WKXL - New Hampshire Talk Radio
NH Unscripted with Michael Cobb
Stage actors looking for an edge should lend an ear to today’s episode. WKXL's NH Unscripted had Michael Cobb from "truepenny arts” gave me a captivating hour to talk about his upcoming workshops. He had a lead role in Donald Tongue’s award winning short film “Home Burial”. Here is just a sample of his pedigree: “...movement improv in Boston, onstage at Trinity (including study and casting and advice by/from Richard Jenkins, some other names), including three-hander with another Tony nominee/Olympic Speed skater/Renfield to Frank Langella's Dracula on Broadway, Dallas Theatre Center lead, crashing Emmy-winning choreographer's audition and getting national broadcast on PBS out of it, year as leadership in the now Gamm Theater there, M.A. at Brown, years in the Adirondacks doing theatre, training at A.R.T./Moscow Art Theatre School to be voice/speech/text coach, STUDYING ACTING WITH MOSCOW ART THEATRE FACULTY, going to Moscow to study/teach/see theatre for three months, getting hired as Head of Voice, Speech, and Text (including teaching Shakespeare) at National Theatre Conservatory in Denver (including coaching at Denver Center Theater)…” Well worth the listen.
- Duration:
- 44m
- Broadcast on:
- 26 Jul 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
(upbeat music) - Welcome back. Happy listening to NH Unscripted. Don't give up on us now, baby. We still are with one more try. I am your David Soul Likos rain. Dudley, we are coming to you from the Rowan and Martin Laffen like digs of the WK XL Studios in Concord. Break out those Sony Walkmans or your transistor radios, which I'm kind of partial to. Fire up the radio side and you'll find us at 1450 AM or 103.9 FM, both of those are conquered based, 101.9 FM for the beautiful souls in Manchester, nhtonkradio.com is our URL because yeah, we're cool kids. You wanna be cool too, you can go out there, find some more stuff. I'll talk a little bit about that later, but nhtonkradio.com is our URL. I need to take a moment. Thank our sponsor. Lake tweeting, "Fence out of Guilford." It is getting, we are mid-summer, mid-summer. And if you've been thinking about getting rid of that piece of junk, you're calling a fence in your yard. Well, you're kind of running out of time. Matt and the boys are four to six weeks out right now. Talk to Matt the other day, they are busy, busy, busy, but go to lrfence.com, lrfence.com. There's a button out there, we can get a free estimate, chain link, cedar, poly vinyl, whatever that stuff is, the white stuff, they do it all, pool fences, they do property line fences, sport court fences, they do it all and they do it incredible. And I mean this sincerely, that's not just hyperbole. They do incredible work. We really appreciate men, his folks up there, lakes, region fence, lrfence.com. Do they have reams of photos out there at their website? And you can see all of their work. And it is stellar, absolutely stellar. Matt, we thank you so much for sponsoring this show. lrfence.com is their URL. Go out there. Okay. Sometimes, sometimes this show gets out of hand, it gets a little silly. There are other times when we get into the things which I really, really enjoy. And that has to do with the mechanics of acting. In studio with me today is a good friend of mine, Michael Cobb, good morning, sir. Hey, sir. Good to have you back. We're gonna talk a lot, a lot today, about mechanics of acting, voice over work, that kind of stuff. And before we get too deep in the weeds, Michael, how are things of truth, any? What's happening out there? Oh, goodness gracious, we're gearing it up. And I have some marketing pushes going on and a couple of activities. Yeah? Yeah, moving up. Yeah. So we have, the first one is virtual and that is something, it's kind of hard to do it on audio, but it's true penny art. So the graphic is a penny and then for your thoughts. So it's penny or true penny for your thoughts. And I was seeking a way to be able to further and fulfill true pennies mission. And I remembered, I don't know if you were familiar with this, remember Garrison Keeler. Yes. Used to do once a day, it was called the Writers Almanac. It was, I think, on public radio. Okay. And he would feature, usually if there was a writer who was born on that day, he would, you know, feature the writer. It's only like five or 10 minutes long. And he would usually, he would read a poem. And I remembered that and I thought, huh. I thought maybe I could draw quotes from online searches, other sources and including my own personal experience with teachers, directors and who had said things that I'd heard, you know, while I was in the room that had caught my ear and that I'd remembered. And... Although she's random quotes or were they like accolades for... No, I'm talking about quotes, I'm talking about words of wisdom or things that just stuck with me. And so I thought I could get a bunch of those together. And, you know, just being out in the community, I live in New Hampton and I was going by the New Hampton Community School, which is an elementary school. And they had a wonderful little quote about excellence, you know, on their board for the public to see. So gathering those things together and offering them every other week. I have a new marketing person who's