Come to Your Senses – Part 3

This is the third and final part of a three-piece blog series by Mari Lyn Henry. CLICK HERE to go to the beginning.

Curiosity: The Seventh Sense

Curiosity drives our development when we are allowed to explore and discover. We need all of our senses, especially a sense of humor.

“We keep moving forward, opening new doors or doing new things because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
Walt Disney

Curiosity is in our DNA, manifested in our imagination, the instinct to find solutions to problems, investigate, explore, be adventurous, take risks, make choices, ask questions, discover new ways to build a better mousetrap, find the ancient remains in the pyramids, climb the highest mountain, and dig deep for the indomitable human spirit that feeds our creative achievements.

Shakespeare used most of his mental and spiritual and creative powers evidenced by the breadth of his knowledge in all fields. He was a man of all the senses!

Unearthly shadowy apparitions, witches and black magic are in his tragedies and comedies. Hamlet’s father appears to him after death to avenge his murder. Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost; the Thane of Cawdor says “Is this a Dagger I see before me?” Consumed by guilt, he imagines the dagger with which he will kill the King and take the crown as his own. The witches predict his death.

Hamlet’s most thought-provoking question in the history of monologues is open to multiple interpretations. “To Be or Not To Be”. To live or not to live, to die or not to die, to exist in the afterlife? Six words that have been analyzed by great minds for centuries. All of them curious to know the real meaning.

I wish to share with you an excerpt from Maurice Morgann’s Essays on Shakespeare. He lived in the 19th century and was a renowned scholar who wrote: “The language of the heart explains the working of the brain… We preserve the true Shakespearean meaning through the eye of the soul before we see it through the eye of the mind. His creations are the ‘true and perfect images of life indeed.’”

The Bard of Avon was not an exceptional student; he went to school and learned the classical languages, mythology, great philosophers – Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Cicero, Ovid, Virgil, Plautus, Aristophanes. He was a botanist, a composer, a playwright, an actor, a theatre producer. He loved music; it helped him underscore a theme, alter or sustain a mood, herald the entrance of important persons, or create an atmosphere at a dance or banquet. He used instrumental music in his stage directions.

No one knows if he was a gardener but he studied flowers, plants, herbs from classical medieval herbal manuals. He knew about pruning, the forests, and landscaping. His botanical knowledge is evidenced in the roses in Romeo and Juliet and the lilies in The Winter’s Tale. He used the power of plants to evoke emotion and help tell his stories. The most notable example is the symbolism in Ophelia’s speech when she presents the bouquet to Gertrude. “There’s rosemary that’s for remembrance…”

He was also interested in old proverbs and customs. One, in particular, is cited in Much Ado About Nothing:

Did Curiosity Kill the Cat?

A proverb from the 1600s stated “A cat has nine lives. For three he plays, for three he strays and for three he stays.“ – Cats can live more than one life.

In Much Ado About Nothing, Claudio advised Benedick to have “Courage, though CARE has killed a cat, thou hast enough mettle to kill CARE.” Care meant worry or sorrow.

Curiosity did not kill the cat; it made the cat more curious.

What will pique your curiosity? Mine was piqued when I researched the popular sentiment about our eyes referred to as the “windows of the soul”. I thought for sure it was from Shakespeare’s sonnets, poems, plays? I was wrong. With a teaspoon of research, it appears we must give credit to Cicero, the famed orator and Roman philosopher who said, “The face is a picture of the mind as the eyes are its interpreter.” A biblical reference from Matthew revealed that “the eye is the lamp of the body.”

If you wish to create a character as a living, breathing, feeling, human being you have to go beyond the external clues or just settle for face value. Beauty is only skin deep. The lens you use to go beyond the obvious surface needs all of the senses working together.

The Seventh Sense is not a figment of our imagination. It is real and we have it in us without knowing it. When you are using all of the resources available to you, nothing can be hidden from the past, the present or the future.

Tap into your seventh sense and ASK the universe a question. When you receive the answer as your own thought with clarity, the doubt is removed.

“Acting for me has always been an organic process that is absorbing my character’s reality allowing her to saturate the cells and fibers of my being.”
Cicely Tyson on preparation for Sounder

When Cicely Tyson was cast for the role of Rebecca in the film Sounder, the director had her in mind for a lesser role.

Her preparation for the part was a total immersion. In her words:

“From the opening line, she crawled under my skin. I could see her, feel her, touch her… she was a part I could have played in my sleep, a character of substance, beneath a placid exterior lived a quiet complexity. I knew who this woman was… It was a challenge to do her justice. I was terrified to take the role, a sign that I should. Once I allowed Rebecca’s essence to dislodge my own, she began manifesting in my gestures… I had inhabited Rebecca in such a way that her voice could finally be heard.”

