Very Gerry

I hail from North Jersey, where as a mere cherub, I began entertaining at the age of 3. It all started with Three Stooges routines in our family living room. My dad tried sports with me, but come on - I knew it wasn’t my thing because I knew I was much too fabulous for them! So, what does any other normal boy do? Join a theatre class! At age 9, I was introduced to the Merry World of Musical Theatre and did it simultaneously with my schooling. Some of my favorite and challenging roles were Edna (Hairspray), Horton (Seussical), Lord Farquaad (Shrek) and Jeff (Title Of Show).

A couple of years after graduating high school, my GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) advisor asked me to come in and chat with his club members! I planned out a pop-up performance and Q&A session. It was one of the best moments, as the kids really enjoyed what I presented! During the Q&A, one of the students asked me the infamous question, “What would you say to someone who wants to be an actor one day?” I froze for a second but then answered, “If you can see yourself doing ANYTHING other than acting, do that. It’s not an easy thing to break into, but if you cannot see yourself doing anything else but being a performer, do that.”

The summer after high school ended, I began professionally working in New York and was seen on CBS and E! News for my work in the Off-Broadway show Totally Tubular Time Machine starring Debbie Gibson. Then, I went along and created my debut solo cabaret show, “Very Gerry,” that played famous cabaret clubs like Don’t Tell Mama, Metropolitan Room and Paul Colby’s The Bitter End. Since then, I have hosted, starred in, and created many cabaret performances all over the country. In 2017 I conceived and co-starred in “The Golden Gays TM LLC,” a hilarious camp tribute to TV’s The Golden Girls and it was seen by thousands of people from all over the world! I created the troupe in June 2017 and concluded my almost 7 year run as “The Rose”, on December 9th 2023. Even though I am not a part of my creation anymore, I do think that “The Golden Gays” hit at the right time in my life. I think it was because of so many pop culture elements coming into one! With the success of RuPaul’s Drag Race and the nostalgia of The Golden Girls, it was kismet. I wrote a letter to Betty White during quarantine and told her that the role that she originated and created, got me my first NYC apartment. The timing was right and we had a great run. I am very thankful!

“I am a self-proclaimed Character Actor. An actor who usually plays older than they really are; male or female-presenting characters.”

Since the start of 2024, I have been building my venue connections, currently booking/touring my solo “Drag Bingo” and Impersonation show, “Divas in my Mind”, that pay homage to the ladies of Old Hollywood. I am also cultivating my new project for streaming services called “The Very Gerry Variety Hour.” It’s a love letter to Vaudeville and The Carol Burnett Show. I can be seen performing throughout Florida with Drag Events Unlimited, led by the national entertainer Nicole Halliwell. The works include tours of “Hocus Pocus Live” and “Stay Golden A Golden Girls Tribute Show.” Over 15 consecutive SOLD OUT shows nationally, that perform in regional sized theaters!

“Did you know that I once reminded someone of Madeline Kahn? It’s true and that was one of the best things that ever happened to me in my career!”

I have been very fortunate that some of my original works and tributes have been seen on CNN, Reelz, OK!, ABC, The New York Times, Disney, Celebrity Cruises, CBS, E! News, National conventions, ABC 7 Eyewitness News, and the Associated Press. Being a professional performer and working in the Theatre can be a very strange yet rewarding life. What I mean by that is the fact that one day you can be on top of the world, working every day; then down in the dumps and being unemployed for months and months. Since I really began with the lashes and heels in 2012, I have learned that the first thing you need is your health. Mental and physical. The second thing you need is your support system, whether it be family or chosen family. One cannot succeed in show business without a solid form of acceptance and support!

“Performing is my oxygen. I need to make people feel something!”

I never knew it would take zillions of gigs, 12 jobs, and $500 headshots every 5 years but I cannot see myself fighting for anything else. Every single day you have to play 10 different parts in the small business that is YOUR ACTING CAREER. Not all of us are as lucky as Beyonce! Bette Davis said, “Just do it. There’s never a shortcut in anybody’s business. It takes a lot of years to say “You’ve made it”. It takes 15-20 years

That’s why it’s so important to me to work with kind people and find other members of my tribe. I am forever blessed for the true people who’ve joined me on this ride. Special shout out and thank you to my crazy big beautiful Italian family and true friends for their constant acceptance and support!!! You have my heart.

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Contact Info:

● Website: https://www.gerrymastrolia.com/

● Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/verygerrynyc/

● Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/verygerry94

● Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MrGerryMastrolia

An Announcement and a Tap Step

“Reminder -- auditions for the musical comedy Anything Goes is after school today. Students should meet at the stage and bring tap shoes. Be prepared to tap,” announced the principal of James Madison High School over the loudspeaker during my first hour biology class.

As soon as I heard the word TAP, I asked my classmates near me what that was all about. The girl sitting in the desk behind me explained our school was putting on a show that involved a lot of tap dancing and described it as a 1930s The Love Boat. It was my first year in high school, so I was still making my way but was certain I had to be part of that show. I had been dancing since the age of seven and tap was my favorite. After performing Ronnie the Robot Who Can Rock & Roll on the stage of my first dance recital, I was hooked!  Dissecting frogs was the furthest thing from my mind and all I could think about was approaching my choir teacher, the musical director, to inquire about the audition.  First hour bell rang and I ran into the Girl’s Glee choir room. I needed to speak to Mr. B before we started singing the notes to the Sound of Silence.

