Aspiring actors failing to take advantage of stage experience

Whenever I go to local acting classes, or Screen Actors Guild seminars, I'm always amazed at the number of faces I don't know. I'm a theater critic. I see nearly every local play. Shouldn't I know most of the actors in this town?

I've come to learn what I think is a sad fact. Most Vegas thespians want to be movie stars, and movie stars only.

Nothing wrong with the cinema. It's an honorable job. But why would a nonworking actor avoid the benefits of the stage?

I put that question to Gerald Gardner, a well-known acting coach who gained something of celebrity status when one of his students, Adrien Brody, took home a 2003 Best Actor Oscar for "The Pianist."

Gardner would be the first to tell you he has some terrific students. But he admits, "The passion or drive or obsession isn't usually there. Vegas doesn't produce that kind of actor. (The) glamour and money and fast life that they think is success truly seduces them."

It's painful to watch actor wannabes sabotaging themselves. I attended a showcase for agents in which a middle-age couple did a scene from "A Streetcar Named Desire." They played Stella and Stanley as if they were a blissful domestic couple straight out of "The Donna Reed Show." I didn't need to ask, but when I inquired if the couple had read the entire play, the answer was, of course, "no." (If you're familiar with "Streetcar," you know it ain't no "Donna Reed.") These two actors had spent money on beautifully glossy photos, polished resumes, a history of expensive study, all in the effort to find a place in a difficult profession. Yet, they didn't think it was important enough to read the script they were performing. (Imagine how much better they would have been if they had actually done the play once or twice on a local stage!)

This separation between stage-and-screen wannabes is unfortunate because local playhouses are almost always hurting for talent. And even the most gifted screen hopefuls I see about town could use more experience. A stage role requires many of the same skills as does the screen, most especially the ability to master a technique for creating character.

"The argument usually," Gardner says, "is that they have to work nights to earn a living. I instruct all who go to Hollywood without any connections to get into a theater group."

Of course, that makes sense. And if a person is really serious, getting a graveyard job wouldn't hurt either, since it would leave the struggling artist available for both film and stage work. But it comes down to how serious one is about dreams.

"Michael Caine (said) that if you want to be an actor, it has to come before the golf game, sex, etc., etc.," Gardner says. "Few hear that."

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at DelValle@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.