On the subject of cowardice...

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There is a risk that the theme of today’s blog will sound just a tad judgemental but I’m not going to apologise as I genuinely feel that it’s worth saying. It has come to my attention that some of the youth theatre are cowards…I can almost feel the intake of breath from across the ether…but I’m standing by it…and my discovery regarding cowardice has been made through my new litmus test…a certain game called foot stomp…

So there we are at the Sapphire company playing the aforementioned game and it comes to my attention that certain individuals, who incidentally I would have thought better of are skulking in corners, using uber defensive tactics such as making pathetic little jumps just to shirk the responsibility of being on, jumping away from the action…and I have to say I was shocked…this cowardice was brought into even greater focus by the bravery of others such as Olena and, it’s important to mention, someone who had only just started that day…as I said to the skulkers at the time, they should have felt ashamed of themselves…

Those of you now feeling a little disorientated by the change of ethos in my blog can now breathe a sigh of relief as I get to the wider point…which is… you all could do with being a little bit braver in rehearsal…yes I know it requires courage and I know it means you run the risk of something not working and yes you will probably feel a little awkward and out of your comfort zone…but that’s the point…by doing that you get stronger, more knowledgeable, more skilled, more able…and rehearsal is the time to do this…to take the risks, make the discoveries in the safety of a room where everyone is on your side…

So lovely youth theatre members (and the wider readership) your challenge for the week is this…choose what thing you need to be braver about… it could be that you need to be vocally braver – to see what you can really do in terms of vocal expression and projection, it maybe about going the extra mile physically, it might be about the way you are developing your character, or an exchange with another actor, or a scene or a moment…it might be about developing a real truth about how your character is feeling…it might be about how much you give to a rehearsal it might be about trying something you’ve never done…just decide on something and make a pact to yourself that next time you rehearse you are going to do it…definitively give it a try…(and if it needs a little prep work like being secure on your lines put that in place too…) mainly because you’ll feel liberated for doing so, maybe not immediately but certainly in the long term…and in return I give you my solemn promise that I’ll support you all the way…

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