Trust: Acting from Source

Copyright © 2013 Shea Hampton.

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ISBN: 978-1-4525-6919-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-6921-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-6920-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013903207

Balboa Press rev. date: 3/25/2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1  INTRODUCTION

2  TRAINING

3  THE WORK

a. The Process

b. Cold Reading

c. Memorized Scenes

d. On-Camera Class

4  THE AUDITION… AND RELATED THINGS

5  ACTING FROM SOURCE

6  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

7  SHEA QUOTES

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my very dear friend Mabs Bramall. Her love, friendship and constant support have kept me going when I didn’t think I could.

This is also for Ian and my boy Tali who continue to support me from the other side of life.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Thank you to all those wonderful actors who have shared their talent with me and allowed me to assist in its development. Watching you grow has been a privilege and an honour.

Lyza Ulrych, my dear friend and supporter for loving and believing in me. Charles Conrad, who gave encouragement and without whom this way of working would not have evolved.

1

INTRODUCTION

Our doubts are traitors that make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.

—Wm. Shakespeare.

I love this quote.

The need to write down the process I use has become more and more pressing as I become older. When students ask me what will happen to my work when I am gone, I know I must be showing signs of wear. What will happen is that it will go on. Knowledge is universal and belongs to those who seek it out. Several of my students have become teachers and I hope many more will do so. By writing down, as best I can, how this process works and affects us on every level, hopefully distortion will be avoided. Some people do not truly grasp this process and seek to make better something that is already in its pure form. So this is literally a source book, a place to return to when unsure.

I’ve begun this book many times, and thrown it out many times. I wasn’t listening to my own philosophy of coming from the heart and consequently everything I wrote sounded pretentious. Fear was getting in the way; fear of not being good enough or smart enough to do justice to this wonderful process. Probably fear of looking ridiculous played a big part too, but as actors we get used to making fools of ourselves. It comes with the territory. Writing was a new and untried area and I wanted to get it right. As we know, fear is the greatest inhibitor. We teach what we need to learn and I teach all about letting go of control and facing our fears. Maybe I’m finally learning my lesson because now, several years later, the need to express has become greater than the fear and the need to get it right. One’s fear of being wrong so often gets in the way of being right. Control is the child of fear, forcing us to keep everything close, tight, small, safe. Some very profound person, whose name I never knew, said, In order to worry, it is necessary to be in your head. Fear will put you firmly in your head.

Finally, I’m writing from my heart and listening to those that guide me. I do not work alone and I try to be a voice for the wisdom and knowledge that has come to me and through me over the years. Teaching has been an incredible journey, both humbling and uplifting. Through teaching I’ve learnt more about myself, and acting, than I ever did through therapy or study. I’ve always been fascinated by what motivates highly sensitive, vulnerable people to follow this path that is so rife with rejection. I’m sure that on a conscious level it’s the need to express themselves in an art form that is close to their soul and one which fulfills them creatively. Over the years I have come to recognize how much we are driven by our sub-conscious needs. The most constant and recurring theme is: an overwhelming need for approval on a grand scale - in order to overcome virtually non-existent self-worth. I know this need intimately and it’s given me a greater understanding and compassion for those I work with.

Many feel there is a certain mystique to what I do and how I work because it is intuitive and involves more of the senses than they care to own. The only mystery to me is how they can call themselves creative and fail to own all of their power. The creative energy and intuitive gifts are allies, inhabiting the same side of the brain. If you develop one, you will undoubtedly positively affect the other, whether you accept it or not. As Albert Einstein so brilliantly put it:

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift. The rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.

I bring a great deal of my own spiritual philosophy to the work, because that is who I am. It is an integral part of my work and everything I do, so I won’t leave it outside the door. Ultimately we