I had the privilege of studying acting with the Great UTA HAGEN for years in New York City. It is the core of my beliefs that I still hold close to my heart today.
I love what she wrote in her Book RESPECT FOR ACTING “…I believe that we should begin with the realization that acting entails a craft as subtle and delicate as the most demanding creative art. Humanism is at the root of it. Consistently good acting is never an accident or empty of this purpose. To achieve a technique that will allow for a genuine existence on stage can take a lifetime to accomplish. The search never stops; there are no dead ends. If we pursue this search, many of the humiliations to which we are subjected become meaningless. Success and failure become a fascinating struggle tone evaluated by the individual actor in conjunction with his own awareness of the work at hand. To bring to an audience the revelation of the failings and aspirations, the dreams and desires. The negative and the positive aspects of human beings—this is what we should set as our goal as committed theater artists. Then we will be respected and have respect for ourselves and respect for acting !”

RISKS

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your ideas, your dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing and is nothing.
They may avoid suffering and sorrow but they can not learn, feel, change, grow, live.
Chained by their certitudes they are a slave, they have forfeited their freedom. Only a person who risks is free.