Method combines motion with mentality

For weeks in a new professor's acting class that trains through movement and bodily awareness, sophomore acting major JuliaSmolka did not get it.

The training, called the "Suzuki Method," caused Smolka to undergo mental strain with physical demands to improve her on-stage skills.

Finally she got it.

"[Because of this] I've started being more observant in my everyday life," she said.

Adjunct professor and professor of the acting class Sophomore Movement, Benjamin Blazer, introduces the Suzuki Method – a training incorporating exercises similar to military marching, standing like statues and poses sequenced with a spoken sentence – to his first group of students. According to Blazer, his 11 students "haven't asked many questions" about trying Suzuki, a method that intends to heighten awareness of one's body and its surroundings, and to Blazer's satisfaction, is starting to click.

"It's training to make your performance on stage effortless … It makes me more aware," sophomore acting major Michael Angelo Turner said.

The Suzuki Method comes from traditional Japanese dancing, often with strict, precise movements like snapping into statue-like poses with each clack of wooden blocks. According to Blazer, Suzuki is designed to help actors gain a vocabulary of movements that they can use in any situation on stage. It is also a method of learned breathing to help actors look more normal on stage and for their bodies to flow more evenly.

 To do this, Blazer teaches exercises that have the simple goal of expanding "awareness of their bodies in the immediate space." With Suzuki, Blazer intends to help his students become better actors not just through their dialogue, but through their movements looking natural, as opposed to forced.

"My ultimate goal is to provide to the students awareness of their bodies in three dimensional space as a communicative tool for storytelling," Blazer said.

Blazer first learned Suzuki at the University of South Carolina, where he attended graduate school. He studied for three years under Robyn Hunt and Steve Pearson, a husband and wife team who had spent 15 years in Japan with the method's creator, Tadashi Suzuki. According to Blazer, Hunt and Pearson brought Suzuki to the United States. Now, Blazer brings his interpretation of Suzuki to Point Park University.

To begin each class, Blazer leads his 11 students in a short yoga-like routine to help his students get into the mindset for training and tune into their breathing with traditional poses like "downward dog" flowing down to the floor into "up-dogs" and back up to standing. From there he goes into the various, daily training exercises like marching and standing statues. With each class, the exercises are reviewed and perfected. Blazer watches each exercise and pinpoints things to improve.

During a march that looks like a robotic high-step, Blazer points out how the leg should snap up into the high-knee position, with the thigh coming into a straight line parallel to the floor. As each student walks in time, their socked feet thud against the wooden studio floor.

"Daily routines" are done every class and do not necessarily change, but evolve. The students are given a sentence at the beginning of the semester from anywhere, whether it be a quirky quote starting with "I have lost the battle but I have won the ward…robe" or a quote about love and self-respect. With each sentence, the student makes a series of poses that flow as the sentence is spoken.

Smolka's daily routine starts with the words "most objects," and she finds her first pose by making a long diagonal with her arms before flowing into the rest of her sequence. Each student must find their right flow of poses that fit with their sentences. By the end of the semester, each student will have perfected the flow of poses that starts with the first word of the sentence and the ending pose signaling the last word. Daily routines help with finding a natural pattern of movements and pairing them with dialogue in a natural manner.

Marching, or "walking" as Blazer describes it in class, challenges the students with precise, timed movements, almost like walking in a military line, that go with the beat of a song; on Oct. 12 and 14, they marched to the song "They" by Jem. The exercise demands focus on balance, such as a walk where the students stand on the balls of their feet, much like if they were practicing to be on their toes in ballet, and slide them across the floor. They glide for three beats and hold for one, then continue on, staying as tall as they can, keeping their legs, spine, torso and head as rigid as a telephone pole. During the entire walk, their feet never leave the floor, nor do their heels ever touch the ground.

According to Blazer, these walks are designed to help students channel their energy from the floor, up through their bodies and up through their heads. Marching challenges many of the students because of its demands for precision and sharp movements, areas of focus that, when paired, leave the body drained of energy even worse than a Pilates workout.

