Robert Ortiz Studios Blog

I am here in Atlanta, Georgia for a week acting in the premier of Robert Earl Price’s play “All Blues.”  You may correctly ask what this has to do with woodworking, but as I have taken on the role of an apprentice in this new craft, I can’t help but be struck by the many similarities in both disciplines.  This is a one shot deal – I have no illusions that I am going to become an actor, but having been offered the opportunity and believing in the theme of the play, I hoped that it would be fun.  I’ve been working on this just about every day for the past 4 months.  It’s been a lot of work, at times utterly terrifying, sometimes  frustrating but finally very satisfying and fun also.  Over the next few days that I will be here, I hope to be able to reflect on what I have learned.  My hope is that perhaps you might find some useful ideas that you can apply to your own discipline.

The hardest part of this endeavor, for me, has been taking on the role of an apprentice.  I thought I left that behind a long time ago.  In my studio my errors are usually made privately and at best I even get to incorporate them into a piece.  On stage everyone sees your errors…there’s no place to hide.    I have been well aware that the first shortcoming that all apprentices have is “no peripheral vision.”  That is, they only see what is right in front of their nose.  The novice at the table saw sees only the cut to be made.  He or she may lose sight of how the piece relates to the rest of the project or how the grain of the piece they have chosen may actually distract from the whole.  Only with experience does the apprentice learn to have a longer view of the project “in their head”.  Thus they can see, not only what is right in front of them, but also the road ahead.

I had a sense that it would be the same with acting, but much to my dismay I seemed incapable of avoiding the same lack of peripheral vision on stage.  If I remember my lines (what’s right in front of my nose) I forget to project, or neglect to stand still…and let’s not even get into a discussion of – can I find the right emotion to convey to the audience what I’m trying to project?   It reminds me of the guy who used to spin plates on the old Ed Sullivan variety show of the 60′s.  He’d be spinning ten plates, turn his attention to one, and four others would start to fall.   I am now that guy.

I suspect that most apprenticeships would follow the same arc regardless of the discipline, be it craft, art, music, athletics and dare I say it, business.  One other thing that I have found to be very curious is how my brain seems to have responded to all of this.  When I was in school – many years ago – I was very good at languages.  Over the years, it has seemed to me that I lost that ability to retain words or phrases heard in another tongue and much to my dismay even in English and Spanish.  Needless to say, I was worried about my ability to learn my lines and several longer monologues.  Much to my horror, it took me about 4 weeks to learn the first long one, but I worked at it every day and to my surprise, the second one – just as long – took 2 weeks.  By the time I got to the last one, I had it in 4 days.  I guess the brain is like a muscle…you have to work it.

If I have learned anything in my years of making furniture and running a business, it is this:   suit up every morning, turn the lights on , stay focused and get to work.  It does not guarantee success but you won’t succeed unless you do that.  The knowledge  and “the method” I have developed and learned as a wood worker, as an artist  has served me well and shown me a way forward as an actor.

…I’m off to an afternoon rehearsal…the Atlanta premier of “All Blues” is tomorrow evening.