LeLand Gantt Acting Coach
Script analysis. Scene study. Monologue tuning. Character development. Expanding "sight", ie "choice
08/05/2022
05/05/2022
"Here’s the thing, guys.
It doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t matter when life begins.
It doesn’t matter whether a fetus is a human being or not.
That entire argument is a red herring, a distraction, a subjective and unwinnable argument that could not matter less.
It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about a fertilized egg, or a fetus, or a baby, or a five year old, or a Nobel Prize winning paediatric oncologist.
NOBODY has the right to use your body, against your will, even to save their life, or the life of another person.
That’s it.
That’s the argument.
You cannot be forced to donate blood, or marrow, or organs, even though thousands die every year, on waiting lists.
They cannot even harvest your organs after your death without your explicit, written, pre-mortem permission.
Denying women the right to abortion means we have less bodily autonomy than a co**se."
Seeing is believing
I became a lifetime member of The Actors Studio, my artistic home, in 1988, which means that for the last 31 years I have been a student of “The Method”––the study and practice of bringing your imagination to bear on your five senses and emotional landscape to create and live in a moment-to-moment present-reality on stage.
I wrote and developed RHAPSODY IN BLACK, an internationally touring autobiographical solo show, at The Actors Studio, with this ethos uppermost in my mind. The self-excavation process necessary to write––and then re-experience––this piece, which delineates my personal trials with the demon racism, has given me a much richer understanding of the adage “It all starts with you.” And working so closely with the incredible, indomitable force of nature that is Estelle Parsons as my Directorial Consultant has been nothing short of a Master Class on the authenticity of “being”––not to mention a primer on the importance of “sight.”
Sight: what one is able to see. For an actor, it’s all about choices. Choosing is everything. But what to choose? Where do I start? How do I begin to approach this character, this role, this “other?” On the premise that one cannot choose what one cannot see, one begins with what one CAN see. And the Method teaches us that it all begins with YOU. What do you and this “other” have in common? Gender, perhaps? Religion? Ethnicity, sexual orientation, height, weight, socio-economic background? Once you get past the obvious, superficial things, though, where do you go?
As a coach, I can help you find more choices. If you already have a choice, I can help you explore and refine it––or jettison it, if need be. I can help you hone your technique, and become more facile with your instrument.