Always be curious. Listen to your inner voice. Embrace your psychic ability. Be unique. Be Memorable. Be Confident. Be proud. Don’t say yes when you mean no.

“Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible”. Enjoy the discovery and the challenge.

Mari Lyn Henry

MARI LYN HENRY, author, teacher, actor and theatre historian founded the Society for the Preservation of Theatrical History to reacquaint today’s actors with the great actresses and visionaries of the 19th and early 20th centuries. SocietyPTH.com

Her workshops on on-camera techniques, script analysis, auditioning and impression management have been very successful in cities and universities across the country. CAREER INTELLIGENCE Seminars about “The Business of the Business” are based on her best-selling book How To Be A Working Actor, Howtobeaworkingactor.com

Come to Your Senses – Part 2

This is the second part of a three-piece blog series by Mari Lyn Henry. To get to the beginning, CLICK HERE

The Sixth Sense

Scientists and psychologists have discovered a sixth sense which is also known as the ‘third eye’ or the mind’s eye. An extra information channel by which you or I can connect with the past or predict the future.

Through research, we can discover a psychic connection to the roles we play on stage and study the history of their cultural lifetimes: the painters, composers and authors from different time periods.

The casting directors I have met need a sixth sense to find the best actor for the roles in a play or a film or TV series.
Mari Lyn Henry

An audition may depend on the photo(s) you send to their office or online. They may agree that your eyes in the picture communicate a quality and personality which they feel could be right for the role. If they contact you, be prepared to find as much material about the role as you can.

For example:

You are auditioning for the role of Anne with an E which takes place on Prince Edward’s Island in the early 20th century. Anne has an overactive imagination, a poetic connection to life around her. And she is very smart.. an old soul. Have you read the books? Have you looked up the location? Have you found her likes, dislikes, the depth of the relationship with her foster parents and have you explored her past in an abusive orphanage? If you can relate to her life and courage, her tenacity and sense of self, you will impress them with your intelligence, professionalism and energy. Go deep!

Sometimes in our dreams, we find the keys to the doors of inspiration. There is an inner voice giving us clues. Psychics believe in getting messages from people who have died. The great Houdini was convinced about life beyond the grave and seances were held in his home. While he could perform physical feats that were jaw-dropping, spiritualists were unable to conjure his deceased relations.

However, over the centuries there have been ghostly apparitions or ‘sightings’ immortalized in films like Ghostbusters, The Haunting, Casper, The Canterville Ghost, Poltergeist, The Shining, The Changeling, Ghost (Whoopi Goldberg played the psychic). It is in The Sixth Sense that Cole Sears (played by Haley Joel Osment) tells Bruce Willis, the psychologist, that he sees ghosts moving who are not aware they are dead. The psychologist advises him to find a purpose for his gift.

Does our imagination play tricks on our ability to detect the presence of a ghost? During stressful times, perhaps an illness, our sixth sense might be activated. Recently I read the journal of a teacher who claimed that when he was in rehabilitation after a life-threatening operation, he saw a shadowy figure at the end of his bed and heard her whispering that she would be with him until he was fully recovered. He later realized that the woman was his grandmother who had died.

He wrote in his journal: “I fell into a deep sleep and dreamt that she appeared to me in my room. She was dressed in white and looked angelic. Her appearance reminded me of the Ghost of Christmas Past, visiting Scrooge. She entered through the balcony doors and looked like a younger more regal version of herself. She smiled and told me to come with her. She led me off the balcony and we flew over the water to some faraway place.”

My favorite ghost story would have to be A Christmas Carol. During the season to be jolly, there are at least ten versions of the movie. The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future are the messengers for the cold non-believer, people-hater Ebeneezer. Old Scrooge had a soul after all.

Do you believe in ghosts? When you go into a haunted house, do you experience a chill, a strange light, a vibration, hear an eerie sound or screams? Probably not.

But aren’t we curious about what adventures we’ll have if we stay a little longer? Like Alice in her Wonderland, we are always facing a ‘curioser and curioser’ future.

In the third and final part of this blog series, we’ll dive deeper into the sense of curiosity. I’ll see you then.

Mari Lyn Henry

Come to Your Senses

The Essential Five Senses: Our Birthright

When we are growing up our teachers inform us about the FIVE senses: Vision, Hearing, Taste, Touch and Smell. They define us and are necessary to the choices we make as actors. A sense gives us unique information we can’t get any other way. Imagine that your mind is a gigantic storage locker which will hold an infinite number of observations, memories, impressions, emotions, the scrapbooks and the journals which will always be available to you when you need them.

