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Show i 1 . Woman of many talents IhoWs acting workshops Dim Pack Catty tit. by CARTER DREYFUSS Record contributing writer We didn' t mean to keep it a secret that Lilyan Chauvin, who is an actress, a director, a writer and a teacher, Is conducting actors' video workshops in Park City. In fact, she's taught three workshops since January and they've become a priority for a circle of actors in Salt Lake. Many show up at the workshops every six weeks or so. If you ask them why, they same simply, "I've learned more in a weekend with Lilyan than I have During the workshop held May 17, -18 and 19 Chauvin' s work in Park City was discovered by represents tives from the Sundance Institute who sat in on the Sunday session and were amazed not only that a video workshop was going on in Park City, but that so many talented actors were participating. They speculated it might not be necessary in the future to start the talent search for their productions out of state, Chauvin is one of those rare talents who can combine a busy ' acting, directing and script-writing career with a full teaching schedule. She teaches at the University of Southern California and in her own studio in Studio City, California, where she instructs on videotape. While her credentials member of the director's guild and the writer's guild, as well as the SAG, AFTRA and AEA unions are impressive, it is her personality people remember. She puts heart, soul and passion into her teaching sessions, and her students don't walk away without experiencing a few gasps, accompanied accom-panied by revelations about themselves them-selves and the craft that goes beyond how they look and sound on film to why it's better not to act while acting. Chauvin studied with the School of Cinema and Jean Louis Barrault in film "Walks Far Woman." "I take actors from stage acting to film acting in a practical as well as theoretical way," said Chauvin. "What I teach you today you can go out tomorrow' and start using. I insist on teaching with a camera. It's so much faster. A camera directly on your face can read all your thoughts. You have to leam to reduce and express with your face, to be extremely precise with what your thought is at a given moment. "Without making the actor feel threatened, I can show them a close up and they can see for themselves if they had nothing in the eyes, if they were not listening or thinking or feeling, but just waiting for a cue," she said. "I'm totally opposed to negative criticism by other actors," she added. "Any human ego can be destroyed by the stroke of a feather. I want a cohesive group with no pouncing. I want my students to relax and concentrate on the work. I'm even against too much negative self-criticism when you see yourself on tape. Some actors have that old pattern from other classes and start saying, 'I did that all wrong, I. look awful, etc.' "When I hear that, I say, 'stop it right now and say something positive, something nice about yourself.' " While she strives for the up side, the good experiences, her classes are not easy. She asks her students, "Do you want to work, or do you want to be a professional student? I'm here to teach you how to get work." Students like Kim Shriner, Steve Carlson, Christian Marlowe and Jennifer Runyon learned their lessons well enough to land continuing roles on "General Hospital," Hospi-tal," "Love of Life" and "Texas," among others. In each workshop Chauvin teaches drama and comedy, commercials, cold readings, scene breakdown and often physical action, including fakes such as claps, punches and fights. She'll also give actors help with auditions and interviews and zeroes in on students' individual problems. She picks their scenes and pairs them with a particular actor for a specific purpose. "You may pull something out of him or he will help you past a problem, or together you will develop something in each other," she said. Each actor has to find some positive aspect of his workshop experience, and if he comes back he has to show her what he has done with it. "That's why teaching is so exciting for me," she added. " W hen I first began I was selfish, with the attitude, 'you don't think I'm going to give away everything F ve spent a lifetime learning ! ' "But now I teach these same things to 12 or 15 people a week and the next week they come back trying to do what I was teaching. "One or two will succeed and an elation will overtake me, because they take what I say, chew it up, spit it out and make it their own. "It's not me, it's them. It's opening up minds and I like that. "It took a near-fatal bout with pneumonia for me to slow down and ask myself if I was ready to die, " she said. "I knew I hadn't made nearly enough contribution in my field and that's when I started taking teaching seriously." Chauvin works and teaches long hours each week and is looking forward to filming her motion picture "Senseless" in Park City. She is the writerdirector. On June 28, 29 and 30 Chauvin will hold her next Actors' Video Workshop in Park City. For more information and an application, please call 649-0075. 1 Lilyan Chauvin has appeared in "Lou Grant" and "Falcon Crest." Paris, her home town before immigrating immi-grating to the United States, and at the Actor's Studio and with Uta Hagen in New York. She speaks five languages fluently and dabbles in a sixth. She produced two television shows and directed eight. As an actress, she has appeared in 35 roles on television, including principal parts in '-'Lou Grant," "Different Strokes," "One Day at a Time," "Facts of Life" and "Falcon Crest." She has appeared in more than 30 films and was on the popular CBS soap opera "The Young and the Restless" for one year. She was nominated for an Emmy award for her role in "Bah Bah Blacksheep" and toured with Judith Anderson in "Macbeth" and "Medea." She co-starred with Don Ameche in the musical comedy "Silk Stockings" and has recorded songs. She also coached Lauren Hutton and Richard Gere for "American Gigolo" and Racquel Welch for her |