"Standing statues," as they are called in class, also help the students focus on sharp perceptiveness by creating angles and lines with their bodies and manipulating the space around them. Standing statues help the students work with the space around them and gives them an outlet to discover and create new postures that may come in handy on stage. Sometimes Blazer claps, and sometimes he clacks wooden blocks together to signal a change in statue. Blazer also says simple words like "low" to indicate what kind of pose the students shift into with the next beat. When he says "low" and signals the students, they immediately change into a pose low to the ground, such as dropping to bent knees in a crouch with a hunched back and spread arms.

By the end of class, it seems that the students will not have to go to the gym that day judging by the sweat beads on their foreheads, exasperated breathing and slow, leisured walkingThe buildup of endurance and muscle memory created with Suzuki training ultimately helps the students when they get on stage and into long rehearsals, as well as adapting to various situations. 

Since the start of the semester, Blazer has noticed the students starting to come in early to start warming up and getting their limbs used to the hard wooden floor. They have, to his satisfaction, started to use their breathing, something he says is the key to the constant movement and rigid body posture presented in Suzuki training.

"It's really a workout. I told the students when they first came into this class that if they don't breathe, they won't survive," Blazer said.

Blazer's goal for the class is simply to help his students gain the "ability to make choices instead of acting out of their habits" while they are on stage. For instance, if they are given a task on stage to be more "fierce" with their character, they can use a movement learned through their Suzuki training such as a tall, stiff posture to portray their character better. He also wants to provide his students with the tools to succeed as actors like the ability to pair natural movements and dialogue on stage with flawless detail, much like Blazer's heavy dependence on the progression of daily routines.

"I want them to have a process of their own so that they're not just guessing and flailing out there on stage," Blazer said.

His main goal for the training is simply to help the students gain more awareness of everything around them on stage so they can intimately connect with their setting and ultimately their character. The awareness Blazer teaches has even expanded to his students' daily lives, from noticing the paintings on the walls to the bracelets the person standing next to them is wearing. 

In addition to their training, Blazer's students have started to take their Suzuki training with them from the studio and feel a connection to the small details of their personal rooms, classrooms and the streets of Pittsburgh.

"I'm actually relating it more to everyday life right now," Kirsten Heibert, a sophomore acting major, said after class on Friday, Oct. 14.

Blazer's class has become a closely-knit group as the semester has progressed with discussions of where Suzuki came from, how it can be interpreted and how its supposed to help them. Because of this, the classroom has become a free place for honest opinions and discussion, such as Smolka's explanation of how Suzuki has come together for her.

"I was getting dressed the other day and I started noticing things on the wall," Smolka said. "At first I didn't know how all this pertained to everything and how it is supposed to help me, but now I get it."

"I think you're crazy," Turner said from across the group sitting on the floor.

But Blazer, sitting at the front of the group, smiled.

"I think it's beautiful."

Photo: Professor Benjamin Blazer leads his sophomore movement class in a marching exercise as part of the Suzuki Method of actor training. Photo by Camelia Montoy.

Published: Monday, October 24, 2011

Updated: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 22:10

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Transfer student 'go-to-girl' on and off the field

When Kristina Stammer found out she was pregnant in the fall of 2008, her first thoughts were about soccer, the sport she loved and was naturally talented at.

"The first thing that popped into my head was ‘oh my god, will I be able to play soccer," said the now 22-year-old transfer student.

Stammer joins Point Park University's women's soccer team this semester as a sophomore transfer from Sierra Community College inRocklin, California, where she started a major of criminal justice. One of the reasons she transferred to Point Park was because it had her major.

"I read a lot about the program here, so I know if I was going to come here I would still be able to study my major," Stammer said.

Stammer comes to Point Park with multiple scholarships, including a soccer scholarship, an academic scholarship for her high GPA from Sierra College and a scholarship for being part of Phi Theta Kappa, a national honor society for leadership and academics.

She found out about Point Park because of family ties in the Pittsburgh area, including family living right outside the city. Stammer moved to the city in the beginning of August to live with her sister in Beaver County to settle in and start preseason with the soccer team. Moving along with her was her son, Jayden Stammer, who turned two in May.

"At first I was afraid that the soccer team wouldn't like me too much because I carry baggage [my son], but the team is so great," Stammer said. "Everyone is really nice, and they're very understanding."

After Stammer found out she was pregnant in California, she made sure she stayed fit during her pregnancy. She walked every day, and just two months after having her son Jayden in May 2009, Stammer was back on the playing field. In January 2010, Stammer started at Sierra College.

