
"You don't just tell a story. You tell it 'to' somebody."
"You've cut yourself a good job with this one."
"It wasn't very specific."
"You're capable of a wide range of emotions. You just have to channel it."
"Make it much more specific."
"How did you feel?"
"You have to get much more familiar with the lines."
"What I saw was nicely done. But I didn't see the connection."
"Work on everything."
"Don't anticipate."
"Even when you read it you have to kind of act off the page."
"Take your time. Allow yourself to get involved."
"You've got to learn how to listen and be noncommittal."
"Beautiful."
"When you try to convince somebody that's the first sign of weakness."
"Sincerity is the main thing. When you learn how to fake that you've got it made."
"Well, you see, now it's interesting. It's a scene."
"Play with it a little more."
"It was great fun."
"On camera, you have to be very specific. You have to be something very specific. Or playing something very particular."
"I'd like to get the feeling of what you're doing."
"Acting is belief ... complete involvement."
"It seemed to go along on one level."
"I think you're on the verge of something."
"You have to go somewhere. You sort of start out in one place and end there. You haven't traveled anyplace."
"You can't allow movement -- props -- to govern your acting."
"Allow yourself the freedom."
"It just missed another dimension."
"Have a good time with it. I would just play it very simply ... the way you are."
"Whatever it is, you two have to play it together."
"Take your time."
"It's much too fast. You have to explore it."
"That happens in rehearsals."
"It was a great step forward."
"It really was a scene now."
"Interesting."
"I think you're on the right track."
"Who are you talking to?"
"You're never the same person when you start something. You're always going somewhere."
"Let's see what the hell is under there."
"See where it carries you."
"Give yourself a chance to try all different things."
"We're getting one or two levels. We should be getting about ten."
"Don't pre-suppose anything."
"One of the biggest problems is the approach to the scene."
"Filter it through yourselves."
"Everything has to go somewhere."
"An emotion always outlives itself."
"When it comes to violence and action I want you to be as imaginative and free and spontaneous as you can be. But nobody should get hurt. It should never be dangerous. Work it out carefully. You have to be aware of what you're doing to someone."
"Sometimes it's more effective when you don't do something."
"You treat people on stage the way you'd treat people in real life. Damn careful."
"What is it you're trying to do?"
"Just focus a little bit."
"You've got bits. Concern yourself with the bits."
"I want an authentic relationship. Which means you both know where you stand."
"Where is this from?"
"I suppose it has some significance."
"Well, that's beginning to make a little sense."
"Okay. You have to make this someone. Again, you have to focus."
"It's a danger to make it too deep."
"I don't exactly know what the hell is going on."
"You're waiting for cues. You're waiting to pick up lines. Don't wait! Go on!"
"You have thirty seconds before the curtain goes down."
"You're just not talking to each other."
"It's accidental. You can't live on that."
"You have to be able to repeat this stuff."
"You have to pursue it all the way through."
"It has to be much stronger."
"Crabs you get from ... God knows what."
"The description is not quite right."
"Make use of your environment."
"You were flying all over the place and it didn't make any sense."
"What you're doing, and it doesn't seem to work, is playing it too general."
"Don't break out of it so quickly."
"There's a line through all this. Find that line ...."
"Keep it all together."
"It's one piece. It's all going somewhere."
"This is reality. Right now. You can only do one thing."
"Women are taking over the world anyway."
"Anger is controlled."
"Keep the plaintiveness out of it."
"Don't act it all out."
"You've got to learn to be spontaneous with the real thing."
"You have a tendency to wait for the words
to do something for you."
"Take from one another."
"Play as though you were in a bigger room."
"Don't fiddle with your costume."
"Everybody needs something different."
"Don't just move for the sake of inching around."
"You have to adapt to it as best you can."
"You have to bring life to this. It's not so easy."
"There are certain things you can't wing when you come to class."
"Do something definite with what you have."
"I don't get the feeling that you're connecting with someone."
"I get no sense of where you are."
"What is the gist of all this?"
"This has to do with connecting something to someone else."
"Concentrate on what you're doing."
"Tell the story. Make it believable."
"Just let it be."
"You're free to do whatever you want to do."
"Tie it together."
"The ideas have to follow one another."