“Lynn, we already had auditions the past couple days. Today is the callback.” I am sure he could see the look of devastation on my face as I pleaded and shared my  tap dancing experience, so he promised to try to work it out.  “Well, I know you can sing so you passed that part of the audition.  I’ll talk to the director. Just come to the theater right after school and I’ll introduce you.”

Seventh hour accounting class could not come quickly enough. The minute the school bell rang, I scurried through the halls, dropped off my books in my locker, flew down the flight of stairs and swam through the sea of students to get to the lobby.

Mr. B was already in the auditorium leaning over the middle row of seats whispering to the director and choreographer. They both turned around to size me up which made me nervous and a bit uncomfortable. Pam, the choreographer, led me to an area in the hallway to see if these feet could truly move. She asked if I knew the time step and when I replied which one, a smile from ear to ear graced her face. This moment was the turning point in my high school career. In my life!

The next morning the cast list for Anything Goes was posted near the office and the wannabe Broadway stars were flocking around the bulletin board searching for their names. Under the lead role was a list of six angels and there was my name.  I did not even realize that I was given this great part.  All the girls who were cast in the ensemble were praying to be one of Reno Sweeney’s Angels.  Chants of  “Who is this Lynn Bertoni?” echoed the hallway and I looked around and played dumb. Nobody knew who I was because I never set foot on that stage to audition, but once we learned our first number and I aced the shuffle ball change flap heal step, they understood.  Rehearsals were my escape from the hustle and bustle of school.  My theater friends became my second family and I have never encountered such a kind, caring and accepting group of peers in my life. I belonged! 

The following year I was cast in the lead role of Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Sugar in the musical version of Some Like it Hot my senior year. Our school was chosen to perform at the Pabst Theatre for the City Wide Theatre Festival.  Only three schools were selected so this was a huge honor. 

All my life, I wanted to become a performer as I pretended to be on a Broadway stage with the living room curtains as my entrance. My dad would play cards at a local tavern and prop me up on the bar to sing Raindrops keep Falling on My Head; Geyser cheese popcorn and M&Ms served as my reward. We often would sing for nearby nursing homes during Christmas and I relished those times. 

My father was known as the singing fireman and sang the National Anthem at numerous Brewers games so performing was in my blood. Big dreams of moving to New York or Hollywood swirled around in my head for as long as I can remember.  However, finances did not allow me to attend NYU, so I had to settle for UW-Milwaukee as a theater major. 

After the first couple weeks of my freshman year in college, I realized this was not the life for me.  After working as an usher at Melody Top, I saw backstage and did not want to make the sacrifices one makes in show business.  Family was important to me and soon I was looking for a profession that had more security.  I took a year off of college to find myself and during this hiatus, I waited on tables and worked in community theater. That year I played Miss Adelaide in Guys & Dolls and met my first and former husband. As I did four years earlier, he missed the first audition and a mutual friend, who felt I would get a callback, persuaded me to ask the director to allow him to audition at callbacks.  He did and was cast opposite of me as Nathan Detroit.  During that year, I did a great deal of soul searching and knew I needed to earn my college degree. My advisor informed me that all my theater credits could be applied to an area of concentration for a BS in Education. In order to see if this was a good fit, I had to serve 80 hours of observation in a classroom. The minute I set foot in Ms. Brown’s 4th grade classroom at Hartford Elementary School, I knew it was where I needed to be.

In 1986, I was hired to teach 5th grade at Cedar Hills for the Franklin/Oak Creek School District and continued my teaching career in the district for the next 36 years. The arts brought so much richness to my life that it was my calling to do the same for my students. Stated at the top of my resume was my mission statement with my plans to implement the arts into my teaching, so when I was asked to organize the talent show, I was elated.

Besides the typical acts of singing, playing an instrument and baton twirling, I choreographed a dance number for every grade level and would rehearse during my lunch period. My principal even became part of the show and did not hesitate when I asked him to wear coconuts and a grass skirt to perform Honey Bun with me from South Pacific. The talent shows were a smash and became an annual tradition. During my seven years in the elementary classroom, I had my students performing in Thirteen Colonies plays, Revolutionary War Newscasts and Westward Movement Silent Films.  I wrote and directed interactive US History lessons and was asked to teach Social Studies in middle school and implement the same lessons for the World History curriculum. My new principal took notice and offered me the drama and speech position and 8th grade is where I spent the next 29 years. I hit the floor running and was so enthusiastic to bring theater into the lives of middle schoolers.  They were not as enthusiastic. It took awhile for my reputation to follow me.  At first, kids were screwing around and could not follow a direction to save their lives. 

Drama class was considered a blow off class and the attitude of how hard could it be to say some lines and move on stage was evident. Getting them to attend after school rehearsals was a joke!  My passion and perseverance finally prevailed and my two drama classes put on quite the show. It took a few more years and with strategic scheduling to avoid track, basketball and cheerleading practice, drama class became very cool.  After five years of buying the rights of shows and placing so much responsibility on a few students with the leading roles, I decided to write and create shows for more kids to shine in the limelight. Thus, students would audition for a skit in the overall production and not feel the pressure of learning so many lines. It provided more roles and opportunities and ultimately spread the theater bug. I would coax theme ideas from students and write skits to create an hour long production. We produced Laugh In-a 60s Show, Friday Night Live, Vaudeville, Hooray for Hollywood, Night at the Improv and my last was This 70’s Show in which I developed a skit based on Cheech & Chong’s Sister, Mary Elephant.   Each student portrayed one of the teachers in the school and when Sister Mary Elephant said roll call, the audience roared.

