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RAW TRUTH
Pinch ‘N’ Ouch Theatre nurtures new plays & actors
Grant McGowen
By Cathy H. Burroughs
Under the direction of founder
and producing artistic director Grant
McGowen, Pinch ‘N’ Ouch Theatre
(PNO) has been presenting edgy and
poignant new scripts with impassioned,
vulnerable performances for the past five
years.
PNO’s numerous awards and kudos
(including acclaim for McGowen’s
own plays, Let’s Make It and Wall Street
Wedding) and its intensive
acting classes (the four-level
Meisner Acting Immersion
course used by the likes of
Anthony Hopkins, Julianne
Moore, Robert Duval and
Hillary Swank, among
others) make it stand out
among the city’s impressive
theatre community.
McGowen’s and
PNO’s brand of raw and
sometimes harrowing
truthfulness is on display
in the current production
of Quiara Alegria Hudes's
Water by the Spoonful,
winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize. Prepare
to be awed by this bare bones take on
recovery and drug addiction in the
theatre's relatively new 45-seat space on
Arizona Avenue near Candler Park.
INtown sat down with McGowen
to talk about PNO and Water by the
Spoonful, which continues through July.
Tell us about your current
production, Water by the Spoonful?
Water by the Spoonful is about a
community of recovering addicts that
meet online from all over the world. It's
funny, moving, and is some of the best
writing I've ever seen. What initially
grabbed me was Hudes's compassionate
and diverse characters - they're all
relatable, unique, intelligent, and very
funny.
What can a newcomer expect
from this show and PNO’s future
productions?
The acting is usually very good.
We take acting seriously. Truth and
spontaneity is important to us. We
want every performance to feel unique
and one of a kind. Also, the material
we choose is usually challenging and
derived from a sense of truth (meaning
there is a certain necessary disregard for
censorship). If you like pretty fairy tales,
PNO is not your theatre, but if you like
to be challenged and emotionally moved,
check us out.
How do you get such vulnerable,
raw and powerful performances from
your actors?
I train most of them and
encourage them to work
very hard in exercising
the muscles necessary to
be a powerful actor. These
traits include listening,
being sensitive, penetrable,
spontaneous, instinctive,
expressive, and truthful.
It takes a lot of practice,
but acting is an ability that
almost anyone can learn.
I tell them to practice like
Michael Jordan and I give
them the exercises necessary
to do so. Some have the
work ethic, most don't, but
the ones that do, stick around.
Why the name Pinch 'N' Ouch?
"Pinch and Ouch" was coined from
a great acting teacher Sanford Meisner,
who was perhaps the least intellectual of
all the great acting teachers. He wanted
acting to be moving and expressive and
not performed. He taught actors to be
sensitive and instinctive, and one of
the things he would say was, "you have
to really listen, pay attention, and feel
that 'pinch' from the other actor. Your
performance comes from them. Your
'ouch' is a unique expression and if you
block it, it won't exist." Sometimes people
ask me what "Pinch and ouch" means and
I just smile and say, "I guess you'll have to
take an acting class." ESI
Pinch ‘N’ Ouch Theatre’s production of
Water By the Spoonful continues through
July Next up is The Aliens (Aug. 5-28) and
A Behanding in Spokane (Oct. 1-24). For
tickets, workshop information and more
details visitpnotheatre.org.
Water by the Spoonful runs through the end of July.
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