Mihaela M. Mihut
Mihaela Mihut received her ba from the academy of theater and filmin Bucharest, Romania in 1994. There she played may in Sam Shepard’s “Fool for Love”, Carol in Tennessee William’s “Orpheus Descending”, Eugene in “A Flea in the Ear”, Mr.s Martin in Eugene Ionesco’s “The Bold Soprano” (For which she was awarded best new actress in 1994).
She received her MFA from the Actors Studio Drama School Programin NYC in 2000. In 2002 Mihaela Mihut was accepted as a lifetime member of the Actors Studio, where she has worked on rolesas varia in “The cherry Orchard” with Ellen Burstyn, Popova in “The Bear”, Anka in “Hunting Cockrached”, Anna Petrova in “Platonov”.
Off-Broadway roles include Inezin “No Exit”, multiple characters in “Art People” at the players Theatre, Cristina in “Manipulation” at the Cherry Lane Theatre and Sheena in “Off The King’s Road” at the theatre of the New City (NY Times Review).
Mihaela M. Mihut's films as an actress and as an acting coach: “Ben Again”, “Subterranean Love”, “Perkins 14”, “Carmen” , “Selfie” “Selfie69”
Mihaela M. Mihut is a lifetime member of the Actors Studio, she teaches acting at the school of visual arts, both in NYC and works as an acting coach Internationally.
ACTING
From Stanislavski to Strasberg…to you, this innovative workshop focuses on the artist!s personal
journey. The artist!s instrument refers to the whole self, body and mind and all of the five senses,
complete with emotions, thoughts, imagination, sensitivity, honesty, passion and awareness. You
work towards recognizing the analogy between your personal history merging it with the
imagined world of the character you are developing.
It is a path of discovery to guide you as an artist, the actor, director and writer towards
developing a technique that works individually in a professional collaborative way. In order for a
script to be realized and the director's vision to be satisfied, the actor!s work must be understood
and a common language needs to exist between the creative collaborators.
Without that common language, a gap will exist no matter how great the script is, how fantastic
the director or how talented the actor. Obtaining from actors their most amazing work is possible
only if their process is understood in detail. When the directors and actors navigate together in a
specific way, a delicate dance begins challenging one another to deliver their best work and bring
balance, energy and uniqueness to the project as the final result. Only then artistry can develop.
Specificity is universal.
In taking dialogue from the page to the stage and to the screen, Method Technique is reflected in
powerful work going back to James Dean, Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe to now Ellen
Burstyn, Bradley Cooper etc. We will explore: relaxation, concentration, sense memory, magic
‘as if’, improvisation, objects, substitution, animal exercises, song & dance, private moment,
speaking out, moment-to moment, justification, affective memory and given circumstances, all
Method Techniques we will explore.
Introduction to Stanislavski System and Strasberg Method. Contrary to the names, the System and the
Method, this Acting Technique, sets no rules for what should be done, it shows the path to be followed in
a process by which the actors attains the results of creative inspiration. Acting is Illumination of the
Human Spirit.
- Relaxation: Deliberate exploration of unwanted tension in the muscles of the body and the mind.
The actor’s goal is to learn relaxation so that in performance the actor’s instrument can express purely.
The actor is relaxed even when the character is tense.
- Concentration: Instant Remedy for Stage fright. Concentration is the process of focusing one's mind
on an object or objects.
How do we work with a personal object, inner image or a piece of music?
Creation of the “fourth wall” to eliminate the awareness of the audience.
Implementing Relaxation and Concentration in the Monologues and Scenes.
Scene work and class discussion using a common language in order to articulate and analyze constructive
criticism of the work.
- Sense Memory: It is the remembering by the five senses of the sensory impressions experienced by the
individual.
It is a key to unlocking the door of imagined reality.
- Private Moment and Animal Exercise: The actor's ability to appear “private in public”.
Recognizing the difference between “private” and “personal”.
This exercise can transform otherwise inhibited actors to a state of “public solitude” and physical and
emotional expression.
- Improvisation and the Magic If: It is through its many forms that freedom can be made to rise to the
level of pure artistic intuition, it is the magic of the kind that children possess at play.
Work on prior circumstances and given circumstances of the play using your own words with absolute
honesty to build the bridge between you and the character you want to portray before the obligation to
the text.
- Moment To Moment and Justification: All actions and behavior on stage or film must have a purpose,
and a freedom of spontaneity creating a bridge between impulse and expression not just a lot of emotion
but the degree to which emotion finds an equivalent expression within the structure of the author's text
while performed on stage or in front of the camera.
Responding to situations as the character and finding that response within yourself.
- Imaginative Personalization and Substitution. The imagination is the basis for all that is new, fresh,
young and original.
Endowing persons, places and objects.
- Given circumstances: They are what the author has supplied with the story: Place, Sensory Elements.
Relationships, Time Period. Learning, Using and Practicing the preceding techniques can help the actor to
achieve the “creative state” from which creative work can develop.
Creating the Inner and the Outer Character. Finding what parts work for each artist; each artist follows
his own “path of discovery”.