Acting coach Larry Moss gains acclaim -- and an invitation to a Swiss festival -- for his shepherding of “The Syringa Tree”

Los Angeles acting teacher Larry Moss hasn’t been the same since 1997, the year his trusted astrologer suggested he be more creative. Though he was already successful, she thought he should realize his dream of directing. Because only the lack of engaging material held him back, she told him to create it himself.

“I realized it didn’t make any sense to sit around and complain about the lack of good scripts when I could help create them,” says the 58-year-old teacher, a tall, lanky man with a warm presence and a penchant for baseball caps. No one--except maybe his astrologer--could have foreseen the consequences.

Shortly thereafter, actress Pamela Gien showed up for a class. She performed a 20-minute sketch, playing herself as a child in her native South Africa. “I was overwhelmed by her portrayal of a girl living in unbelievably dangerous circumstances and flying into fantasies to protect herself from the reality of apartheid,” he says. “I knew it could be a great play because it’s a universal story--we all live in a world in violent turmoil.”

It took Moss and Gien three years to develop “The Syringa Tree,” which had its premiere at Seattle’s ACT Theatre in 2000. She eventually wrote 22 characters into the play, including her parents, the family maid, friends and various villagers, all of whom she portrayed. In New York, “The Syringa Tree” was awarded an Obie for best play of 2001, the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for outstanding solo performance.

And its life didn’t stop there: Moss directed a television film of the play, distributed by Trio, and will direct the play again at Theaterworks in Palo Alto, Calif., (Oct. 12 to Nov. 3), at the Pasadena Playhouse (Nov. 3 to Dec. 1) and at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills (Dec. 2-Jan. 12). He and Gien will collaborate again on her film “The Lilly Field,” which begins production in the spring.

After Moss began working on “The Syringa Tree,” actor Bo Eason arrived at the Larry Moss Studio in Santa Monica with his story, what he envisioned as a supposedly comic sketch based on his NFL career. Moss saw tragedy instead--and the potential for gripping theater. Moss began pulling details out of Eason until, one day, the former athlete collapsed in tears.

Eason played with the Houston Oilers for several years in the mid-’80s until knee problems forced him out. Like the hero of his play, Eason has a more talented brother and a domineering father who pushed him to compete. Most of the show takes place just before an important NFL game in which he will face his brother, the quarterback for the opposing team. Until he began working with Moss, Eason had not faced up to the hardships of gaining parental approval nor to the approved brutality of football, and how they almost destroyed his life.

Last winter, Eason’s story “The Runt of the Litter,” which Moss directed, had a brief run off-Broadway. Late next year, Castle Rock is scheduled to release through Warner Bros. a film based on the play.

Moss expects actors to establish a deep connection with the characters they’ll portray. “They can’t do that until they know who they are,” he says, showing the influence of his 35 years in psychotherapy. One way there, he says, is to have them do “relaxation exercises,” during which they recall an event through their senses and relive it emotionally.

His unwavering dedication to his craft has made him one of the most influential acting coaches today. Directors as well as actors vie for his time, with students sometimes waiting a year to attend classes. Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw put up the original money for the Edgemar Center for the Arts, an arts complex opening in October in Santa Monica, to which Moss will relocate his studio.

His stature also earned him a six-figure advance from Bantam/Dell for “The Intent to Live,” a book on acting, and a chance to play himself--an acting coach--in the Belgian film “Michael Blanco,” scheduled for release this winter. And it was his talent for creating first-rate theater that won him an invitation to the prestigious Verbier Festival in Switzerland, best known for world-class musical performances.

Until the success of “The Syringa Tree” and “The Runt of the Litter,” Moss’ reputation rested largely on his film work. After all, there’s nothing quite like having Helen Hunt (“As Good as It Gets”) and Hilary Swank (“Boys Don’t Cry”) thank you for helping them win Academy Awards, or having actors like Michael Clarke Duncan, Jason Alexander, Hank Azaria and Jim Carrey rave about your talents. “But theater gave me my life,” Moss says, and it was his love of theater that prompted his most recent endeavor, a workshop in July hosted by the Verbier Festival.

“After I saw ‘The Syringa Tree,’ ” says Verbier founder Martin Engstroem, “I knew we wanted to have him here. He represents the kind of innovation we strive for. He inspires people.”

Moss was born and raised in Encino Hills in what he describes as an acutely dysfunctional family--his mother was a paranoid schizophrenic who introduced him to theater. By his early teens he had decided to be an actor, and at 18 left for New York. Two years later he married actress Susan Slavin, from whom he is now divorced.

Moss soon got gigs on Broadway, first in a 1962 revival of “West Side Story” as one of the Jets, and in 1970 appearing in “So Long, 174th Street” and “I Love My Wife,” honing his skills with noted teachers Stella Adler and Sanford Meisner. But it was as a teacher and coach that he blossomed, first at the Juilliard School and later as musical director at Circle in the Square. In the process of uncovering and repairing his childhood scars in psychotherapy, he had gained an ability to discern and cultivate actors’ distinctive skills.

For the Verbier workshop, Moss chose eight actors who were passionately interested in extending their range. Though they all have successful careers--Oscar winner Juliette Binoche recently starred in “Chocolat”; Joel Gretsch was featured in “Minority Report”; Patrick Muldoon was in “Starship Troopers”; and the others work regularly in television, films and theater--they shared a frustration with the quality of material available to them, and a belief that Moss could help them create their own.

“The workshop certainly wasn’t for the weak-hearted,” he says. “I asked them to go places emotionally that they’d never gone before.” During the workshop, the actors led an idyllic existence, with housing provided in picturesque chalets surrounded by the majestic Alps. They’d often start their days with mountain walks and end them with concerts and fine dinners. Before meeting with Moss, they spent time with Jean-Louis Rodrigue or Kristof Konrad, movement specialists from Los Angeles with whom Moss collaborates. “They help the actors get in touch with their bodies, which is the only way to give a complete performance,” Moss explains. Like a therapist, Moss often began the sessions by suggesting exercises in free association, pulling material from them as they talked. “There was an enormous desire on everybody’s part to get rid of his or her masks,” he says. “You begin with that raw material, and then you can use your imagination to create a work of art.”

The actors also developed relationships with one another, in time establishing a group dynamic that resembled a family. That kinship was evident on one of their last days in Verbier when Binoche acted out a childhood experience.

Dressed casually in black pants, running shoes and a flowered shirt, Binoche stood across from Moss, the other actors sitting in a circle around them. As an introduction, she explained that she was 7 years old and standing outside her family’s Paris apartment. She began pounding on the door, desperate to show her mother her new watch, but her mother, who was completely self-absorbed, ignored her. Her face contorted in anguish, she worked herself into such a frenzy of frustration and grief that the other actors couldn’t contain their tears. All the while, Moss kept urging her on, his hands outstretched, his eyes kind and his whole body leaning toward her, insisting she go further.

Afterward, she flopped down on a couch exhausted, a smile brightening her face at Moss’ congratulations. “Larry helps you see all the possibilities in yourself,” she said.

One by one, other actors followed with scenes. “In terms of improvisation and connecting to their acting instrument, I saw some of the best work I’ve ever seen,” Moss says. “These are seeds of great theater and film.”

Now back in Los Angeles, the actors meet with Moss weekly, with Binoche calling in from Paris to participate. “They’re on fire with creativity,” he says.

The Verbier Festival asked them all back next summer, promising to build a theater in which they can present their new works and where Moss can direct Binoche in Strindberg’s “Miss Julie.” “It’s a very good time for me,” he says.

Valerie Gladstone is a New York-based freelance writer.