Bongo Productions
2142 Bloor St. West, #4 M6S 1M8 Toronto, ON, Canada

"It`s important to say that actors can`t act alone, it`s impossible. What we have to do is support each other." Philip Seymour Hoffman

No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction; a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others. Martha Graham Candice Gilliam, says:... In working with Michael, it’s quite obvious from your very first lesson that he knows what he’s talking about and can help you develop and explore your acting talent. I didn’t know what I was capable of until my coaching sessions with Michael. He has a way of helping you see beyond just the words on the page. His passion for acting and love of teaching make him a joy to work with. If you’re a theatre actor looking for someone that understands the struggle of transitioning into film and television acting, Michael is your man! Thanks Michael! Expert coaching, with Michael Caruana, at bongo productions, trusted, since 1996! www.bongoproductions.com #acting #actor #actress #workshops#training #theatre #actorslife #educate#drama #comedy #tv #film #casting#performance #hollywood #toronto#ontario #entertainment #movies#netflix #actorsstudio#actorsofinstagram #mindset #passion#canada #vancouver #education#preform #crea

Stacey Bernstein say’s .. Michael is an integral reason that I am now on a focused artistic path as a performer. As a late bloomer to this industry, I enrolled in his Certificate Program (with agent referral) on the advice of a friend and Michael’s insight, direction and sensitivity combined with the fact that he’s such a great guy, gave me the foundation to create a demo reel of our work together and a package that attracted the kind of agent attention for which I could hav...e only dreamed. In addition to fulfilling my initial goals, a very important part of this picture is that I also had so much fun in the process. Stacey Bernstein Expert coaching, with Michael Caruana, at bongo productions, trusted, since 1996! www.bongoproductions.com #acting #actor #actress #workshops#training #theatre #actorslife #educate#drama #comedy #tv #film #casting#performance #hollywood #toronto#ontario #entertainment #movies#netflix #actorsstudio#actorsofinstagram #mindset #passion#canada #vancouver #education#preform #creat

I love Melissa McCarthy! She plays and never gets in her own way. Everybody's a train wreck in their own very special way. But there's something wildly freeing about someone who's unapologetic, who knows they're a wreck and doesn't even try to hide it, just bulldozes through life.... Melissa McCarthy

"Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best." Henry Van Dyke"Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best." Henry Van Dyke

Art Is Born An artist never works under ideal conditions. If they existed, his work wouldn’t exist. For the artist doesn’t live in a vacuum; some sort of pressure must exist. The artist exists because the world is not perfect. Art would be useless if the world were perfect, as man wouldn’t look for harmony, but would simply live in it. Art is born out of an ill-designed world. - director Andrei Tarkovsky, Andrei Rublev, Poet of the Cinema... You act with your soul. That’s why you all want to be actors, because your souls are not used up by life. - Stella Adler, On Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekhov Expert coaching, with Michael Caruana, at bongo productions, trusted, since 1996! www.bongoproductions.com #acting #actor #actress #workshops#training #theatre #actorslife #educate#drama #comedy #tv #film #casting#performance #hollywood #toronto#ontario #entertainment #movies#netflix #actorsstudio#actorsofinstagram #mindset #passion#canada #vancouver #education#preform #creat

Your Great Opportunity We should be grateful we live in a time when the general imagination has been impoverished, a time when people read novels that are neither very rich nor very deep, when they go to movies aimed at the mentality of teenage boys, when they watch endless television banalities, all of which accustoms them to a very trivial kind of entertainment. They’re used to very routine cooking macaroni and cheese. They’re happy with ‘fast food.’ You’re in a... position to give them banquets.That’s your great opportunity. Your curse is that you have chosen a form that requires endless study .... It means you have to read, you have to observe, you have to think, so thatwhen you turn your imagination on, it has the fuel to do its job. -StellaAdler, TheArt ofActing Expert coaching, with Michael Caruana, at bongo productions, trusted, since 1996! www.bongoproductions.com #acting #actor #actress #workshops#training #theatre #actorslife #educate#drama #comedy #tv #film #casting#performance #hollywood #toronto#ontario #entertainment #movies#netflix #actorsstudio#actorsofinstagram #mindset #passion#canada #vancouver #education#preform #creat

Your True Riches Let’s talk about your part. You will work it out for yourself, and what’s more, you’ll do it right. If you have done all the work you say you have and if the part is within your range, you cannot fail. Work and patience never fail. Notice everything around you watch yourself cheerfully. Collect and save in your soul all the riches of life and the fullness of it. Keep those memories in order. You can never tell when you will need them, but they are ...your only friends and teachers in your craft. They are your only paints and brushes. And they will bring you reward. They are yours your own property. They are not imitations and they will give you experience, precision, economy, and power. - Richard Boleslavsky, Acting, The First Six Lessons Expert coaching, with Michael Caruana, at bongo productions, trusted, since 1996! www.bongoproductions.com #acting #actor #actress #workshops#training #theatre #actorslife #educate#drama #comedy #tv #film #casting#performance #hollywood #toronto#ontario #entertainment #movies#netflix #actorsstudio#actorsofinstagram #mindset #passion#canada #vancouver #education#preform #creat

