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BHP Community Allen Barton's Blog What’s this Blog About?

What’s this Blog About?

BHP, n., 1. Beverly Hills Playhouse, the best acting school you’ll find – now with classes in LA, NYC, and SF.

Allen Barton is the current President/CEO of the BHP, and teacher of the advanced level classes in Los Angeles, as well as being a classical pianist and writer/director. The blog could be titled, “Notes on the Study and Pursuit of Acting.” 

Milton Katselas’ two books, Acting Class and Dreams Into Action, are in and of themselves complete works that lay down Katselas’ approach and his techniques for both acting and the career of acting. This blog is a space where Allen, who was extensively involved in editing both of Milton’s books, can add further commentary from his perspective as a current teacher and administrator of the school. It is a means of supplementing Milton’s work with fresh commentary and ideas on the current state of acting study and the pursuit of acting in the 21st century. 

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Allen's Posts

Name That Tone

When Milton and I reworked the Acting Class book in 2008, we flirted with the idea of moving "Who's The Author?" to the ...
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On Technology and Training: A Steinway Metaphor

There’s a fabulous documentary on the topic of making Steinway pianos - Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037.  ...
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On Being Personal

A little over a year ago, I was asked to write an essay about "Being Personal," for a book that was to be a collection o ...
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Feelings Don’t Matter

They just don't. There is the job you do, and then there are your feelings about your job - and only the former is of an ...
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A Slow Turning Wheel

Part of the Big Frustration with pursuing an acting career I think comes from the seeming zero relationship between comp ...
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Introducing MyGigInfo.com

About four years ago, I had an idea. I made some sketches of it at the time, had some basic conversations with web devel ...
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Leonard Cohen, “How to Speak Poetry”

From Death of a Lady's Man: Take the word "butterfly." To use this word it is not necessary to make the voice weigh l ...
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The Victim/Ego Monster

A long-time student let it rip a couple weeks ago with a personal monologue about how lazy he is. He sure is lazy. Milto ...
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Wake Up!

Milton would often quote (or more likely paraphrase)  Gurdjieff in saying "The first job of the teacher is to wake ...
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Career Concept Clarification

I've had occasion recently to read a few students' Career Concepts, and figured I'd offer some thoughts on the matt ...
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A 1945 Code of Ethics for Theatre Workers

This is fantastic. (Reprinted from an item in the Los Angeles Times.) ************** While appearing on Broadway i ...
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X to 1

I've been chatting in class a fair amount recently about administration, which is BHP-speak for the actions actors are t ...
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Are You Being Honest or Being a Dick?

Got a text the other night from a friend of mine the other night. He had seen a one-act festival that the BHP had produc ...
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Reasons We Don’t Move Forward (Heard so far in 2011….)

It's financial. I have a lot going on right now. I've got a lot of personal shit I'm dealing with.  I'm heading out ...
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Coffee Shop Naturalism and the Avant-garde

I'm known at the BHP for having a stronger point of view than most on the issue of certain material that I feel reduces ...
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Reel Thoughts

I've had occasion to see a bunch of demo reels recently - mostly from BHP students but also a few on the outside as well ...
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The Professional Scene Partner

One of the most frequent complaints about the study of acting, across all schools and all approaches, concerns the issue ...
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Holiday Hiati

They're baaaaacccckkk!  The holidays. Visible on the horizon. Now personally, this is my favorite time of year - th ...
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Good Followup – It Matters

  Are you in a funk because of the audition you think you just blew? The agent who didn't sign you? The part that ...
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Get A Grip on Your Finances

  OK - so.... Everyone's got money problems, right? It seems that whether you're making money or dead broke, there ...
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Cynema

  It doesn't quite work, because "Cynema" and "Cinema" are homonyms. Visually - okay. Aurally - needs to be "Cynical ...
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Doing Shit Theatre

  Okay, let me just ask it plainly: Why do so many actors involve themselves with such shit theatre projects? Beca ...
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Opportunity Knocks, But Doesn’t Leave a Note

  I detected a more-than-slightly moody vibe last Wednesday in class, and looking to debug the atmosphere, I noticed ...
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Do the Admin You Like

  Had a chat with a student this week who 'fessed up to what I'm sure is a common feeling: "I hate doing the breakdow ...
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One-itude

  Spoke last night with a student who had finished an audition exercise. He sat down and said, with a vaguely pissed ...
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Costaritis

  costaritis, n., a disease whereby normally intelligent, talented actors are suddenly reduced to a heap of blitherin ...
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My Day at SAG

  OMG. Yesterday was the date of my meeting with SAG regarding my nefarious (and unpaid) participation in a mini-DV s ...
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“Build Your Own Door and Walk Through It” (Reposted from March)

  Apparently I said that to a student a couple years ago. If I recall, she was frustrated on the career front, and th ...
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My Director’s Note from “The Real Thing” program:

It is with mixed emotions that I look at the idea of having directed the first production under our new banner, The Kat ...
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“The Real Thing” inaugurates The Katselas Theatre Company

  The newly renamed Katselas Theatre Company (formerly Camelot Artists) was brought to life this weekend with my late ...
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Shakespeare at BHP

  The Bard has been getting good treatment lately. The last four Shakespeare scenes I've seen in the Advanced level c ...
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Responsibility – It’s a bitch

  Had my least favorite brand of meeting the other day - a get-together with an angry student about why they've decid ...
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Learning the Performing Arts is a Personal Deal

  Had another discussion last night with someone who thinks the BHP should put acting classes on the web. I don't get ...
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The S.T.A.G.E. Benefit

  This weekend I played at the 25th annual STAGE Benefit at the Wilshire Theatre. It was dedicated to the music and l ...
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Politics and Acting

  Just a thought. It being election season, I’m finding myself embroiled in many conversations about politics. ...
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Allen’s BHP Biography

The purpose of this blog is to give a little personal touch to the events occurring around the BHP on an ongoing basis, ...
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What’s this Blog About?

BHP, n., 1. Beverly Hills Playhouse, the best acting school you’ll find – now with classes in LA, NYC, a ...
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