working with me. So they'll be on Instagram, Facebook. We link it to Granistage, NHCTA, you know, yeah, their Facebook page. I'm thinking about putting it out. We put the intro out on a Mailchimp as well and actually went more nationally with, you know, people that I know. I've been a little timid about that, but I thought, hey, you know, anybody could maybe get a little boost from the song. - Did you already put that out there? - We've already put out the first one. The first one was... So when my marketing person suggested Instagram, I said, well, if Instagram is pictures, then why don't we have, if we're gonna have a quote, why don't we have a picture? - I love the person with quotes, you know. - Good idea. - So we had, the first one was Seershire Ronin, the actress Seershire Ronin, you know, she was in Little Women, she was in Lady Bird, really great young actress. And she had a quote, "Learning is the most important thing, "no matter how you do it, or where you do it, "or who you do it with." And I just thought that would be a great way, you know, to start things off. So we're gonna offer it every other Wednesday. So this Wednesday, another one will be coming out. And yeah, trying to see if there's any other, yeah, no, like I said, Facebook, Instagram, and maybe MailChimp. So I'm hoping that, you know, they can be inspirational. Also thought provoking, you know, I've picked some quotes. I've got a pairing of quotes from, I'm trying not just to do old white men, you know, and I'm trying not to fix it all up, you know what I'm saying? And keep things moving forward. And, but I do have one pairing of quotes from Konstantin Stanislavski and Billy Wilder. That might seem to contradict one another, you know, just to get people's, you know, it's things bubbling and perfectly. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I wanna back up just a little bit and talk about True Penny itself, the mission. So tell, for people who aren't familiar with True Penny, tell us about how it started, why it started, what you hope to accomplish with it as a vision. I mean, always that changes, but that's the name of the game of the road map, right? - Right. - So give us an overview about True Penny. Why it even came into being and where it's going? - Well, I mean, it came into being out of my mind and kind of the same way. I used to see a lot of theater people do this and I always hear about musicians doing this. Oh, that would be a great name for a band. Oh, that would be a great name for a theater, right? - Yeah. - And the word True Penny stuck out to me. It's from Hamlet. It's when Hamlet is, he's already met with his father, his father's ghost. And he comes back to Horatio and Bernardo. I'm not sure who it is. And then they go, track down the ghost. The ghost kind of is around and kind of says something and he says, "Ha, art thou there, True Penny." And that word caught my eye in, so I looked it up and it means a trustworthy, honest, or reliable person. As in, for example, a coin of genuine metal. - Got you. - Yes. And that stuck with me, as a theater artist, the idea that what people could trust, what it is that I provided, if they're gonna shell it out, that they feel like it's a reasonably good gamble. And also from the other end, the idea of being true to the art and true to myself and true to others in what I'm doing. So, you know, I guess to some extent that could sound like a tall order, but maybe it's not, maybe it's simple. - Yeah. So, you, True Penny came about the organization, the, not the title, yes, yes, thank you, the entity, came about because you obviously saw something, a niche or something that needed to be filled, that something was lacking or something that you thought needed to be brought to the market. And what is that exactly? - Well, if I had to think of a niche, - Yeah. - Well, you can, you can call it every wall but. - I would say again, that it came out of, again, from a very idealistic place. I've used the name for years. - Yeah. - I've never, you know, moved as fully on it as I am now. - Yeah. - Yeah, you can finish that if you want to. But, no, I'm good. - Okay. - All right, we'll put a pin in that right there. - Hang on. Whoo, cliffhanger already. So soon, you are listening to NH Unscripted. I am your glad to be out of bed host Ray Dudley. We are coming to you 1450 AM 103.9 FM in Kankit, 101.9 FM in Manchester, nh.gradio.com is our URL. I give you a little bit more info about what's going on up there later. Michael Cobb is in the house and I got a page full of things to talk to him about. We'll be right back. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Yeah, they ran through the briars and they ran through the scrambles and they ran through the bushes. Where rapping couldn't go. That's the Battle of New Orleans. Johnny Horton, that you are listening to NH Unscripted. You just gotta throw that out there, you know? It's kind of what we do, you know? You listen to Ray Dudley, I am your host. We are coming to you 1450 AM 103.9 FM in Kankit, 101.9 FM for the beautiful souls in Manchester, nh.gradio.com is our URL where all of the cool people hang out. Now you wanna be cool, you go out there just not yet. Michael Cobb's in the house with me. We're talking True Penny Arts. That's his organization, his entity, his baby. Michael, what does True Penny teach? What, if someone went out to your website and said, oh, I'm curious. I am looking for a skill set. If they go out to True Penny Arts, what would you invite them to be able to do? - Well, right now, the instructor at True Penny Arts is me. - Okay. - And I, through this process of actually come to the recognition, you know, I worry sometimes 'cause I'm gonna be offering classes in acting, both contemporary and classical, voice for actors, speech for actors. I could have offer accent dialect. I'm not as, you know, enthusiastic about that as I might be, but I have that skill in spades. And also, one thing I am enthusiastic about is use of language. How do you use language effectively? - Will we, can we park there for a second? - 'Cause now I'm intrigued. What do you mean by that, are there, are you talking about proper usage of say an adjective or an adverb or just a language in general? What do you mean by? - Yeah, well, in terms of this specifically, I had the privilege. Actually, I first, one of the first serious trainings I did was in voice and speech. When I was in college, I went away to do intensives with this gentleman by the name of Arthur Lassach. And then much later in my career, I was interested in teaching professionally. So I went looking for programs. I didn't have a credential to do that. So I went looking for programs. And I applied to the voice pedagogy program at, this is a long title. The American Repertory Theater, Moscow Art Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard. And I couldn't believe it that I got in. And so I trained there for two and a half years and that's really where I started to get a sense of this thing having to do with, they'll call it text work, right? So I guess maybe the more most kind of obvious example that people would be familiar with is, if you hear somebody talk and they always end of their sentence like this, you know? Everything they say drops, right? So one principle of text work would be, the way I term it would be this idea of carrying the energy through. When I worked at the National Theater Conservatory, the head of the school used to like to make the point that theater, as opposed to film, theater is an oral art form. So whereas in film that the camera and the camera work is carrying the audience through the piece, that since oftentimes, not always, but oftentimes there's so much language involved in a play that that is what is carrying the audience through. So if, for example, in the example that I just gave, everything is going boom. And then it stops. And then it stops. And then it stops. You know, it is more quote unquote natural to the way we talk now. But even given that, there's a way to carry it through so that the audience isn't exhausted by stop, start, stop, start, stop, start. Likewise, if you're in a, you have a longer speech or which is often the case in more older texts, classical texts and stuff like this, the idea of being able, you started to mention grammatical terms, being able to key into the grammar in order to help the audience, please, be able to understand what's being said and carry them through the much longer thoughts, thoughts meaning in the text being expressed that one finds in those texts. I mean, if you have something like Tony Kushner or somebody like that, some writers today also, you know, that'll be a similar thing. But I think any monologue, you know, you want to carry the audience through to the end and get the payoff and, you know, when we talk, just as I know, we'll keep talking until we feel like we've fulfilled our goal in speaking. Yeah, right, so. No, that's fascinating. So do you think that that skill is lacking just simply because of a societal thing? We just don't learn to continue talking through the topic or the subject. Well, I mean, I think about this mostly, the sort of question that you're asking in terms of a voice because, you know, there's like a affliction of people who teach voice is that they'll be ultra sensitive themselves, you know, in terms of their own voice, et cetera, et cetera. And of course, sensitive to what they're hearing from other people and you start to think, wow, you know, why is that person's voice raspy, right? Why is it nasally? Why, you know, when you think about it, so many different factors can come into play. Diet, you know, exercise, rest, you know, social environment, you know, emotional circumstances and such. So, you know, in terms of your question about text, we, you know, one of this is kind of a commonly made point. We live in more of a sound, bite society, right? So, there's no, you know, you don't often get to carry a thought through. So, the skill, it's interesting watching, you know, or in campaign season, watching political speeches because that's one instance where, you know, that is incumbent upon that task. Yeah, I would think this would be vitally important to say somebody who does audio books. Because if you're correct, and I assume you are, since you're the expert, you can't, you cannot have that continual downturn at the end of every sentence because you're reading pages at a time. Right. And you have to, there has to be a carry through thought. That has to be huge in that industry. Yeah, I assume it is. I'm actually not, I know, actually from listening to your interview with