Actor says creativity can
unlock emotional doors

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By Tim Ryan
tryan@starbulletin.com

Alan Arkin was in his early 30s when he first experienced success with the Second City Improv Troupe he created. The actor was getting lots of media attention, people recognized him on the street and he started earning "pretty decent money."

Alan Arkin "Bridging the Chasm from Theater to Life: An Improvisation Workshop" Where: Hui Ho'olana, Molokai When: May 1 to 7 Cost: $1,650, including room and board; $500 deposit required Call: 808-567-6430, visit the Web site www.huiho.org or e-mail hui@aloha.net Details: Class may be canceled or rescheduled pending final confirmation on April 17.

Then the actor took a few gut shots in one week from fellow Second City performers.

"Three people said right to my face how much I needed therapy," Arkin, 69, said in a telephone interview from his Santa Fe, N.M., home.

Rather than dismissing their comments as petty jealousies, Arkin began visiting a therapist, which he says is "the most significant thing that I'd ever done in my life.

"I learned that I wasn't just some occurrence but a malleable piece of material, and I was the creator of this material and could change it any way I wanted to," he said. "I had the power to change myself off stage like I did on stage."

It was that realization that convinced the actor about five years ago to begin conducting workshops using improvisational techniques to teach people to unleash their creativity and tear down emotional walls.

Arkin will conduct a six-day workshop -- six hours per day -- beginning May 1 at Hui Ho'olana on Molokai.

Between jobs as an actor/director/writer, Arkin has been leading retreats at The Omega Institute, Bennington College and Columbia College.

He began his acting career with an Oscar-nominated performance as an abandoned Russian sailor in the 1966 film "The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming." Soon afterward, he acted in "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" and was nominated again for an Academy Award. Since then, he has appeared in more than 60 films and directed six.

His workshops are open to anyone who wants "to experiment, share, play and grow, while practicing the spontaneous art of improvisational theater," Arkin says.

"It's not about being clever, or even funny. It's about making deeper contact with your creative force, surprising yourself, being creative in the broadest sense of the word -- and opening and responding to the creativity of others."

In Arkin's case, therapy made the young actor realize "I was useless as a person.

"As long as I was on the stage ... everything was fine," he said. "The rest of the time you could hang me up in a closet and leave me alone. I didn't relate to other people, or myself.

"I was what I did. Now my work is an expression of my life rather than its meaning."

Arkin creates a non-judgmental environment in which participants aren't afraid to make changes. He expects participants to be terrified the first day. "We're all terrified at having ourselves revealed to others," he said.

The first exercise will have students standing in a circle as Arkin tells them the workshop's No. 1 rule: "Nothing interesting or creative."

"The minute I say that everyone relaxes because they know all they have to do is follow the instructions; no need to show off," he said.

Then the group plays catch with an imaginary ball.

"In the first 10 minutes they discover the cornerstone of the workshop: It's impossible not to be interesting or creative," Arkin said. "Real creativity comes when you just let go. No one ever thinks what they do is creative, but we all think what the other person does is creative.

"It's our nature to be creative, and not being creative is the aberration."

Ever the pragmatist, Arkin's reasoning in choosing to do a film is simple.

"If somebody hands me a script to read, I want it to be a work of genius, written and directed by Jean Renoir or Fellini," he said. "When the film I was making is over and someone then hands me a script, if it's a John Ford movie, it's fine.

"I just want to know that I have a job coming sometime in the next six months. It really depends on what kind of cushion I have to live on. I got to eat like everybody else."

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