Montauk Pioneer - April 17, 2009 - Training For The Movies

You just might want to sign up this year for Gary Swanson's acting classes in Montauk. They are legendary and a truly wonderful experience, as well as a great way to make connections with very important people. Gary has spent his entire professional life in the business of film, television and theatre.

After completing his degree in English Literature and graduating with honors from C.W. Post College, Swanson put aside a career as a professional diver and began working immediately as an actor in New York City. He starred in the NBC soap opera Sommerset for two years. While on that show he met with the famed acting teacher and father of "The Method," Lee Strasberg. Gary studied with Strasberg both privately and at the Actors Studio after auditioning and becoming one of the very few life time members accepted into the elite acting company. Under Strasberg's tutelage, Gary become one of the highest rated actors on television.

Gary continued his work with Strasberg for eight years while building his career as a working actor in New York and Los Angeles. His movie career kicked off in 1974, and since then he has starred in 15 feature films. He has guest starred in numerous nighttime series, Movies Of the Week, theatrical productions and over 150 national network commercials. Some may remember him as "The Irish Spring Man" or the "Foster Grant" man.

Gary Swanson is now preparing his fourth summer running the Montauk Group Acting Workshop. This is not your ordinary workshop. Full-time commitments that start at sun-up and go until late evening, these workshops propel an actor months, if not years, ahead in the acting process. They are hugely fun and full-on experiences that can change forever the career of an actor, writer, director, or performer of any type, all in the gorgeous Montauk setting.

Gary is one of the true remaining gurus of real method acting and arguably one of the best teachers in the country. If you know somebody that loves acting and wants to take it seriously this summer, definitely look into what Gary has to offer.

Gary is a big advocate of sense memory or sensory work which he feels is a vital component. It may be vital to the method acting technique, yet it remains misunderstood among many actors according to Gary. Its teaching becomes controversial among certain teachers who profess to employ the Stanislavski system. But, without this work it is extraordinarily difficult to create the natural stimulus within an actor so he/she will respond in a true fashion to the imaginary circumstances of a play a film.

According to Gary, today's movies frequently utilize green screens to create extreme imaginative scenes for the audience. When working alone in front of a green screen, Gary asks his students how do you create an alien landscape or the lively hills of Austria? He also explains that acting requires the repetition of performances. Unless the senses are trained to respond to imaginary circumstances there can be no guarantee that the actor's instrument will respond under the duress of the requirements of the commercial arena.

"Sense Memory is the basic foundation upon which Stanislavski built his system. To eliminate it from acting or teaching is to attempt to build a skyscraper on air, without steel, concrete, or earth to support it," states William Easty in his book On Method Acting.

Many famous actors and actresses including academy award nominees/winners Mickey Rourke, Ellen Burstyn, Paul Newman, Al Pacino, Jessica Lang, Sean Penn, Melissa Leo, Christopher Walken, Angelina Jolie and others such as Adam Sandler and Alec Baldwin use exercises and etudes designed by Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theater in the mid-1800s that were further developed by Lee Strasberg, artistic director of the Group Theater and the Actor's Studio. Stanislavski discovered the relationship between taste, touch, sight, smell and sound and the retrieval and activation of the inner emotional life of the actor. It sets the stage for the actor to be able to respond truly to imaginary circumstances.

Gary Swanson currently teaches sensory work to the membership of the Actor's Studio, and for one week in July Gary and his assistants will train actors in this work as well as with improvisations and exercises passed from the Moscow Art Theater to the Actor's Studio. At the end of the intensive, trained and professional actors will be able to implement this profound art into their work in the industry, and new actors will be ready to begin the second phase, scene-work, as well as have a new understanding of acting to take with them for the rest of their lives.

Accommodation is included in the overall price of $1299. Discounts are available for early payment and no prerequisites or experience is required. Actors are handpicked in a selection process. Actors of all levels of experience are encouraged to apply.

The Academy Award nominations for the leading male actors in 2008 were all seasoned actors, age 45 or older. What this point could tell us is that esoteric form of acting called the Method that the originated with Constantin Stanislavski and was further developed by Lee Strasberg is in peril of being lost. Perhaps that is because it's the only art form that needs to by passed from person to person.

Unlike other acting workshops, Gary's Flagship MG Summer Program takes the actor throughout the entire acting process from initial read to filmed product and includes everything in between. The program intensifies the developmental process of the actor's instrument and assembles a wide range of dramatic information and teaches its commercial and artistic application. These tools and materials can then be used to construct a tangible production. During this program students will learn sensory work, improvisation and exercises developed from the groundbreaking Moscow Art Theater. For one full-month, six days per week, the actors will live and breathe their craft. This group of young people start each day with sunrise workouts with actor and certified personal trainer Michael Tucci and move into a group breakfast and onto acting work by ten. The work goes until the late afternoon and a break for frisbee on the beach and backyard barbecues of striped sea bass brought in by local fisherman are offered up. At night Gary throws movies on the big screen, and students analyze performances and listen to guest speakers from the industry. Accommodation in the artists lodge is included in the overall price of $5499. Prerequisites for this course are prior training in method acting or participation in the 8-day sensory workshop that takes place the week prior. You can get in touch with Gary by visiting his website www.garyswanson.org.