The Teacher As Actor Part 3: Speaking to a Legend

Related links:

Episode 68: The Teacher As Actor with Jane Cox

The Teacher As Actor Part One: Plan Tight but Hang Loose

The Teacher As Actor Part Two: Listen, Process, React

On Friday night, I jumped on Zoom to chat with Milton Justice for a podcast episode coming out on 11/6. Milton is an Emmy and Oscar winning producer, as well as a well respected acting teacher. Within a few minutes of talking to Milton, I heard about his time with Bob Hope on the 1969 USO tour and about his time teaching a very dedicated and hard on himself student named Mark Ruffalo. I was riveted.

After talking for two and a half hours, I realized there were two episodes here. One episode will be the one I planned on which is the great conversation we had about the teacher as actor. The other will be a bonus episode in which we hear Milton talk about his journey in Hollywood as an award winning producer to being a celebrated acting teacher in NY.

One, out of many, mind blowing things about Milton, is that he studied with Stella Adler for five years (who studied with Stanislavski) and then she asked for him to teach for her. He was so generous with the other actors he worked with and he took detailed notes; Stella saw the teaching potential in Milton and spoke up. When you listen to Milton, you hear the passion he has for what he is teaching.

I won’t share too much here about the discussion we had about the teacher as actor. No spoilers. I can say that the discussion helped me see some new commonalities between the two professions.

In the above video, Milton talks about a play being a sequence of thoughts and not just sentences/words. Focusing on the words, the punctuation, makes for a stale performance that doesn’t ring true. This reminds me of when I plan lessons and consider what are the learning goals. With those big thoughts in mind, then I can design my lesson and know what to include and how I want to deliver the content.

Milton’s example of being prepared in the video above is a stunning metaphor to great teachers. Meryl Streep understood that she needed to be totally immersed in order to truly understand her character. This is similar to dedicated teachers who spend time way past their contractual hours to understand the topics they teach. Many teachers spend time finding or creating mentor texts to share with students for writing class. We research about a science or social studies topic and find the story behind all the facts. This is the work of actors as well.

In the above video, we get to watch Stella Adler, Milton’s teacher, breaking down what is going wrong with one of her acting students, a young Mark Ruffalo. You can tell that she knew she was working with someone with talent and that she felt she could be completely honest with him about what needed to change in his work. When working with our students, we should never be harsh like this, but we should let our students know that we see that they are capable, we know they can do it, and help them to see that they are not working up to their potential.

Remember to check out Episode 71: The Teacher As Actor Part 2 with Milton Justice when it is available on 11/6.