Over the years I have found that my vocational interests, namely acting, acting tuition and healing, have started to merge.
Working with budding actors or those trying to release creative blocks I have used some of the visualisations and meditations I would use with my Reiki clients. Initially, this helped students with nerves, but later on I found the practices were also a useful device in accessing their creative voice.
RADA trained us in Stanislavsky and Meisner techniques which, to be honest, I found helpful but not ground-breaking. In my work, I was using a technique that fused these methods with meditation and trance work. The students who sought me out considered this approach highly innovative.
As I started to work more and more with students in an instinctive and spiritual way, I started to see real breakthroughs happen. While teaching Meisner at BSA I gently introduced my own spin on the technique and to my total delight the students loved it.
I got to thinking this: how can I convert all of this promise and potential into a fully-fledged acting school where meditation and Reiki practices are commonplace?
I was also meeting a lot of students who were choosing to see me because they wanted to access another part of their creativity that traditional approaches had failed to unlock. I felt like I was on the cusp of something big.
Anxiety
Then, about a month ago, I had a student who came to me for public speaking lessons. During our initial chat it became clear she had anxiety that was holding her back from truthful expression. I took her through some intense meditation work - the tools I use as a healer.
At the end of the session she asked me if this was how I taught acting to all my students - she wasn’t the first to say this. A previous student had asked me if I had worked with Stewart Pearce as our work seemed to have a commonality.
I haven’t, but Pearce runs workshops at esoteric centres on 'The Alchemy of Voice'. He also works as a voice coach for theatres. If my work was being seen in the same light then perhaps I was moving in the right direction.
I got to thinking this: how can I convert all of this promise and potential into a fully-fledged acting school where meditation and Reiki practices are commonplace?
The first thing I did was have a look at Pearce’s website. He works as a sound healer and had been resident voice coach at The Globe under Mark Rylance’s directorship.
It seemed Pearce was looking at the voice as a release of expression. Jill Purce runs similar workshops though she is not so involved in the world of acting.
Now I had to think about how I could fashion my approach into a unique proposition, which involved a prolonged period of soul searching, cerebral activity and convoluted chats with my peers.
I remembered a respected teacher from the past talking about finding your centre, and the subsequent Laban work we did at drama school based on this concept. It occurred to me that I want to train students to access their creativity from this place.
I also want to use spiritual work to access each student’s inner storyteller. Researching further, I discovered that most traditions have a culture of storytelling that is somehow driven by a spiritual component. The Aboriginal storytellers, the Shaman, Korean storytelling - all of these seek to unlock a resource that’s primal in its simplicity and unifying by nature.
‘Eureka’ moment
I’d had my ‘Eureka’ moment, and the ideology behind the acting school I wish to launch was duly formulated. This brings the story pretty much up to where I’m at today.
The next step seems to be to look at how these courses would run, plus I have to construct an introductory workshop or seminar that fully describes my way of working. I will then pitch this to theatres, schools and actors’ centres.
The Actors’ Studio is a wonderful resource in America where actors hone their craft. It has given us such greats as Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Marlon Brando.
At one time they all studied their craft there. We don’t have a place like that in the UK.
The Actors’ Centre in London has yet to find that hot house feel, where new ideas are being tried out and innovative techniques are being born. This excites me greatly, because I’m going to try to be the first to pioneer a new, progressive actors’ centre.
I plan to spend the next few weeks thinking about how these courses would run. I need to develop my initial idea to run three-hour, half-day and full-day workshops - amongst other things.
This will form the backbone of my initial pitch and business plan.
