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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Artist letting the heart guide can be quite the silent enterprise.

When artists recognize and then own the authentic, choice becomes clearer, and being likable, pleasing or good falls to the wayside as their truth is accepted as the greatest gift for all.

Artist allowing the impulse brings you closer to the authentic you.

New York and Los Angeles WORKSHOP research your characters world, the period, the culture, the politics, the neighborhood dive deeper than ever before and then be able to make the adjustments to heighten the tension in the scene while maintaining the

Actor your craft has magic effects when you surrender to being in a continual state of revealing. The secret buried within you seek along side the audience, peeling the onion through tears of fear and hope. Acting is the craft of experiencing the fir

Humans we have always walked a tight rope and we have fallen here, grabbed on with one hand, waiting for our fingers to slip, one by one. It’s not hard to feel what we are doing. Let’s get back to looking into each other and connecting to

Artist the ocean within and all its power is what we see, sometimes with our eyes, but always with our hearts.

Artist the dream is to believe, and once you do, it is all possible.

Artist criticism and judgment sneak out when gratitude steps in.

Inside out it is play, the actor is beyond and we reach toward hoping to touch… hoping to belong.

Artist you are not alone but it may take accepting what you hear within.

Accepting 2 artists for private Actualization work. Cut through your own bullshit, get clear, understand and change your beliefs… get control where you feel “I don’t know how to make what I want happen.” This work wakes you u

Artist when this resonates with you the door will never close.

The Markland Studio at work. Become the tribe.

Artist eyes speak then words confirm or deny.

New Workshop. Teen actors this is for you. Discover more of the rare, unusual, unique qualities that make you unlike any other. August 4th and 5th.

Artist to feel someone is to have compassion for what you know and empathy for what you can only sense.

Artist the animal you can always feel the ground below you and breath within you. The mind you is more concerned with how you look doing it.

There is a beautiful fear that occurs when you play in the unknown, scared because it is unpredictable and mistakes and accidents are likely but the power to trust yourself in spite is pure magic.

“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.

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Current workshops/classes

Bull$hi*

“I felt like I was acting...” “I didn’t believe myself...” “I feel embarrassed...” I hear this in the studio, on set, in the trailer, behind me in class. It’s a horrible feeling to have bouncing around inside. Your mind races. You feel uncomfortable. You look for acknowledgment, or some validation to stop the noise... but then you feel like no one is being honest with you and before you know it, you’ve spiraled, and we all know how dark that can get.
WORKSHOP LA

Put your work to the test

unexpressed self

We will explore the unexpressed through movement, posture, eye contact, facial expression, vocal tone and cadence, gesture, and breath. Creating rich, unusual and wholly original characters.
IN PERSON CLASS

A whole new world for exploration

Genre scene study

Be the actor who is so adaptable, so directable, and so dynamic in your range that its part of how people talk about you. Be the one who can switch on the fly, come out of nowhere, each take a wholly new experience. These are the actors that get your heart racing and make you think “WTF”. There is no one way to become this actor, but here’s a class that will sure wake it up and then challenge it. Act a single piece in four different genres.
IN PERSON CLASS

Break the rules

“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.”

— HOLLYWOOD OUTLAW: THE MICKEY ROURKE STORY by Saurav Dutt