All my life I’ve given a running commentary on what I see , what I read and what I hear. It must drive my wife nuts but she’s kind enough not to tell me – well not too often, although she can do a brilliant look!
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t do it. One day I arrived at my classroom early and watched the rest of my class running across the playground. I started giving a commentary as if it was a horse race. I was having a great time until my rather strict teacher said, “Thank you. That’s quite enough of that”. A good teacher would have encouraged me but hey, he was into keeping control.
Now I think about it, a blog is a natural extension of the same thing. A bit showoffy, as most people keep their thoughts to themselves.
“I suppose I have often seen myself as a bit of an outsider, an observer rather than a participant.”
I suppose I have often seen myself as a bit of an outsider, an observer rather than a participant. I stand back a bit and I can talk or not, but I’m always thinking and making connections between things. It’s also a bit of a curse because if I wake up at three in the morning, my brain immediately comes to life and starts analysing. It’s like coming up from deep water and there you are stuck on the surface when you want to be back in the depths. Like many people, I lie awake for hours and wake up exhausted.
It’s useful though in a creative sense because you live your life on a kind of double track and switch easily from one to the other. One track is about the things that happen to you during the day, while the other is about making sense of them in the bigger picture.
“If I’m teaching someone to act I want them to be very aware of the business of thinking AND acting or speaking.”
Of course, we all do this, but to a performer or a writer it’s essential. If I’m teaching someone to act I want them to be very aware of the business of thinking AND acting or speaking. Performers are often doing two things at once. It’s not just saying the lines of the character, it’s also thinking about what they want as they speak those lines. It’s a process and it begins with being able to live your life and simultaneously ‘think’ your life.
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