You And The Part The first four or five years I was in film, acting was a kind of reflex for me. Thinking is something you do when something’s not working. When it’s working, you stop thinking. For that period I didn’t have to think about acting much at all. My work was filled with a lot of reality and a lot of colors. However, it was also filled with turbulence, anger, and unfulfilled longing. When it came time to do Catch-22, which was four or five years after Sec...ond City, I said to Mike Nichols, ‘Who is this guy? What should I do with him?’ He says, ‘It’s you.’ ‘Me?’ I didn’t say it to him, but my internal monologue was, ‘Me? I haven’t got a me. There is no me. There’s going to be a blank hole in the screen.’ I really felt that if I just walked and talked like me, there wouldn’t be anything on the screen . Alan Arkin, The Actor Speaks, edited by Janet Sonenberg Expert coaching, with Michael Caruana, at bongo productions, trusted, since 1996! bongoproductions.com #acting #actor #actress #workshops#training #theatre #actorslife #educate#drama #comedy #tv #film #casting#performance #hollywood #toronto#ontario #entertainment #movies#netflix #actorsstudio#actorsofinstagram #mindset #passion#canada #vancouver #education#preform #creat

Excellent Advice Al Pacino has something to say about the importance of theatre to good film acting: Still, I recommend to young actors that they work on the stage because I think it does broaden them and asks their imagination to go to other places, rather than being shackled to a kind of film naturalism, you know, confined to the frame and to the smallness of it. And that sometimes going into the theatre and experiencing other... kinds of literature and asking yourself to go to different places is a revelation to you. And this can find its way back into your work in movies, in subtle ways. In The Beginning Al Pacino recalls what first inspired him to act: I must have been fourteen, in the South Bronx, and that’s when I was in this huge movie house, the Elsmere Theatre, and a traveling troupe was doing a Chekhov play, The Seagull. How I got into this movie house I don’t know. There were about 3,000 seats and maybe 15 patrons, and I was one of them. I had never heard or seen anything like it. I think it started there. Pacino has worked with the same coach, Charlie Laughton, for over thirty years, and the men are best friends. I can’t say I saw immediately the enormous talent he has, recalls Laughton. . It wasn’t for a year or so that he did anything good. - NYT Expert coaching, with Michael Caruana, at bongo productions, trusted, since 1996! www.bongoproductions.com #acting #actor #actress #workshops#training #theatre #actorslife #educate#drama #comedy #tv #film #casting#performance #hollywood #toronto#ontario #entertainment #movies#netflix #actorsstudio#actorsofinstagram #mindset #passion#canada #vancouver #education#preform #creat

"Do not try to push your way through to the front ranks of your profession; do not run after distinctions and rewards; but do your utmost to find an entry into the world of beauty." Konstantin Stanislavisky

Working In The Presence of People Of all the arts, I think acting must be the least concrete, the most solitary. One gains experience continually, both at rehearsals and in performance, from the presence of a large assembly of people. These people are essential to the development of one’s performance they are the living canvas upon which one hopes to paint the finished portrait which one has envisaged. These fellow actors, these audiences, with their shifting variations... of quality, are the only means by which an actor may gauge the effect of his acting. With their assistance he may hope to improve a performance, keep it flexible and fresh, and develop new subtleties as the days go by. He learns to listen to them, to watch them (without appearing to do so), to respond to them, to guide them in certain passages and be guided by them in others a never-ending task of secret vigilance. - John Gielgud, Early Stages When Gielgud speaks the verse, I can hear Shakespeare thinking. - Lee Strasberg Expert coaching, with Michael Caruana, at bongo productions, trusted, since 1996! www.bongoproductions.com #acting #actor #actress #workshops#training #theatre #actorslife #educate#drama #comedy #tv #film #casting#performance #hollywood #toronto#ontario #entertainment #movies#netflix #actorsstudio#actorsofinstagram #mindset #passion#canada #vancouver #education#preform #creat

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On Wings The lovely Claire Bloom describes the feeling of being on wings, when an actor forgets herself and lives the moment so vividly that she speaks an author’s lines as if for the first time: It’s very hard to act truthfully, but if you have the feeling that you are another person, and you’re playing that person, and yet you’re in complete control, you’re able to express something that is in you and only in you .... When it happens you’re absolutely on wings. You’re... carried. You’re doing something that is coming out of you and yet you have control over it. You’re in the part, and the part is with you. What the author is saying, you’re saying aloud for the first time. Sometimes it’s there, and sometimes it isn’t, and when it is, it’s marvelous. When it isn’t, you have to work, to use what is laughingly called technique. When it is there, it’s almost like being possessed. - The Player, Profile of an Art, by Lillian and Helen Ross Expert coaching, with Michael Caruana, at bongo productions, trusted, since 1996! www.bongoproductions.com #acting #actor #actress #workshops#training #theatre #actorslife #educate#drama #comedy #tv #film #casting#performance #hollywood #toronto#ontario #entertainment #movies#netflix #actorsstudio#actorsofinstagram #mindset #passion#canada #vancouver #education#preform #creat

DECEMBER 5/6TH, 2020! In our 'Online Successful Auditions Workshop', Michael gives you exactly what you need to get hired; valuable tools and strategies to help you get that part. If you are a new actor, get a true feel of an audition room and work on actual industry commercials and scenes from Film and Television. If you are a working professional, this is an excellent workshop to sharpen your tools and learn how to produce a solid hire worthy self-tape audition. Michael Caruana offers direction, demonstration, and proven techniques to help actors audition successfully. Drawing from his many years of experience on both sides of the camera, in casting, and as a professional actor, Michael’s approach is fun, supportive, and challenging and includes detailed and process-oriented preparation strategies.

