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Developing Talent
“I decided to fly to Chicago and take a look at the group. I was not only surprised but I was amazed. I remember feeling a bit distraught in the beginning. I think what happened is that I've never seen such an organization at work. Everything at Free Street spoke about equality. Students are actually treated as artists. The staff at Free Street trusts its students. They have free access to all the rooms; they can even use the Director's computer to write their stuff- the feeling you do not get at Free Street is that it is free for all - or disorganized. We get the feeling that people care so much that they consider their youth part of a team. This is much more than just teaching acting - which they do in high standards. This is, actually, allowing the students to feel that they are fully accepted in this professional environment. This is not easy mission to accomplish. I know that these kids do not come fresh to Free Street ready to behave that way. Which means that this is part, an important part, of their training.
Observing one performance by Free Street I confess I was not amazed to see the naturalness of the kids' performance, the ease in their bodies and voices, the aliveness of everything they presented, and the excellent quality of their imagination and creativity. I was not surprised because of what I had seen it hanging around the offices. The standards are everywhere in Free Street. Nothing feels phony. There is no 'Do what I say and do not what I do.'
We are proud to have them as collaborators and we collaborate with them the same way they do with their students. Free Street is a source of magic inspiration, of wonderful creativity, and of real equal treatment.” -Carlos Caldart
[Carlos Caldart is the Director of the Stella Adler Acting Studio Teen Program, he visited FS after reading the article in Am. Theater Mag. FS is now partners with Stella Adler Studio.]
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Free Street offers a two-year training program for (12-20 year olds) that develops a creative foundation that enables the student to become a virtuoso theater artist. During the two years the student will experiment in-depth with emotional flow, character creation, contact improvisation, yoga, script development, vocal quaility, breath control, creative writing for live performance, and diving deeply into new contemporary theater direction.
What is Talent?
Talent was always this "thing" some actors brought with them when they walked into class. We noticed that if you didn’t show talent when you walked in, you didn’t have it when you walked out.If a teacher can only teach people that can already act- what are you teaching?
At Free Street we thought the problem was what people thought "acting talent" is.
Our idea of talent comes from distilling many concepts into an essential form. Talent is the ability to react intimately (emotionally open), immediately (instantly, both emotionally and physically), and spontaneously (in your own naturally unique way) within an imaginary situation. By this definition, talent can be developed. And by developing this talent, we are also developing the skills to become a vibrant, happy human being.
With this definition of talent, we can work with youth and be very clear about what we are going to work on each and every moment we are togther.
If you approach talent for an actor as Intimate, Immediate and Spontaneous you will notice that the students who thought of themselves as better than others are now coming down a little and the students who thought of themselves as inferior can see that they have the ability to develop. Working in this way gives the ego less room to get in the way.
Our initial work approaches the idea of acting from a "non-performance" place. We do a lot of physical work that develops the concept of release within our student's bodies. Release is a letting go of your muscles, while energizing yourself with breath. While developing release, we also work on stillness of the mind. Stillness of mind leads to clarity of perception. Clarity of perception leads to using the right effort and right energies for each unique situation.
This stillness is not zoning out or an inner focus. This stillness is a simple clarity, where your awareness is outward, where worded thought is quieted and the ego is diminished. This stillness is not nothing- it is an opening that allows the student to explore performance as a natural by-product of being alive in the moment.
Emotional work is not introduced into our workshops until students have a good grip on the ideas of stillness, what it is like to be non-judgmental, and what it means to be simply living in the moment.
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