Last fall, she tried out and made the women's soccer team at her school. Over the course of her first season back playing competitively, Stammer made the Big 8 All Conference team and the Big 8 All Academic team. When she was not playing college soccer, she was playing on a coed team for the city of Roseville, California.  Both on and off the field, Stammer was a leader and example in California.

"I played with her for a year, and I wish it was longer," said friend and former teammate Kyleah Rozario, who played on the Sierra College team with Stammer.

Rozario recounts Stammer as a player that always pushed 100 percent efforts no matter what and is a player "you want on your team and pray you never have to be playing against."

Off the field, Rozario said Stammer always puts her son Jayden's needs before her own.

"Kristina is loving and caring [to Jayden] but she doesn't coddle him," Rozario said. "[Point Park] is truly lucky to get such an amazing player, person and mom."

When Stammer decided on Point Park, she filled out a form to play soccer and soon talked to Mark Platts, the women's soccer coach. Since her move to Pittsburgh, Stammer has been adjusting well and has hit it off with her new teammates.

"As soon as I saw her I knew she was going to be an intense soccer player," said teammate Emily Levier, a sophomore sport, arts and entertainment management major. Levier describes Stammer as fierce on the field but "down to earth and sweet natured" off the field.

Stammer has also made an impression with her teammates as a motivator and strong competitor, and she is ready for the season.

"My goal for this year is to do my personal best," Stammer said, "but I also want to help put Point Park on the map for soccer because it's such a great school."

Stammer has also played soccer with her sister, Deanna, who she lives in Beaver County. Deanna Stammer calls her sister "the go-to girl" on the field and the one that everyone looked to for help.

"She can play any position at any time. She's fast and has great ball control, and I believe she will be a great fit at Point Park," Deanna Stammer said.

Other than soccer, Stammer has a passion for helping crime victims, which is why she chose a criminal justice major. Her goals reach as high as departments in Homeland Security, but she just wants to help people and victims of crime as much as she can.

"Kristina has a good and warm heart that allows her to help people," Deanna Stammer said. "If she goes into law enforcement I believe she will succeed."

Stammer has high hopes for the season and strives to continue playing soccer as much as she can. She has already begun teaching Jayden to play soccer, and he is met her teammates at Point Park.

"When we had the opportunity to meet Jayden we were all so excited," Levier said. "You can tell her talents and patience on the field directly relate to the relationship her and her son share."

Stammer is excited about this season and already feels like part of the team, and she has already made a lasting impression on those around her. Her passion for soccer has led her to Pittsburgh, where she will continue her major and be a leader in her life.

"I made a promise to Jayden the day he was born that I would get my bachelors and always work hard," Stammer said. "I don't just want to be his mother; I want to be a role model."

And her promise to be a role model, it seems, applies to her life both on and off the field as one of the newest players for Point Park's women's soccer team.

Published: Monday, August 29, 2011

Updated: Tuesday, August 30, 2011 23:08

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Eight month ‘P3’ film process wraps up

In April, Cory Stoken pitched a film script to his professors that he believed could become something great.

Now, with the film near completion, Stoken looks back at his first priority for the past eight months with a smile.

"There's going to be a void in my life," Stoken said, who is a junior cinema and digital arts major.

Stoken is one of 50 students working their way through their third year as a cinema student with the class known notoriously as the "make-it-or-break-it" cinema class: Production III.

Production III, commonly known around the Point Park University campus as "P3," begins the spring semester of the students' sophomore year. Scripts, written by students and chosen by faculty, are handed out in April. Each P3 student also pitches their preferred crew position, such as producer, director and editor, among other positions.

After producers are chosen, they pitch their preferred script to the faculty. Many producers pick their scripts by deciding how much they can relate to it or envision it in their heads. Junior cinema and digital arts major Derek Dysart, producer for the P3 film "Time Is On Her Side," pitched the script because he felt drawn to the darker tone of it, something that he has always been interested in pursuing in a film.

"Dark humor has kind of been the voice I've been searching for," Dysart said about the film, which is about death, personified as a young businesswoman.

When they get their scripts, the producers make a crucial decision: whom they want on their crew. This decision will not come lightly, as the primary crew does not change once solidified.

"[The producers], as a whole, sat down and we tried to create crews for every person that would make eight successful films," said Heidi Schlegel, one of nine producers in this semester's P3 class.

