How everything is so interlinked, even from your early days of training.

February 12th

There have been a lot of books over the years written about the 'art of acting.’ Theories, methods, and lets face it many schools/academies/conservatoires/colleges of drama have been founded on the base of one style or another.

People/actors/artists have lived and died (in more ways than one) by what's the best approach to working as an actor. In fact, I remember working on a play on the London fringe with a chap who'd quit his day job and embarked on the life as an actor. He had no training whatsoever, and instead believed that he could do it all by reading books by Ugen, Stanislavsky, and all the forms that were in fashion in 1998. I don't think he ever for once thought about the joy of acting, and entertaining the audience.

Anyway I digress, which is what I do, by nature anyway. The point, or rather the original point was to introduce my subject for this particular blog's discourse. Which was, how everything is so interlinked right from your early days of training, to your first professional production on now to what must be the thirtieth! Thank goodness all that money I spent on drama school wasn't for nothing.

We are now right amidst the 'snot en trane' of our preparation, and although every day is still a joy, it is also hard work. It's what acting is all about, finding the 'right notes', the 'light and shade,' etc. You work at finding all the levels, running with the emotions, which for both Will and I, there are quite a lot to deal with, as well as the detailing, the fine tuning, and on top of all that, remembering the lines.

The funny thing everyday we find new ways too deal with a speech, a line, a reaction, sometimes I find it easy to make the change, sometimes it's a matter of finding the right intonation, sometimes a thought of 'what would it feel like if that happened to me', sometimes it's picturing what I say as I say it, sometimes it's the 'super objective', sometimes it's 'I wonder how he would pour the drink at this moment'.

Whatever way we go, I find the joy and disappointment of trying numerous other ways to try the speech, before we (Chris, and I) think that it's now going in the right direction. Or indeed it's even more fulfilling that we are going through a scene and we try it angry, jesting, pitying, hating, with love or just getting on and saying the lines, and then we ( Chris, Will and I) make a few changes and then it's like, 'oh yes, that's the way, wasn't that so simple'.

Of course it's probably me that's making it too bloody complicated, and I can't help but apologize to Chris and Will for my awful Hugh Grant apologizing antics, 'sorry, so sorry, that was, well awful, do you think we could try that again?'

Then on top of all that it's the ability to say the line, help put a toga on Will, while, bless him, there he is standing in his underwear as I witter on about dreams and Oedipus. Now before I go too far and reveal the story, I hope you get the idea that this play is a lot of bloody good fun! In fact, sometimes I am proudest that I can pour a drink, fold a pair of trousers, hold a prop script and say a line, all at the same time, now that's acting!

My thanks as always to Will, Chris, Danielle, Amy and Candice for their constant help and support everyday.

Also I am going to take advantage and say, Alison MacDonald, Happy Valentine's wifey, I Love You.

Cleo and Devon, (the cats) stop messing about!

Yours Aye,
Ross