Celebrating 40 Years Of The Simon Studio

40 Years of The Simon Studio

by Tania Fisher

Upon first glance, the man of no impressive stature seems like any other man you may pass on the street. Simply dressed in practical and conservative clothing, he strolls into a room almost seemingly unaware of his surroundings and you think this unassuming man may not even remember why he's come today. Until you meet him face to face and begin talking anything remotely film or theater industry related and you're at once swept away by his deep husky voice, you can't help but get caught up in the unmistakable twinkle in his eyes that bores through to your core, and you know in that moment that you're dealing with someone not so ordinary after all.

A graduate and founding member of Robert Brustein's Yale Repertory Company, Roger Hendricks Simon celebrates his 40th year of The Simon Studio; a well renowned and highly regarded New York City acting studio where Roger has taught and directed the likes of John Travolta, Debra Jo Rupp, John Lithgow, Samuel L Jackson, James Earl Jones, and John Woods to name but a few. Elected to "Notable Names in American Theater" Roger has directed across the globe, with an inexhaustible list of impressive credits.

Director Oliver Stone refers to Roger as "that great actor and acting teacher" as Roger also keeps busy continuing his life as a talented actor with roles in such films as Wall Street 2 opposite Michael Douglas.

Australian-born actress/writer Tania Fisher sat down with Roger to find out just what it takes to have 40 years of success.

What lead you to create The Simon Studio and teach acting?

I think I always enjoyed the idea of teaching ever since I was very young. I somehow was always interested in it as part of my work and always thought of it as part of something that went with it - to not just either direct, or teach, or act, I felt it always went together and now being older you're able to pass on the experience of your years. For me the best teachers when I was studying at Yale Drama School were the teachers who were currently working professionally and passing on what they were doing that week. For me I felt I was getting the main line rather than someone who had done this many years ago and was no longer a practitioner. What drove me to teaching was a desire first, a love of teaching. I guess I always felt that and gravitated to it but only if I could also be a practitioner at the same time. I did not want to just teach in a college or a high school because the best teachers I had were the ones who were doing it now.

There's something to be said for "when you get The Simon Studio you get Roger Simon" - can you expand on that?

Hopefully you always want to get the source when you go anywhere. If you go to Princeton in order to study with Professor X or the Pulitzer Prize Physicist and you get there and you find that Professor X is now in Bulgaria on sabbatical and you have to study with his assistant who is teaching his theories, then you've been cheated; you're getting it second hand. I've always felt that if you wanted to study Meisner you should have studied with him - if not then you're just getting an interpretation, you're not getting the real thing in a way because it's a very personal thing. I think that's true of any teaching method. It's a relationship, it's a personal thing between a teacher and a student. It shouldn't be walking in and teaching and walking out of a classroom. It's a personal relationship, it's not just cut and dry, you don't just give the information and leave. When you are studying with someone you are dealing with a personality not just theory. If someone tried to teach the way I taught they would have to capture my personality as well; it wouldn't be enough to just talk about what I taught, it's how they Take That material. Teaching is about developing people when you teach; you're not just developing professionals, you're developing human beings. That moment is just as important as the information you give otherwise you may as well assign a text book and everyone reads the book and that's it. And that's the problem with on-line courses; you read the paper, take the test and that's it. Teaching is a very personal thing and no-one else can teach the way I teach. It would be their interpretation of what I said, and not coming through my own personality.

You welcome writers and directors as well as actors into your class mix. Can you explain why you choose to do this?

It came first and foremost from the fact that I always felt I act and direct but I don't write plays. But I always felt the experience of going to the theater and going to a film is a collaborative experience not just watching the performance which then brings in the audiences as part of the collaboration but right from the start it's never just actors in a room, or directors in a room being taught in a directing class, or just writers in a room in a writing class. I'm not saying you don't get anything out of that but I always felt the best training for me was taking in the consideration that a performance is a collaboration of writers, directors, producers, designers working together with a common language to produce something. Therefore if that's the case, why not have that in the training? Why should the training be segregating? If making art is collaborative, why not make the training collaborative?

It's vital to share the work and be a part of that collaborative process. In my own training that was how I learned the most and when I was most stimulated and I wanted that to be the core of The Simon Studio in my approach. It makes it messy, it's never clean, I have to juggle, sometimes I have to be the ringmaster or MC but everyone gets their dues and time.

For example with writers, it benefits both the writer and the actor - actors learn how to read, do cold readings with new material that becomes part of actor training, and the writer gets to see and hear his work living on stage. This writer is alive and here now and you're creating beneficial relationships with people.

It's good for the actors to know that directors are in a room and to be around directors who are often looking for talent for their own projects but can also give a different perspective on the actors' work. It's valuable to have other input from directors in class so actors can here different interpretations and directors who can work on a scene with them.

The directors are learning from actors how to talk to actors, they're learning from me how to talk to actors, and how eventually they'll have to do that, so why not learn how to do that in the class?

It's also important that the actor think about the other side of the fence when it comes to the work.

The studio becomes a place where projects can be developed and many projects are cast out of my attending students.

For example, the work we did with the National Public Radio and the national endowment we received. That money went to our own people that were studying with us. At times, the class is like a little ensemble company. A large part of this came about from my directing in London at The Royal Court Theater where I came into contact with the BBC and impressed them with a radio drama and that was such an important part of theater culture.

As a Director of Shakespeare Festivals and regional theaters I looked for ways to keep that radio theater alive and in 1990's they had the NPR playhouse and there were a number of us around the place who produced old fashioned dramas. Because my studio had writers it was only natural that I looked to my students in my class and we developed them in class then I would take them and perform them as live theater at Samuel French One Act Festival where we had quite a few winners.

