Carl Schwaber

I studied acting with Bill Howey for approximately two years in Burbank, CA, and emerged from his workshop a markedly stronger actor. Bill does not coddle his actor students: he takes them from the point at which they are and pushes them to grow beyond that point. He neither indulges over-confidence or complacency nor allows you to maintain self-defeatist attitudes toward the work and toward yourself. Bill persists in his efforts to remind you of your ability to arrive at the point at which you are communicating to an audience that message or character essence that you have been intent on communicating from the outset. He did so for me and it was effective.

Bill made me examine my inclination to over-analyze the script and storyline, to be excessively cerebral. He encouraged me to just “be” the character and not to remain in my head. He encouraged me to make strong choices, to take risks and to then examine the outcome (e.g., what worked, what did not work). He asked me to talk about how it felt, what I was happy with, what I might have done differently. He made me quite aware of the fact that I need not search for a personal memory that may not be there in order to communicate to an audience, but that rather I can find what I am looking for through research, observation, and imitation. Bill taught me that even in instances when I myself believe I have fully inhabited my character – this does not automatically translate to the audience believing I have done so. Sometimes, the fact that you feel you are the character may not be enough to communicate this to others.

Bill cultivates a class environment in which actors feel very safe making choices, experimenting, making mistakes, correcting things, trying to do the same character differently, finding what works for each of them personally in the way they each communicate something specific to an audience. What you put into Bill’s class varies directly with what you will get out of it. There should be a willingness to consistently work hard, to prepare for class outside of class, to take feedback seriously, to be self-disciplined, to be vulnerable. Bill wants you to do all this because he genuinely cares about you and your growth as an actor.

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