Unwritten You: Rediscovering Our Unstoried Selves
Unwritten You: Rediscovering Our Unstoried Selves
The Creative Process & Acting with Loren E. Chadima, Part 1
Part I: Who Is Loren E. Chadima?
We talk with award-winning Hollywood acting coach, actor, director and producer and creator of Intentional Acting, Loren E. Chadima. Deneen's longtime friend takes us on such a rich journey of creative process, that we had to split the show in two parts.
Loren directed Deneen in two one-woman shows, one which Deneen traveled the country performing for 5 years. Loren has been voted as one of the best acting coaches in the US and has had a film in the running for the Academy Awards. She brings her whole being to helping people reconnect and connect with themselves through storytelling. Learn more about Loren and Intentional Acting: https://intentionalacting.com/
Why Loren and Why Now?
We (Deli and Deneen) have been steeped in an ongoing conversation about honoring our creative lives as necessary anchors to our true selves. We couldn't think of a better person with whom to talk about reclaiming and staying connected with one's creative life than with Loren. For us, reconnecting with our creative lives (acting and writing) has been life-giving. For Loren who was once nervous about auditioning because she didn't know what to do, the act of coaching actors has brought the love of acting back into Loren's own life. We discuss the act of reclaiming our creative lives and how life-giving it is. We discuss the creative process as a source of healing. The creative path isn't always the simple path and it is the one that leads you to your truest self, your inner life. We talk about how Loren's approach allows her students to open up their creative processes and show up as present in the moment instead of obsessing about the end results and what to do.
Intentional Acting Process
Loren, mother of a 14 year old son and creator of Intentional Acting, is hired by working actors who feel like they are getting passed over and don't know why. She has created a powerful process and series of questions that help actors tap into their own experience in bringing characters to life. She is currently writing a book with the working title, "Don't Memorize Your Lines First". Yep, you heard that right. In fact, she believes strongly that actors should memorize their lines as the last part of their process. What needs to come first, she says, is the story. Loren's intention with Intentional Acting is to help actors be self-sustaining, to teach them how to fish, as it were, to teach them how to tap into and open up their own creative processes.
She gets actors to connect with your own experiences in ways that create aha's, helping actors connect the character they portray to a piece of themselves. She says, connecting it all to yourself is where the artistry comes in. The work, the process has to be deeply personal to the actor, that's where the truth lies and that's what touches humanity. The that's where the story is and we're all storytellers.
How Do You Take Risks and Be Vulnerable In a Way That Is Safe?
It's scary, unsafe and unhealthy to completely lose oneself in a character to the degree that you have a hard time coming out. Loren's 9 Questions help actors ask the question,
how do I use this scene to benefit myself? How can I use this piece to heal myself rather than harm myself.
Listen as Loren shares a profound story of a scene she did in an Ibsen Play -- one in which for the first time a woman was portrayed as leaving her husband and kids to follow her heart.
What happened during that scene helped to heal her in a profound way in her life.
Intentional Acting
https://intentionalacting.com/
Instagram: @intentionalacting
Original Music by Penny Fisher & Kyle Smith
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