AN ACTOR FOR LIFE

When I was just twenty-seven years old, I felt called to teach other actors what teachers had instilled in me. I’m now forty years old and don’t plan on slowing down anytime soon!

My teaching is about exploring possibilities: in you, the text, the experience, the human experience, the environment, and reminding fellow actors that you want to be present in your work and in your life. You want to be closely read and closely studied. To be authentic in your instrument and in your heart. You want to honor the fact that this is a collaboration through which you are exploring possibilities.

Stanislavsky’s invitation to love the art in ourselves, over ourselves in the art, provides a touchstone that brings us back to WHY we do this thing called acting. We love the art. We love the action in the art. It’s our honor and privilege to serve others for the art we love, yes?

This awareness keeps actors’ instruments in shape and reminds them that indeed they are actors! It feeds their soul and self-esteem. Is it even possible to deliver our art without the craft? Do we not love (and need) to sharpen, hone, and deepen our tools? I hope so!

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my many parts to play both as an actor and coach and look forward to many more. In my quiet times, I ask myself: Is it not an act of love and joy to fulfill just the doing of it, apart from the outcome?

Yes, brave ones. It’s the way to be an actor for life.

– Natalia XOX