A year ago I posted some reading suggestions for taking stock and moving forward in your career; maybe something I should have kept it for this year. I am going to follow up on that post with further autumn reading suggestions, this year on acting technique. Though one of my suggestions could be useful to…
Creatively Speaking
Sir Ken Robinson Champion of Creativity
It is with heavy hearts that we announce Sir Ken Robinson died peacefully yesterday, 21st August 2020, surrounded by family after a short battle with cancer. We will be following up with a further update as we begin to follow Sir Ken’s wishes and honour his legacy. pic.twitter.com/IS3HsgeSXl — Sir Ken Robinson (@SirKenRobinson) August 22,…
The Future Can Be Written
Last week, like many who list Performing Arts on their LinkedIn profile, I was invited to contribute to an online discussion of what the performing arts needs to recover from the current crisis. It is no understatement to say that the performing arts have through the wringer over the last few months, our very survival…
Distraction Therapy
Today 16th May I have now been in lockdown for 2 months. Employed on a non creative job when the Government advised people to work from home, and fortunately enough allowed to keep working and earning at home for the rest of the contract: post Easter I am both in lockdown and out of work.…
Level Playing Fields
I was particularly sorry to hear of the death of Jill Gascoine earlier this week. Gascoine had an extensive career, particularly in theatre and television. I first remember her as Letty Gaunt/Onedin in The Onedin Line, but for her role as DI Maggie Forbes in The Gentle Touch, many will best remember Gascoigne. As a…
Winter Solstice, Year End.
The Winter Solstice and the shortest day of the year always feels to me like the end of the year, even if the actual end of the year is well over a week away. This year has definitely been a hard year. I have not spoken to anyone, whether creative or not, who has not…
The Magic of Stories
If you talk to an actor you will often find that becoming an actor was through many different routes: excuse to get out of lessons, parent/teacher sending a shy/introverted child to bring them out of themselves, a way to meet boys/girls. For me the entry point was stories. As a child I loved stories –…
Happy Autumn
Happy New Year… yes you did read that correctly. It may be due to having never been a heat/sun enthusiast; or the fact that autumn’s rich colour palate, misty mornings and leaves underfoot speaks much more to my visual artist side but autumn has always been my favourite time of year. Autumn feels like a…
Not surviving but thriving
For many artists in the UK surviving is by way of having a day job in addition to the creative one; a financial necessity but one that can place an incredible burden on an artist literally trying to do 2 full time jobs. With the increasing levels of automation many jobs that were once the…
Podcasts: Support for artists
I was not intending to add another post on Podcasts, but then I came across this series and given the important subject matter which is finally being taken seriously and even promoted within the industry, I wanted to share it. Industry Minds interviews theatre industry professionals in order to break the stigma of mental health,…