about John Markland
The focus of my approach to acting, is personalization and unblocking of emotional walls.
What is that?
If you are feeling stagnant or blocked in an area of your life, relationship, or work and are not growing as free as you would like, then these are the areas I ask you to dig in, expose and reintegrate with/through your character. These places often have the richest soil even though it may feel the opposite. I want you to feel bold and instinctive in your choices, feeling the work from a personal place rather than an external goal orientated one. The destination is original work with risk taking from authentic intentions.
You will gradually feel your work move beyond a performance and into an experience.
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“STATE OF PLAY”
John approaches the work, and artists, with a sincere belief; there is no separation between life and art. Our personal evolution, as a human beings, is intrinsically connected to the development of our art. This symbiotic relationship allows experiences from life to enrich our art and discoveries through our art to further our self-awareness.
Children explore and discover themselves and their world through play. It is a form of translation between the conscious and unconscious - the Ying and Yang. Perhaps, undivided, in the earliest stages, our consciousness separates and continues to grow apart as we age. So, as wounded healers, as storytellers, imagining metaphorical, symbolic worlds and birthing them into reality, we must some how encourage that state of communion our conscious and unconscious mind once had. The two minds must dance, and dance in balance, for then magic happens, paths clear, faith rises and our art transcends, allowing our humanity to connect to others.
Another way of looking at it, we are fragmented selves and our goal is to become whole. This suggests the process of reunification itself is fragmented or interdisciplinary. Body, breath, psychology, emotions and dreams are all strands of a web we must weave. The pains, shames, self-sabotaging, addictions, deceits and many of the darker wounds we carry could be said to be the side effects of this fragmentation. Allowing, forgiving, exposing, acknowledging, accepting and expressing therefore would be part of the healing necessary to re-integrate.
This approach to living and acting is not just restorative; it’s redemptive.
We rediscover a State of Play.
Current workshops/classes
genre workshop
You will be asked to invent/bend/reconceptualize the genre of your piece three/four times. Recognizing that although the genetics and historical foundation of the character stay the same, the style and expression of them will have to change based upon the genre you choose.
NYC
AUDITIONS
In this class, we will approach the audition from the analysis of story. An opportunity to focus on an aspect of the story. What does this character want? How does the setting affect there path? What is their relationship to the other characters; friend or foe. lover or stranger?
ONLINE
Mad Circle
This circle will be your chance to take risk, to swing for the fences and go way beyond what you have ever felt too scared or uncomfortable to try. I want a Mad Circle and I want it done with more focus and diligence than any characters you have created before. I will moderate, but maybe, even I will be in character.
ONLINE
“A number of the younger dream work practitioners, such as Elizabeth Kemp, Kim Gillingham, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, and actor/director John Markland...as well as Sandra’s daughter and fellow acting coach, Greta, all claim Seacat as their mentor.”
