THE ACTOR

An awareness of your own impact on the environment and the consequences of your actions is an interesting study in self-awareness that might give insight into your craft.

YOUR INSTRUMENT: Some form of physical fitness routine such as yoga or dance or; a gym workout will help you get in tune with your physical self. If you give yourself over to these disciplines, your spiritual self will benefit as well.

DIET: Eat low on the food chain, with less emphasis on meat. You will feel lighter, and have more energy. Dairy products are mucous producing and can effect your speaking voice, especially if you have a cold or allergies.

PERSONAL CARE: Treat yourself: to natural personal-care products and in general get in touch with a low impact lifestyle. If you have vanity rituals, consider the aesthetics of your tools; For example, don't use disposable razors, buy a permanent razor.

SUBSTANCES: Get to know how different substances affect you .so that you will not, be taken off guard: Sugars and coffee can lift you up, but they are accompanied by a. low an hour or two later. Be aware of your own rhythms and responses to stimuli.

READING: Uta. Hagen, in her classic book, Respect for Acting, says that the actor needs talent, but he or she needs character, a sense of ethics, and a point of view about the world in which he or she lives. A number of Hagen's observations about the actor in America are worth reviewing in our present context, for she observes that competitiveness, a disconnection to history, and a desire for the immediate gratification of fame and accolades are undermining the quality of the American theatre, Her observations seem even more relevant a decade after she wrote them. +
• Read the philosophies and accounts of environmental struggles going on throughout the world. These chronicles are historic, philosophical, and volatile, framing the dramas of hearts and minds that will reverberate throughout the next century.