Montreal Canada's Theatre 314
Independent Performing Arts Space Teaches Acting Basics
Part Five - Theatre Sans Auditons
Montreal's Theatre 314 has a variety of things happening, eclectic shows, film festivals, workshops and classes. You teach acting class, so what do you mean by “theatre formulas?”
Adam Kelly: “Right now, I am teaching a beginner’s acting class. That’s the best way to describe it. I am condensing my first three years of acting training (Adam has several degrees including an M.FA in Acting from Toronto’s York University) into eight weeks.
“I am taking the best stuff that I learned from my undergraduate acting degree. That was principally about the basics – how to be able to walk onstage, how to trick yourself into the fact that there is an audience there, and how to perform.
"We cover physical, vocal, and text analysis, getting into a little physical and vocal character development. It’s the basic stuff that every conservative conservatory acting program is going to teach you."
What do you look for in an audition?
Adam Kelly: “For the beginner’s class at this stage, I don’t even audition people. I’m generally not a fan of the audition process. I cast people based on whether I get along with them or not. They need to be somewhat competent, but I think you can get a lot of that from watching them do cold reads (reading the script sight unseen) and how they approach cold reads.
“You are going to get two schools of things. You will get people who are trying stuff out, and it’s not working very well, or you will get people who are just doing straight reads. These are the two options, and both of these have a whole range of possibilities of things that can happen.
“In a straight read, you can do it cleanly and well, or you may have trouble with cold readings, and it’s coming out choppy and difficult. I think just from doing that, you can learn a lot about what a performer’s process is going to be, and what they are going to bring to it.
“I did not audition anyone for Alan’s Search. I met people and I spoke with them. I had seen two of the performances that two of the actresses had done, because they are both sketch comediennes.
“Generally, that’s what I am going to do, and that’s what I am going to teach. I am going to teach people that when they audition, different 'auditioners' have different things that they are looking for. But I think the best thing you can do is to show them that you are someone that they can work with. It depends on the specific character you are reading for, and many other things. But one thing’s for sure. I am not going to not work with anyone who’s 'on' when they read for me.
"But that’s just my way of doing things. Another director might be ‘Oh, she’s fantastic. She’s on…’ They are interested in who the actor is as a person. They came in and they were on. They were alive. They made "Juicy Fruit" happen. I am just not interested in that."
Part Six - The Future of Anglo Theatre in Montreal and Theatre in general in the Wake of Global Recession.
Adam Kelly
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