"You have to make the scene kind of visually interesting."
"You have to be a person before you can be a king."
"You've got to play the style and bring the humanity to it."
"You have to do all things at once."
"Look for the distinction of these characters to make them individuals."
"Just cut loose a little."
"You could do it in a closet."
"It's a lot of interesting material."
"You've got to be real."
"Very good."
"You have to look ... dig in there ... find the emotion. And then play the surface."
"Get the foundation first."
Mark To The Class:
"Wasn't that better?"
Class Reply in a hesitant, muffled unison:
"Yes."
Mark To The Class:
"You better say it ..."
*****************************
"Is that where it ends?"
"Pull yourself together."
"You're all over the place. It's not going anywhere. It has to go somewhere."
"You're doing this for a reason."
"Stay with it. Don't let it go."
"I won't say how to do it. That's up to you. You're the actor. It's your artistry."
"You've done pieces of it very well several times."
"You're the same type."
"Don't be too sympathetic. Be mannequin like."
"It's a question of concentration."
"Don't struggle with it too much."
"You don't want a picture of what it should be like because it takes you out of the moment."
"Take your time. Don't just leap into it."
"It's within terms of your character."
"You are what you are."
"You have to spend some time rehearsing. You can't always wing it. Well, I suppose you can for film."
"There's a sort of subdued hysteria that works for you."
"You do what you do in life. Only you make it a little more interesting. You're artistic."
"It's always a sign of limited involvement when you break so quickly."
"Let's see what happens."
"You paint the picture quite well."
"Who are you doing this for? Why are you doing this?
"What happened? You've been working on it?"
"Forgive me for using this word again but, it's a little too ... glib."
"Concentrate on what you're trying to accomplish."
"It's a brief thing. But it's a very interesting little piece."
"It's not so much what you do physically. It's what you feel."
"You pick up direction very well."
"You need to bring it out into the open. You're much too internal."
"Make it very simple."
"The quality will come out. It 'will' move people."
"I sense ... disaster."
"It's very good. It's very clear."
"But you ... you have to be clearer. What's missing is the line through."
"You still have to reckon with what you're
going to say.
"Don't be afraid to be yourself."
"Don't go against the direction. Don't fight the director. But do it your own way."
"You're working in an art. You've got to be interesting."
"That's the goal you're looking for ... to re-capture it."
"Feel the freedom to take a chance."
"You have to find out what the material demands."
"It's amazing how just a little trust opens it all up."
"It doesn't get easier."
"When you eat on stage you take a small bite and a big chew."
"Try different things."
"It's getting more interesting by the moment."
"You need strong things but not just one thing."
"Tie it together. Keep it together."
"You've got to have something specific that you're trying to do."
"What's at stake?"
"What are you after?"
"Why do you want to do this?"
"Who are you?"
"Make a little more of the situation."
"It really narrows it if you tell the story rather than be the person."
"You've got lots of options. You've just got to think about them."
"It's not clear."
"It's the lines and playing what's underneath the lines."
"Take your time and play this moment together."
"Deal with each other as people."
"Make the movement have something to do with your emotion."
"You're wandering around. Go somewhere."
"It was a good start."
"The moment isn't really quite coming alive."
"You've got the overcoat, but you've forgotten the underwear."
"Just visualize it and do it."
"Find positive in all this stuff."
"It takes a lot of energy to appear natural."
"It takes a greater amount of energy, a greater amount of involvement just to be on the stage."
"A lot of the problems you have are because it's not specific enough. It's not real."
"Tie it together."
"A cold start in the new year."
"Simplify it."
"Don't worry about interesting. You do something truly and it will be interesting enough."
"First of all, Tennessee Williams has written and you have to do it."
"You're going to make it alive."
"Give yourself a chance at it. Don't plan too much."
"Tell it to someone for a purpose."
"Trust yourself to see what comes out of it."
"Don't show us a great scene. Move us."
"Why do you tell the story?"
"I think it's best if you get some direction and then respond to it."
"Don't feel like you have to be something you're not."
"This is Neil Simon? He's very good. I've always hated him."
"You're here to play whatever you want to."
"Farce has to be believable."
"Play the reality of the scene."
"Take your time. Don't rush it."
