We’d love to help you get to know our incredible TBG teaching artists a little bit better, so we got Eddie Robinson to answer a few questions! Check out our interview with him below…
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What is your favorite class to teach at TBG and why?
ER: Well, right now I’m only teaching one class, Beginner Acting Class I: The Basics, and I LOVE it!, but soon I’ll be teaching Beginner Acting Class III: Film/TV as well. What I think I love most about teaching beginners is getting to meet people from various backgrounds, various walks of life that have some need, some desire to be creative and explore what that means for themselves through acting. It’s that initial desire that reminds and reconnects me to why I chose to pursue acting as a profession in the first place, which I would say is vitally important for any actor to do from time to time throughout their career.
What is something you recently learned or were reminded of in the world of acting, writing, or directing?
ER: As I’ve gotten older and have been pursuing acting for a while now, it seems to me that certain lessons have a way of only becoming clear as you age and gain more experience. One of those is that you really don’t have to wait to “ACT.”
Sometimes us actors can get into the nasty habit of waiting for your agent/manager to call or waiting for that perfect role/opportunity to come along, but the best thing you can do for yourself as an actor is to take any and every opportunity to do what you say you love, whether that be performing in a staged reading, or shooting some quick video with friends, or going to that audition you’re on the fence about, or to take a class (wink, wink.)
Another such lesson that I’ve learned is NOT to treat auditions like job opportunities but to treat them ONLY as chances to perform and do what I love. Reframing them that way has definitely helped relieve the pressure of auditioning for me and helped me be more confident in my work and have more fun!
What is a recent, current, or upcoming project that you’d like folks to know about?
ER: I was recently invited by a good actor/producer friend to be a part of a collective of fellow creatives, both in front of and behind the camera, and we would get together every Sunday for a couple of months to film scenes and work on our craft together. We’d usually just pick a scene that someone was excited by and wanted to work on.
I chose a scene from an audition I had a while ago that I didn’t book, and we actually shot and produced it as if I was on set/stage doing the work. It was so much fun and I got to meet some incredibly talented professional artists. We now plan on this being a regular thing we do to stay active, creative, and hungry, going back to my earlier point about finding any opportunity to do what you love!
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To take a class with Eddie…check out TBG’s schedule of upcoming classes here!