The Now!
Embrace, invest, live in and commit to the phrase that you’re saying, NOW! Fulfill the present moment. The past is over, the future will arrive – awareness of either will undermine your commitment to the present. Don’t worry about the next line, the next action, the next transition, but fully inhabit the immediacy and importance of THIS moment.
Act on impulse in the now. Be compelled to respond from pure awareness, from intense looking and listening. Act from necessity in the moment. Allow behavior that happens, not behavior that is planned - alive, dynamic, electric performance.
Yes, risk forgetting the next line – it’s the only way to breathless, moment-to-moment work. Only what is true in the moment has importance.
Each rehearsal, each performance becomes a true experiment, an improv with text. Intense looking and listening is also the secret to great acting for the camera.
As the great American actress, Geraldine Page, once said: “Actors must be like creatures of the forest, whose very lives depend upon looking and listening.”
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Testimonials
"He taught more than any other teacher I had . . . is responsible for creating the kind of actor I am today. He taught me how to truly take risks in my work, invest authentically in my characters, and expect nothing but professionalism from myself and my colleagues. Peter’s standards were high and exacting, and as a student, I was thrilled to be held to them. It was the first time I had been treated like an actor, not just as a student. The method that Peter taught is still one that I use today – he gave me the tools to access, emotionally and intellectually, very dense material. He allowed me to see that with every character, every piece there is always a way that is deeper and truer than you first imagine.”Julianne Moore, Actress