4th March 2021 would have been Sir Ken Robinson’s 71st birthday; he died in August last year. “Imagine if” was a week-long celebration of creativity and the work of Sir Ken Robinson, inspired by his observation that what separates us out from other life on earth is our power of imagination – the power to…
Creatively Speaking
Book and Blanket: December 2020
Wishing everyone a safe and peaceful Christmas and New Year. I’m going to curl up under a blanket with a good book. I’ll be back in the Spring.
Distraction Therapy (2)
With increasing tier levels followed by another lockdown, the hope of theatres reopening this autumn, fully up and running by Christmas, has evaporated. The new lockdown meant postponement of my in-person working day in a theatre, a bitter blow. Back in lockdown at home, I have been able to engage with the work of organisations…
Autumn Theatre Reading
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…
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 –…