"Let it come out of some real experience ... some discovery."
"Tell the story without any obligations."
"John Gielgud said, 'What a classical actor needs is power or strength ... and imagination.'"
"You don't have to 'be' a queen. You 'are' a queen."
"You're making the point ... strongly, clearly. Now bring in the character."
"All actors like to be noble. I know."
"If you know exactly what you're going to do, there's nothing left."
"We don't know what you're going to do. That's what makes acting exciting."
"Play it like two people. Only they're kings and queens."
"Keep the strength but not the certainty. Discover it."
"Dig?"
"Get rid of it all and start at the bottom."
"Put a little bit more of yourself in it."
"When you feel that you're so comfortable ... beware."
"The hardest thing to do is re-create it each time."
"I want to see a real person."
"Make choices."
"Very interesting."
"Okay. You tell me."
"Maybe it's just refinement that it needs."
"Keep your feelings."
"Let's play death."
"There's much more at stake."
"You have to enhance the personal thing with who you are."
"Each time you do something you bring something new."
"I want deeper anger! Deeper love! Greater feeling!"
"Don't plan so much."
"Allow yourself the freedom."
"Get involved in it a little more."
"It was touching rather than deeply moving."
"Sometimes if you let it incubate a bit, it becomes clearer."
"The clarity is there. Now bring some of the emotional power to it."
"You can rationalize away all the drama
in a play. But then there's no play left."
"You've got to play with it a little more."
"What makes the scene work is that you actually get involved."
"I don't know what works. What works is what's right."
"Don't divorce yourself from your being."
"Forget the lines. The lines are not the feelings. The feelings are the feelings!"
"Be careful not to be morbid or self pitying."
"I think you really have to knock yourself out."
"Is that it? Boy, you always get short ones!"
"It doesn't matter what you say. It's what you mean that's important."
"You stand on your two feet, look 'em in the eye and tell the truth. That's acting."
"It's work! You don't act being casual."
"You're not involved in it enough."
"Get to the point."
"Hold the damn thing together."
"We want to see something alive."
"The seething underneath you don't have to generate. It should be there."
"Just be simple."
"Communicate something you feel."
"It has to be true. It has to be real!"
"I want a reaction from you."
"Everything that you do in the theatre is in layers."
"As you achieve something you add something more."
"Put it in a good light and do it simply."
"I'm not going to tell you anything. It's dangerous to tell you things."
"You can't play an emotion. You can't play a quality. You can't play an attitude."
"We'll see what comes of it as it deepens."
"You can't just talk about funny things. You have to know about them."
"That's fun. Good for you."
"This guy is a big dolt. You play it well."
"You must fight cold with cold's own weapons."
"Try to be a little more human with each other."
"You've got to go even further with it."
"Keep your energy. Keep yourself involved."
"Sex and the automobile."
"You have to believe the reality of the situation."
"Tell the story."
"Don't force the feelings."
"It's a strange process. Like beaming up. Your molecules all come apart."
"You've got to go through the fire."
"The words are not so easy."
"It shouldn't be foreign if it's life."
"Don't act it quite so much."
"Let the feeling work."
"There are other ways of approaching things rather than just knocking your way through."
"Acting never gets easier."
"I don't need the book." (Pause) "I'll carry it anyway."
"I got a little bit nervous. And that helped."
"Directors don't teach you about acting. They're too busy doing other things."
"You really have to be strong."
"Experience doesn't necessarily teach you something. You have to learn from it yourself."
"You can play the same character but you can't play the same action."
"What you want to develop is something unique in you. That's your strength."
"Be like yourself. And the time will come when they'll look for you."
"If you have something that's very individual, nurture it. It's yours. That's gold."
"Beware of what's easy for you and falling into it."
"Life is just so much more interesting than what's put on the stage."
"Surprise your audience."
"The business ... it's connections ... it's friends ... it's people that you know."
"I want you to be good. I want you
to be better."
"Some people like to wing it."
"I don't get the sense that you're here."
"You have an individuality that you have to nurture."
"Get more involved."
"You need to be something to each other."
"Don't anticipate how you're going to do something or how you're going to say something. Just let it happen."
"How much of it did you improvise?"
"Maybe you ought to improvise more often."
