Creativity Coach
Your Creative Coach: Cara Pifko
My Vision:
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I created this course with the intention to bring directors and actors together in a way that hasn't been done before.
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Created with the utmost respect for the director’s creative/life arc and experience and the actor's creativity and process.
These stages will give director's an opportunity to learn the inside view and create your own language for getting what you need from actors in the moment you need it. You will hear from different kinds of actors which gives the director more tools and varied points of view.
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For actors, this serves as a refresher of often overlooked basic acting tools or filling in the blanks from theatre school or what you've picked up in the working experience. The opportunity to train beside directors will give a rarely experienced opportunity to understand your director. Nobody teaches this stuff.
Until now.
Course Vision
This container is geared for the directors' acting training but gives an opportunity for actors and directors to understand each other for the shared purpose of a smooth-flowing creative experience and a more accessible opportunity to bring a higher level of work than just getting the job done.
Directors will have the chance to experience being in the actors’ shoes, learning that part of the craft by doing, not just theory. Participants get a rare chance to be in the practice of directing where there isn’t money on the table and a schedule breathing down your neck; to be able to feel the joy, fun and excitement of watching a scene grow through working it and how it evolves by way of its many iterations.
We will address those moments when a director is onset and not getting what they need from their actor and give you a rich toolbox on how to communicate to reach all kinds of actors.
From the actors point of view, we learn how to translate a director's note into something that is usable and doable in those high pressure moments. We get to talk about it in community, where you're not left on your own to guess and figure it out.
In addition, this course gives the director an understanding of what those translations are. This way, notes can be given in the moment in a way that the actor can utilize. By practicing in a no-stress environment, you can feel confident with the methods you're using, for example Emotional Recall; exploring avenues toward the same goal.
I would be honored to work with you and am deeply touched by your interest. I hope this work will birth tools to create beautiful environments for these two arms of creativity to work harmoniously on set and elevate the works that are created.
What's Going to be Covered:
In this course we will cover detailed and comprehensive experiencing of the actor’s approach to:
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Learning and playing in a comfortable sandbox setting that can be accessed quickly to be used in the tight schedule of the onset experience
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Rehearsal: when you get a chance to have precious rehearsal time, how to best use that time and what to do
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Different types of rehearsal time
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e.g. three days of rehearsal before a film vs. 15 minutes onset before wardrobe while getting marks or the special window of potential actor/director connection after the master shot is in the can
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Table work (breaking down a script, beats, action words, objective, obstacle, lifting clues from the punctuation, Memorization Tools)
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The body is the vessel: BREATH, the body’s 7 resources, embodied performance, the body tells the story
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Relational connection: it’s all in the other person’s eyes, Action vs Reaction, feel it IN the lines, breathing with your scene partner and your surroundings
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Integrating marks/lighting with your work
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We will discuss the actors journey from audition prep to wrap; where it’s the same and where it’s different from the director’s journey. This element of the course is a roundtable style discussion of the aspects of need/want that are most important to you.
Here's What it Will Look Like:
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Each week will have some lecture style time to introduce concepts we then bring to the practical execution
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In the active scene study portion of the class, there will be rotating groups with two actors and one director. Actor and director roles will be interchangeable and there will be opportunity to swap positions
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Open discussion following active scene study
For the last 6 years I have served as a Master Life Coach on the team at the Coaching Institute where I was originally certified and where we drop a ripple of change in to the hundreds of new coaches we train every year.
I host zoom sessions either on my own or on a team of 2-5 with 60-200 students per class in this international school either in tandem with the Institute Creators or leading with the team.
On the acting coaching side, for the last 15 years I have worked with people beginner to celebrity, ages 7 and up in England, South Africa, Canada and all across the US. I am happy to have coached 100s of actors of all levels, my students have gone from beginner to working, working to award winning. I take pleasure and pride in providing students with a fun environment to learn the practical tools of training along with the mindset needed to have a long, healthy career.
I currently coach Voice Over for children and adults privately and with my business partner Sunday Muse at GreatBigVoices.com. I ran classes for USC professor and CEO at Emerge Media where I would offer playful lectures followed by scene, commercial and character work. Class sizes range from 1:1, 12 students in studio, 20 students on zoom to 150 in person at IPOP.
Monday Morning Critic Pod Cast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-187- better-call-saul-actor-cara-pifko/id1210796291?i=1000475732680
What Clients are Saying About Cara
Michael Johnston (Teen Wolf, Zak Storm, Supergirl, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba)
"Coaching with Cara as a young, new actor was one of the smartest things I could have spent my money on. She taught me the importance of listening to my partner and showed me ways to make text more relatable so that I could respond as if the words were my own. It seems so basic but many actors just don't know how to do it. I often find myself using techniques, or as I like to call them, "good habits" that learned from her - especially in the audition room. Cara is also a great listener, friend, and life coach. I've gone on to book regular work on Teen Wolf, leads in feature films, and a lead in an animated series. Thanks Cara!"
Sunday Muse (Voice Coach, Actress on Care Bears/Total Drama Island)
"Cara has a presence that will gently open you up from the moment you engage with her. Her talent lies in knowing you right where you are at and reflecting back to you your strengths and natural ability to create from a raw and truthful place. A rare and empowering gift for any artist in search of growing and expanding.”
Radhaa Nilia (Award winning actress, Best Selling Author and Publisher)
"If you’ve met Cara, you know that she is a warm, kind, real, down to earth yet magical person. You would know that you met someone very special. And if you work with her like I have, you will also know that."