Alex, she talked about that a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, that people train specifically for that. I've been tempted to, you know, since I've spent so much time with this, you know, think about it myself, but I haven't. And so, sure, I assume, but I can't speak from, you know, any sort of experience with that industry. So, all right. So, I don't want to mind that anyone we have to. But, so what's happening, again, I want to give back to you, if people go out to your website, what would they be going to your website for? What are they like going out there because they're trying to find? Right. Right. Well, in terms of workshops. Yep. That I'm going to be offering. What types? Golly, Jesus, I'm wondering. I didn't even talk about the workshops. Yeah, go ahead. So, I have a new starting September 7th. Yep. And, you know, it's been interesting. I was a professional teacher and coach. I was full-time faculty at the National Theatre Conservatory at the University of Wisconsin, University of Minnesota Guthrie Theatre, Denver Center at the National Theatre Conservatory. So, that's what I was doing before I came here. And then I came here and, you know, it's really, it's tough to find a market, you know, yeah, here. So, I've tried to offer classes before. People haven't, there hasn't been, apparently, people's interest. So, and I get a little sensitive in terms of offering workshops, because I don't want to promise people, you know, that you'll be able to, just from one workshop, be able to, you know, Jehovah God will come down. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. Right. So, I thought, okay, maybe I could focus in workshops on quick takeaway skills. You know, things that people would be able to take away in just, you know, a couple hours. Like what? Well, so for example, in terms of topics, my first one is going to be having to do with bone awareness. What? Yeah. So, or I was kind of going before, is that I realized over the course of my career that I've had the good fortune to gain expertise in a number of different areas, and be trained in a number of different areas, acting, voice, speech, text, and physical work. So, this bone awareness would be coming both from my voice training, and also from the physical work that I've done in the past. Oh, hang on to that. I am, I am deep here. Oh, mother of God! You were listening to NH unscripted, where only the good die young. Yeah, I'm your Billy Joel-like host, way, deadly. You are listening to us, and we're not so overly ostentatious. Digs of the WKXL students in Concord. 1450 AM 103.9 FM, 101.9 FM for the beautiful souls and Manchester, NH talkradio.com is our URL. Michael Cobb, my friend, is in the house, and we are talking business about acting. Yeah, business. We'll be right back. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) You are listening to NH unscripted, where you'll make up my dreams come true. I am your Darryl Hollenautz, like host, Ray Dudley. We are coming to you from the love vote-like conditions of the WKXL studios in Concord. 1450 AM 103.9 FM on your transistor radios that are Concord-based, 101.9 for the beautiful, beautiful souls and Manchester, NH talkradio.com is our URL. Michael Cobb is in the house from True Penny Arts. We are digging in the weeds about performing, and I use that term kind of loosely. Michael, you brought up a term acting, you said some of the bones, bones. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In terms of the tricks, tips, and techniques. Yeah, flesh that out. Maybe I'm going to, yeah. Yeah, so the title of it is the Head Bones Connect to the dot, dot, dot, foot bone, and bone awareness for presence and power. And, you know, the people in singing and acting often times will train, for example, in things like, it's called Alexander Technique. I don't know if you've heard of that. I have not. But there are various different modalities you'll have to do with keying into one's bone structure. You know, we're a very muscularly oriented society. We'll think that that's where we get our strength from, you know, our muscle and our power. Whereas if you think about it, the bones, just like the foundation of a house, are the things that keep the house up. Yup, yup, yup. And in the case of our skeleton, they're also involved in, here's a word that I love 'cause it crosses both voice and speech and physical work is articulation. You know, you usually think of articulation in terms of what you do with your mouth and use of speaking. But if you think about it, when you bend your fingers, you're articulating your fingers. When you bend your knee, you're articulating that. So, you know, actually of the three areas that I feel like I have something to offer in voice, speech, text, acting, and physical work, I would say I feel very confident in my physical work performance resume. I've had less formal training in terms of that, but I feel confident in terms of offering this kind of work, particularly again, from my voice training. And a lot of times work with thinking about the bones implicitly involves considering gravity. Yeah, 'cause the bones, you think about it, they're the thing, we sit, we walk. If we didn't have bones, then we would just kind of go into a blob, right? And all of our organs, and including the ones that have to