Charles E. Conrad
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Charles E. Conrad (born: May 23, 1925 New York City) best known for his work as a film acting coach.
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[edit] Early years
The only child of German immigrants, Charles Eric Conrad spent his early years growing up in New York City’s upper east side. At age of 17, he escaped the tenements that lined 89th street and joined the Navy; where he served as an armed guard on Merchant ships during World War II. Shortly after his discharge from the service, he returned to high school, earned his diploma and was immediately accepted to Adelphi college where he majored in English. His education continued at the Carnegie Institute of Technology where he studied theater Directing, graduating with a Master’s Degree. It was his directorial thesis of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya that earned him a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. As he once relayed to a good friend, “I didn’t have the money to get to London so I just turned it down. It was a decision I came to regret many times over.” In 1952, he began studying the craft of acting with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. After directing a series of several short stories, Meisner recognized his talent and prospects as a future acting teacher and promptly made him his senior assistant. It was during this time that Charles Conrad would be given the opportunity to instructed such future acting greats like: Robert Duvall, Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon and Joanne Woodward.
[edit] CEC studio
In the early 1960s, Meisner commissioned Charles Conrad with the task of training contract players at Twentieth Century Fox in Hollywood. But the excitement of moving from New York to the West Coast and from a salary of $95.00 a week at the Neighborhood Playhouse to $45,000 a year at Fox was short lived when studio’s proposed acting program fell through. However, Mr. Conrad’s tenure as Meisner’s long time assistant earned him a reputation as a gifted teacher that paved the way for the opening his own studio where he would define and redefine the Meisner Technique. It was at the CEC Studio in Burbank that Charles Conrad would emerge as one of the film industry’s most distinguished acting teachers.
[edit] The Conrad technique
Like Meisner, Conrad relied on the Repetition Exercise so that each actor would depend on the other for his or her source of acting. But the most noticeable difference between the two men other than their personalities was that Mr. Conrad implemented the text into the exercise rather than relying on strictly on improvisation. The simplicity of the Conrad message was that if done properly the technique would allow the creative process to kick in resulting in each actor living moment to moment in a highly intuitive state. The work required that the actor stay out of his or her own way and to allow their partner to create the circumstance in which true feelings would be engendered. In other words, Conrad’s students were trained viscerally rather than cerebrally, which meant their work was usually spontaneous and natural. Succinctly, the source of acting for each actor was his or her partner, thus the process of reacting, not acting.
[edit] End of an era
In 1993 the much revered teacher decided to gradually retire and moved to Sedona, Arizona where he’d commute on a once a week basis to his studio in Burbank. By early 1994 was fully retired and today lives in a secluded area of North Carolina with his wife Pam and their 12 barking disciples.
[edit] Conrad-trained actors and coaches
Charles Conrad not only succeeded in helping his students learn valuable life lessons, but also paved the way for dozens of young actors to reach stardom in film and television. The list includes: Ed Bagley, Jr., Kim Basinger, Corbin Bernsen, Susan Blakely, Keith Carradine, Robert Carradine, Lynda Carter, Joanna Cassidy, Damian Chapa, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tyne Daily, Kevin Dobson, Michael Dorn, Greg Evigan, Teri Garr, Linda Grey, Veronica Hamel, Mark Harmon, Penny Marshall, Ali McGraw, Chuck Norris, Joe Penney, Michelle Pfieffer, Valerie Perrine, Victoria Principal, Dennis Quaid, Diana Ross, Talia Shire, Suzanne Somers, Philip Michael Thomas, Karen Valentine and dozens of others. There is also a myriad of well-known acting coaches who emerged as the result of Conrad’s tutelage such as: R.J. Adams, Scott Arthur Allan, Brian Cutler, Alan Landers, David Lehman, Judy Kerr and Dee Wallace.
[edit] Conrad quotations
“Concentration away from yourself is the creative source of acting for film & television.”
“I’ve worked with so many actors with great looks who can easily describe a bowl of fruit, but don’t know how to let the audience taste it.”
“I really hate the word scene because it denotes and encourages fake acting.”
“Learning film acting without cameras is like trying to give horseback riding lessons without a horse.”
"Sharon Tate, such a beautiful girl, you would have thought she would have all the confidence in the world. But she had none."
“If you don’t know who you are you’ll never be an actors.”
“Rather than giving a non confident actor a one hundred pound bar bell and asking him to lift over his head so it’ll crush him, you simply give him a helium filled Balloon with the words, 100 pounds written on it until and gradually substitute one for the other.”
[edit] References
- Judy Kerr. (2006) "Acting Is Everything: An Actor's Guidebook for a Successful Career in Los Angeles" (11th ed.). September Publishing. ISBN 0-96-294966-3