Each crew receives a $2,000 budget and typically has six primary members. In addition to the primary members, each crew also gets a secondary crew, another P3 group, as an extra set of helping hands to move equipment, help with lighting and sound.

Once crews are assembled in the spring, the producers set to work over the summer working with their scripts. Producers work with the writers and their professors to rewrite the scripts and make them as close to their vision as possible.

As final scripts are revised and polished towards the beginning of the fall semester, the crews start preparing for their four main shoot weekends, which start at the end of September and end the first weekend of November. Preparations include casting actors and finding all the right accessories for each scene, which, for the film "Crutch Brigade," meant making curtains that matched the natural colors of the room.

The most important part of preparations, however, weighed heavily on the shoulders of the producers: securing locations, a process that did not come without its challenges. Stoken played a tug-of-war with the owners of a mansion he wanted to use for a major scene of his film, "Crutch Brigade," while others had to find hospitals willing to let them use a room.

Above all of that, Schlegel had a different kind of problem when trying to secure a location for her film, "ChineseRestaurant." When she started scouting out Chinese restaurants to film in, she found herself hitting a language barrier.

"Trying to find a Chinese restaurant when you don't speak Chinese [is] really, really hard," said Schlegel, who noted that she and her director "must've scouted over 50 Chinese restaurants" as possible locations.

Once details are solidified, each crew has four weekends to shoot. First, they get a test weekend, where crews can go to their locations and look at lighting situations, camera movements within the space or even just record sounds they may need.

The next two shoot weekends, the primary shoot weekends for each crew, are when the majority of filming is done. Crews shoot for up to 12 hours for two or sometimes even three days in a row. Schlegel describes being on set as an "adrenaline rush," even though it may be 4 a.m. and the filming day is not quite over.

The last weekend of filming is designated as the "pick-up weekend," where crews can re-do something after presenting a first "cut" of the film, like a first draft of a project, and getting feedback from professors and fellow classmates. Stokenand his crew went to Schenley Park in Oakland in the hopes of picking up some bird sounds to use in their film, while other crews reshot entire scenes.

After the pick-up weekend, which, this semester, was the first weekend of November, the editors of each crew set to work putting together the final cut. Once the scenes are edited together, other crewmembers work on two of the most important aspects of the film: sound and color correction. On Dec. 9, all eight films, none of which will exceed 11 minutes from start to finish, will be handed in and the eight-month journey of P3 will be complete.

 Throughout the P3 process, cinema students learn about leadership, opportunity, discipline and working as a unified crew. Along with all of those things, the students learn a lot about themselves as filmmakers.

"P3 is your chance to prove to yourself and others that you can be successful in this career," said Schlegel, who learned, above all else, about having self-confidence in a field where "virtually all odds are against you."

For many cinema students, the end of P3 brings a sigh of relief, but after investing so much time, effort and emotion into filming, it also brings a feeling of sadness. As each crewmember dedicated themselves entirely to their production, they all bonded as they worked toward a common goal: a great film.

"I'm going to miss it," Stoken said. "Through all of the stress, struggles, hassles and frustrations, through all the complaining and everything else that goes along with that, it was a lot of fun and I would do it again."

Published: Monday, November 28, 2011

Updated: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 14:11

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Los Angeles lures summer interns

Point Park University senior Megan Beavis spent the summer in Los Angeles working an internship at a top talent agency where she got to assist with scouting talent and experience life as a real talent agent.

For Rachel Cullari, her summer internship on the West Coast at an events planning agency allowed her to travel the country, highlighted by helping plan a premiere for the new Harry Potter film in New York City.

Also in Los Angeles for the summer, Bryanna Kiselauskas gained experience at a small public relations firm where she wrote pitches for clients and prepared guest lists for events.

While Los Angeles is known for its sunny weather, celebrities and red carpet events, it is also where three of four winners of the sport, arts and entertainment management (SAEM) funded internship spent their summers working in environments many students only dream about.

The SAEM funded internship opens up the door for SAEM students to intern, literally, anywhere they want. To be awarded the internship, applicants must write an essay about a given topic and submit a resume and e-portfolio, according to Beavis, the 2011 winner. After, a final interview process is conducted before winners are chosen.

