Acting: The First Six Lessons presented by Theatre West, produced by John Gallogly and Emily Bridges. Opens April 9; continues Fri., 8 pm; Sun., 2 pm; through May 16 (in repertory with The Life and Times of A. Einstein). Tickets: $5-$20. Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Los Angeles; 323.851.7977 or theatrewest@theatrewest.org.

Before the lights come up onstage, an off-stage voice intones in the dark:

“All the shadows are strange and solid. The quiet is trembling and alive. I respond to that quiet. My nerves begin to vibrate and throw threads of sympathy and expectation toward the great promising black riddle, the empty stage… I will be dead to myself, alive to the outside world… I will wake up with my heart full of dreams. Sweet poison of an empty theater, empty stage.”

The off-stage voice is Beau Bridges’ and the imagery is Richard Boleslavsky’s. It comes from Boleslavsky’s towering how-to book for aspiring actors, Acting: The First Six Lessons. It’s a book Bridges presses upon every young actor he mentors; now he and his daughter Emily have adapted it into a play they will present at Theatre West.

Beau Bridges

At 68, the trim and smooth-faced Bridges barely looks 40. It’s hard to believe his acting resume stretches back to 1948 and includes more than 200 film and television appearances—many in multiple episodes of popular series.

It all began with his parents, of course: the legendary Lloyd Bridges, one of Hollywood’s most well-loved and prolific actors, and his college sweetheart/wife, actress Dorothy Simpson Bridges. Together they charmed their eldest son into films at the age of seven to play in No Minor Vices with Dana Andrews, Lilli Palmer, Louis Jourdan and Jane Wyatt.

It was the family business, much as it is for the family of Will Geer whose multiple generations still produce and act on their Theatricum Botanicum stage in the woods of Topanga Canyon, as well as everywhere else.

Growing up in the Bridges family, Emily says, meant continually performing, creating characters, dressing up and including everyone in the role-playing, from the tottering infants to the award-winning Beau and Jeff. “One Christmas my brother Dylan and my grandfather wrote a script based on Robin Hood and everyone in the family took it deadly seriously,” she says.  “Uncle Jeff played the king.”

At four she made her debut, appearing with her dad in Daddy’s Dyin’ Who’s Got the Will? then at 10 in The Uninvited, and at 15 in the fantasy Voyage of the Unicorn.  In 2008 she graduated from Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus in New York but after stints at the London Dramatic Academy and the Moscow Theater School, she came back to Theatre West, where her dad has been a member of the company for 40 years, to appear in Gaslight in the role that won the 19-year-old Angela Lansbury an Oscar nomination in 1944. “I’ve really found a home here,” she says. “I think I’m staying.”

She is excited about her collaboration with her dad on Boleslavsky’s book. “It was my grandfather’s favorite book on acting, and my dad keeps a stack of them to give to friends,” she says. “It’s not just about acting; it’s lessons for life. The lessons are universal; they deal with the importance of listening to the world around you and being an active participant in the world.”

“It’s not just about the craft of acting; it’s about life,” Beau agrees. “It deals with the special relationship between a teacher and his student.” He and Emily have already presented their adaptation to the public; once in the amphitheatre at the Calabasas Commons, and once in Bishop during a month-long tribute to Jill Kinmont, the 1950s ski champion who was paralyzed in a ski accident but went on to teach special education classes in Bishop for 21 years.

Bridges claims he has been able to pursue his productive career “because I have a nice wife.” With all the travel and the “crazy hours” of an acting life, “you need the confidence of a great family behind you; a family life you can count on,” he says. And a lot of good friends. He laughs about his friendship with the late John Ritter. The first time they met, Ritter pointed his finger at him and said, “I know what you’re going to say” because at that time the two looked very much alike. In fact, they often signed each other’s name when they were asked for an autograph. “He was a wonderful guy and a great actor,” Bridges says. “I miss him very much.”

Asked about his favorite acting medium, Bridges says, “The play’s the thing. But I love them all.  In the theater, the audience is right there and you get immediate feedback; in the movies you get a chance to mold your character and refine your part; and on TV you have the immediacy of being right in somebody’s living room.” Bridges, ironically, has won awards in all of them: two Golden Globes, two Emmys, a total of 17 nominations and eight wins. And just last year he won a Grammy Award, along with Cynthia Nixon and Blair Underwood, for “Best Spoken Word Album” for their narration of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.

In 2010 Bridges will be appearing in all mediums. In addition to his upcoming role at Theatre West, he stars in My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend, Columbus Circle, Rushlights (with his son Jordan), Don’t Fade Away and Free Willy 4 which will soon be released on DVD. He also serves as the Narrator in Pablo, an animated biography of the “famous unknown artist” Pablo Ferro.

He is looking forward to traveling to Hawaii soon to appear in The Descendant with George Clooney, and recently it was announced he will play Joseph Rockford, Jim’s father, in a new edition of the 1970s series The Rockford Files.

He’s also looking forward to the next generation of acting Bridges. His two grandchildren, by his son Jordan, are Lola, 6, and Orson, 4, “and they’re just chomping at the bit,” he says proudly.

But first, there is Acting: The First Six Lessons, which opens April 9. And as Charlie Mount, who is directing them in that production, comments, “Working with the Bridges is wonderful, just wonderful!  They’re just so down to earth!”

Article and feature image by Cynthia Citron. Production photos by Thomas Mikusz.