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- First drafts: allowing the worm to navigate the soils of your mind
- The boy whose butter I ate: writing from the inside out
- All a writer can ask
- Throwing away material without a sense of failure
- Playful child and iron teacher: the two halves of the writer
- What happens when a character’s skirt gets hitched in her knickers?
- It’s an anxious job, pulling out of the comfort zone
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- Try to get ahead too fast and you might end up with your trousers round your ankles
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Tag Archives: Acting
The conundrum of being ourselves
During my second term at drama school, we had to face Shakespeare. All the students were frantic as agents from the RSC would be in the audience, scouting for new talent. There were tears after rehearsals. The toilets stank with … Continue reading
Posted in Essay, Memoir
Tagged Acting, advice, drama school, Gabriela Blandy, How to be yourself, Lifestyle, Memoir, Performing Arts, Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare, truth, Writing
44 Comments
Try to get ahead too fast and you might end up with your trousers round your ankles
When I left drama school, I expected to become a successful actress immediately. I sent my headshot to directors and agents. Every time the phone rang, my heart convulsed, but usually it was my mother, wanting to know about my … Continue reading
Posted in Memoir
Tagged Acting, Autobiography, drama school, Gabriela Blandy, how to write, Memoir, short story, writing advice, Writing process
72 Comments
Trying to submerge a plastic bag with an air pocket
I have several recurring dreams. In one of them, I’m at university, faced with having to find a group to move in with for the coming academic year. But I’ve left it too late. Everyone has already made their plans … Continue reading
Posted in Essay, Fiction, Memoir
Tagged Acting, denial, drama school, Gabriela Blandy, how to write, Interpretting dreams, Letting go, Lucid dreaming, Memoir, Osteopathy, Recurring dreams, Resolutions, short story, Tension, Writing
34 Comments
When you find yourself in a room with two strangers, having to fake an orgasm, it’s best to leave the country and change your life
I’m in the upper gallery of the Sheldonian Theatre, watching a graduation ceremony take place in Latin. Ad honorem Domini nostri Jesu Christi, the Vice-Chancellor intones, but I’m distracted by the fact that a few hours earlier I had to … Continue reading
Posted in Memoir
Tagged Acting, Audition, Gabriela Blandy, Graduation, how to write, Lisbon Story, Memoir, Mexico, Oxford, Photography, Poetry, Sheldonian Theatre, short story, travelling, Writing
21 Comments
Exposure
During the rehearsals of a pantomime in a Scottish town, an infant is needed for the Spirit of the Mustard-pot. Ellen Terry’s father offers her services. He has acted both at Edinburgh and Glasgow, throughout the 1820s and 30s, and … Continue reading
Posted in History, Memoir
Tagged Acting, Ellen Terry, J B Priestly, Julia Margaret Cameron, Mostly Jazz Funk and Soul Festival, Photography
9 Comments