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
archetypes
To be truly free, one must be released from influences that do not flow from an authentically original source. The artist wants to be free from the burden of inherited unconscious beliefs, stories and afflictions. Parental inheritance bestows a responsibility to something outside of one self; you are tethered, encumbered or attached to things not necessarily belonging to you or generated from within you. If you are not free, then impulses, motivations and intentions do not come from the authentic self. Our actions and choices are produced to please or serve – they are inhibited. This is often why we “feel” one way inside but what we express is something else.
LA
AUDITIONS:SELF TAPES
Self-tapes are a chance to grow as an actor while showing casting what you can do—but they’re not about booking the job. The truth is, you could give the best performance of your life, make the casting director laugh or cry, and still not get the part. Maybe you don’t match the lead, remind the director of their ex, or just don’t fit the vision in ways you can’t control. And that’s okay! The key is to let go of the outcome and focus on what is in your control.
ONLINE
CHARACTER WORKSHOP
There is a lot more to acting than “what’s your moment before”. You were born. You had parents. You had a childhood home. You were awkward during puberty. You had love. You lost love. You were hurt wrongly and maybe hurt others wrongly. You have inherited fears and dreams, some that are true and many that are not. But you have a full life and inventing, discovering, and exploring all that is NOT on the page, it is what we craft whether a lead, a reoccur or a guest.
WORKSHOP
“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.”
