Dear Artist,

At the time of graduating from seven years of training as an actor/director it would have been easy to kid myself that I was, in some ways, supremely equipped to embark on a career in theater, TV and film. Yet in spite of my extensive training (for which I have great respect) huge questions still remained unanswered…

In other words; I wanted to understand the laws that governed the true function and nature of the art and craft of acting and then, using this knowledge combined with experience, assist in the development of future artists… How could I best help the actor to learn to love the art in himself (and not just himself in art!), to be free, awake, aware, technically skilled, open hearted, a joy to work with and ultimately a joy to watch? These questions sent me on a mission; from Stanislavski (my main man!) to Sanford Meisner (“Acting is living truthfully under an imaginary set of circumstances”). From Lee Strasburg (who seems to have missed the point) to the great Michael Chekhov (the first man to acknowledge the spiritual nature of great acting). But I didn’t limit the study to theories of acting. I expanded the search to include, what I believe to be, the real substance of the actors craft, namely; the heart, mind and soul of man…

• Ok, so what exactly is “great acting”?
• Why are there so few truly great and memorable actors, when every actor must surely want to be one?
• What stands in the actors way? How can he remove it?
• What is the actors true function? How can he best serve the audience and therefore humanity as a whole?
• What is charisma?
• What is stage or screen presence?
• What is talent? Are these qualities developable? If so, how?
• What is a character?
• What is the substance or material from which a character is made? How do you go about creating one? Where do you start?
• If great acting can only occur when the actor is in a state of inspiration, is it possible to become inspired at will? If so, how do you do it?
• What can be learned by studying comparative art forms and artists? In what way can the study of philosophy (the love of wisdom) enrich the actor?
• What can the study of psychology (the science of mind and behavior) teach the actor?
• What did other reputed teachers of acting teach their students?… Did it work?

With the aid of psychology, I took a closer look at myself and those around me, with all our sometimes beautiful, sometimes comical, sometimes painful and sometimes downright crazy ways we choose to conduct ourselves in this mysterious quest for happiness that we call “life”!

“Through conscious technique we pave the way to subconscious creativity”
- Stanislavski

The basic premise of the course is this; If we can learn to observe and understand the psychological process’s which created our own character in life, then, with practice, we can learn to saddle and ride this knowledge, to engage it at will, allowing it to serve as our creative technique. The fruit of this study proved to be fascinating and rewarding. The students were happy, the quality of their work was steadily
improving, which was reflected in the number of them that were landing prestigious roles within the industry…

But, to me, it still seemed like something was missing. So then, as a logical progression, I began to wonder about the “higher” or “deeper” nature of dramatic art. Why is film and theater such an important part of human culture? What is the true service of the writer, director and actor to the audience, society and ultimately to humanity? How does our profession fit into the greater scheme of things? I imagined society as a huge body… If within this ‘body’ the town hall serves as a kind of ‘brain’, then the cinema, theater, art house etc, should serve as a ‘heart’…

And in the same way that the biological heart functions as an engine for the distribution of fresh, oxygenated blood to it’s counterparts, so too should the heart of society serve to pump out fresh ideas and inspirational energy into the community at large. I realized that the true purpose of any Art is to hold a mirror up to nature, open the heart and raise the level of consciousness… But how could an actor, writer or director contribute to this process if they hadn’t first raised their own level of consciousness…?

The answer is of course; they can’t!

This lead to the further study; the words of the wise and humanity’s great store house of spiritual knowledge in the form of Scripture and Philosophy from both East and West. The fruits of this study, along with the practice of Meditation, provided the necessary answers. This coupled with the psychological techniques developed by Stanislavsk, Sam Kogan (my teacher from the Moscow Institute of Theatre Arts), leading psychologists and through my own experience, has evolved into a system of training which I call THE SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY OF ACTING.

I hope to see you at one of our workshops soon.

John Osborne Hughes