Never give in

The Words of Wisdom this week are about persistence. One of the main reasons for businesses and other enterprises failing is the lack of persistence – giving in too easily. This is true of sport and the arts as well. As you continue in something you learn and improve, but it does take time. If you start out in life with an aim you may change that aim, or alter your strategy for achieving it. You may develop your tactics, but the important thing (and the one that happens to be my personal motto) is Never give in.

Never give in.

Use your head

The Words of Wisdom this week are Use your head. It’s quite impossible to speak without moving your head but most head movement is completely unconscious. Study people in life and on television. Notice how they all use their head movements to amplify what they are saying and the way they respond to other people’s speech. Observe how head movement may express assent, affirmation, negativity, doubt, explanation, recollection and all sorts of complexities of them and much more. See how head movements associate with gaze, facial expression, gesture and words. By becoming aware of all this you can harness a tool which you can use to make your own performances stronger and showing greater complexity. Use your head.

Remember that the greatest talent you can have is the talent for hard work.

The Words of Wisdom this week are Remember that the greatest talent you can have is the talent for hard work. Whatever abilities you are born or grow up with, they can be enormously enhanced by consistent, incremental, well directed, study and practice. And the converse is also true, talents not exercised and used will, in time decay. Use it or lose it. And you will find that hard work brings its own satisfaction.

Paddle in the Ocean of Truth

The Words of Wisdom this week are ‘Paddle in the Ocean of Truth.’ This is inspired by the great scientist Isaac Newton who, towards the end of his long life, said: “I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” There is no limitation on the subjects about which plays may be written, and actors need to know as much as they can about as many things as they can. Things such as literature, history, psychology, politics, styles, music, body language – I could go on, and on – read, study, observe and listen. Above all, work on that infinite subject, the variety of human nature. Theatre has the most enormous scope: it can amuse and entertain, but also reveal profound truths. Paddle in the Ocean of Truth.

Follow your bliss

And now for the Words of Wisdom: Follow your bliss. This phrase comes from the American write on mythology, Joseph Campbell. His best known book is ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ and in it he expound his belief that all the myths of all the peoples of the world are aspects of one overarching myth – the Monomyth.
A search of Google and You Tube will reveal lots of interesting stuff about him and I recommend it. What he meant by ‘Follow Your Bliss’ is that when you find something that enables you to have peak experiences and enter the zone where you feel at one with all of nature then you have found something you should follow all your life. It doesn’t mean just indulging yourself, that soon ceases to be blissful: true bliss enables you to set aside your ego and its petty demands. So, whether it comes from acting, writing, making music, painting or athletics: follow your bliss!

Watch people

Let’s start with the Words of Wisdom. We do a lot of things on autopilot. It’s the way our busy brains free up capacity for thinking and facing fresh challenges. Tasks we perform a lot become standardised routines: we don’t bother our conscious mind with them and we do them a similar way every time. This is known as habit.
The only thing wrong with this is that the way we do things becomes more and more stereotyped and that is one thing that, as an actor, we want to avoid. In our everyday lives the way we eat, drink, show agreement or disagreement, walk, smile, nod, kiss, hug, frown or hit a forehand drive is a matter of habit that has developed over many years: that’s the way we do things.
But the characters we play may need to have a different way of doing some of these things. We want to depict different people who may do things in a different way. In order to do this we need to expand our behavioural vocabulary, so we watch people and learn from them. Watch people in the street, in a pub, on a beach, on the bus, at Starbucks, in a shop, at a wedding, visiting in hospital, going to church, laughing, crying, working, playing. Watch people.

Heads you win

And the Words of Wisdom this week are: Heads you win. Observe what people do with their heads. For a start there are their eyes, with which they express emotion, show attention and communicate by gaze alone. Then there are their eyebrows, with which they show recognition and surprise and make ‘big eyes’ to assert dominance. Then there are their mouths: the way people’s mouths are set is highly indicative of character and mood and the predominant emotion of people’s lives. Then there are their head movements, which have a whole vocabulary of their own. Observe how people nod or shake their heads, or make slight movements, the whole time they are talking or listening. Notice how they co-ordinate their head movements with their speech and in response to other people. Watch how people can convey quite complex messages, simply by moving their heads in particular ways. When you’re out and about, observe other people, absorb what they do, and you will gradually expand your vocabulary of head movement and enrich your non verbal communication. Heads you win.