MONTAUK COLUMNS
From An Actor's Point of View
“Be bold and the mighty gods will stand behind you.”
by Gary Swanson
Where those words came from, I'm not sure. But - whenever I've dared to put that expression into play, energy changes, power commingles with clarification; answers no longer logically flow from the inception of questions asked; they instead blast actions into results. A few adults and most children know this rule to be true, but -- most are afraid to admit it. Cautious adults actively forget it. Hence; fear of action immobilizes them, unfortunately, sometimes for a life time.
Some live lives of boldness. They do not have to be famous or infamous. We all know the daring chance takers in our midst as we breath through life; we know them whenever we meet them. They can be bar owners, police, plumbers, doctors or fisherman or actors running for President of The United States.
Montauk may be the original melting pot of daring doers who live with wind hard at their sails. This idiosyncratic little town has more than it's cache of outlaws, stars, intellects, artists and simple people who dare to wear brass on their baseball caps. Paulie Graves, Ryan Barnds, Roberta Gosman, Chip Duryea, Ingrid Lemme, Nick and Claire Deane, Peter Beard, Edward Albee, Julian Schnabel, Carolyn and Gino Balducci, the late race car driver, Robert Akin and our very own Kenny Guistino are just a small Whitman Sampler of The End's most wanted.
But the ones who are currently or still in the conversations, who are or or still are famous, stand as the paradigms of force, the ones that we look to and clearly understand as "The Bold." Think of Mohammed Ali, Abe Lincoln, Marlon Brando, Leanardo Di Vinci, Mother Teresa, Joan D' Arc, Katherine Hepburn, Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Al Sharpton, John Stewart, The Wright brothers, Vasco Da Gama, Van Gogh, Lenny Bruce, Hitler and Christ. (This concept does not make a person good or bad: John Gotti was a bad man but no one can deny he was bold).
There are those of us who have moments of winsome bravery only to regress back to the safety of anonymity, security, stability -- living "lives of quite desperation" -- to quote Henry David Thoreau. They would hold to the statement, "There are bold pilots and there are old pilots. But there are no old, bold pilots."
Most actors who sustain the test of time live in presumptuous daring. Some make it to old, some do die young, brash and new looking. Anyone with the temerity to stand in front of large groups of people, daring to change that audience, energize, cajole, move their spirits to action, emotion, thought or insight them to fight must have the command of themselves that others lack. They must be able to guide the power of their own impulses in the direction of choice while confronting adversity or even the hostility of a crowd waiting, demanding to be informed, entertained or enlightened; daring the one in the center to alter them, then and there - perhaps forever.
This will be the second year of The Montauk Group, an acting/production company I've been forming for the last two years. Last year I had a group of five to ten (it varied throughout out the summer) and we worked weekends into Monday or Tuesday all summer in Montauk and New York City. We've had a year of productions, hard work and much success. This year, most of the knots in the line have been undone and things are going more like the dream that I had when I started.
I will never stop marveling at young actors who dare to struggle like chicks out of the shell squirming, wiggling, cracking the thin white wall to freedom and into the harsh light. Anyone who has ever tried to act, knows how much they shake before they get up and face the crowd. I've been working with one gifted young actor for two years who works harder than any I've ever seen. Brett Fleischer, who at twenty-two years, old works out, reads Ancient Greek Literature like comic books and studies plays and novels with voracious hunger. He watches numerous films, actors and directors with the intensity of a Samurai learning The Art Of War while in war.
When we first started working in my New York class and in private sessions he had all the insecurities, self doubts, personal criticisms that all of us do when we venture into "the world of the fantastic," as Tennessee Williams called it. Last summer and this summer as well, he has not touched a drop of liquor. At 7AM he will be stretching to go on his run around Fairview Ave. He and most of TMG train and learn the art of boxing with Benny Garces . Most week day afternoons you will find Brett making sandwhiches for money at Herb's. He has a very supportive family and they would gladly finance him, but - he makes sandwiches.
I now pick Brett out of the group not to slight any of the others who are working hard and full of the great gusto one needs to act. But Brett has become the paradigm, the Marlon Brando/Jimmy Dean of the Montauk Group. He cleared that path and created that position. He sets the pace for the pack and because of his boldness he keeps the pressure on all of us to be fast on the ice. Because if you don't keep up with him -- he'll shove you off the rink and through the plexiglass. This kid has "brash" and the Mighty Gods behind him. You just watch him go.
If you're a local or would like to learn more about working with The Montauk Group, go to www.garyswanson.org and someone will get back to you.
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