"I trained as a theater actor and you had a bare stage and you had to pretend, one prop and you are in the middle of 8th Ave. and traffic is just going by." Benicio Del Toro

"The word "Action!" frees me - the transformation is something I cannot explain - too much analysis might destroy it." Sophia Loren

Making McQueen Cry Director Don Siegel had a hard time bringing tears to Steve McQueen’s eyes for an important close-up in Hell Is For Heroes. He needs direction very much, but he’s very talented. He can’t cry. When he runs away from the front, I had this marvelous concept where he is stony-eyed as he is through most of it [the film]; he comes closer and closer to the camera, and when he comes into a big close-up, he stops and tears appear in his eyes. For the first t...ime you see him break up. It was fine, except that he couldn’t cry, so I told him not to worry about it. We blew onions at him and nothing could make him cry. Then I took a tremendous chance, because he is violent-tempered: just before the take I slapped him in the face as hard as I could and ran. He had enough discipline to go through with the shot, but he still didn’t cry. Because there was too much lapse of time from him being slapped to when he came close. So I finally had to make a cut, which I didn’t want to do, a huge cut of his eyes, and then I blew a lot of stuff in them. It wasn’t what I wanted, but he was willing to go that route, any amount of pain, anything to do a good job. A very exciting guy to work with that way, I think. - Who the Devil Made it? by Peter Bogdanovich Expert coaching, with Michael Caruana, at bongo productions, trusted, since 1996! www.bongoproductions.com #acting #actor #actress #workshops#training #theatre #actorslife #educate#drama #comedy #tv #film #casting#performance #hollywood #toronto#ontario #entertainment #movies#netflix #actorsstudio#actorsofinstagram #mindset #passion#canada #vancouver #education#preform #creat

"Al, over the years we`ve taken roles from one another. People have tried to compare us to one another, to pit us against each one another and to tear us apart personally. I`ve never seen the comparison frankly. I`m clearly much taller, more the leading-man type. Honestly, you just may be the finest actor of our generation - with the possible exception of me." Robert De Niro (to Al Pacino)

Brando Opens Up Famed director Harold Clurman recalls directing the young Marlon Brando in Truckline Cafe, the explosive cameo role that started Brando on his way to legend: He read poorly, his head sunk low on his chest as if he feared to divulge anything. Yet there could be no question: he was peculiarly arresting. We decided to use him.... He mumbled for days ... The author’s agent and wife suggested I recast the part ... I said I had faith in the boy and would continue to work with him. But I was worried: the boy couldn’t be heard beyond the fifth row. His difficulty, it seemed, was that he could not give vent to the deep well of feeling which I sensed in him. He could not overcome some inner resistance: he would not ‘open up.’ The use of affective memory a term I shall explain in a later chapter did not help. One day I asked everyone in the company to leave the stage and retire to the dressing rooms. I turned to Brando and said, ‘I want you to shout your lines.’ (For this I chose the crucial scene in which the young man tells how he drowned his unfaithful wife, whom he still loved). Brando raised his voice. ‘Louder,’ I ordered. He complied. ‘Still louder,’ I insisted. This was repeated several times and my command for ever great vocal volume began to exhaust the actor and to rouse him to visible anger. Then I yelled, ‘Climb the rope!’ as I pointed to a rope which was hanging from the gridiron above the stage. Without hesitation he began climbing the rope while I urged him to keep shouting his lines. The other members of the cast came rushing onto the stage, alarmed at the terrifying sounds they had heard while still in their dressing rooms. When Brando let himself down, he looked as if he were ready to hit me. ‘Now,’ I said quietly, ‘run the scene normally.’ He recovered his poise and did as I bid him. He ‘spoke up’ effortlessly. In a few days he played ‘the moment’ beautifully. On opening night and every night thereafter his performance was greeted by one of the most thunderous ovations I have heard for an actor in the theatre. On Directing, by Harold Clurman bongoproductions.com

"One of the pleasures of being an actor is quite simply taking a walk in someone else`s shoes. And when I look at the roles I`ve played, I`m kind of amazed at all the wonderful adventures I`ve had and the different things I`ve learned." Willem Dafoe

"I wouldn`t like to be an actor if I could only be real. I like to get wild, behaviorally wild, and it`s crazy to think of any form where it`s just one way." Jack Nicholson

The Real Source of Life Great actor and director Constantin Stanislavsky writes about the necessity of being truly yourself in your work. Never lose yourself on the stage. Always act in your own person, as an artist. The moment you lose yourself on the stage marks the departure from truly living your part and the beginning of exaggerated false acting. Therefore, no matter how much you act, how many parts you take, you should never allow yourself any exception to the rul...e of using your own feelings. To break that rule is the equivalent of killing the person you are portraying, because you deprive him of a palpitating, living, human soul, which is the real source of life for a part. - Tortsov, An Actor Prepares, by Constanin Stanislavsky Expert coaching, with Michael Caruana, at bongo productions, trusted, since 1996! www.bongoproductions.com #acting #actor #actress #workshops#training #theatre #actorslife #educate#drama #comedy #tv #film #casting#performance #hollywood #toronto#ontario #entertainment #movies#netflix #actorsstudio#actorsofinstagram #mindset #passion#canada #vancouver #education#preform #creat