My favorite and very heart-wrenching show was written in 2001.  The year before I planned to write a show titled Salute to America to incorporate some of my skits from my elementary days and this theme could not have been more timely.  I also wanted to teach my little thespians about war, poverty, immigration, and discrimination.  They learned much more while playing the roles of Abraham Lincoln, Clara Barton, Amelia Earhart, Franklin Roosevelt, Linda Brown, Martin Luther King Jr, and Cesar Chavez because they got to live it. The production ended with a slide show to honor those who lost their lives during the attack on America. There wasn’t a dry eye in the audience during the encore when the entire cast sang America the Beautiful and gave their final bows to This is My County.

In addition to teaching drama and speech, I taught two sections of math. I recruited the toughest high risk kids who were failing my math class to work lights and sound for my shows. The first year I taught drama, I had this student, Paul, who adamantly claimed there was no way I was getting him on stage, so I assigned him to lights.  I had no clue how to operate the light board and this kid figured it out in 20 minutes. During tech rehearsal, I made sure the actors on stage knew how important Paul’s role was to the production as he had the power to turn the lights off at any moment. That following spring, I encouraged Paul to grace the stage at our talent show by playing Abbott in Who’s on First?. Not only did he memorize the lines, he nailed it. His deadpan humor was hilarious and the praise he received from his peers was priceless. I instilled in my students that every job in the theater was critical to the overall production and it wasn’t long before the actors, stage crew, and tech crew became one big happy family. Students of all archetypes: shy, cheerleader, jock, tough guy, gothic, nerd- they became great friends through the theater. And Paul, with a number of others, raised his grade from an F in math class to a B in one quarter. The arts can do that and often are not given the credit they so deserve. T-shirts were made with the show logo with students’ names on tha back and were worn the day of our show. It was such a source of pride in our school that it became the event of the year. Those early rehearsals of me pulling out my hair became rehearsals of pure discipline in which one could hear a pin drop when I gave directions. What my students learned by putting on a show is that after curtain call, everyone is on a natural high and there is nothing like camaraderie.

Unfortunately, due to budget cuts and a new superintendent, who wanted to make her mark and implement remedial math and reading classes, drama class was no longer. After 14 years of proving the impact the arts had on these kids, it meant nothing to the administration. A new middle school was built in 2008 and clearly there was no consideration given to building a stage. There was a black box placed between the gym and cafeteria. No lighting board, no make-up room; no costume room. No drama productions. The only space given to the theater department was a storage room that was filled with wrestling mats.

Still, I managed to keep the arts alive in our school through drama club, talent shows and field trips.

I have been in contact with former students through phone calls, letters and Facebook. One student, Sobe, contacted me 23 years later through Messenger to tell me when she was a student in my 5th grade classroom, I helped give her a voice. Another student, Summer, who was struggling with self-esteem, sent me a card to let me know she was attending college that Fall as a musical theater major and my words inspired her. I held her after class and insisted she sing as an audition for the talent show during lunch.  Summer sang “All of Me” in that talent show because I told her she had a gift she needed to share with others. At my retirement party, my daughters surprised me with a video of my former students' testimonials. They shared their memories of playing Thomas Jefferson, tap dancing with umbrellas to Singing in the Rain, performing with future community theater groups, twisting in a poodle skirt, loading the bus to Chicago to see Motown, watching inspiring films, YouTube videos of young performers, along with a host of artistic moments they recalled as part of my daily lessons.

 The arts have truly changed my life and put me on the path to such a positive and incredible journey. Not only did the arts bring joy to my life and spirit in my soul, the confidence I gained led me to win Mrs. Wisconsin-USA in 1994 and Mrs. Wisconsin-America in 1998. With this title and the pageant world, I was able to bring attention to the importance of the arts in education. As I reflect on my life of 59 years, it is difficult to imagine those years without my involvement in the performing arts. I did not flee to New York or Los Angeles as originally planned, but I still was able to make the arts an integral part of my life as well as my three daughters’. I sent my girls to the Milwaukee School of Arts which was not in the best area of town. They may have been secure in a little suburb school, but I knew in my heart my children needed exposure to all of the arts. To this day, they remind me that attending a school which centered around the arts made them more worldly, empathetic, and stronger human beings.  My first leading role in the musical South Pacific as Ensign Nellie Forbush even holds some connection to all three of my daughters. Courtney is a nurse, and my twins, Natalie, married a Frenchman and Nellie bears the name.  All three girls have taken the creativity the arts offer into their own lives.  Courtney has a side cookie business called, Life’s a Batch. Natalie lives in France and works as a translator for her own business as well as a copywriter for a company and Nellie is an art teacher and is active in the Milwaukee art culture. They are by far my finest production. The arts are in all of us and if we, as a society, do not embrace and support the arts, life may only be noise coming from the loud speaker, just making another announcement.

