Mark Evans Studio

YOU'VE GOT TO GET IT DONE! Earlier this year I accepted a job offer that sounded appealing to me as a way to exercise my inner clown as an actor. The job offer was to play Squidward Q. Tentacles in The SpongeBob Musical at Sacramento Music Circus.  Well, I am currently DOING that job and I want to share a little something with you that I've been reminded of through this experience.  Firstly, this is a summer stock gig. What does that mean? I call it microwave theatre ;-)  You have less than two weeks to put together a FULL scale Broadway/West End caliber production and then perform it for just one week and then, ping, the job is done and its over.  What that means is that there's very little time for discovery or nurturing. You, as an actor or singer or dancer (or all three) are required to fully commit to bold choices in order to see what works and what doesn't in as little time as possible. There is absolutely zero room to be precious about anything. It can be daun...

  You’re Not Being Assessed! I recently was leading auditions for an Off Broadway play that I am on the creative team for.  I am always genuinely ROOTING for every single person who walks into the space.  I always find it so interesting to witness the behavior of all the different actors that walk in. You’re reading this because you're clearly curious and want to continue expanding and growing in your work. What I want to share with you is this:  You are in that room for the creative team to explore your skill set,  not to assess your worthiness of being in the room in the first place.  Multiple people walked in and were clearly SO focussed on making a lasting or good impression that it often got in the way of us getting to truly see their work.  Feeling discomfort standing in front of a panel is a REAL THING. Trust me, I’ve felt it too.  But if you allow the moment to be ABOUT that discomfort by cracking a lot of jokes or commenting too much on...

  What Would Somebody Have To Know To Play You? This is a direct quote from the wonderful acting teacher Larry Moss. Ask yourself “What would somebody have to know to play me?” If there was a biopic about your life, think of the long, long conversations an actor could have with you (if they were lucky enough to access to you) about all the little details of your life and the specific memories you have and the little nuanced quirks within your personality. We’re so complex, right?! Why then, are we so impatient when it comes to trying to get to know the human being we’re bringing to life in a scene? In order to behave impulsively, instinctively and spontaneously in the circumstances of a scene we must first understand the scene, the circumstances, the conflict and WHY each character is saying what they’re saying. That's when you can allow the character to be fully fleshed out by your own version of each of these things. With YOUR point of view and YOUR understanding of these n...

  The Reliability Of Change.  I often say that there is one similarity between the entertainment industry and being a parent: Just when you think you’ve figured it out, something proves you wrong. The nap schedule changes. Your TV pilot doesn’t get picked up. Your kid doesn’t like that food anymore. The show you’re on announces it’s closing. Your kids pediatrician announces she’s leaving the office indefinitely The vacation you just booked needs to be canceled because you booked the job you thought you didn’t get.  What we do as artists - especially if you’re a professional artist and creating/performing is ideally how you pay the bills - is extremely vulnerable.  I do private coaching with a lot of students and I often see a recurring theme of “I will be happy when……..” coming up in the work. Oftentimes it’s “If I just book this job” or “once I get an agent” or “when I make my Broadway debut.  I believe this way of thinking works against us (and I say “ us” b...

  It’s the taking part that counts We’ve all heard the saying right? “It’s not about winning, it’s the taking part that counts”.  I want you to focus on the second part of that phrase and remember it. I teach and coach a lot of students and there seems to be a similar theme in a lot of them recently, where I’ve found myself regularly promoting participation .  I’ll give a few examples. “I have an Actors Access page but I haven’t activated it yet” “I was asked to audition for a student film but I’m not sure if I’m gonna submit” “I have been given the email address of a casting director who’s casting a project I know I’m right for but I haven’t emailed them yet”  After we discussed these things, I helped my students discover for themselves what the clear reason was in their decision making. Here’s the truth they courageously shared: “Once I go ‘live’ with it, I’ll feel more professional and what happens if I never book a job?” “What if I don’t even get picked to do an ...

  Allow room for failure I’m getting real and personal here for a moment, which I think is important as a teacher of artists and an artist myself. I recently had a therapy session where I described the week I had just completed to my therapist.  This was the list and the role I was in for each thing: I shot an episode of a show that’s on Netflix - Acting I ran two rehearsals of The Play That Goes Wrong - Associate Directing I private coached 15 students - Coaching I presented a brand new class that I created to a large group of actors. Some of whom I’ve never met - Teaching I taught two additional classes that I created the concept for - Teaching I started potty training our daughter (along with my husband) who is a year and ten months old - Parenting And…… I had friends over to our house for an overdue catch up and fun night together - DRINKING!!!!!! ;-) I explained to my therapist that I felt a little overwhelmed and he said he understood because that’s a substantial list. H...

  Breathe a Sigh Of Relief I am currently reading ‘Freeing The Natural Voice’ by Kristin Linklater.  She gives an incredible amount of detailed guidance to breathing in a way that frees you into your most authentic, expressive self. She talks about inspiration and expiration (breathing in and breathing out) and teaches an exercise where the small, simple, honest expiration (outward breath) should be focused on as a ‘ sigh of relief’ I want to encourage you to think of as many things as possible that you can free yourself up from by giving them a metaphoric and literal sigh of relief.   Do you have tension in your shoulders? Give it a sigh of relief and let it go. Has your day been challenging and made you feel stressed? Give it a sigh of relief and let it go.  Do you have a bunch of thoughts racing around your mind right now? Give them a sigh of relief and let them go.  Do you have someone in your life who no longer SHOULD be? Give them a sigh of relief and l...