do with voice and speech, and including our nervous system, would just kind of be flopping there, right? So, oftentimes, both in physical work and in voice work, one of the things that will be kind of encouraged is ways to find space. Find a way to be, rather than being clamped and closed, to find a kind of spaciousness, yes? And so, to be able to find length in one spine, yes? To be able to, in terms of just life, and in terms of voice, so your ribs will be free to move and breathe, yes, and you're nice and open in your chest. Yeah, and just this whole idea I like to, in thinking about these workshops like, I want to do this in more than one. It's this idea of waking up the bottom of one's feet. I had an acting teacher once who promised that he would give us like the five secrets to acting. And this isn't specifically physical work, but it's similar. One of them turned out to be, to use his fancy word, particularize the floor of wherever you are. Yeah, so if you're supposed to be out in the jungle, what's it feel like under your feet in the jungle? And his rationale was, that's the only part of your body that's actually touching something rather than just the air. To put it in a more physical way, you know, in terms of when we're standing, the G forces are, that's where the G forces meet the road, right? So to be able, that one of the principles to kind of echo Isaac Newton's idea of, for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction, this idea of thinking energy down into your feet in order to go up, you know, people will think in terms of quote unquote posture, to stand up straight and they get all stiff. But if you just feel your feet into the ground and think about sending your feet energy down into your feet, like if you were repelling off the side of a cliff, yeah, you push against it. Yeah, you can find your full length in a much more, potentially much more efficient fashion. - So how would somebody, I find this fascinating, how would somebody incorporate that into their character, into their, into the role that you're taking on? So you have something like, let's say, false staff or somebody who like is Julius Caesar, two different characters who would use that same approach, but differently, is that your point, they could both incorporate that same. - This is a question that comes up inevitably in class, it's like, well, you're telling me how to stand up straight, but all my characters don't stand up straight, so why should I learn how to, you know what I'm saying? - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - 'Cause I would ask that. - Right, so one way to think about it is, is to draw distinction between the instrument and the what's being portrayed, or what's being played by the instrument, you know? So I haven't actually thought of it this way before, but it's coming to my brain, like, there's a clarinet piece, and all of a sudden, maybe it's a jazz piece, and it has, the sound wants to be kind of raspy, right? So you're not like taking the clarinet and, you know, the fundamental structure of the clarinet, and twisting it and torquing it in a way that's gonna damage the clarinet, right? Or harm the sound of the clarinet in order to make that sound, you find a way, maybe just to do something just a little bit, that you can just give a taste, and one way to think about this too, is an analogy I used to use is, if you had a white canvas, a completely white canvas, right, and you just put one little teeny speck of red on it, that is gonna speak volumes, you didn't have to flood the whole canvas with paint, right? Yeah. So, and I got this from my teacher, she would say, okay, so my shoulders are supposed to be up as a character, which isn't, you know, ideal physically or vocally, you know, and I wanna make theater particularly, right? So, what do I do? Well, just do it a little. And if the rest of the canvas of your instrument isn't, you know, giving all other kinds of messages, then you've given that message in an efficient and economical way, and you're not incurring the deficit in terms of your vocal production or breathing or stuff like that. Does it take a long time to learn that? I mean, because obviously for some people, that is not gonna come naturally. Right, I would say that sort, that's a sort of thing. One term that people use in terms of that blank canvas that I'm talking about would be neutral, that's also a term that some people don't like, but yeah, that takes time, that takes time. But in terms of bone awareness, one can still get a sense easily, one can just send one's energy down, and one can, you know, there's things where you can get your ribs moving. And just to think about, again, one thing that I will do in class, that people do, they call it a bone scan, you're basically just imagining your bones and your skeleton, and you can start to, like I said, we're very muscularly oriented society. So, yeah. You know, it's funny, if you watch some people who are, I'm gonna call them sort of novices to the performing arts or stage work, a lot of times you'll see that they don't move, they have like their elbows pinned to their sides, and they just kind of throw their hands around while their elbows are stuck there. I could see that being the case where you would say, you know, you're not feeling the bones here. - Is