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Lynn Bertoni-Shaw is an actor from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and has earned a Bachelor’s in Education with a minor in Theater from UW-Milwaukee along with a Masters from Aurora University, Illinois.  During the past 43 years, she has worked in both professional and community theater in the Milwaukee Metropolitan area and Chicago. Although Lynn loved performing on stage, she dedicated her life to the classroom as an educator and recently retired after 36 years of service. She has earned the titles of Mrs. Wisconsin-USA and Mrs. Wisconsin-America and this led her to an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show in which she agreed to spend a night in the Boone County Jail, Indiana to talk about her pseudo booking experience for the episode “Avoiding Arrests.”  Retirement offers Lynn the flexibility to develop her craft while pursuing greater involvement in theater, film and motivational speaking. In addition to Lynn’s life as an actor, teacher and mother, writing has been another passion and she plans to write her novel in the near future.

G&E In Motion does not necessarily agree with the opinions of our guest bloggers. That would be boring and counterproductive. We have simply found the author’s thoughts to be interesting, intelligent, unique, insightful, and/or important. We may not agree on the words but we surely agree on their right to express them and proudly present this platform as a means to do so.

You Should Take That Stage Combat Class. Here’s Why…

Coming from a Stage Combat teacher and Fight Choreographer, this probably sounds pretty self-serving on my part, but please hear me out.  What is our job as actors and performers?  That’s always my first question at any beginner Stage Combat workshop.  What is our job? At the end of the day, it has a relatively simple answer.  

We tell STORIES!  Stage Combat is PHYSICAL storytelling.

I’m going to take a quick moment to debunk, as it were, one of the common misunderstandings that I hear quite frequently before I delve into why I think Stage Combat is ESSENTIAL for any performer.

“Stage Combat just FEELS fake” or “I would never fight someone that way.”  

Well, that’s kind of the point.  Stage Combat isn’t so much a study of fighting as it is a study of SAFETY.  One of the mantras I heard over and over again when starting out was, “Safety first, safety last, safety always.” When all is said and done, especially when working Fight Choreography for stage, the most essential goal is to make sure everyone involved is safe and can repeat the choreography night after night.  If you ever watch a real fight, you’ll notice you can barely follow along with what’s happening.  That’s not what we want.  Again, we need to tell a story.  What feels unnatural is necessary for us to effectively communicate to an audience what’s going on.  In short, we’re not looking for something that looks “real”, reality is subjective.  You and I can witness the same event and have entirely different perspectives on it.  What we want is to tell a story that is BELIEVABLE within our given circumstances.

When you go to any kind of acting school, you are learning different techniques from different teachers with different schools of thought.  You have Meisner, Stanislavski, Viewpoints, etc.  Ultimately, every performer going through this process will eventually pick and choose the best tools for them and keep it in their acting toolbox.  With that in mind, I want to delve into all the different tools one can acquire from taking Stage Combat classes.

PARTNERING 

Success or failure in any branch of the performing arts is, for the most part, heavily reliant on partnering.  Collaboration is such an integral aspect in this business, where so many different departments must show up and bring their A game to create something truly spectacular. This is especially true in Stage Combat.  As one of my first teachers once said, “My job is to keep my partner safe and make them look good.  If my partner is doing the same, we have a successful partnership and are able to tell an exciting story, while keeping everyone safe.”  If listening and reacting to a scene partner is crucial to tell an effective story on stage, it is absolutely essential for our purposes in Stage Combat.  Studying this art form has helped me hone my receptive skills and assisted me in connecting with my partners on stage.  Since a lot of our cooperation with fights on stage has to be non-verbal, it helps to foment a kind of sixth sense with the rest of the cast and crew.

STAKES AND INTENTION

I don’t know about you but one of the most common notes I received in acting class was “Raise the stakes.”  As a person for whom English was a second language, the first couple of times had me worried I had somehow enrolled in a culinary school.  Stakes and Intention are paramount in telling our stories.  It’s what helps draw in the audience as it allows them to connect with the characters on a more emotional and visceral level.  Studying Stage Combat requires you to explore the ideas of breath and vocals.  A lot of times, what makes a fight interesting is not necessarily how cool or flashy the moves are, but the moments IN BETWEEN the moves.  How does Tybalt react to an angry Romeo hellbent on avenging his friend’s death?  What is Macbeth’s mental state when he finds out that Macduff was “from his mother’s womb untimely ripped?”  In musicals, characters burst out into song when their emotions reach a point where words are no longer enough; they HAVE to SING.  It is the same with Stage Combat.  Violence happens in our stories when words are no longer enough and the only recourse is to get PHYSICAL.

BODY AWARENESS

Whether you’re a performer who only does plays, or musicals, or both, performing requires a good amount of physical stamina, as well as body awareness.  It doesn’t matter whether you are working on multiple dance numbers or really specific blocking; having a good knowledge and relationship with your own body is crucial.  I have worked with students who arrive barely able to tell right from left (a slight exaggeration), and leave with a deeper connection with their bodies.  They are more specific in their movements, which in turn aids them in being able to tell a wide variety of stories with their bodies.

 DIRECTOR’S EYE

While not something you can necessarily master from just one Stage Combat class, one of the most helpful tools I walked away with was a better understanding of the Director’s Eye.  So much of what we do to keep each other safe and sell a fight sequence on stage relies heavily on angles and, you probably guessed it, marks. Being able to calculate and adjust your distance with your partner, how far Upstage Right you have to be, how long must you extend your arm, are just some of the aspects that come up when performing a fight onstage. Work on this art form long enough, and you start to develop a better sense of that outside eye, which can be invaluable for performing onstage, especially when we start dealing with a thrust stage or theater in the round.