"I had this idea of myself as a shy, kind, sweet chap. I was working with Winona Ryder and she turned to me and said, "Fuck, man, you`re really intense!" I was so shocked, I went, "What do you mean? I`m not intense, I`m sweet!" My passion and energy get mistaken for anger." Gary Oldman

First Build the Canoe I don’t care when you learn the lines. And don’t try to learn them in relation to the emotion you think you should have. First build a canoe and then put it on the water, and whatever the water does, the canoe follows. The text is the canoe, but you must begin by... putting the emphasis on the stormy river. I can’t be any clearer than that. - Sanford Meisner, On Acting Expert coaching, with Michael Caruana, at bongo productions, trusted, since 1996! www.bongoproductions.com #acting #actor #actress #workshops#training #theatre #actorslife #educate#drama #comedy #tv #film #casting#performance #hollywood #toronto#ontario #entertainment #movies#netflix #actorsstudio#actorsofinstagram #mindset #passion#canada #vancouver #education#preform #creat

"The best actors, I think, have a childlike quality. They have a sort of an ability to lose themselves. There`s still some silliness." Kenneth Branagh

NOVEMBER 2020 | WORKSHOP DATES | COACHING | CERTIFICATE PROGRAM | REGISTER NOW! - https://mailchi.mp/f2535d2202ef/may-3572462

Stage And Screen The joy of film is that your choices can be so specific. The camera can record the exact word or hand movement or eye movement you intend. A 150mm lens can make your eyes eighty feet wide. The moment you choose to blink or when you choose to inhale or exhale is what you’re saying in the scene. Let’s say the shot is of three of the fingers of your hand, and one is tense. It can be that specific in film. It’s just fantastic. You choose exactly what you... want to show because it’s that tight. It’s so glorious. When you act on stage you don’t get to do all these beautiful, specific, tiny little things that film enables you to do. On the other hand, I love to be onstage because there’s no one between me and the audience. Nobody’s going to step in and interpret me or edit me. Kathleen Turner, The Actor Speaks, edited by Janet Sonenberg Expert coaching, with Michael Caruana, at bongo productions, trusted, since 1996! www.bongoproductions.com #acting #actor #actress #workshops#training #theatre #actorslife #educate#drama #comedy #tv #film #casting#performance #hollywood #toronto#ontario #entertainment #movies#netflix #actorsstudio#actorsofinstagram #mindset #passion#canada #vancouver #education#preform #creat

"When I was 10 or 11, I played the Artful Dodger in a school production of `Oliver. From that point forward, I said I wanted to be an actor. Nobody in my family took it seriously, but I saw no other path. I was a cocky little kid. This one teacher said: `You`re a working-class kid from Coventry. What do you know?" Clive Owen

Figures Of Light There is so much to be learned by watching some of the great film performances of this century, as much as anything anybody can tell you in a book, or by anything you can see today. I’ve never not gotten something from watching the great actors work. Never.... Somebody on film like Spencer Tracy, or Jimmy Stewart, or Jean Arthur, or Montgomery Clift or any of the great people whose performances are preserved to not take advantage of that is to say, ‘Well, I’m going to limit what I do.’ And I would never do that. I’ll listen to anybody who’s going to offer a suggestion or give me an idea that I can use in my work. It doesn’t mean I’ll use it, but I would never cut off a supply line of something that can make me a better actress. I just feel like I’ve put a toe in the water. I’d be very sad if this is as good as I’m going to get. - Mary Steenburgen, Figures Of Light Expert coaching, with Michael Caruana, at bongo productions, trusted, since 1996! www.bongoproductions.com #acting #actor #actress #workshops#training #theatre #actorslife #educate#drama #comedy #tv #film #casting#performance #hollywood #toronto#ontario #entertainment #movies#netflix #actorsstudio#actorsofinstagram #mindset #passion#canada #vancouver #education#preform #creat

Mark Ruffalo’s Eight Hundred Auditions Mark Ruffalo, who gives such an interesting performance in You Can Count On Me, estimates he went on eight hundred auditions before landing his first important role. In Hollywood, none of those people can make a decision. They can only say no. I’d go to casting directors, and they’d say, ‘You are the best actor of your generation, but you just haven’t grown into your face yet, your face hasn’t grown into your soul’. I had insane thi...ngs like that said to me all the time. ‘You are one of the greatest actors I have ever seen, but ‘ I’d get this great feedback, but I could never get a job. Two things have happened to acting in America. One is that actors think they have to live the character, which is a huge mistake. Because what they do is put the character on top of themselves and thereby kill anything spontaneous. The other is that someone introduced the idea that less is more, so that actors stopped doing anything at all. They just say the words. New York Times Magazine Expert coaching, with Michael Caruana, at bongo productions, trusted, since 1996! www.bongoproductions.com #acting #actor #actress #workshops#training #theatre #actorslife #educate#drama #comedy #tv #film #casting#performance #hollywood #toronto#ontario #entertainment #movies#netflix #actorsstudio#actorsofinstagram #mindset #passion#canada #vancouver #education#preform #creat

"As an actor, a part of you expects to be looked at. A part of you wants to be looked at. But when I`m playing a part, in my imagined world, I feel I`m not me. I may be using bits of me, but I love the sense that I`m being someone else." Ralph Fiennes