Let’s use the recent holiday season as a starting point for our exploration. I have taken an inventory of the five basic senses which correspond to sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. When Julie Andrews sang “My Favorite Things” to the children in The Sound of Music not only could we remember the lyrics but relate to her ‘things’. So I have made a list of my own, some of which may also be on yours.

SIGHTS we can tuck away for future use when we are creating a character profile. The Nutcracker ballet at Lincoln Center; the huge decorated tree at 30 Rock, The Rockettes at Radio City. The Empire State Building beaming red and green; The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera, vendors selling Christmas trees and holly branches. Ice skaters. Salvation Army volunteers and Santas ringing bells for donations; decorated brownstones with wreaths and all the colorful lights. Snowmen, tinsel, and the yule logs in the fireplace.

SOUNDS of carolers and church hymns, music boxes, the steaming tea kettles, the crackling fire from the hearth, birdsong, partridges in pear trees, the laughter of children, “Ho Ho Ho” from Santas in shopping malls, Theatres featuring productions of Elf the musical, A Christmas Story and The Grinch, and “Bah Humbug!” from the actors portraying Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, jingle bells, silver bells and sleigh bells.

SMELLS of the season: Scotch Pine trees. Chestnuts roasting, fresh baked cookies and gingerbread. Hot chocolate with marshmallow, mulled cider, cinnamon, cloves, oranges, nutmeg, coffee flavors, oven smells from roast turkey and baking pies (pumpkin, apple, mince) scented candles, and fragrances like jasmine, tea rose, gardenia, and vanilla and lavender.

TASTES vary with our taste buds but my favorites include peppermint, egg nog, fruitcake, cranberry salad, candied yams, Cool Whip on every dessert, chocolate truffles, white chocolate bonbons, crisp bacon and French toast, gingerbread, brownies and licorice caramels.

TOUCH can be a feeling that you get when you use your hands to applaud, to play the piano or the harp, drums, violin, wrap a gift, place the star on top of the tree, respond to the silky, smooth and soft blankets, fleece, flannel, faux fur, velvet and velour; ear muffs, pashminas and knit neck scarves. To apply make-up, wash your hair, cuddle with your pets, and wash and dry the dishes or fold the fresh-smelling laundry. And being able to hug and shake hands in person. We remember every sensation we felt after our first kiss, first prom, first car, first award.

Spice Theory: A Third Dimension

“Variety is the Spice of Life”. Use them to conjure a connection for the characters. I asked some students, “If you were a spice what would it be?” Answers included pepper, oregano, cayenne, curry, mustard, dill, bay leaf, basil, mint, rosemary and thyme. SAGE was my response. I like the color green, the delicate fragrance, and the word connotes wisdom.

Several years ago I interviewed Hilary B. Smith, a soap star and acting coach. She offered this advice. “Develop a character from the script and life experience as a recipe for a cake. Go into your spice cabinet which is YOU. The spices are either good or bad. Learn how to improve them. If you find a recipe that calls for a spice you may not have, mix a couple of spices with some you have to get the same flavor. Understand your strengths and your weaknesses and your passion. Own the best recipe for your needs. You may need to work more on your spices. Always keep taking an inventory to change, evolve and grow.”

“Memory is the power to gather roses in winter.”

In “My Favorite Things”, Maria recalls the joy she felt remembering and connecting with the best things in life. There is no price tag for snowflakes or the raindrops pitter-pattering on the leaves, or being cast in a Nativity play, or the moment when you knew your true calling was in the performance arts.

When the teenaged Luisa sings “Soon It’s Gonna Rain” in The Fantasticks she feels love for the first time. That experience is so special that she wants to ‘hug herself till her arms turn blue”..and shut her eyes and “cry and cry” and taste her tears”. Her senses are on fire. I might add here that crying and crying reminds me of Alice’s (in Wonderland) tears which became a drowning pool.

Emily’s poignant speech from heaven in Our Town is an ode to her home in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire. “Goodbye to clocks ticking, mother’s sunflowers, food, coffee and freshly pressed dresses and hot baths. And sleeping and waking up…”

The final line always leaves me on the verge of my own tears. Perhaps ‘welling up’ is more to the point.

“Oh Earth you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you!”

The wonder that Emily feels when she says “Just for a moment now we’re all together; Just for a moment we’re happy. Let’s look at one another. It goes so fast.” And Luisa’s premonition about “the leaves, the wind, and the smell of the velvet rain’ indicate an awareness of a wisdom beyond their years, a purity of instinct’. We never can forget the ‘child’ within us.