TRAINING DURING COVID

COVID-19 has affected every single aspect of our industry.  However, if there’s anything artists are universally known for, it’s adapting.  The Stage Combat community, like all other artistic communities, is lucky in that it has no shortage of creative and driven individuals.  Now, while it does present its own set of challenges, there are plenty of opportunities to start your journey.  You can visit the Society of American Fight Directors website and search teachers currently offering classes by regions at safd.org. While some of the benefits are limited in this virtual setting, it does offer you the opportunity to truly work on your specificity, preparing you for the day when you get to finally face off with a partner.

THANK YOU FOR INDULGING ME

A Stage Combat Nerd such as myself can go down rabbit hole after rabbit hole, but these are some of the skills that a performer can hone from Stage Combat classes.  So, it doesn’t really matter if you want to become the next Jackie Chan or Jason Statham.  

You don’t have to walk away falling in love with Stage Combat like I did.  But I can assure you, if you are willing to take a Stage Combat class, perhaps 2 or 3, you will walk away with tools that will undoubtedly make you a more well-rounded and interesting performer.

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Gabriel Rosario

Advanced Actor Combatant, Stunt Performer and Fight Choreographer

Gabriel Rosario is a graduate from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and is currently a Faculty Member in its Stage Combat Department.  He is an Advanced Actor Combatant, Stunt Performer and Fight Choreographer who has participated in plays such as Foggy Dew, The Adventures of Don Quijote, Follies, The Relationship Type, as well as being Fight Captain and Assistant Fight Choreographer for the World Premiere of Treasure Island at the Fulton Theatre and its East Coast Premiere at Maine State Music Theatre.  His film and TV credits include Dead@17: Rebirth, Tower of Silence, as well as the upcoming pilot, Dry Time, etc.   His credits as a Fight Choreographer include Romeo and Juliet, Faust on 147th Street, and Valor, Agravio y Mujer (HOLA Award Best Fight Choreography),  and La Paz Perpetua at Repertorio Español Rut and the short film Les Chienes.  Rosario is also an instructor at Swordplay in New York City.

G&E In Motion does not necessarily agree with the opinions of our guest bloggers. That would be boring and counterproductive. We have simply found the author’s thoughts to be interesting, intelligent, unique, insightful, and/or important. We may not agree on the words but we surely agree on their right to express them and proudly present this platform as a means to do so.

The Art of Seeing: Once Again Karen Huie Stumbles Into Victory

Auditioning is an actor’s job. Getting cast to perform the job is the vacation. Imperium 7, my voice over agents, gives me a wide berth of roles and genres to audition for and obviously I try to go on vacation as often as possible.

I had predominately acted in theatre, film, and television until voice work lured me to its den. It was a thrill to do voice work on projects such as Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, The Incredibles 2, Moana, Onward, Scissor Seven and about 1500 other projects over my career. I had voiced characters for video games but had never played a principal role in one. That is, until Ghost of Tsushima entered my life. 

 Early in 2017, I got an audition for the role of Yuriko in a video game. I went into my recording booth with the lines they provided me and imagined the circumstances of the character. I performed each line along with a direction that they gave me: this line is directly to this character, try this one as if calling out from afar, one as if I were on horseback, for this line try saying it as if you are revealing something personal…. 

I listened to the takes on my headphones. Do I hear the character and not me? Is there life and place in each line? Tempo? I rechecked the directions. When I think I’ve got it, I set the proper gain (volume) for each line, save the file, and label it according to the precise specs. I email my audition and hope for the best. 

Some time later, I got a callback. My GPS guided me to a big complex where someone ushered me into a large room, about the size of an airplane hangar. Nate Fox, a game director at Sucker Punch Productions (who turned out to being the director for Ghost of Tsushima), stepped up and thanked me for coming down. Generous indeed. What actor doesn’t love a callback? There were props and sets. Nate explained that unlike theatre I didn’t need to be mindful of the ‘fourth wall’; the camera would follow me. For about 45 minutes, I acted scenes. I then drove an hour back home and made lunch. 

Some months later my agents sent an email informing me that I was cast. The work on the project would take me through 2018. Wait, which?  What was the name of it? When would I start? What’s MOCAP? (It’s short for motion capture by the way). A friend pointed me to a video of Benedict Cumberbatch, in MOCAP, portraying Smaug for The Hobbit films. All of life and art are in those 17 minutes of footage. It was a revelation about commitment and creating.

In June of 2017 I started working on Ghost of Tsushima. In one session they greased my hair back and sat me in what looked like a barber’s chair. About one hundred Sony cameras surrounded me. A director talked me through varying expressions and the cameras flashed with each one. Another day, a mold was made of my face. In my first voice over session, I was fitted with a skullcap with two microphones attached and a helmet over that where a camera was trained on my face. I learned how to act with what felt like a football helmet on my head while facing Daisuke Tsuji, the actor who portrays Jin Sakai, the protagonist of the game, who was also fitted with the same headgear. Sucker Punch, Amanda Wyatt (one of the game’s voice directors), Yumi Mi (our Japanese dialect coach) and Daisuke were all patient and helpful to this novice. Twenty sessions over three years came and went.