"All my life as far back as I can remember, I saw my first movie when I was six years old. And since then I wanted to do that. I wanted to be a part of that ... acting means living, it`s all I do and all I`m good at. If I weren`t getting paid well, I would still be acting in a small troupe somewhere." Morgan Freeman

Nothing Human Is Alien To Us We all bear within us the potentiality for every kind of passion, every fate, every way of life. Nothing human is alien to us. If this were not so, we could not understand other people, either in life or in art. But inheritance and upbringing foster individual experiences and develop only a few of our thousands of possibilities. The others gradually sicken and die. Max Reinhardt, The Actor, Actors on Acting... Expert coaching, with Michael Caruana, at bongo productions, trusted, since 1996! www.bongoproductions.com #acting #actor #actress #workshops#training #theatre #actorslife #educate#drama #comedy #tv #film #casting#performance #hollywood #toronto#ontario #entertainment #movies#netflix #actorsstudio#actorsofinstagram #mindset #passion#canada #vancouver #education#preform #creat

Simplicity, Knowing You’re Enough, Using Your True Voice I desire to be able to act with greater simplicity; unfortunately, that’s not my penchant. I tend to want to do more. One of my teachers, Ron Van Lieu, told me many times, ‘You are enough. Just you, Marcia.’ How many times do we think, ‘I want to be anything but me. I am not enough. The character is interesting but I’m not interesting onstage.’ I can remember a scene in Month in the Country in which I had to say, ...‘I love you.’ Ron said, ‘Do it on your voice.’ I resisted and said, ‘I love you,’ using a breathy, ‘sensitive’ voice. ‘That’s not sensitive,’ Ron said. ‘That’s boring. Now, get on your voice.’ I did, and suddenly I was sobbing and the scene worked. I’d made a connection to myself and to the other actor because I had allowed myself to be enough. Expert coaching, with Michael Caruana, at bongo productions, trusted since 1996! www.bongoproductions.com #acting #actor #actress #workshops#training #theatre #actorslife #educate#drama #comedy #tv #film #casting#performance #hollywood #toronto#ontario #entertainment #movies#netflix #actorsstudio#actorsofinstagram #mindset #passion#canada #vancouver #education#preform #creat

"It`s important to say that actors can`t act alone, it`s impossible. What we have to do is support each other." Philip Seymour Hoffman

"I really, really depend on the other actors for the confirmation of who I think I am," she says. "And so it`s important to me to work with good people that are not worried about how they look. You know. Real actors. They`re your blood." Meryl Streep

Aristocrats Of The Mind Today we see nothing that wants to become greater. We suspect that all goes ever downward, becoming thinner, more sleazy, smarter, cozier, more ordinary, more indifferent. Exactly here lies our crisis. With the fear of man, we have also lost the love of man reverence for him, hope for him. The human prospect wearies us. What is the current nihilism if it is not that? We are tired of man. As actors we have to build a renewed sense that man ha...s power and beauty, that noble man is not buried in a democratized mob. We must learn to separate politics from culture, from character. We must be aristocrats in a world of noble equals. We must find and keep the best of both worlds, the old and the new. Actors are aristocrats of the mind! And have been for well over 2,000 years! - Stella Adler, The Art Of Acting Expert coaching, with Michael Caruana, at bongo productions, trusted, since 1996! www.bongoproductions.com #acting #actor #actress #workshops#training #theatre #actorslife #educate#drama #comedy #tv #film #casting#performance #hollywood #toronto#ontario #entertainment #movies#netflix #actorsstudio#actorsofinstagram #mindset #passion#canada #vancouver #education#preform #creat

bongoproductions.com Really Talking, Really Listening Twelve Angry Men, The Fugitive Kind, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, The Verdict, Q&A, Night Falls On Manhattan these are just a few of the films Sydney Lumet has directed over the years. I can’t think of better words to commit to heart before actors cold-read and rehearse. ... How can we get actors with totally different life experiences and acting techniques to look like they’re making the same movie? The answer is remarkably simple, but like all simple things, it’s hard to achieve. Just as in life, really talking and listening to one another is very, very difficult. In acting, that’s the basis on which everything is built. By now I have an almost set speech I make just before the first reading of the script. I will say to the actors, ‘Go as far as you feel. Do as much or as little as you want to. If you feel it, let it fly. Don’t worry if it’s the right emotion or the wrong one. We’ll find out. That’s what rehearsals are for. But minimally, talk to each other and listen to each other. Don’t worry about losing your place in the script as long as you’re really talking and listening to each other. Try to pick up on what you just heard." Sanford Meisner was one of the best acting teachers of my time. With beginning students, he spent the first month or six weeks getting them to really talk and listen to one another. That’s all. It’s the great common denominator where different acting styles and techniques meet. Making Movies, by Sydney Lumet Expert coaching, with Michael Caruana, at bongo productions, trusted, since 1996! www.bongoproductions.com #acting #actor #actress #workshops#training #theatre #actorslife #educate#drama #comedy #tv #film #casting#performance #hollywood #toronto#ontario #entertainment #movies#netflix #actorsstudio#actorsofinstagram #mindset #passion#canada #vancouver #education#preform #creat

