Course Outlines - Phase II Courses Some of these courses are intended as a follow-up to our Adult Professionals series. The workshop listed below is open to actors of all levels of experience. An Organic Creative Process  Instructor: John Strasberg (New York City) October 12-15, 2004 (5:30pm to 10:30pm) Participation Cost: $350.00 Auditing Cost: $175.00 *** Class size is limited *** TESTIMONIALS   ³My work evolves from where the Method, and other systems, and the great teachers like my father and Stella Adler, left off. It is new because it is an Organic Creative Process, based on my discovery of the Nine Natural Laws of Creativity. This means that the artist develops an intuitive and conscious process. As I discovered the Nine Laws, I defined Talent, Imagination, Spontaneity, and Intelligence. Formerly, these natural realities were recognized and revered, but invisible and mystical. I defined them, because until that is done, it is impossible to know what you are really teaching. Have you taught a technique that works? Or, is the person talented and imaginative?    The most important principle anyone teaches is what an actor believes they should do when they act. Actors do what they think they should do. In my experience, working with thousands of professional actors, in 20 countries in the world, if I can discover what the actor thinks they should be doing, I can repair, or transform, their creative process.    Stanislavski and the generation of great American teachers analyzed acting, and plays, into their separate parts, and taught their systems, actions, objectives, emotions, substitutions, sense memories, separately from the play. Teachers continue adding techniques from our growing knowledge of human behavior. Some of it is brilliant. But, they gave the impression that there is a recipe for creating a work of art, forgetting that the systems and methods developed from what great actors did naturally.    I teach the process directly within scene work. Because, all realities and techniques exist within the play. I want actors to think like human beings, putting themselves into someoneıs elseıs shoes. I donıt want you thinking like an actor, thinking about what technique to use.    To me, basic training is knowing yourself, and how to use yourself, to become deeply involved in the imaginary world we develop when focusing on a play. Making the invisible world visible, each artist creates and expresses a personal vision of life, in art. Because, an artist has something to say about life.²                                JOHN STRASBERG The ORGANIC CREATIVE PROCESS: INTENTIONAL DREAMING IN VISIBLE WEBS        What follows is a very simple outline of the nine natural laws of creativity, which are the foundation of the Organic Creative Process: TALENT*    Talent is simply the natural capacity to perceive reality. Talent expresses what it perceives by creating a new form of life. Simply put, talented people perceive and express realities the rest of us donıt see. IMAGINATION*            Imagination is fundamental to creativity. With Imagination, one changes reality. Every technique anyone teaches, or needs to learn, in the creative process, depends on how much imagination one has, and whether one can use it, focus it on realities that oneıs talent perceives in the characterıs life. INSPIRATION*    Any good creative process has moments of inspiration, flashes of insight, great ideas, sudden understanding. I donıt know where it comes from, but everyone has to understand that all successful creative processes are accompanied by these moments.    When I was inspired and did what I dreamed acting was, I wasnıt doing what I had been taught. It was intensely personal, but it wasnıt MY life. I went beyond myself, my habits. I didnıt forget who I was. I focused on a dynamic, imaginary world, creating a new life that synthesized real, and imaginary, realities. BASIC TECHNIQUE    My basic technique is knowing yourself, and knowing how to use yourself: Developing self-awareness, creating a centered, moment to moment state of being, you learn to become deeply involved in an imaginary, invisible world, and live spontaneously within it. ORGANIC THINKING*    Intelligence, real, organic thought feels different from intellectualized thoughts that are distanced from feeling and intuition. Real thought is a sensation that you learn to recognize. You arenıt thinking about acting techniques, or making a plan representing your ideas of the text. Real thought involves you in whatever you are thinking about. INTENTIONAL DREAMING*    Dreaming while you are awake, discovering the essential realities in the play, intuitively and consciously; in what I call the personal dream space, is my favorite part of the creative process. Focusing on putting yourself in another human beingıs world, so that you can think about life from inside the character. Then, and only then, do you begin to understand the characterıs life, and be able to discover realities you choose to  focus on. These realities draw you into the world you imagine. Learning what to focus on is one of the hardest techniques of the creative process to master. TRANSFORMATION*    Your deep involvement enables you to Transform*. Whether you actually become someone else, or are simply going beyond yourself, and the habits of thought and behavior you are comfortable with, remains to be understood. It doesnıt matter. Either way, you create a new life. SENSE OF TRUTH*    The Sense of Truth* regulates the entire Creative Process. Without the Sense of Truth, there is no way to know what is real. You begin to trust yourself; like an athlete. You become your best friend. You integrate your growing perceptions of yourself, and life, with your expanding knowledge of plays and characters. Your Sense of Direction develops, and you begin to recognize the feeling you have when your real thoughts and intuitions are on the right track.   LOVE* and DETERMINATION*    These are the most obvious laws. Success is only possible when you have Love* and Determination*. Only with love and determination can you overcome your fears, doubts, and solve the problems that are normal to encounter. ******    Mastering the process doesnıt mean you will always create a work of art. Nothing guarantees that you can create a work of art. You can become highly professional, where, even on a bad night you play the play well.    Itıs a strange reality, that actors experience pleasure when they suffer; when they choose to experience what their character lives. You suffer, in the negative sense, when you are not experiencing what the character is living through.    Hopefully, like an athlete, you learn the difference between good pain and bad pain. And, that success is the process itself; accompanied by a feeling of profound pleasure.    Art is a conscious and intuitive process. Learning the laws and the basics of the Organic Creative Process take one to three years, mastering, seven to ten. A master devotes his life working and learning; like in any domain of human endeavor.    Your process evolves through an interactive dialogue with me; before, during, and after the scene. Your interpretation and individuality evolve effortlessly; invention is natural. No two human beings are exactly alike. After all, an artist has something to say about life. And, an actor in a moment of inspiration is a living work of art. ***** John Strasberg's 40 year career as actor, director, producer, designer, and writer, exemplifies and continues the artistic tradition of the Strasberg family. He acted, and teaches and directs, in Europe and the Americas. He had acting schools in New York and Paris, and the Mirror Repertory Company in New York, working with artists like Geraldine Page. He has earned prestige and awards for directing and designing productions of Shakespeare, Aristophanes, Pirandello, Ibsen, OıNeill, and Beckett, among others. He works in English, French, and Spanish. He teaches ongoing classes and Intensive workshops in New York. He has an atelier and theater in Montreal, and travels to Europe and Latin America to direct and teach.     Read Accidentally on Purpose: Reflections on Life, Acting, and the Nine Natural Laws of Creativity* Mr. Strasbergıs deeply personal memoir about the discovery of the Organic Creative Process. Pre-Register Here More workshops coming soon. Please bookmark this page and check back often.