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Show Acting Workshop will Focus on Film Technique camera, it requires taking risks. And when a scene is over, he discusses in detail how it could have been improved, and if he's pleased with it, overall, he may say simply, "That was very nice." The actors are also expected to criticize themselves, to probe deeper into their characters in search of that "objective." "objec-tive." It's a process in which Cliff Osmond tries to get an actor to feel like a character, not to simply imagine what a character is like and then act. In one scene this week at his studio in Salt Lake an actress had trouble showing anger. "Let it hit you," Mr. Osmond said in a somewhat demonstrative manner, hitting hitt-ing his own stomach for emphasis. In another scene from "Rainmaker", the actor act-or playing the part of Starbuck needs to be fuller, more charismatic, and Cliff . Osmond says, "Can you just i stand there and project outward your presence? The room is filled with your by David Fleisher An acting workshop with emphasis on film technique will be held this weekend at the Egyptian Theater, led by a man who is a veteran in the business. Cliff Osmond, writerproducerdirector wri-terproducerdirector with Taft International Pictures, will conduct his "intensive" workshop Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. "This workshop should be packed," said an actress who is in a workshop directed by Cliff Osmond at his "Studio 3" in Salt Lake. "To not take advantage of this man's talents would be a crime." The face is certainly familiar. fami-liar. Mr. Osmond has guest starred in over seventy series episodes and two-hour two-hour dramatic features for television including "Gun-smoke." "Gun-smoke." "Rifleman," "All in the Family," "Odd Couple," "Ironsides," and "Dr. Kildare," among many others. He's appeared in thirteen feature films of which four were directed by Billv Wilder (1RMA LA DOUCE. FORTUNE COOKIE, COOK-IE, KISS ME STUPID AND FRONT PAGE). "We learn throughout a lifetime to hide our feelings in order to protect ourselves from pain," says Mr. Osmond, Os-mond, "acting requires just the opposite-io develop the ( courage to reveal our feel- V ings." And he knew at one time about the fear of releasing his feelings on stage; it was when he was an undergrau-duate undergrau-duate student on a full academic scholarship at Dartmouth. He had a 15-line role as a town cryer in a . full-length play. "The director was so aghast at my self-consciousness that he was going to tell me to go out for football, but he let me do it and I was alive opening night. Then, I was in the next play and the next play..." So, Cliff Osmond gave up football (he played Tackle at Dartmouth during his Freshman Fresh-man year) and launched a career that, professionally, has now lasted twenty years. When a scene is being performed during his workshops. work-shops. Mr. Osmond focuses much of his attention on a character's "objective," the something, whatever it may be, thai the character is trying lo attain. "Every character in every play has an objective," he says, "it's a series of characters in pursuit of something. ..I look for a level of honesty. Are they (the actors) truly revealing themselves? them-selves? Are they striving for their objectives?" And he adds that in order to be effective on stage or before a presence." And then Mr. Osmond says to the other actors in the audience, "Walk: on a set. This js where i live." ; And-to another actress in another scene he says, "Accent isn't required to be a queen; to be a queen, you have to feel like a queen. It doesn't come out in diction." The workshops also include filming various scenes and showing them on a monitor; and the differences between live theater and film become apparent. ; "In film," says Mr. Osmond, Os-mond, "you create a series of moments that the editor and screenwriter string together; toge-ther; a whole cloth made out of a series of seemingly unconnected threads. Whereas in stage, you are the weaver and more in control of the individual threads." Cliff Osmond directed two six-week workshops in Park City last year. His workshops in Salt Lake began in June with twenty-five students; there are now about seventy actors, many already experienced, exper-ienced, who are participating ranging in age from 18 to 60. "The 'espouse has been gratifying," says the veteran actor, "and the classes continue to grow." Please turn to page 4B '-.'ll.llljt l . Cliff Osmond 1 .' Y; I'l'i'. fs ' i'i I i more workshop Continued from Page 3B In a meeting scheduled for December 13 at Studio 3 Mr. Osmond will explore the idea of starting a writer's workshop work-shop which would include using original material for actors. Since 1973, Mr. Osmond wrote screenplays and assignments for television televis-ion including "Serpico," "Hardy Boys," "Streets of San Francisco," "Power Play," which won Best Screenplay in the Canadian Film Festival in 1978, and a documentary feature entitled "The President Must Die," among others. Cliff Osmond, a Park City resident for the past three-and-a-half years, is a member mem-ber of the Board of Directors of the Kimball Art Center, serves on the advisory board of Park City Performances, and also a member of Park City's Rotary Club. The cost of the workshop this weekend in Park City is $35 for members of Park City Performances, $45 for non-members. |