First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

- Martin Niemoller

We love him! Yes, yes we do!

www.voiceyourself.com/03_thou...Poem.swf

TRAINING
B.A. Dramatic Arts, University of California, Santa Barbara
Acting Apprenticeship, California Shakespeare Festival Orinda, CA

Acting: Barbara Bosch, Michael Morgan, Judith Olauson (UCSB) Bruce Williams (ACT),Ed Hooks(Film and TV Acting),Nancy Carlin (Cal Shakes Apprenticeship)

Voice: Michael Morgan (Linklater, (UCSB), Domenique Lozano, Nancy Benjamin (Cal Shakes Apprenticeship), Marvel Gardner (Singing-SRJC), Patricia Martinez (Singing-Chicago)

Voice Over: Elaine Clark (Intro, Stepping Out, Bringing Voices to Life), Sarah Kliban (Creating Characters), Terry McGovern (Bringing Voices to Life)

Movement: James Donlon, Jyl Hewston, Karen Paull (UCSB), Sylvia Martins (UCSC), Jeffrey Bihr(Suzuki), Glittergirl (Fire/Light Poi Dancing)

Improv: Comedy Sportz, (Santa Barbara), Member, The Udderly Improv Players (Player's Workshop- Chicago)

Aerobics, Ballet, Ballroom, Fencing, Staged Combat, Singing (Soprano II), IPA, Dialects (Irish,Scottish, Standard British, Cockney, New York, Upper and Lower America South, Russian), Shakespeare, Musical Theatre, Poi Dancing, Soccer, Softball, Ultimate

Our Deepest Fear
by Marianne Williamson
from A Return To Love: Reflections on
the Principles of A Course in Miracles
(See note below)*

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.


by Marianne Williamson

*Nelson Mandela used this in his 1994 inaugural speech. It is often attributed to him, but apparently came from this book above.

Two Rooms
This 1988 play is still relevant and eminently worthwhile
By Emily Forbes
Article Published Feb 1, 2006
Entertainment Details
Who / What:
Two Rooms
Details:
Through Feb. 11

Tickets are $15-20
896-6477
ww w.custommade.org
Where:
Off-Market Theater, Stage 205, 965 Mission (between Fifth and Sixth
streets), S.F.

As the title suggests, Lee Blessing's riveting drama takes place in two rooms, undecorated except for the artistry of the four performers. Blindfolded in Beirut, Michael Wells (Jay Martin) is an American professor taken hostage, forced to endure solitude in darkness in the first room while he relates memories and letters to his wife aloud in monologues rife with imagery and mental anguish. A world apart, the second room is empty of furniture but also filled with frustration and longing. In the stark confines of what we understand to be Michael's old study, his wife, Lanie (Mary McGloin), focuses on her husband and considers what drastic or passive measures she might take to bring him home. Lanie's meditations are repeatedly interrupted by Ellen (A.J. Davenport), the government official assigned to address Lanie's pleas for government action, and Walker (Daveed Diggs), a seemingly sympathetic journalist. These three assertive characters debate the delicate retrieval of a nonmilitary prisoner of war. Each possesses a selfish motive for his or her involvement, rendering the dialogue intense and engaging. Tensions play out beautifully in the understated portrayals by Diggs and McGloin, both of whom depict intelligence and emotional maturity as Walker and Lanie make desperate decisions. That Two Rooms, penned in 1988, is still so relevant speaks to its strength -- and to the persistence of flawed U.S. foreign policies. Custom Made has produced a play that is simultaneously pertinent and worthwhile.

www.psychologicalscience.org/med....cfm

TEXT OF ARTICLE:

News Release

January 25, 2006
For Immediate Release
Download the Report PDF

Contact: Helga Noice
helgan@elmhurst.edu
'To be or, or ... um ... line!'

Research puts actors' memory on center stage

An actor"How do you learn all those lines?" It is the question most asked of actors and their art. The ability to remember and effortlessly deliver large quantities of dialogue verbatim amazes non-thespians. Most people imagine that learning a script involves hours, days, and even months of rote memorization. But actors seldom work that way; in fact, they often don't consciously try to memorize lines at all. And they seldom consider memorization as defining what they do.

What gives actors their seemingly effortless memory capabilities? Could acting teach us something about memory and cognition, and could acting principles help those with memory problems?

These are the questions that cognitive psychologist Helga Noice (Elmhurst College) and her husband, cognitive researcher, actor, and director Tony Noice (Indiana State University) have set out to answer in nearly two decades of psychological studies of actors. The Noices have not only described a learning principle that can be taught to non-actors but they have also tested acting-based interventions to counter cognitive decline in older people. They review their research in the February issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science.

According to the researchers, the secret of actors' memories is, well, acting. An actor acquires lines readily by focusing not on the words of the script, but on those words' meaning — the moment-to-moment motivations of the character saying them — as well as on the physical and emotional dimensions of their performance.

To get inside the character, an actor will break a script down into a series of logically connected "beats" or intentions. Good actors don't think about their lines, but feel their character's intention in reaction to what the other actors do, causing their lines to come spontaneously and naturally. The researchers quote the great British actor Michael Caine: "You must be able to stand there not thinking of that line. You take it off the other actor's face."

The key, the researchers have found, is a process called active experiencing, which they say uses "all physical, mental, and emotional channels to communicate the meaning of material to another person." It is a principle that can be applied off-stage as well as on. For example, students who studied material by imagining conveying its meaning to somebody else who needed the information showed higher retention than those who tried to memorize the material by rote.

The active-experiencing principle was also found to be effective against cognitive decline in old age. A group of older adults who received a four-week course in acting showed significantly improved word-recall and problem-solving abilities compared to both a group that received a visual-arts course and a control group. The gains persisted four months afterward, as did a significant improvement in the seniors' perceived quality of life.

Some of the Noices' findings confirm those of other researchers on memory. Memory is heavily reliant on emotion, action, and perception. In their work with actors, the Noices' have found, for example, that memory is aided by physical movement. In one study, lines learned while making an appropriate motion — e.g., walking across a stage — were more readily remembered by actors later than were lines unaccompanied by action. The physical motion didn't need to be repeated at the time of recall.

Download the Article. For more information, contact Helga Noice at helgan@elmhurst.edu.

Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science (previously the American Psychological Society), publishes concise reviews spanning all of scientific psychology and its applications.