Pavel Jech, Susan Landau Finch

Writing For Actors, Acting For Writers

Chapman University, USA

The crafts of training actors and that of training screenwriters have followed different development processes and have emerged into distinct methods and methodologies. However, these disciplines and their instruction share many common roots and terminology that intersect, often conveying different meanings. This presentation will investigate the meanings of some of these terminologies as a basis for exploring exercises and techniques that practitioners can apply to the training of actors and screenwriters. Focusing on the terminology “WANT AND NEED,” which are integral in the Frank Daniel Methodology and in differing contexts to various acting methods, acting Professor Susan Finch and Screenwriting Professor Pavel Jech will present an emerging practical workshop methodology that combines ‘acting for writers and ‘writing for actors.’ Having experimented with these approaches in recent Chapman University classes, the presenters will articulate the discoveries of their ongoing inquiries into the nexus of these two art forms and examine their utility to both the writing student and the acting student.

Pavel Jech is a professor of Writing for the Screen and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Dodge College Film and Media Studies, Chapman University. Previously he served two terms as Dean at FAMU Prague, and as the founding Chair of FAMU International. Pavel Jech is co-founder of the Midpoint Institute which provides development and script editing training in central Europe and throughout the EU. He has worked as an advisor at Berlinale Talents, Sundance International, the Mediterranean Film Institute, Asia Pacific Film Lab, and Cine Qua Non. He has also lectured at these labs and at film festivals and conferences on a variety of script-writing topics. As an internationally active script editor and consultant, his most recent project 10 Years Myanmar premiered at the 2023 Busan International Film Festival. Pavel Jech has co-authored the screenwriting manual, The Seven Minute Screenplay with numerous reprints at NAMU.

Susie Landau Finch is a writer/director/producer/professor who specializes in training actors and creating original content for film and theatre. She has trained with Viola Spolin, Stella Adler, Yurek Bogajevicz and observed Harold Clurman, Sally Kirkland and Lee Strasberg. She worked eleven years for Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope Studios in casting and producing, and has also worked for Lucasfilm, Castlerock, the Annenberg Foundation, Paramount Studios, Sony Studios, and Magnus Films. Recent credits include Executive Producer on “Fairyland” produced by Sofia Coppola, and co-writing with Roland Joffe “Sweet Surrender “a film to star Jeremy Irons. She is producing, “An Actor’s Actor,” a documentary about the life and technique of her Oscar-winning father, Martin Landau. Landau Finch performs script consulting and acting coaching. She is working with Fred Roos (“Apocalypse Now”) on his memoire about actors he discovered. Landau Finch holds the US rights to UNKNOWN STANISLAVSKI.