The funded internship pays for housing, transportation and each student receives a stipend for necessities while at their internship. 

Beavis went out to Los Angeles on May 27 for an internship in the dance department at the DDO Artists Agency, one of the top talent agencies in the industry.

Beavis, who will graduate in December, has the ultimate goal of being a talent agent. With her career goals in mind, she took the DDO Artists Agency internship to get experience in a different side of dance.

"I wanted to get the business side of [dance]; I already know about the performance side," Beavis said in an interview at Starbucks. Beavis has been a dancer for several years.

At DDO Artists Agency, Beavis was a typical intern. While her daily activities included updating DDO's social media accounts, various filing and calling out interviews, Beavis got to above and beyond and fill in for an agent when someone was away.

In addition to her daily activities as an intern, Beavis experienced the perks of working in such a prominent agency such as VIP passes to dance events.

Her favorite part of Los Angeles wasn't a VIP pass or filling in as an agent, however, it was being independent. 

"I had to do everything on my own," Beavis said. "I grew up a lot and made a lot of connections which will help me."

Overall, Beavis's experience in Los Angeles was productive and exciting, and she even came away with a job offer from the agency for after she graduates. Beavis plans to keep her options open, but the experience allowed her to know with full conviction that she wants to be a talent agent. Rachel Cullari also found herself loving her chosen career path, but unlike Beavis, she found that Los Angeles was not an option for her.

Cullari's special interest within her SAEM major has always been event planning. With that in mind, Cullari took her funded internship award to Events In Motion, an event-planning firm that is made up of two sister companies, the Infinity Marketing Team and Designer 8, which coordinate together to facilitate large events.

During her internship, Cullari listened in on conference calls with big clients, worked with caterers for events, edited event proposals and helped plan a large convention in Philadelphia. In her free time, Cullari spent time with her sister and brother, both of whom live in Los Angeles.

Her favorite part of the summer came when she helped plan and attended the after party for the New York City premiere of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2." Cullari oversaw the set-up for the after party and making sure things were up to par during the event.

A long time "Harry Potter" fan, Cullari could not explain the experience in words.

"I can't even talk about it," Cullari said. "It was very crazy, but so amazing and I would do it again."

Cullari learned a lot about client treatment, the event planning industry and adjusting to intimidating environments while she was in Los Angeles, and her experience was one that benefitted her immensely.

"I never worked somewhere that intense before," she said. "I feel confident now that I can be thrown into situations and survive."

While in Los Angeles, Cullari realized that when she graduates in May she wants to stay on the east coast. She also learned that she wanted to work for a smaller company that did more events.

Bryanna Kiselauskas, who spent eight weeks interning in Los Angeles this summer, had a different experience than Cullari andBeavis. Kiselauskas worked in a small public relations firm called The Narrative Group, where she did more hands-on activities.

"They really trusted me with the things they gave me to do," Kiselauskas said.

Along with typical intern duties such as making copies and getting coffees, Kiselauskas got to review press clippings and call contacts for possible outreach. She even met an actor from the television series "90210."

Kiselauskas also lived with roommates on the University of California Los Angeles campus and experienced the west coast culture. She spent time at the beach, went horseback riding and went to the movie premiere of "The Change-Up."At The Narrative Group, Kiselauskas learned about public relations on her feet.

Kiselauskas said it was tough knowing the priority of what to get done first, and a lot of the time many things were due at the same time.

"I learned that time management is really important; time really is money," she said.

Kiselauskas left Los Angeles with the intention of going back in a few years to work again. She definitely wants to do event planning, and she felt that the internship seemed to complete her years as a college student.

"Point Park has been a really good fit for me," she said. "This internship was the last piece of the puzzle to fulfill my college experience."

Beavis, Cullari and Kiselauskas all have a few things in common: they spent their summers in a productive environment in Los Angeles, they learned about their career paths, and they took chances on their own out on the west coast. Most importantly, they all took an opportunity and learned about their careers and themselves.

"I learned that you can't let people step on you, especially in my business," said Beavis in reflection of her experience. "I am so grateful to have had this opportunity. Hard work definitely pays off in the end."

Photo: Megan Beavis at her workspace at DDO Artist Agency. Photo courtesy of Megan Beavis.

Published: Monday, September 12, 2011

Updated: Tuesday, September 13, 2011 16:09

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