Jonathan Hammond Bio:

Jonathan has held faculty positions at Rutgers University (the MFA program) and Collaborative Arts Project 21 (NYU). His private clients have appeared and are currently appearing on and off Broadway, major regional theaters, soaps, television and film.

 

 

Interviewed by Joanna Parson

You’ve been a successful actor for many years.  When did you decide to begin teaching?

I have always taught. It’s very much in my blood. Even in college I was ‘acting coach’ on student productions. I feel as much ‘in flow’ when I am teaching or coaching as I do when I am acting. It is a true passion of mine. For me the idea of ‘those that can’t, teach’ is totally absurd. I am an actor and I am acting teacher and coach. I love it!

I love empowering actors. I love helping them remove the obstacles that stand in the way of their brilliance. An actor’s greatest asset is who he already is. It seems so obvious, but so much of the work I do is simply getting actors to trust their instincts, work from themselves, and celebrate who they are. So often, my clients and students are trying to be some pre-conceived notion of what they think the people behind the table want. In actuality, it is their own special uniqueness that is of the most value.  

Also, I see that so many wonderful actors don’t really have the first clue about analysis. It doesn’t seem to be taught well in the schools, because even the actors that come to me with lots of training are sometimes sketchy when it comes to this. This is part of what excites me the most about teaching and coaching, helping actors discover and utilize the clues from the script.

Do you teach or coach a specific method of acting, like the Method or Meisner work?

Absolutely not. People work very differently. It is the job of a teacher and coach to be well-versed in many different approaches and methodologies.  Some actors are heady and analytical, others are intuitive and earthy. A good teacher/coach can read this kind of thing immediately about a client and find the best way in for them. I am not going to work with a primarily Shakespearean actor with an MFA in the same way that I would work with a fabulously talented dancer from the cast of WICKED. There are a myriad of different types of experiences and histories.  

The material itself also requires different ways of working. While we are ultimately always looking for the truth, you can’t approach MEDEA in the same way that you tackle THE LION KING.  

While I work with a host of ‘techniques’, I love Practical Aesthetics. This encourages the actor to imagine himself in a given situation. How he would react, feel, and respond. This is the quickest way to the actor’s truth. From there it is easy to add ‘style’, a dialect, a specific physicality, or whatever other externals might be appropriate.  

Can acting be taught, anyway?  Shouldn’t people with talent be able to pick up a script and simply dazzle us with their instinctive choices?

Training is important. That being said, I know brilliant and successful actors with MFAs from YALE and others who have dropped out of community college. Everyone comes to their art in a different way and with different experiences.  Most of the actors I know who do classic plays have trained. Most of my Broadway/Musical Theater folks take class and study privately. There are some actors are just instinctual and if they do have a technique, they don’t really know what it is.  

To answer your question, many exceptionally talented (and trained) actors that I work with are not always able to ‘pick up a script and dazzle’. So often, the people that work with me, clients with MFA’s or lots of professional experience, haven’t really figured out exactly what it is they are trying to do in a scene. It is the same with my musical theater clients. Often, they have not decided what it is that they specifically want to accomplish dramatically in their song. There are basic steps that get over-looked. I see it over and over again. People often just need an outside eye that can see what they have missed.  

How do you suggest that actors go about picking acting classes or coaches that are right for them?

Follow your instinct. By this I mean… do you feel empowered when you work with this teacher of coach? Notice I said “empowered”. You want someone who is going to tell you the truth about yourself so that you can be awakened and excited about the next step. I don’t care how famous or ‘accomplished’ an instructor is, you should never be made to feel shamed, humiliated or censored.

I would also be wary of classes with industry professionals. Show business contacts are extremely important, and these kinds of seminars and workshops can open doors. While I believe agents and casting directors have invaluable insights about work presented to them as a finished product, it is not been my experience that they are the place to necessarily go to for technique and craft. There are exceptions of course.  

I believe that the alchemy of the actor’s art is best left to people who can look compassionately at the entire picture of the artist. There are many stages that an actor’s work and craftsmanship goes through before it should be presented to the people who will make final decisions about it.  

You went to undergraduate school at the University of Michigan.  How was that experience?  What kind of people do you recommend look at the University of Michigan theatre program for their undergrad education?

It’s a fantastic program. It’s not right for everyone.   

I am a bit Taoist about the whole school thing. If you want to go, apply, audition and see what happens. If you get in, that’s great. If you don’t, there are always other possibilities. It is important to add that I have coached seventeen year old kids who want to go to NYU, Michigan, or the like. They have had every financial opportunity available to them – summer programs, trips to New York, cast albums, and private voice lessons. The parents have hired me to coach their children, sometimes as many as ten sessions for college auditions.  

Musical theater training of the caliber of University of Michigan, Carnegie-Mellon, etc. is an extremely intense market place. There is amazing training to be had at these institutions. But there are many ways to approach a career in the arts.  

When did you apply to the American Repertory Theatre Institute at Harvard University?  Do you think that attending ART has made a significant difference in your career?

A.R.T. got me an agent and put me in a lot of debt. Graduate school can absolutely help your career. There is a showcase in New York, and the cache of ‘I went there’. If it’s a school that is respected, it can be a great introduction to the business. But if you want that kind of training, get it wherever you can get it. The cream does rise to the top. It may be a bit more difficult if you went to Iowa State than to Julliard, but if you get training, I believe that you will get to where you are supposed to be.  

On a personal level, I have to say that I believe A.R.T. to be a spectacularly mediocre program. I do not recommend it. I did get some good training, but I do not believe it is of the caliber of many other programs – even those that are considered less ‘prestigious’.  