Performing in a video game is a living experience. I didn’t have a full script at the start. Ghost of Tsushima took over seven years to develop. I was cast about three years into the process. The night before a session is when I would often be given the scenes. The scenes were usually short and not necessarily sequential. I tried to memorize them so that Yuriko could truly engage with Jin in the session.

The scenes between these characters are brief, like haiku. Their game time together is also short. The words in their scenes are clues to what the writers wished to convey. Similar to haiku, a poetic form that has three lines and seventeen syllables, the world is reflected in them.

Yuriko, now an elderly woman of Tsushima, was the lead character’s caretaker. She saw Jin as a child frolic with abandon. She tested his abilities, watched him grow, and sent him off into the world. When Jin comes back years later, does Yuriko see him as a grown man or the child she remembers? Answering this question was the cornerstone for everything Yuriko does. For her, Jin is an embodiment of memories. In the story, Jin comes to Yuriko when he remembers that she has the ability to make an important poison needed to fight the Mongols. It’s been quite some time since she made such venom; she has a hard time recalling, but she nonetheless tries. We set off to accomplish an intention and come away with an experience we didn’t expect to have. And that, like a haiku, has the world reflected in it.

 In December of 2019, Daisuke Tsuji posted a trailer of Ghost of Tsushima. I watched the trailer and gasped at the sheer beauty of the game. The score was transfixing. Then, the curtain rose, revealing the orchestra on stage playing live. The camera pulled back further to reveal the audience. When the lights faded on the trailer, the logo for The Game Awards appeared to a round of thunderous applause, hoots and hollers. Whoa…this game is a huge deal! 

 In January of 2020, my work on the game was done. I resumed my life. I had four writing assignments looming. For as long as Sucker Punch had been developing Ghost of Tsushima, I had been writing a play about Akira Kurosawa. I was also writing the book for a musical about Angel Island for Pomona College and Huntington Gardens, and I am still writing an animated feature film for hire.  

And then, of course, Covid-19 happened. Actors suddenly found themselves out of work. The quarantine gave me time to focus and complete my writing assignments. As a matter of fact, in the fall, The Blank Theatre will be doing a workshop of my Kurosawa play, 11 Seconds. And on the acting side of things, because I’ve had a home studio for fourteen years, I have gotten calls to record jobs from home. 

When Ghost of Tsushima launched in July, I received texts from friends and family. One of my brothers has texted me more times because of this game than ever before. I was showered with praise about the game, my character, and her quests.  

Ghost of Tsushima was now the highest rated game, selling 2.4 million copies in the first three days. It was selling out even in Japan! Gamers had been waiting for this game for six years. I didn’t have a PS4 so friends sent me links where I watched walkthroughs. I followed along in amazement while a gamer played one of Yuriko’s quests, entitled The Art of Seeing. I was even privy to his reactions. A surreal experience indeed. 

I’m touched Yuriko’s side quests have reached so many people. I’m also delighted to see how they relate my character; gamers have publicly shared their deepest love for their grandmothers, mothers, and nannies and I think this speaks to the depth of their relationships. In a society that puts its focus on the young and nubile, it’s comforting to know how much they care about their elders. At a time when there are rampant assaults on Asians and Asian Americans, my hope is restored by how much gamers love Yuriko. I’m proud to have contributed to the humanizing of her. Thank you to everyone at Imperium-7, Sucker Punch, and Sony. Thank you to the gamers who immerse themselves in this world. 

I was invited on The Everything Talk Show to talk about my work on the game. I told Paul Kwo I thought my job ended when the game launched. He said that was just the end of the first chapter. My friends and people like my brother think I’ll go to Comic-Con when it comes back. They seem to think gamers might cosplay my character and want my autograph. Apparently I might get invited to go to Japan, maybe an animated series and possibly a film based on the game.  It was a crash course on gaming--what a subculture. It was truly The Art of Seeing.

I don't know the genesis of the game, but it’s fascinating to imagine how Sucker Punch, Nate Fox, Jason Connell, Ian Ryan, and Patrick Downs were all inspired by Kurosawa films. I relearned Twitter so I could find the writers to thank them for realizing this rich and historical world for people to explore. It starts with the writer, who then gets input from the most brilliant and creative minds in every department before it reaches us actors who add our performances to only then go to the animators who implement and bring to life the vision. It is a multi-faceted accomplishment. The fact that it goes through all these channels while everyone is getting notes, making adjustments, considering alternate ideas, negotiating caveats and many other unforeseen obstacles over so many days, weeks, months, and years until the launch and still survives with such an impact on the gaming audience is nothing short of miraculous. Sometimes there are so many revisions on a project, the heart gets written out of it. Audiences watch and wonder why it was ever made. When you know how much an idea has to go through, you appreciate how remarkable it is that something succeeds and resonates the way Ghost of Tsushima does. 

For the Japanese to embrace and sell out the game is confirming. It’s a game based on Japanese history created by Americans. But cultural admiration is not new. Akira Kurosawa loved the American westerns of John Ford and samurai films were his version of them. In turn, Americans were inspired by Seven Samuraiand made The Magnificent Seven and A Bug’s Life. The Last Man Standing was Walter Hill’s Yojimbo, which inspired Italians to make Spaghetti Westerns like A Fistful of Dollars. Even Star Wars was inspired by The Hidden Fortress, right down to R2-D2 and C-3PO.

