Miriam Laurence Studio | Acting Classes Toronto

What Uta Hagen Believed Every Actor Must Develop

Hello Everyone!

I’ve been rereading my notes from Uta Hagen. Here is one of her pertinent and timeless thoughts on what an actor needs to develop:

Talent alone is not enough. Character and ethics, a point of view about the world in which you live and an education, can and must be acquired and developed. Ideally, the young actor should possess or seek a thorough education in history, literature, English linguistics (foreign languages are so much gravy), as well as all of the other art forms – music, painting and dance – plus theatre history and orientation.
Every actor must demand total discipline of himself if he really means to be an actor. It can be acquired if it’s not already in his bones. A very gifted actor may be surpassed and outrun by a lesser talent simply because he is lazy, buck-passing, superficial – an actor settling for the easiest choices. The less talented actor can win with a thorough, back-breaking discipline in his work, in his examination of his materials and his relationship to it, in the dedication (that much-abused word) to his work.
– Uta Hagen

Studio News

Anna Migliarisi, who is a regular in my sessions and an experienced teacher/director, has recently started teaching shorter workshops in my studio. They’ve received excellent reviews!

Some of you might remember Mahmoud Nouri’s wonderful presence in class! He moved to LA a year ago and is now working there in an unrelated field (for now). He is also an artist and is up for an award in the Peoples Artist competition. Please vote here!

Old Films

It was recently the 10^th anniversary of my oldest friend and mentor Madeleine Sherwood’s death. I miss her greatly. You can learn all about her (crazy) life and her experiences learning Method Acting in the short documentary I made about her in the early 2000s.

A film by Miriam Laurence – ‘Madeleine’s Method’

The films Elia Kazan directed her in are still essential to watch – not only for her supporting work, but for the lead actors; Geraldine Page in Sweet Bird of Youth; Elizabeth Taylor and Burl Ives in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Paul Newman in both. And Eli Wallach, Karl Malden and Caroll Baker in Baby Doll.