Rod Serling and the Craft of Acting

Every actor I know is a devout fan of "The Twilight Zone"... and their passion for creative genre is part of why they stick around with the likes of me!

I've enjoyed the show, but it's never held my interest beyond my historical interest and my willingness to watch an episode or two. By the time I really got to know Rod Sterling's body of work, I'd already been saturated by all the artists and filmmakers who came after him. Part of why I love genre is the exploration of issues nobody else has the vision or the guts to step into. When Rod Sterling was producing television, the ideas he was revealing were brand new. Nobody had seen anything like it. Personally, I'm hungry for the deeper implications and psychological realities behind the scenarios he sets up in his show.

At the same time, the actors I know can sit through a "Twilight Zone" marathon of literally any length. Now that I'm knee-deep in rehearsals for The Starmind Record, I'm beginning to understand why. Rod Sterling loves actors. As far as I can tell, he has no history in the theater - but part of why his shows seem so stagey to me is that the characters he writes are imminently playable. When his characters are motivated to dive down some rabbit hole or other that alters their perceptions, they're REALLY motivated. Most of the actors in "The Twilight Zone" are given very specific, very tangible, very compelling motivations.

When you're working in an improv environment, making those motives tangible and playable is twice as crucial. Until now, a big part of the work I've been doing with McCallum to build the character of the Starmind has been about reducing his objectives to a playable level - so he can generate the impulses he'll need when we're shooting.

At the same time, we're working hard to keep the character from appearing stagey. We're producing documentary footage, and not atomic-era melodrama. Making the character playable will also make the character cheap, if we sacrifice complexity for ease of performance. What we're attempting here is a balancing act that few actors have the craft to pull off, and the cast engaged in a work of olympic-level performance art. My job is to ensure that their craftsmanship is evident on the screen, which is why these rehearsals are so important.

Today, I finally heard Rod Sterling's message for me. Keep it simple. Make it playable. Give the actors clear, tangible goals. At the same time, we need to make those goals... unexpected. Complex. Multi-faceted. Emotionally confusing. Real.

This Saturday, we'll have our first Starmind rehearsal with the entire cast on hand. It's time for Dave, Charlotte, and Gerard to start building the character of the Starmind in real-time. Thank you, Rod Sterling, for giving us the tools.

Gerard Marzilli is the winner!

Jeez, man. When they're not right there in your face, you forget how much you love the things you love. It's been about a year since the last Heartsgaard rehearsal, and today was my first day working with the cast of The Starmind Record.

Too long. That was too much time away from my cast. Admittedly, I spent the whole time writing furiously... but what's the point of writing anything if you never get to share it with actors such as these?

Money. I thought it was going to make me money.

But back to Marzilli and winning: Tonight, I worked Gerard Marzilli and Charlotte Gallagher through some basic character exercises to help build the improv for production, as well as taking them through their first practicum in cinematography. Both Gerard and Charlotte are actors fully committed to play, and by the time we were done I was in the bathroom trying to get gobs of peanut butter out of my beard... which in a roundabout way is the point of this blog.

Our success with The Starmind Record relies on the thrill of experimentation, both in the story sense and in terms of how we deliver production value. Both actors are playing documentary filmmakers, and much of the camerawork is going to be the product of their improv. To compound the challenge, the actors are using those cameras to penetrate and explore the perspective of a being from another world. This entire story rests on what questions these characters are willing to ask about their subject, and the lengths to which they will go for answers.

When it comes to exploration, there are no two actors more insatiable or enthusiastic than Gerard Marzilli and Charlotte Gallagher... which brings me to the title of this post. Before we got to the camerawork and the peanut butter (which is another story entirely), I played a little game with them where I asked them questions about one another. When I can't think of a way to reward someone, I pretty much always offer to write good things about them on the internet - so those were the stakes of victory, and Gerard Marzilli is indeed the winner. By one point only.

I can't even tell you how much it delighted me to see these two fantastic performers feeling each other out, planning birthday parties for one another and talking about movies in character, making fun of one another and enjoying the hell out of this quirky little process I've devised. Boy, I missed this.

Perhaps I say this too frequently for you, dear reader, but I once again feel compelled to mention just how blessed I am to work with such magnificent performers. Gerard Marzilli and Charlotte Gallagher are two actors with unquenchable passion, liberating courage, and an unrelenting commitment to excellence.

How they got peanut butter all over me is a question I leave to your imagination.