I’m gobsmacked. I did a voiceover audition and performed a character now revered in the biggest game trending right now. I’m so very proud to be part of it all. If auditions are the job and acting the vacation, this has to be a launch to the Moon. 

Once, reluctantly, I filled in for someone to play mahjong with three gamblers. I got a full house hand and one gambler threw his tiles in. 

“Give me a break! That‘s disgusting! Once again, Karen Huie stumbles into victory!” he said.

And born on that day, was the theme to my quest. 

See you in Ghost of Tsushima!

---

Karen Huie

Karen Huie acts and performs voice overs in theatre, film, television, radio and video games.

Karen Huie was a rebellious, scrappy kid from the Lower East Side of Manhattan. She hung out with a gang, ran away from home, dropped out of school several times, was the lead singer of a band, modeled, wrote poetry, and went to HB Studio to study theatre all before moving to LA. She currently acts and performs voice overs in theatre, film, television, radio and videogames. 

G&E In Motion does not necessarily agree with the opinions of our guest bloggers. That would be boring and counterproductive. We have simply found the author’s thoughts to be interesting, intelligent, unique, insightful, and/or important. We may not agree on the words but we surely agree on their right to express them and proudly present this platform as a means to do so.  

Directors Need to Take More Responsibility for Bad Acting

We’ve all seen what we deem to be bad acting in films and onstage. And while the measurement for good acting can be as subjective as art itself, we can often feel a blatant unbelievability or hollowness in a performance. 

Very often, we criticize the actor individually. Of course we do; that person did not bring what they should have to the table. The job of the actor is literally to effectively communicate the character they are portraying to an audience using their voice, actions, reactions, and their physical instruments. If they fail to authentically communicate a character, they did not properly do their job. Another way to say that is that they did not do their job at all. 

Now, despite common perception, giving a great performance, a believable performance, is not an easy job to do whatsoever. It takes more work and dedication than anyone outside the industry usually understands.  In all honesty, my two years in graduate school studying acting was far more demanding than the previous six years I had studying education on the undergraduate and graduate level combined.  Hands down. No comparison. 

I am an actor. A professional actor (whatever the means – I don’t know at what point one becomes professional as an actor but that’s a different discussion altogether).

I am also a director. I have directed both theatre and film and I believe these combined experiences have provided me with some interesting insights into the mechanics of how things work.

Greg teaching his "Acting like a Teacher" workshop for Education students at Pace University.

One such insight is this: directors need to take more responsibility for the bad acting in their projects. 

To me, it sounds obvious. But rarely do we hear a viewer say, “Wow. That performance was awful. I guess the director couldn’t get that actor to where they needed to be.”

I think we need to be saying this more. And here’s why:

As a director, the buck stops with you. It is your responsibility for everything that happens creatively and artistically. That is why you are hired. This obviously includes performances.  

You hire good actors so they bring the most believable performances. But that doesn’t mean your job is now necessarily a hands-off experience where you can sit back, relax, and watch the magic happen. It is still your vision. Actors must coordinate themselves to your vision. Sometimes this requires a hands-on technique. 

And it is not incidental that I use the word technique. A director who does not speak the actor’s language will find it far more difficult to get an actor where they need to be.  

This brings me to a related point. A director absolutely needs to speak the language of the actor. They need to know technique. Whether it’s Stanislavsky, Meisner, Method, etc., a director should have an approach to infiltrate a lacking performance. They should have an awareness of all of these techniques and dare I say, know what their cast is trained in. That way they can talk the lingo and engage in the process to reach each actor in a constructive manner. 

Bad directors tell actors what to do and what to feel. Good directors guide actors towards their vision of a character. Great directors manipulate actors to think they reached a revelation organically when it was the director the entire time leading them to that desired destination. What makes this director great is simple; they recognize that when actors come up with something themselves, it is far more real to them and thus easier to access and thus more believable. And that’s the name of the game. 

Directors need not be technicians. Every other crewmember on set is an artistic technician of sorts. A director needs to be focused on story, imagery, and performance. The truth of a scene.  Directors hire their crew to specifically take care of the more technical issues so that they need not worry about them. Meetings happen within the months of pre-production so that the crew understands the vision and plans are made to enforce said vision. 

This leaves time for a director to handle the most important aspects of filmmaking while actually shooting– the acting itself.  

As an actor, I found directors who were great at the mechanics of filmmaking but lacked the ability to communicate effectively with actors the worst kind of directors. I found this particularly true, unfortunately, of recent college graduates. It was as if their training program neglected to enroll them in an acting class. All directors should take an acting class. 

Not doing so is self-sabotage as far as I’m concerned. 

Being a director who takes a more hands-on approach with actors can be complicated. There are times when an actor is so prepared you just let that actor do their thing. There are times when you have the opportunity (and hopefully ability) to help them step their game up. But an audience member will never know if it’s a great performance solely because of the actor or because you stepped in and worked your magic. But, in a way, it doesn’t matter. It’s all part of the wizardry.  

Conversely, if a performance is extremely poor and you, the actor, and everyone on the planet knows it, the director needs to share in the blame, for neither the actor nor the director did their job. 

