GRIFFIN ARTIST BLOG

Kevin Jackson: Open Class

A Masterclass from one of Australia’s leading teachers.

Kevin Jackson will present an Open Class for the general public on Sunday 18 March. You are invited to observe Kevin as he teaches a class of 10 professional actors and to gain an insight into the mystery of the craft of acting.  Kevin will also cover the backstage techniques that help the actor prepare for the storytelling responsibility of theatre, film and television work.

Kevin Jackson has been teaching acting for some 40 years and ex-students include: Cate Blanchett, Essie Davies, Andrea Demetriades, Elizabeth Banks, Jessica Marais, Shari Sebbens, Miranda Tapsell, Sam Worthington, Darren Gilshenan, Joshua Lawson, Alex O’Loughlin, Les Chantery, Josh McConville and Meyne Wyatt.

While at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney, the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) in San Francisco and at many other schools,  Kevin developed a much admired method of approach to acting known among his students as ‘The Creative Habit’.

In this Open Class, Kevin will introduce some of the practical outlines to his unique approach and demonstrate their application to the work.

WHEN Sunday 18 March, 2-5pm
WHERE SBW Stables Theatre
COST $10 per ticket

Buy tickets here.

Artist of the Week - Q&A with Mark Dessaix

What are you working on currently?

A the moment I am working on The Temperamentals, which is being directed by Kevin Jackson. It’s playing at the New Theatre until March 3 as part of the Sydney Mardi Gras Festival. I read the play back in September last year and fell head over heels for the story, and the bravery of these 5 men who took massive risks to stand up and fight for their rights in 1950’s America. I have also just begun preliminary shooting for a new Australian feature film, working alongside Simon Lyndon. It’s called Lorem Ipsum, and is a remarkable art and style based film. I think it’s quite avant garde for Aussie film.

Who, or what, inspires you to create?

I think inspiration comes in many forms and guises, you just have to be open to it. I find a great theatre production or film helps when I am not working, or even something as simple as reading a play on a lazy afternoon. When I am working, it’s always watching the creatives around me working. The rehearsal room is my happy place. I recently was lucky enough to watch a rehearsal of The Wild Duck, which was beyond inspiring and educational, to watch that calibre of skill was incredible. There is also much to be gained when in a creative slump. They are the times when the art of inspiration through self motivation comes in handy. I think I am lucky in that I am a stubborn capricorn…I don’t give up easily.

What was the most interesting thing you saw recently?

It would have to be hands down Thyestes. It held my interest in a vice. Staging was brilliant, the acting was nothing short of fearless. I was disturbed throughout the whole thing, but utterly absorbed. It actually gave me some seriously twisted memory recall dreams for three nights after…it messed up my psyche, man!

What is the best piece of advice that you’ve been given?

The best will always be from my high school drama teacher, Ms Mills. I used to muck around in drama class, but she could see something in me that I couldn’t. She was a professional dancer and choreographer in Sydney and Vienna, so she knew her stuff. She was tough love with me from day one…her advice was always “Mark, if you expect to be a successful actor, you need to start owning your f***king sh*t”. And it’s true, you have to show up to rehearsal, a shoot, audition, fitting, reading, class, whatever and you need to have your sh*t together.

Who, past or present, would you like to share a meal with and why?

arghhhh, this is always a toughy! How can I pick one?! I am picking 3.

1 - My late Grandad. A wonderful man and very funny. I got my sense of humour from this man.
2 - My late Grandpa. We shared a love of literature, and could talk about Shakespeare and the Greeks for hours…he would have loved Thyestes.
3 - The Queen…she fascinates the heavens out of me, like that reclusive old lady that lived down the street I grew up on. I reckon she’d love a cheeky gin or 4. I’d like to be having dinner with her when she excuses herself for the “powder room”, then I’d know she was real.

Mark is starring in The Temperamentals at New Theatre until 3 March. Check it out here.

Q&A: Kevin Jackson

Throughout this year Artist Card is going to be chatting with a whole bunch of artists based in Sydney about what they’re up to and what gets their creative juices flowing. To launch the year I caught up with Kevin Jackson, who is an actor, director, and a teacher at NIDA for the last 28 years. He not only has a play coming up at the New Theatre but Griffin is lucky enough to be hosting one of his acting masterclasses. Here’s what he had to say:

What are you working on currently?

I am currently directing  an American play THE TEMPERAMENTALS by Jon Marans at the New Theatre for Mardi Gras Festival, 2012. It is about the Mattachine Society that was formulated in the early 1950’s to pursue human rights for sexual minorities. Most of us have an apprehension that Stonewall in the 1960’s was the beginning of civil action for sexual minority rights. The Mattachine Society began in the twilight of the aftermath of World war II into the Cold War and the dreaded McCarthy Communist witch hunt when, Black rights and Women’s rights were also stirring into action. It is a fascinating play dealing with the politics but also the disturbing personal struggles of the men dealing with the navigation of their own life relationship behaviour in these repressive times. A group of young artists: Doug Hansell, Ben McIvor, Brett Rogerrs, Mark Dessaix and Daniel Scott are my fellow ‘toilers”’. It opens on February 8th. I am also working on a Chinese play by Nobel Prize winner and political exile, Gao Xingjian at the University of NSW .

The big project for me,  is to set up a space for professional actors to be able to maintain and challenge their craft through classes etc. To that end the Griffin Theatre has asked me to run some Masterclasses in March. The classes will begin with a demonstration of my approach to the work :The Creative Habit, and progressively apply it to intensive work on contemporary theatre writing. Check out the website.

Who, or what, inspires you to create?

The world around me. The stories that I feel need to be told in the theatre as a way to help us focus our energies positively for appreciation and change in society. My great impetus is the work of Ariane Mnouchkine and her Theatre De Soliel and the work of  Lloyd Newson and DV8. Good writing and good acting. Meryl Streep for ever !!! The theatre should be Entertainment, Enlightenment and Ecstasy.

What was the most interesting thing you saw recently?

I think the most interesting and beautifully crafted work in the theatre I have recently seen would be POSTS IN THE PADDOCK produced by My Darling Patricia and Moogahlin Performing Arts at the Performance Space. It set a bench mark approach approach and results in the new developments of presenting the Australian Indigenous stories to us.
I loved MELANCHLOIA, THE SKIN I LIVE IN and the recent broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera of the Philip Glass SATYAGRAHA (on the African politics of Gandhi) directed by Phelim McDermott and designed by Julian Crouch with a team of performers from Improbable Theatre in London - totally amazing. They are showing another work THE ENCHANTED ISLAND in early February - I can hardly wait.

What is the best piece of advice that you’ve been given?

Read, read, read. Watch, watch, watch. Look and hear with all the senses. Work hard and aim to do it well. Honest commitment to all the tasks. Be aware of the real world.

Who, past or present, would you like to share a meal with and why?
I would like to be present at a meal with a great cook and have conversation with Stanislavsky and Nemirovitch-Dantchenko from the past. Meryl Streep today. Anybody who feels compelled to create- their energy could be infectious  to me- an exciting proposition, potential.

To find more info about Kevin’s masterclass at Griffin go here: http://www.griffintheatre.com.au/development/workshops/