The woodpecker acting technique

One of my favourite birds is the woodpecker. It finds a tree and has a little peck. A tiny bit of wood comes off and falls to the ground. ‘No big deal’ you may say to yourself. But the woodpecker doesn’t stop there. It pecks and pecks and pecks until the whole bloody tree comes…

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The champion dog wrestler

Natalie, my wife, told me this bizarre but true story from her childhood. Her dad went to the local pub one night and came back with a dog. It was the 70’s; things like this happened back then. At first, all seemed well with the dog. But then things took a turn for the worse.…

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The trick to triggering authentic emotion on demand

Let’s do a bit of ‘’Q&A’’ action today. Question: I am a student studying Musical Theatre and recently I was told by my acting teachers that my acting has weaknesses that I am very keen to address. They have said that whilst I am able to understand a character and convey the various emotions they…

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If I were Prime Minister…

There is no getting away from it. The election is but a hop, skip and a jump away. I don’t know about you, but if I hear one more pleading/whining politician I think I may explode. But it has got me thinking. Thinking about what I would do if I were Prime Minister.   So,…

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Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Master of the Method

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  Today marks the first anniversary of the tragic and premature death from a drug overdose of master of the Method, Philip Seymour Hoffman. If it is true, as Richard Brody writes in The New Yorker, that:   “Work that’s only good is limited to its technique; when it’s great, a work is virtually inseparable…

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