Being present

A bad actor simply waits for the other person's lips to stop moving before she delivers her next line.

Conversely every good actor - and certainly every good improviser - strives to be 'in the moment'; to be experiencing action and participating in dialogue in real time rather than as the latest extension of a learned and rehearsed process. This state is known as 'being present' and I've written before about some broader implications.

Right now my diary is filling up thanks to a wonderful and bewildering range of projects. Between now and August's Edinburgh Festival I am due to appear in a variety of capacities (consultant, trainer, director, teacher, comic, writer...) in different cities across Europe and North America. To make the most of these opportunities I need to adhere to a simple rule: -

The room I am in is the only place I need to be

At a purely practical level this means switching off the phone and managing energy levels. More subtle is the use of travel time to trap extraneous ideas so that they aren't washing around my head when I am being paid to 'be present'.