If an actor’s job is to effectively communicate the character they are portraying to an audience as mentioned before, it is one of the many jobs of the director to make sure actors effectively communicate the characters they are portraying to that audience. 

Now, let’s be real. A director has a million-and-one jobs. We are constantly being asked questions about the production. Our heads are pretty much in a whirlwind state the entire time. But that’s the job. 

We are the last line of defense on the day. Everything is ultimately our responsibility – even when it’s out of our control. 

I once directed a play where the set to our production was in a U-Haul truck. A U-Haul truck that was stuck in a snowstorm. We ended up performing opening night with no set, as the truck didn’t arrive until the middle of the performance. Was I driving the truck? Nope. Did I control the weather? Nope. Did I plan correctly leaving hours upon hours for the truck to arrive on time? Yup. The festival had a strict load in schedule and so I couldn’t bring the set to the theatre any earlier than that afternoon.

 Yet I stood in front of my cast and I apologized. It was on me. I was in charge. And we had no set. 

I suppose part of my point is that directors need to be more vocal about accountability. Directors are leaders; sometimes it’s appropriate to take it for the team. To accept that responsibility whether or not you are directly to blame. 

To be fair, however, there are scenarios where a director is truly hogtied. Sometimes a producer forces a director to hire an actor that should not be hired. Sometimes the creative vision between a director and a producer is not aligning – if this happens seriously consider leaving the project, albeit on good terms; producers are putting up the money – it’s their movie too after all – two separate visions never end well. If you need to do it for the money, and it’s no longer about the art, execute the producer’s vision. If this makes you sick to your stomach leave amicably and respectfully due to creative differences. 

It is also worth noting that a bad editor, or bad decisions in the editing room in general, can downgrade an actor’s performance from what that actor provided during filming.

It is a cinematic leap of faith for any actor to let go of their performance and leave it in the hands of others; that, of course, is the collaborative nature of film and a reminder that making a great film is hard. All the pieces, the artistic cogs in the wheel of production, need to be firing on all cylinders. That’s two car references in one sentence. I’ve never felt so masculine. 

There are also times, unfortunately, that the actors you hire, who perhaps you know have the potential to bring it, just don’t. No matter how hard you try you just cannot get them there. Sometimes it is no ones fault; it just doesn’t happen. It’s the reason this article is worded directors need to take more responsibility and not all. Sometimes the blame is shared and that’s okay. 

But how does one avoid such a fate?

In theatre, it is obviously common practice that we rehearse for months before opening. In film, we often come to set as actors and get our lines re-written while in the makeup chair. 

That is why it is imperative, as directors, that we hold rehearsals for cinematic performances as well. This doesn’t necessarily have to be as formal and traditional as a theatrical rehearsal. Read-throughs are great but they’re not really rehearsals. Get in a space, act it out, allow actors to have a playground to experiment because once on set such exploration is limited. Call your actors on the phone – have deep discussions about their characters and their objectives, conflicts, and actions. Make sure they build a backstory and know their character inside out. Improvise scenarios. Discuss tactics and motivations. Direct them.  Rehearsing for a film should be more about an actor truly knowing their character (meaning the director has to truly know each character as well) than the specific lines that might very well change soon. This allows an actor to have a seamless transition when minor changes are made with the script. 

 Your project will flourish as a result. I promise. 

I believe this change in outlook and practice will have two effects on our industry. The obvious one being an increase in the quality of acting. The other being, I postulate, an increase in the quantity of good actors. Right now, perhaps on a subconscious level, many great actors are great because they have developed a specific skill: they can take a director’s vague and unhelpful comment and justify it. These actors understand what the director is trying to say, what the director really should be saying, and they step back, search within, do the required work, come back out and present exactly what the director sought. 

 Actors who are unable to do this often give performances that could have been better as they never truly grasped what the hazy and esoteric comments the director made meant. One such way a dedicated actor combats this is by hiring an acting coach, an interceder that has the skillset to understand what needs to be done and can translate a director’s desires for you in a way that is better understood; in other words, the coach speaks the actor’s language. 

But the reality is many actors on the verge of greatness, whose career or lack thereof is teeter tottering, can’t afford an acting coach to be on set with them constantly. And they shouldn’t have to.   

What happens to many of these actors? They never make it. Their talents are categorized as sub-par, sometimes they are deemed difficult to work with because they ask so many questions to better understand. To me, this is a tragedy. A waste of artistic talent. 

It is often said that great actors can take a script and upgrade it one letter grade by giving a believable performance. So they take a C script and make it seem like a B script. 

Russell Crowe famously told screenwriter William Nicholson on the set of Gladiator,

"Your lines are garbage, but I'm the greatest actor in the world, and I can make even garbage sound good".

Harsh much?

This idea also works conversely, although perhaps with a more steep decline – bad acting can take an A script all the way down to, well, an F. 

I think something akin can happen between directors and actors. A great director should be able to take a B actor and raise their game one letter to an A performance. And of course, this too works conversely as bad direction can and will lower the grade of a performance. 

Let’s work on raising the grades. 

By taking on more responsibility for bad acting, directors will be, by nature, more inclined to push and push the boundaries of a performance. They will be more than auteurs. They will be creative educators that help usher in the next great generation of actors and portrayals.  

I think it a worthwhile endeavor. 

Onwards and Upwards, Always - G