"The problem with improvisations, my friends, is they don't always carry over into the scene. I don't know what value they have except as an exercise."
"There's much more at stake."
"Marriage is a very desperate move."
"Throw it. Go ahead."
"Don't let it come out so easy. See what's there."
"Just do it and the hell with it!"
"I'm to suffer all the pain. What does that mean?"
"Use what is real and natural to you."
"It's called insistent acting. Come on! Let's go! People do it all the time. It makes them look like they're acting."
"Theatre is not life. It comes from life."
"You have to re-create it. You can't do the same thing over and over again."
"Don't insist. Explain."
"Trust yourself."
"This is not the audition. This is just the chance to work at it a little."
"Let us do the emoting. You don't do it all."
"You were creating the life around it. That's the way it should be done."
"Look for the reality in it. Look for the life in it."
"We all want to show off. That's when we're the least effective."
"Just flit around lightly, emotionally."
"The big problem with improvisation is that people try to explain things. They don't be them. They don't do them."
"You don't think when you're acting. You react."
"We act spontaneously."
"Let's see what happens. That's what makes it exciting."
"You have to understand what these characters are. You really have to understand who they are."
"There's always refuge in the cocktails."
"The minute you pull back you drop your energy."
"You made a big jump forward."
"The character is not quite clear enough."
"The main thing is to make these characters alive."
"The ideal is to make the scene itself spontaneous."
******************************************************************
"I want to see some real people."
"It's hard work."
"You've got to need something up there. It's life or death. Even more important than that."
"I'm glad you chose it. It'll be a little work for you."
"You've got to give yourself strong intentions, strong objectives."
"You're too casual and uninvolved. It's not interesting."
"None of this stuff will really work unless you spend some time together working. You have to make time to get together."
"What you get out of the class is what you put into it."
"Have a little fun."
"You can never play one thing."
"An emotion always outlives itself."
"Very good."
"Fade to black ..."
"It should be a little more."
"The whole theatre is built on emotion."
"Keep your concentration."
"Don't be afraid."
"Take a chance. That's what you have to do. That's your next step."
"You have to laugh a little more. It's nice when you laugh."
"You can afford to expose yourself a little more."
"I want to see a little more connection between you."
"It really pays off if you do the work."
"It takes a lot of nerve."
"Don't rush so fast. "You're not making the sense always."
"Make the point. Take your time and make the point."
"You have to understand it. And then you say it."
"Be a little more yourself."
"Just talk, talk, talk."
"The world is full of weird people."
"Go even further."
"Who are you playing?"
"You've got to always keep that unpredictability."
"Take a little more time with it."
"It's not so easy."
"It's a little petty. It's too petty."
"I won't give you any direction. You'll find your own."
"See where you are."
"It's a great loss. You've both lost something. But you've gained something, too. Don't give it up."
"I want to see what you mean to each other."
"You've got a lot of dialogue and you're trying to get over it. Play it."
"It's for real! It's gotta be for real!"
"It has to be very specific."
"Make the situation real."
"Life is fun. If you play it that way ..."
"Let's see what happens."
"You try to communicate with someone. That's what acting is."
"Whoever he is, you've got to play him, not act."
"You've got to "be" it."
"Talk to each other."
"Take it another step further."
"How did you feel about it?"
"Try to create it anew each time."
"Let the anger come. Don't work for anger. The anger is always there."
"Don't give it away."
"Take some chances."
"I want to see the individuality that you
all have."
"He couldn't say, 'Don't go.'"
"I don't think you're really involved. You're playing it too much."
"It needs more power. Some involvement."
"There's more at stake here."
"Stop. I'm going to stop you. I don't know why. It's too predictable. You're working too hard."
"Can you improvise it?"
"It's not coming from your heart."
"Let's see it happening here. Something has to happen here and now."
"You're trying for some end result rather than working through it."
"It wasn't very believable. It was too much acting."
"You have to bring reality, real people and behavior to the stage."
"You don't have to play something! You are something!"
"You're acting. You're pretending. Make something real out of this."
"Don't look for results. They'll come."
"I'd like to see it with a little more confidence."
"I don't want you to change it. I
don't want to take away any of the quality that you had."
Note: This is the last installment
of quotes from Mark's acting class.