that true, is that something that you see that you-- - Well, I mean, the way that I would respond to that is in terms of all of technique, right? Technique isn't there to bind you, right? Technique is there to help set you free, right? People think, oh, you're gonna ask me to do this and make me do this. Well, you know, maybe just like in martial arts or something. - Yeah. - Sometimes you have to, and these are again, this is not single workshop things. But, you know, you do things for a while, the technique is the means, it's not the end. - Yeah, you know? - Yeah, I do, I do. When I was in college, maybe high school, we used to play theater games, you know, and you would maybe be an object or an animal or something. Oh, man, hang on, I want to flesh that because I really do think it opens people up for a lot more. You were listening to NH Unscripted. My friend, Michael Cobb, is in the house. Yes, we're doing exactly what I get out of bed to do. Chat about acting. My name is Ray, W, I'm your host here with the not so overly ostentatious digs of the WK Excels, studios in Concord, 1450 AM, 103.9, and fam, Concord-based, 101.9 FM in Manchester, nh.crater.com is our URL. Well, come on Mac, I got a lot more to get into here. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Oh, man, I cannot believe I just was told we're going to live the final block. I cannot believe that. Oh, man, lay a little love at it. I'm the baby. You were listening to NH Unscripted. I am your Robin McNamara like host Ray Dudley, and we are coming to you from the gong show like pigs of the WK Excels, studios in Concord. Get out, you transistor radios. For one last segment, 1450 AM, 103.9, FM in Concord, 101.9, FM. For the beautiful folks in Manchester, nh.crater.com is our URL where you can go out. There's a button out there to listen to live. So anytime during the day, you just click that button. You can hear what's going on around the studio, and you can also find the archives of this, what should be an award-winning show, and maybe someday we'll be along with all of the other archived products that we produce here. Michael Cobb is in the house. I hope I have not done him in injustice. He is just, I am captivated. Sir, I stopped you and please continue talking about your workshops. I will remain silent. I just realized maybe I should remind people. So the one I just mentioned, the headphones connected to the foot bone, bone awareness for presence and power. That will be the first one. It will start, that will be on Saturday, September 7th. It'll be a diamond, rolfing and movement studio in Concord. I didn't know that existed. Yeah, it's a pay what you like. Pay what you can, $20 suggested, but it's a blind, just put the money in and away we go. Can they sign up online? Is there a place for them to sign up? You know, I haven't gotten that far. You can email me to let me know that you want to be there. That would be true penny, not penny. T-R-U-E-P-N-N-Y at gmail.com. True Penny Arts also has a Facebook, Instagram and web pages, so you can go there. But the headphones connected to the foot bone will be the first tips, tricks and techniques that you should be able to take away something that you can use just on one workshop. The next one I'm thinking is gonna be about opening up your voice. It's kind of a tall order for one workshop, but there are little tips and tricks that one can do to help open things up and that one can take away with one. And then, you know, I mentioned T-Ray that I went on this track, I trained as a voice speech and text person and got this amazing education and then I got this amazing job. I couldn't believe it. Had a voice speech and text of the National Theater Conservatory where I also got to teach Shakespeare acting and stuff like that. But one thing about that was I got pigeonholed. It was really tough. And it's one thing that's a little bit freeing about being here in New Hampshire, but I got pigeonholed. It's like if you're a voice person, you're a voice person. You're not an acting person, yeah? And my whole background and one reason I got hired for the position was my acting, training and experience and credits. So I'm acting is where I live. And that's really my first love, both in terms of doing and in terms of teaching. And so, coming up with, well, what could I teach in one workshop? You know, that isn't just, you know, lip service is something that one can't get in just one workshop. So this one right now, my tentative title is Action for Performance Presentation and Character Play. Not a great title, but maybe I'll come up with that one. But this idea of what are you doing? What are you doing, specifying what you're doing? And various different folks have kind of taken advantage of this thing of quote unquote action verbs. So if I'm teasing, if I'm gonna tease somebody, that's something I could do. I could just do it. I don't need to read the whole script. You know what I'm saying? And to come up with these in grammatical terms, they're generally called transitive verbs. And so to be able to apply that, you asked about character work before it's like, one way of thinking about these would be like, okay, so say we're gonna go right back to the beginning, the baby comes out of the womb, right? And has its needs, and all of a sudden, it realizes that when