You Are Your Instrument I love actors. I love them because they’re brave. All good work requires self-revelation. A musician communicates feeling through the instrument he is playing, a dancer through body movement. The talent of acting is one in which the actor’s thoughts and feelings are instantly communicated to the audience. In other words, the instrument that an actor is using is himself. It is his feelings, his physiognomy, his sexuality, his tears, his laughte...r, his anger, his romanticism, his tenderness, his viciousness that are up there on the screen for all to see. That’s not easy. In fact, quite often it’s painful. There are many actors who can duplicate life brilliantly. Every detail will be correct, beautifully observed and perfectly reproduced. One thing is missing, however. The character’s not alive. I don’t want life reproduced up there on the screen. I want life created. The difference lies in the degree of the actor’s personal revelation. I worked with Marlon Brando on The Fugitive Kind. He’s a suspicious fellow. I don’t know if he bothers anymore, but Brando tests the director on the first or second day of shooting. What he does is to give you two apparently identical takes. Except that on one, he is really working from the inside; and on the other, he’s just giving you an indication of what the emotion was like. Then he watches which one you decide to print. If the director prints the wrong one, the indicated one, he’s had it. Marlon will either walk through the rest of the performance or make the director’s life hell, or both. Nobody has the right to test people like that, but I can understand why he does that. He doesn’t want to pour out his inner life to someone who can’t see what he’s doing. - Sidney Lumet, Making Movies Expert coaching, with Michael Caruana, at bongo productions, trusted, since 1996! www.bongoproductions.com #acting #actor #actress #workshops #training #theatre #actorslife #educate #drama #comedy #tv #film #casting #performance #hollywood #toronto #ontario #entertainment #movies #netflix #actorsstudio #actorsofinstagram #mindset #passion #canada #vancouver #education #preform #creat

Always At The Drawing Board As actors, we’re always at the drawing board. It’s always the beginning. You’re always learning the same things again and making the same mistakes. Acting is not a linear progression. I don’t think you reach a point at which you don’t even have to think about what you do because you just do it. I think you take the same steps over and over again. Certain steps do become condensed as you know a way of working. It no longer takes me a week to... figure out my objectives or the beats; I see them, smell them, and feel them immediately. But I always have to say, ‘Play the scene, not the laugh; play the character’s intention, not your idea of the intention; don’t play what it should look like, play what you’re doing; don’t play the how, play the what; put your attention on your scene partner; listen, did you hear them say that?; let it resonate within your body; get on your voice; can’t you be innocent in your own voice? It’s always the same equations. With experience you do reach the point where you can sight-read the music. But how to play it? - The Actor Speaks, edited by Janet Sonenberg Trusted, elevated professional coaching, since 1996! www.bongoproductions.com

"The camera does not like acting. The camera is only interested in filming behaviour. So you damn well learn your lines until you know them inside out, while standing on your head!" Ben Kingsley

Proven, trusted, inspired, professional coaching, with Michael Caruana - since 1996. www.bongoproductions.com Your True Riches... Let’s talk about your part. You will work it out for yourself, and what’s more, you’ll do it right. If you have done all the work you say you have and if the part is within your range, you cannot fail. Work and patience never fail. Notice everything around you watch yourself cheerfully. Collect and save in your soul all the riches of life and the fullness of it. Keep those memories in order. You can never tell when you will need them, but they are your only friends and teachers in your craft. They are your only paints and brushes. And they will bring you reward. They are yours your own property. They are not imitations and they will give you experience, precision, economy, and power. - Richard Boleslavsky, Acting, The First Six Lessons www.bongoproductions.com

"I'll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours." Bob Dylan"I'll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours." Bob Dylan

You And The Part You know, Maureen Stapleton is a wonderful actress, but if you ask her to play the mother in The Glass Menagerie she’s not very good. There’s something in her temperament which doesn’t come together with that character. But give her the lead in The Rose Tattoo, and nobody can touch her. There are some parts we don’t have the temperament for even if we understand them, and there are some parts we are so right for that we don’t even know that we understand ...them. - On Acting, by Sanford Meisner The first four or five years I was in film, acting was a kind of reflex for me. Thinking is something you do when something’s not working. When it’s working, you stop thinking. For that period I didn’t have to think about acting much at all. My work was filled with a lot of reality and a lot of colors. However, it was also filled with turbulence, anger, and unfulfilled longing. When it came time to do Catch-22, which was four or five years after Second City, I said to Mike Nichols, ‘Who is this guy? What should I do with him?’ He says, ‘It’s you.’ ‘Me?’ I didn’t say it to him, but my internal monologue was, ‘Me? I haven’t got a me. There is no me. There’s going to be a blank hole in the screen.’ I really felt that if I just walked and talked like me, there wouldn’t be anything on the screen . - Alan Arkin, The Actor Speaks www.bongoproductions.com

"Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls." Ingrid Bergman

"In other words, I wouldn`t like to be an actor if I could only be real. I like to get wild, behaviorally wild, and it`s crazy to think of any form where it`s just one way." Jack Nicholson

Oona dropped in for Corey Bright’s self-tape audition today.

