I remember as a 17 year old, having a profound desire to be a great actress.
No doubt in part because I was looking to be seen and heard. However, there was a deeper yearning that lurked in the recesses of my teenage mind and heart. I was told that talent and hard work were the recipe for greatness. I like to believe I had a modicum of talent and I certainly worked hard. But I had no way of knowing know for sure that I could deliver the goods when required. My work felt hit or miss.Then one day somebody gave me a book that ignited something that has shaped the course of my artistic life. That book was ‘Respect for acting’, by one of the greatest acting teachers of our time, Uta Hagen.
I am grateful to Uta Hagen (and countless gifted teachers) for feeding the yearning in my spirit and giving me a technique and an abiding respect for the craft of acting. Actors are asked to utilise all that they are, to offer insight into the lives of others. When actors make the need for validation the focus of their training and professional lives they rob themselves of the deep satisfaction that comes with being in service to something much bigger than ourselves – our humanity.
Kim Krejus