it does something, it gets its needs met. It's like, oh, so when I want what I want, I'll do that. Yes? So if one were to take that kind of analogy and translate that into a verb, yes? And to think about maybe that's what shapes a person, right? In terms of how they go about trying to survive in life. So whether the baby is rebelling and grows up to be a James Dean character, something like that, right? Yeah. And a transitive verb, that's okay. I'll let you go on there, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The test is, can you this to someone? So you can't rebel someone. Okay, okay. You can tease someone, you can coax someone, you can punish someone, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Right. You follow me? Yep. So that's one aspect of action, and then one can think about in terms of character. And, I mean, not just character, in terms of a tactic as part of one's scene work. One can draw upon that sort of thing if one's a public speaker. These workshops are for presenters and public speakers as well, to one part of my presentation. I'd like to entice the audience to consider something, et cetera. And it's something you say, I'm okay, now I'm gonna entice. And what's beautiful about that, we're talking about voice and physical work, is I don't have to go, now I will move my arm here. Now I will do my voice, do this. To say to myself, I'm gonna entice to the extent they're free and available to it, your voice and your body will do the things that will follow your will and your goal. So it becomes natural as opposed to being forced. Exactly, or illustrated. Gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, now there is a little trap with this. Just 'cause I said illustrated, is that in class you say, okay, what's my verb gonna be? Oh, my verb's gonna be to woo someone, okay? Yes, the trap is to translate that into, well now I will show everybody watching that I'm going, that I'm wooing. So I will be showing that I'm wooing. No, that's not what it is. What it is, is you have to woo. You have to actually do it as we as actors do, right? It's not real life, it's play. Yeah, yeah, Michael, that's so, it is really rich because for people who don't understand, we're talking the difference between as an actor, you can watch someone and you know they're acting as opposed to someone who you're watching and you're caught up because they're real. It's second nature to them, whatever they're doing, they're on stage. Some folks are like, yes, I have to take three steps in turn and I have to wave my left arm. Or I will now show you that I'm waiving my left arm. Even as I'm waiving my left arm, it's like underlined. But it's the person who you don't even notice they're doing that. That's the person who has caught that, it's innate in them, it is so natural in their movement, that is really small. And then in addition to being quote unquote natural or authentic or truthful, the idea of being able to be brave enough and available enough. And even, you know, I'm going through these quotes, I'm seeing like Stella Adler, a famous teacher. And I just heard somebody else say this recently. But the first thing that actor needs to train, and this goes counter to so much of the way we talk nowadays, is our mind that we need to be able to think, be able to, oh, I know it was. There's a fade-on-away documentary on Netflix. And that was her thing, they asked her what was her as a younger actress, but you know, in her 20s or 30s. You know, she was all for the liberal arts education to be able to get a sense of the world and yourself and how to be able to see things in a more global way and to be confident in your own way to interpret and express them. - Yeah, I think confidence is huge in that, right? Because you can know you need to do something or you can expect to be, but you have to have the confidence. Because if you don't have the confidence, it's going to look awkward. It's going to look forced, it's not going to even look natural. - Yeah, I mean, that's one way that people, you know, people who aren't even trained, but you know, we're just confident in what they're doing. It's like, oh, yeah, okay. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've told this story before, but when I was in college, we used to, a couple of us, used to, after everybody left after rehearsal, we would go out, we'd get some beer, we'd come back and sit on the set for hours and just talk. It because we wanted the environment to be real to us. Like it was our own home. So that when you moved around, you knew where the, you might trip on the rug or you knew where the end of the couch was. You knew how many feet, oh, man! Michael, how can they find you on Instagram and Facebook? - TruePennyArts.com, one word and Instagram, it's TruePennyArts, one word, and then it's a TruePennyArts Facebook page. - My friend, thank you for coming by. I was lost in this, and I mean lost in a good way in this subject, I'm just, I'm captivated. Thank you for coming by, I so much appreciate that. - You were listening to NH Unscripted, I am here, happy to be out of the home house, Ray Dudley! 1450 AM, 103.9 FM for the folks in Kankid, 101.9 FM in Manchester, NH.Radio.com is our URL. TruePennyArts, Michael Cobb, thank you so much, sir. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)