"I think acting is about forgetting yourself in order to give the best of yourself. It`s passing through you more than you`re creating it. You`re not the flower, but the vase which holds the flower." Juliette Binoche

Exchanging Discoveries Rod Steiger is famed for performances in On The Waterfront, The Big Knife, and The Pawnbroker. ... I believe the actor can, through the medium of acting, exchange his discoveries about himself, and his beliefs, with his fellow man. I believe that any actor who disregards this responsibility, that of truthfully attempting to communicate, and ‘acts for a living,’ ceases to exist as a creative artist. I know that all of us fail over and over again when we attempt to communicate, but we must always insist on attempting it. If an actor has one inspired moment in a performance, I’d say he’s good. If he has two inspired moments, he’s great. - Rod Steiger, The Player, Profile of an Art, by Lillian and Helen Ross www.bongoproductions.com

The Great Tradition Acting wasn’t born today. It’s a tradition of 2,000 years. A civilization isn’t defined by how much money somebody made or how many BMWs people have in their garages. If you visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, you won’t see exhibits of people’s bank accounts. The currency of civilization is Art.... You have the possibility of carrying these riches of two millennia inside you. But you cannot transmit what you have not received. So you must study theatre the way a priest or a rabbi studies scripture. You have the privilege of forging our link from that history to the future. If the theatre today is debased, it is because we are debased. If we look around at America, we see a place where people steal for a nickel, where people kill without a deep sense of guilt, where people have no respect for religion, where people dress carelessly, where people don’t respect their bodies. If you like, you can mix your dates up. You can even double-cross people on the outside. You can say you can’t go to a party, because I don’t care. But you can’t miss class. Don’t for any reason, except death, stay away from class. Don’t get a cold. Don’t get a backache, and don’t go to your psychoanalyst. It doesn’t belong in the theatre. On Constantin Stanislavsky, one of the great actors, directors, and teachers of the 20th Century and founder of the so-called Method school of acting: When I worked with him in Paris, he said, ‘I cannot see you in the morning. I’ve got to work on my lisp for two hours.’ This was a man in his seventies, the head of the Moscow Art Theatre, two years before he died. He knew he had this problem, and he worked on it. Everybody here has work to do. It is a privilege to have this opportunity to work. - Stella Adler, The Art Of Acting www.bongoproductions.com

"We must overcome the notion that we must be regular... it robs you of the chance to be extraordinary and leads you to the mediocre." Uta Hagen

"Everybody`s a mad scientist, and life is their lab. We`re all trying to experiment to find a way to live, to solve problems, to fend off madness and chaos." David Cronenberg

A High Calling One of America’s greatest playwrights, David Mamet, reminds us of why we act. People, though they may not know it, come to the theatre to hear the truth and celebrate it with each other. Though they are continually disappointed, the urge is so inbred and primal they still come. Your task is to tell the truth. It’s a high calling. ... Cultivate the habit of pride in your accomplishments, large and small. To prepare a scene, to be punctual, to refrain from criticism, to learn your lines cold these are all accomplishments, and while you pursue them, you are learning a trade, a most valuable trade. You bring on stage the same thing you bring into a room: the person you are. Your strength, your weakness, your capacity for action. Dealing with things as they are strengthens your point of view. A most valuable lesson for an actor. Cultivate a love of skill. Learn theatrical skills. They will give you continual pleasure, self-confidence, and link you to fifty thousand years of the history of our profession. - True And False, by David Mamet www.bongoproductions.com

Semiprivate, Scene-study at bongo productions, with Michael Caruana, Erin Sholtz and Emily Nicholson. www.bongoproductions.com John Turturro’s Objective... It takes a long time for a writer to write a play or a screenplay. An actor can’t read it and suddenly embody it. Some people have the skill to go fast, but I always think it’s good to take my time. Begin in the simplest way; between the two actors. I read the material a lot and see what connects to my own experiences, or experiences I’ve seen people go through. Then, I try to make it as personal as it can be . There are actors who pursue their objective by playing one action and that’s it. Their work doesn’t surprise me because it’s too control-oriented. I’d rather give something of myself away. Once the scene’s dynamic is starting to occur, I’ll go with it and then try to shift it, too, just like you would in life. The shifting is important. Then, if I can get to the point when that’s happening and I don’t know what I’m doing, that’s inspiration. I’ve done all my work and then I try to achieve this other, living dimension, the human dimension. It ceases being my work and it becomes living. My main objective as an actor is to keep people awake. I do everything possible to make them care, which they cannot do when they’re sleeping. If I have a chance to make interesting choices, then as long as I’m not grandstanding, I’m willing to go that route. Who knows? I’ve seen people go beyond anything I would have expected of them. Life can accomplish anything, any size, any dimension it’s all human. - John Turturro, The Actor Speaks, edited by Janet Sonenberg www.bongoproductions.com

"Cinema has become my life. I don`t mean a parallel world, I mean my life itself. I sometimes have the impression that the daily reality is simply there to provide material for my next film." Pedro Almodovar

Successful Auditions Workshop with Ashley Rose Caputo ..

