Me the Acting Coach

My experience hanging out at Second Space in Fresno was fun for so many reasons. As I mentioned, I felt like I was almost part of the company there after going to three shows on successive nights.

I sat in exactly the same seat, off the corner by one of the exit doors, away from the rest of the crowd (I'm claustrophobic that way).

Among the ways I got involved was an acting coach for my friend Rick. It's not that I know much about stage acting, but for his particular role, I turned out to be a really good source of knowledge. His character, Sgt. Reed, is supposed to have been an actor back in New York, before he got shot down and interred in the German prison camp. His fellow prisoners are always having him do impressions of famous actors from that era, something that Rick can actually do well. His Bogart was spot on, and his Jimmy Stewart was uncanny. But I told him his Gary Cooper sort of sucked.

He said he wasn't surprised, as he hadn't really seen any Gary Cooper movies. As I happen to a huge Gary Cooper fan, I spent some time with him after every performance, giving him pointers on what to do.

He's supposed to do a Cooper as a cowboy in a gunfight. I told him to stand with stiff wooden legs, and to rock gently back and forth somewhat awkwardly. I taught him how to talk like Cooper, low and out of the corners of his mouth, and to fix his eyes open and wide like Cooper does.  I told him that when he draws and shoots, he should immediately transition from stiff and wooden to a quick crouch with deadly aim.

Rick is a great study and super smart. He picked all this up quite easily. I was amazed at how well he improved over the course of three nights. By the time that matinee arrived, he had it down almost completely.

But something was still bothering me about it. While I was driving back up to Oregon, it hit me. At one point, before he draws his imaginary gun, he is supposed to turn and pretend to spit. I realized that he was turning his head way to wildly to the side.

From Eugene, I wrote him an email. "Cooper would NEVER do that," I wrote him. "Turning your head way to the side to spit like that would get a person killed in a gunfight. Cooper would never take his eyes off the guy in front of him."

I told him to just jerk his head quickly to the side, and to pretend to spit out of the corner of his mouth, but while keeping his eyes fixed on the same point ahead of him.

He said he'd take my advice. He's really eager to improve as an actor. I figured it would work especially well for the Sunday matinee crowds, which skew towards the oldest demographic---people who probably saw plenty of Gary Cooper movies back in the day.

I know he'll do fantastic, or as the old song goes, super duper!