Uta Hagen and Marcel Proust
October 13, 2006
I FINALLY watched the movie "Miss Little Sunshine" that everyone raved about. And yes, it was excellent!! All the actors are brilliant! The script was super!
By the way, in the movie, one of the character talks about Proust a lot, since he is a college professor who studies Marcel Proust.
I was like, "Proust !!! I didn't hear that name, since I left school"!!
When I was in school, I took Literature classes and Philosophy classes, so I used to hear his name and "In search of Lost Time" here and there, and I sort of read his books so I could tell people "I read them", you know?
Now that I am an actor, as I was watching the "Ms. Little Sunshine ", and reflecting on Proust, I realized, what Proust call "Involuntary Memory" is what we study as "Sensory Memory" in acting training!!! -As Uta Hagen addresses in her book (If you are not in the business, you might not know her, but Uta Hagen was a legendary actress who also was a legendary acting teacher, who taught @ HB studio in NYC, where I first studied acting!).
The "Episode of Madeline" in Proust's "In Search of Lost Times" is the core of what us actors study as "Sensory Memory" !!!
We, actors study this "Sensory Memory" to recall certain emotion.... (now I am studying that as "Personalization" at the Howard Fine).
When I read Uta's book and learned about Sensory Memory, about 7 years ago, I thought that was so brilliant, as well as other things she wrote in the book, it almost was a shock to me, but, also, for someone in Late 1800's, who is not even an actor, to know about how our thoughts travel.....its just so incredible....I guess that's what makes him a philosopher, not just a writer, and thats what separates Proust from the rest of us....