Sunday morning scene-study at bongo productions. Expert and professional private coaching, scene-study and audition workshops with Michael Caruana, (and Dash) since, 1996. www.bongoproductions.com

At bongo productions, it's our mission for every student to reach theirpotential. To elevate each individuals' spark to the next level to make them realize their true craft, andexplore everything that they'll need to have a successful mindset. Down to deliveringpromising impressions in the audition room, while onset for TV, Film,Commercials, and as well, with meetingother professionals in the industry. With ourIntensive CertificateProgram, Michael Caruana delivers val...uable 1-on-1 lecture time with you, as you fundamentally create the foundation of what it means to be an actor. The importance that every actor should have is the value of their own craft and realizing how far of their intuition and spontaneity has morphed since Day#1 when they enter the playing field. "Wanting to be a good actor is not good enough. You must want to be a great actor. You just have to have that." ~ Gary Oldman Go to https://www.bongoproductions.com/ for more details. See more

Watching Your Friends And Fellow Artists Acting requires a creative and compassionate attitude. It must aim to lift life up to a higher level of meaning and not tear it down or demean it. The actor’s search is a generous quest for that larger meaning. That’s why acting is never to be done passively. When I watch some of you I sense you’re not really involved. Some of you become totally detached from the work of other students in the class. There’s an unspoken critical...ness or indifference, which is disruptive to the class and hinders you from learning. It’s a trait that ill serves actors. Instead of being critical and judgmental, we should recognize and honor others’ efforts. Criticizing others, belittling others only diminishes us. And if our goal is always size, that’s heading in the wrong direction! - Stella Adler, The Art of Acting www.bongoproductions.com Another word of counsel about watching the creative work of others. Begin to exercise your sense of truth by looking, first of all, for the good points. In studying another’s work, limit yourself to the role of a mirror and say honestly whether or not you believe in what you have seen and heard, and point out particularly the moments that were most convincing to you. - Tortsov, An Actor Prepares, by Constantin Stanislavsky QUESTION: How many actors does it take to change a light bulb? ANSWER: Ten. One to do it, and nine to say, I could have done that better. - Old Theatre Joke www.bongoproductions.com

Line-readings Some actors always seem a little irked when they get line-readings, which has always seemed strange to me, since I have received and followed! line readings on the majority of professional productions I have been a part of. But why don’t we turn to Harold Clurman, husband of Stella Adler, partner with Meisner and Strasberg in the Group Theatre, and one of the few American directors who actually knew and learned from Stanislavsky, and see what he has to say ...on this subject? Though for certain people theologians of the Method directing an actor by reading lines for him is a cardinal sin, it becomes mandatory at times and practically inevitable. I once apologized to Fredric March for presuming to read a line for him. ‘No! No!’ he encouraged me, ‘your readings help me.’ When I asked Stanislavski, ‘Do you ever read lines for an actor?’ he replied at once, ‘Of course, whole speeches sometimes. One does everything, anything to arrive at the desired result.’ And it is chiefly from Stanislavski that the notion has arisen that a director’s reading lines to an actor is harmful! - On Directing, by Harold Clurman www.bongoproductions.com

Preparation Is Everything William Gaskill, a director at England’s National Theatre, on the importance of practical preparation. The Othello, for instance, was fascinating. He [Laurence Olivier] knew all the lines in advance and at the very first reading he actually played the part with the all the stops out. It was an extraordinary occasion. All the other actors were standing about with their scripts and there was the star playing the part as though it were the first nig...ht. Sometimes when I’m asked what makes a great actor I’m tempted to say simply knowing all their lines at the beginning of rehearsals. The important point is that if you want to produce the kind of force and energy an Olivier can produce in the finished performance, the preparation is everything. All the great actors and actresses I’ve worked with have always done a great deal of homework. Edith Evans and Maggie Smith, for example, arrive at the first rehearsal with a lot of work already done on their parts. I think it’s essential to do this, particularly if you’re tackling a big classical role. You can’t hope just to muddle through in rehearsals. - Olivier, edited by Logan Gourlay Semiprivate Scene-study, with Michael Caruana, at bongo productions. www.bongoproductions.com

Real Things Luis Guzman (Boogie Nights, Traffic, Punch Drunk Love) talks about his craft, and remembers one of his first directions from a casting director: Kill me with your eyes. Guzman started training seriously after he started working professionally:... I was like a dull knife I had the tool, I just needed to sharpen it. But he regards his own experience as important as his training: My life is my reference. I know what it feels like to laugh. I know what it feels like to cry. I know what it feels like to feel pain, I know what it feels like to bury somebody. I know what it feels like to be loved, I know what it feels like to not be loved. I know what it feels like to be hungry and have only a dollar in your pocket. Those are real things; you can’t fake that stuff. - NYT www.bongoproductions.com

Youssef Abdelmalek: Often when we think of an edgy or rough guy headshot we think of changing light .. but it is without doubt that what happens on the face is the most important element to a headshot. YOUR FACIAL EXPRESSION IS EVERYTHING! Obviously a pro like Michael caruana from @bongoprods @michael.bongo nailed it! www.bongoproductions.com

Scene-study with Ashley Rose & Peter Billing Being John Malkovich Actor and director John Malkovich laments what he sees as America’s commercial obsession:... In the America I grew up in, art wasn’t merely an investment opportunity. We had a family newspaper and we would never have been vulgar enough to print the weekly film grosses, as if profit had anything to do with quality. If you talked about success and money around my father, he would have knocked your teeth out. He wanted us to be good at what we did. And certainly money would not be the goal. Gary Sinise, a friend and partner in the Steppenwolf theatre, remembers Malkovich’s early work: He was an unusual, unpredictable, bizarre performer, making psychotic choices. We were interested in visceral, aggressive theatre, and the people that signed on were adrenalin-based performers. John was this weird paradox he could be louder than just about anyone and quieter than a small rodent. In both cases, he was surprising. - New York Times Magazine www.bongoproductions.com Acclaimed, experienced professional since 1996