2005© Photograph by Tony Arpante
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Get Creative: The Institute Searches for the Actor in Everyone 
By Joyce Kiely Momentum, August 11-17, 1994 Momentum, The Official Journal of the National Catholic Educational Association, October/November 1998
For many people, creativity is little more than a dim childhood memory. Games of make-believe and let’s pretend have little place in the cold world of adult realities. When a boss tells an employee to “get creative,” the message is clear – and it’s not about play. The first step into the TAI is a workshop called the Mastery of Acting. Through drama exercises and performances in front of their peers, a participant learns about his or her own creative potential and how to go beyond it. “It gives people a chance to speak and to really be heard. So many times people speak and are not head,” said Diane Seymour, Mastery leader, TAI partner and dramaturge. “Most people are naturally creative,” says Dan Fauci, “and are somehow aware that they’ve cut off this unique part of themselves. The purpose of the Mastery is to discover that you create your own creativity. At each moment you have the choice of turning it on or off. Making the creative alternative available is the goal of everything we do at The Actors Institute.” Roots with Danson The Actors Institute actually evolved out of the Mastery of Acting program, which was conceived in 1977 when actor Ted Danson asked an actor friend, Dan Fauci, to begin a workshop for actors in LA. Fauci agreed and the institute was born. The institute has helped actors like Sigourney Weaver and Tommy Tune as well as those who are seeking to break into the profession. Since its inception, 35,000 people have completed the program. The Next Step, as the name implies, is a workshop for those who are ready to go on and seriously pursue an acting career. It’s a four-month program, focusing on the art and the business side of acting, taught by working actors. In the real world, actors need to be tough, and Next Step is not for the faint of heart. “It knocked my socks off,” said Kristen Freeley, an actress who has been with the company for two years. “But now I feel ready for anything. They have given me everything I need. When I need a kick in the butt, they give me a kick in the butt. When I need to talk, they listen. We’re a family.” Family ties do bind at the institute. Seymour, the dramaturge, is married to Allen Schoer, the executive director and visionary of TAI. Her father, Sy Grudko, teaches cartooning classes for youngsters. Former Mastery students often nurture lifelong connections with the friends made at the Institute. Twelve for Twila Twila Thomson began 12 years ago as an actress in the Mastery . She stayed on as a volunteer, then as staff, then as an instructor, and now as a partner and executive director for the New York branch of TAI. In addition to directing, she teaches a program called Sources, designed to help people recovering from drug or alcohol addiction to cope with their past. “If someone has had a problem in the past, that cannot be changed. I try to help people deal with their past, to see it as a source of creativity,” she said. Using theater games, art, sculpture, journals and other methods, she shows people how honestly to assess their situations and how to focus their experiences creatively. “The results are amazing,” she said. “People who never graduated high school are able to write and sculpt unbelievable pieces.” Throughout all their programs – ranging from soap operas and Shakespearean acting classes to directing and workshops for AIDS patients and paraplegics, the staff at TAI believe in the creative power of all individuals and draw it out through their performances. On Thursday, August 4, TAI presented “The Immeasurable House of Being” in a black box theater in its offices on the four floor of 48 West 21st St. The production, a celebration of the life and works of e.e. cummings, was the culmination of four months of preparation by Kristen Freeley and Russ Hamilton. The two completed The Next Step program, and this was their showcase. The music was composed and played by Brian Tate, and the poetry was vintage cummings. Under the direction of Twila Thomson, Freeley and Hamilton presented the work with an exuberance and spirit that gave meaning to the words and music. “The Immeasurable House of Being” closed Saturday, August 6, but it’s not their last production of the summer. The institute’s sixth annual Acts & Actors One-Act Play Festival will begin Friday, August 19, and continue through the 31st, including “The Soda Can” by New Yorker Zanne Hall. 
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