A great Polish theatre and film director once wrote: “There is no great actor without a soul. Long hard work, a lot of time and experience and the complete possession of all the five senses in various situations.”

When the brilliant Cicely Tyson prepared to play Carrie Watts in Trip To Bountiful, she wrote in her autobiography Just as I am. “I made plans to visit Texas to sink into the research. I approach every role as if it will be my only one. I’ve got to experience the smells, the tastes, the feeling of where Mrs. Watts lived. How can you project a character, if you don’t know where she’s from?”

The development of faith in your imagination and the power of emotional memory and curiosity will be explored in Part Two.

Mari Lyn Henry

Becoming an Actor

Dear Actors,

During my 40 years in the industry I have met, auditioned and cast thousands of actors, some who have become major stars and others who chose related careers in the business.

The most important part of any career is preparation which I equate with intelligence, investigation, research, having a plan and most importantly, believing in your talent. Then you can tackle the reality that is necessary for achieving your goals.

Like you, I wanted to act from the age of 10. For me there was no other choice. The love of performing in front of a live audience took precedence over dating, geometry assignments, zoology lab, and other extracurricular social activities.

One of my grammar school teachers cast me in a short skit in which I could wear my mother’s clothes and heels (ouch). From then on I was ‘hooked. I even had the ego to cast myself as St. Patrick in a short play about him which I also directed. I couldn’t find a seventh-grade boy who was up to the challenge (haha). I wore my dad’s trousers with a belt to hold them up, a hat and ashes for a beard. Supportive parents understood my passion and a flair for dramatic expression (some call it histrionics) and schoolmates dubbed me Sarah Heartburn.

After I left high school I found my community when I majored in speech and drama at San Jose State University, four wonderful years of learning how to project vocally on a stage, interpret the text of plays from Greek tragedy, Shakespeare, Moliere, to the works of Ibsen and Chekhov. I always loved the rehearsals, director’s notes, final dress rehearsals, opening nights and the adrenaline rush from an audience’s applause.

Always remember that you are a part of a magnificent ‘tribe’ of storytellers, chapter and verse. Do you recall when you decided to become an actor and why? For me it began with that connection I felt in the fifth grade. Asking students to answer the questions I posed resulted in the following replies:

I felt a rush from watching a production of Midsummer Night’s Dream
Getting a tingling sensation at Miss Saigon “I told my brain I want to do it all my life”
On a school trip to see Gift of the Magi at Lincoln Center
Joining a church choir at age five
Wanting to tell stories using imagination and creativity
Realizing how performing impacts people’s lives
Making up little plays for my family in the barn and in the woods, an active outlet for sharing stories
The healing power of theatre and its connection with human motives and conditions

For Eddie Redmayne, Oscar Winner, Theory of Everything: At age 11, “It felt close to something real. The addiction to acting is about finding moments in truth.”

The moments of truth ARE worth pursuing. The characters you will play, the plays you will enjoy, the community that welcomes and supports you. The days when you have to be reminded that you are pursuing your dream can seem endless. But there is always an idea, a story, an inspiring performance that leaves you breathless which reconnects you to the when and the why. How precious are the times when you get on the stage and know you were meant to perform. You are home. The audience is with you. They are engaged. They will respond to your creativity, your joy in sharing the story and with applause for a memorable performance.

When actor Jeff Goldblum was 10, he went to a summer camp with a drama program. He got a leading role which made him decide that he was ‘hooked’. He could not hide his love of acting in his junior and senior years in high school. Oscar-winning actress Frances McDormand was 14 when her English teacher had her class read Macbeth out loud. She got cast as Lady Macbeth doing the sleepwalking scene. In her words: “I found myself alone on stage. It was the power of the words, the silence, sensing the adults were quiet and attentive. Magical!

These amazing actors also developed technique and the preparation for production from education and training. The actors’ unique path to empowerment, survival and success depends on the never ending need for continuing coaching, classes and learning new skills.

I had the privilege in graduate school to be on the same stage with the First Lady of the American Theatre—Helen Hayes. Helen’ s career began at age 5. And when her mother took her to see a show, she wouldn’t leave her seat but yelled I don’t want to leave the theatre. And she never did! “Talent,” she said, “is an instinct for understanding the human heart.”

I would suggest that you find a quote that inspires you every day. Mine is from Goethe.

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”

I would also suggest that you reflect on the Aha moment you said

I want to be an actor.

Until next time…

Mari Lyn Henry