A FEELING OF THE WHOLE: MENTORSHIP AND CONNECTION w/ Lana Sugarman
Art by Jazmin Tan
In the Michael Chekhov Technique for actors, there is a concept called The Four Brothers. These are reminders and qualities that can lead to integrated, inspiring, full-bodied performance. The first three Brothers are: a feeling of Ease, a feeling of Form and a feeling of Beauty. The fourth Brother, a feeling of the Whole (sometimes called Entirety) can refer to the actor’s awareness of the full scope of a play or story, but it can also refer to an ensemble of actors being tuned into each other as a unified, cohesive unit. Part of our mission statement at Seat of the Pants is that we are an ensemble-based company, rooted in trust, authenticity, respect, healthy conflict, accountability, and equal commitment as we “do life together”.
We are entering our third year as an ensemble-driven company, and I have been inspired by our commitment to developing the talents within each other. Many members of our ensemble have taken on new roles and had great success, even when ‘putting the wheels on the bus as we drive it’, as our Artistic Director Craig Joseph often says. Examples of this are actor/director Michael Glavan producing our show Grand Concourse in an industrial kitchen in Cleveland. (Producers are logistical maestros, securing rehearsal locations, dealing with contracts and many other things I’m still learning about!) Ensemble member Natalie Sander Kern stepped into the role of Assistant Director for the first time on this show as well, having been primarily an actor. We’ll see this again in the final play of our Salon Series this July, where actor Scott Esposito directs a reading of a new script. We are encouraged to learn from each other’s expertise and take on new skills and roles, from grant writing to fight direction, to shifting from working backstage to performing onstage and vice versa.
A personal aspect of this ‘wholeness’ I am excited by, is some of the full circle connections that are happening for me within Seat of the Pants as we work with new artists in the Northeast Ohio theatre community. Our current production, Eric Coble’s The First Snow of Summer, includes Fabio Polanco and Courtney E. Brown as members of the cast. Fabio and Courtney are Acting Professors in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Kent State University where I completed my MFA in Acting. My first experience studying the Michael Chekhov Technique was in Fabio’s classes! This led me to train with the Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium. (And for those who don’t know, Michael Chekhov Technique is an integral element of our rehearsal process at Seat of the Pants.)
I continue to be inspired by our company’s curiosity and collaborative nature as we evolve and investigate all of the puzzle pieces that make Seat of the Pants, whole.