I also think it is important to be very careful about accruing debt for acting training. A regional theater job is at best $800-900 a week, and that’s when you actually get a job. This is not a wage that accommodates monthly student loan payments.  

In your opinion, is there a significant difference between musical theatre acting, and acting for straight plays?

Nope. It’s just about telling the truth.

We all know we want to act naturally when we’re singing, but there’s all that… well… SINGING to do.  Do you have any tips to help get actors out of the trap of listening to the sound they’re producing instead of focusing on the words and actions of a character?

It all boils down to technique. The singing voice must be trained in such away that it can express itself with the same intention and subtlety that it does when it is speaking. In the contemporary musical theater this is a requirement. This is something that can be taught.

Once the vocal technique is in place, the actor is totally free to express whatever he is trying to express. What am I trying to do? What am I trying to get? What am I trying to figure out for myself? These are the exact same questions that need to be answered for a Eugene O’Neill play or Shakespeare. The difference is that the singing technique must be in place before the actor can communicate with a real and authentic level of truth in a musical framework.  

Do you coach people differently when they’re auditioning for on-screen television or film work?  Is there a difference between screen and stage acting?

Nope. It’s just way, way smaller. Everyone makes the acting-in-film-thing into some big mystery. You tell the truth without the extra energy that you would give an 800 person room. That’s it.  

It’s all about the thinking in film and TV. You simply approach it with the gentleness and nakedness of thought. Thought translates and communicates effortlessly. It’s quieter.  

What should actors look for in a monologue?  Do people really audition with monologues anymore, anyway?

I don’t work with monologues very often at all. In general, most auditions are going to be prepared material from whatever it is one is auditioning for. However, if you are introducing yourself to agents and casting directors, it is a good idea to have a few monologues.  

You have to have monologues that say who you are. If you are hilarious, make sure you have something that shows your comic chops off. If you are gorgeous, play the part of the beautiful person in love, or the sexy ingénue. If you are intense, let them see the driven side of you that comes so naturally. Show business divides and categorizes and type casting exists. If you are in the monologue stage of your career, you need to think in these terms. Your monologue needs to present to them what you are in the most obvious of ways. Eventually, of course, you will transcend every stereotype and change the world with your monumental talent.  

On a side note, if you are someone who does Shakespeare, you will often use soliloquies for auditions.  

When an actor is working on a scene or a monologue, what are the first things he or she should do?

Read the play. Answer the following questions — who am I? What kind of person am I? What do I want? What am I trying to do? What is in my way? The big one for me is – what am I trying to do?  

Also, just play with it. Read it out loud, read all the parts. Explore it without your internal censor judging it. You can edit, refine and specify later. But at first, just play.  

What are the biggest mistakes that you see actors making when they approach the work?   

They don’t answer the basic questions for themselves. Or, they have given their power away and become identified with what they think they lack, or to what they believe that they are supposed to be.  

Do you have any hints for actors who are working with material in a heightened classical style, like Shakespeare or Moliere?  How are we supposed to keep the emotions real when the language is so foreign to the way we really speak?  

You have to totally understand what it is you are saying. What am I actually saying in words that I can understand? What am I trying to do? This seems so obvious but I can’t tell you how many times people come to me with a classical piece with only a vague sense of the meaning of the language.

The best way to work with classical material is to actually work with it. Listen to it. Go to see it done well. There are wonderful recordings and videos of Shakespeare plays. The more you hear the language and experience it in your mouth, the more facility you will have with it.  

There is definitely more ‘homework’ to be done when you first start approaching the classic plays. You may need a summary, or an edition that provides lots of definitions, clarifications and foot-notes.  You can’t begin to bring real emotions to anything unless you have a deep understanding of it. This ‘academic’ approach, is an essential step.

Finally, take the trip off yourself that there is a ‘right’ way to do Shakespeare. Everything is always just about telling the truth.

What do you think beginning actors should do when they are first trying to get on stage and screen?  

Take very good care of yourself. Make sure that your basic needs are met. Replace overwhelm with excitement. Be honest. Listen. Train.  

Try to act somewhere, even if it means you have to pay to do it. Ask yourself these questions – Why do I want to act? Could I be happy doing anything else?

Tell us a story!  Is there one particular role or experience that you’ve had that changed the way you thought of the process of acting?

I think it is very important that actors approach acting not only in terms of their craft, but equally in terms of their emotional and mental well-being. Show business can be cruel, objectifying, and triggering place. Actors often feel that everyone else has the power, that they have no say in what happens to them in their lives, and that they are totally expendable. The key is for you to decide for yourself how you choose to relate to this difficult profession. If you have a starving artist mentality, you will be a starving artist. If you believe that you are powerless and subscribe to ‘victim’ mentality, that is what the world will mirror back to you.  

Rather than a story, there are two things that teachers of mine have said to me that have been extremely useful and that I would like to pass on:

A few years ago, I was in the throes of an angst-ridden decision to go or not go to an audition for a play that I didn’t believe in. I knew that I supposed to care. It was a kind of high-profile, commercial production, an ‘opportunity’. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that it just wasn’t right for me. The wonderful musical theater teacher Craig Carnelia said to me: ‘Jonathan, you don’t have to do anything that you don’t want to do. Ever. For the rest of your life. Until you die’. To this day, I follow this advice.  

The second comes from my amazing, sage-like voice teacher Margret Riddelberger who told me that ‘if the decisions and choices that you are making don’t scare you a little bit, you’re probably not growing’.