Today’s blog has been inspired by a dear friend, who sadly I haven’t seen in a long time, who has very kindly become a follower of my blog.

I have decided to write about the unusual things us actor’s do in order to learn our craft and step outside of our comfort zone. I did some of my training with this particular friend and it was during that training that ‘Walking like a penguin’ became a phrase and vision that will stay with me forever.

It was very early in our training, during an exercise that involved going up on stage in pairs with the objective to get the audience to watch us and not the other person. The shenanigans that took place were hilarious but none quite as funny, for me anyway, as my friend’s turn. Up until this point she had been a very quiet member of the group but up on that stage I finally saw how comedic and mischievous she really was, the challenge was going against her and she had to pull something out of the bag, when all of a sudden she put on a performance that would put Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins to shame. I wouldn’t be able to justify what she did by trying to put it into words but when she came off the stage and I asked her WTF she was doing, she just looked at me with a wry smile and said “Walking like a penguin”.

It was incredible how she shone up on that stage and her true colours came out. I find it very interesting how the journey from floor to stage can transform a person. It is a shame we aren’t comfortable enough to have that strength to be true to our real selves down on the floor of life.

I remember an audition I did for the lead in a feature, 1st round was held with a group of us all going for the same role, that is such a hideous experience but it does happen so you have to learn to handle it. We were given a variety of exercises, one of which was to act as if we were possessed, I decided just to go for it and by the end I had ripped my jacket off and nearly broken a stool, don’t really know what happened but suddenly felt I was being stared at by everyone else, then one lady said – “I’ll have what she’s having!”  I felt exposed and wondered ‘had I gone over the top?’ I guess not because I got the role, so I am really glad I had the gumption to put aside my fear of what everyone else was going to think. Something, again, we so often find hard to do in real life, I say real life because ultimately,  acting is just pretend.

We spend so much of our time being so worried about what everyone else thinks that, if we are not careful we we will lose who we really are and the fun life has to offer along the way. Firstly, I use ‘we’ as a general term as I expect not all of us struggle all of the time but I am pretty sure the behaviour is universal. Secondly, I am not suggesting we stop taking other people into account, far from it, that would be disrespectful and not beneficial to enjoying life. What I am suggesting is that every so often you take a risk, do something you know you want to but are worried about what other people think. This is your life after all and you only have a short time to fit a hell of a lot in.

Take this blog for instance, it has taken me two years to have the strength to do it because I was so worried about what other people would think. Eventually, I couldn’t handle it any more gave myself a good telling off and went for it, I am so glad I did.

One last thought, another acting class, performing a comedy piece. My objective – don’t let my scene partner leave, his objective, get the hell out! Without doubt one of the silliest scenes I have ever done. We did everything we could think of to complete our objective and at one point I was hanging on to his leg and he was dragging me across the stage. We remained true to the piece the whole time, being aware it was a very serious situation for our characters but at the same time having loads of fun, as were the rest of the class!

So go on be silly – it’s ok you know!