In New York we'd go right into the WBAI radio station and do them live on the air. We'd record them but they went out live and we didn't have to rehearse, because we'd already been doing them as live theater shows. We did a whole series of radio dramas. Then all of a sudden NPR got interested in what we were doing and they picked up a number of these lives dramas that were done as new plays with no celebrities, they were just students in our class. This gave my students terrific voice training. These were young no-name writers who got national exposure on national public radio as part of The Simon Studio Presents which went on to broadcast on the Time Warner channel and became a TV show that included interviews on the arts and so on.

There are an array of impressive guests that sporadically attend The Simon Studio classes, Agents, Casting Directors, Producers etc. what do you think the benefit is to your students in doing this?

The business has changed over the last 40 years - it's all celebrity motivated and if you pay out money you can get a night with so and so. It's something I'm a little wary of and have always been careful about doing but at the same time can see that's how the times are now.

But I've always hated that you should have to pay for a showcase to be able to meet current industry people. You shouldn't have to pay to meet people - it was not that way when I started, and I really resent that it's become that way, but I've come to realize that's the nature of it, and casting agents and agents do make this part of their income.

It's important that the actors get exposure but it also needs to be a good teaching experience for them and an opportunity to get the feedback from current relevant industry players.

The people I choose to come to my classes are required to give valuable and relevant feedback. I feel if my students pay for the class they should get the experience - it's not about getting cast or getting a job.

You have an impressive list of celebrity students, or those that you've directed - Do you experience any major differences or difficulties working with acting students who might be new to the industry?

The difference is how to integrate them into the company. Working with a big name you deal with what they offer you - they might want to be just a regular name in the cast. Others want to be treated as special. You have to be aware of who you're working with and be able to deal with them accordingly.

When I worked on Oliver Stone's movie "Wall Street 2" as Bernie Jacobs, I was sitting at the same table as Michael Douglas, Josh Brolin, Shia LaBeouf, and Frank Langella. We all sat around a table reading and working on the material and we were all equal and all they wanted from me was for me to do my job and all I wanted from them was for them to do their job. Oliver (Stone) would give notes, we'd read it again. The only difference between that project and doing the same work on an off-Broadway production was the tray of Nova Scotia salmon! The really good actors when they're working - that's what they do.

The kid that's new doesn't have training or experience and is working with those that do and is at a disadvantage unless he understands that he can learn from them. He can get in there and be at the table with them. It's more than just having talent. That's why you have to train and gain experience. Someone who's just talented and not experienced is at a disadvantage - they have to be confident and look like they belong there at that table, and try not to look green.

There's that old saying "Those that can, do, those that can't, teach." But you seem to be constantly doing both; acting and directing in movies and plays. Where do you find the energy for all of this?

I hated that expression and that was always my fear because I always had a passion for teaching.

But I also felt it was totally unfair to great teachers even those who were not practitioners, because there are some teachers who are not practitioners, I just preferred those who were working at the same time.

When I come in to the Studio, I'm excited to teach what I did that week - my experience as a director, what I professionally experienced that week, eager to share it and that to me is exciting. If I was a student, I would want my teacher to come and share with me his experience of what he just got off the set doing.

My teaching is reminding me how to do what I'm doing and it's keeping me fresh. The ideas that I'm coming up with as a teacher and sharing with my students, I'm also sharing with myself, and reminding myself that's what I need to do in the other work that I'm currently on. I learn a lot from my students too and from the directors and writers in the studio. They're giving me things I can use as a teacher as well as professionally.

I've had the privilege of sitting in on one of your classes and I was overwhelmed by the real feeling of respect and genuine support your students have for each other. How do you manage to manifest that kind of camaraderie in such a competitive and ego-driven field?

I really work hard at that. I do know how it happens. It happens through hard work to try and make it personal with everybody there and that's very exhausting but it's a positive exhausting, but you have to like it. Everybody there is actually special.

I happen to think that what we do is very important and I happen to think, ok we don't save lives, doctors save lives, but someone once said to me we do. I think if you go to the theater or the movies and come out with an exhilarating feeling you're saving a life. It's what we do. It's what we do as actors and writers. What we do is a healing thing, mentally, physically and spiritually and therapeutic - then the whole act of doing what you love, your joy, enlightening people, that's special. You are blessed that you have the talent to do it and thankful that you have the opportunity to do it, but on the other hand it's not nuclear science, it's not medicine, so part of the atmosphere is it has to be fun, joyous. It has to be enjoyable and not to always be full of pain or suffering.

In terms of the atmosphere it's hard work to get a balance - sometimes there's too much fun going on! You need to be relaxed to work, and it's important to create a relaxed atmosphere but not too relaxed so that they're able to work.

What do you want your students to get out of your classes?

A respect for the kind of work that goes into what we do. A love of the work that we do. An excitement I guess of what we can potentially do. An awareness that much of what we do is not always fun, it's not always even going to be good. Usually more likely not going to be that good because a lot of people expect a great life for actors and envisage it's all about having fun and parties, and I want people to come out of the studio realizing it's hard work and frustrating at times; that it's not always going to be smooth, it's going to be rocky, uneven, it's going to have some difficult moments.

I want them to come away with respect - just like everything else, any work is not always going to be fun even if you have a passion for it. It's not always going to be glamourous; very few people will end up making a real living from it, so you have to come away just loving the process. In the end if you don't love the process of it you'll quit because the rewards often don't come. You have to love it or you'll be disillusioned. I like my students to appreciate a realistic point of view - it's not just an art, it's a business. It's mostly a craft, and it's mostly a business and very little of that pertains to true art. The real art is the icing on the cake.

Roger Hendricks Simon is the Artistic Director and Founder of The Simon Studio. For more details and class information contact Roger direct. Ph: 917 776 9209 or email rhsstudio@gmail.com