Performing The Self

I’ve been working on a long term research project about authenticity in performance and I’ve just completed a co-authored paper about a study we recently completed using auto-verbatim techniques. Here is an excerpt:

Conducted by practitioners with extensive experience across theatrical and performance disciplines, this study is part of a broader three-year project exploring how audiences perceive authenticity in verbatim performance. The iteration discussed here focuses on three actors—Sylvia, David, and James—each performing a verbatim recreation of their own interview. Through this approach, we use self-performance as a lens for interrogating authenticity in acting.

The paper begins by defining auto-verbatim performance and situating our study within a broader discourse on essentialism in casting and authenticity. We then outline our methods and filming protocols, examine the internal dynamics of self-performance through actor reflections, and conclude with an analysis of audience survey data from fifty randomly selected viewers.

Learn to Fall is Certified for Balance

We’ve recently received the Balance Stamp of Approval (BSOA) from Safe Communities in Madison. This means our Learn to Fall class meets the criteria of forty minutes per session of balance-enhancing exercises. This includes more than ten minutes each in four key areas involving balance (static balance, dynamic balance, dual tasking and strengthening). So not only will you learn to fall, you will build your balance skills too!

Find out more about Safe Communities Madison HERE.

Interested in taking the class? Our next six week course starts this autumn on Weds Sept 3rd! Go to the booking page to secure yourself a spot.

Coming Soon! Learn To Fall

I’ve developed a course with Aikido instructor and personal trainer Barb Brown that’s all about learning to fall. This six week course will take place at Aikido of Madison in the heart of Madison’s East side from Wednesday April 2nd.

I do nutritional coaching for a lot of older folks and it’s amazing to me how often one of them will come in with bruises because they’ve fallen. Also, my partner fell and broke his leg and most recently his sister fell and broke her elbow. The truth is, falls are a common hazard and are the second leading cause of unintentional injury and deaths worldwide!

So, regardless of your age, what can you do to mitigate this? Why, take our falling class of course! And learn how to fall safely and resiliently. In this course, we’ll deliberately practice tripping, falling, and getting back up. So you’ll be less likely to injure yourself when you do fall (and let’s face it, all of us will fall at some point).

Curious? Find out more HERE.

The Choreographer's Guild

I’m proud to be a member of the brand new choreographer’s guild! I’m also so pleased to have been involved in the steering committee discussions around roles, definitions, credit and copyright. The discussions will of course continue, but as we drive new members towards the guild, our voice will get stronger, louder and much more powerful.

Mind Body Flow at Blue Soul Yoga

I’m delivering my Mind Body Flow class at Blue Soul Yoga. You can find out more about the class on this site and grab a place via the Booking link. At the moment, I’m offering a class for adult movers with some experience on Thursday evenings at 6pm. And a morning class specially for seniors. Watch this space for confirmation of that second class.

TOP TEN HORROR select "Blood, Water, Dust"

Thrilled that my pilot script “Blood, Water, Dust” has made it into the TOP TEN HORROR selects for ISA Table Read Austin. I’ve also written a pitch deck for this series. Pitch decks are essential now in the 21st century TV & Film writing landscape, as well as for grant applications. We look at various ways of utilizing pitch decks in my 360 Degree Creative Career Course.

Solidarity, Credit, Justice, Security

I’m so thrilled to help the US Choreographers Guild get rolling. After years of feeling alone as I shouted into the wind, it's so amazing to be part of something larger, something that will improve the lives of film choreographers - present and future - and something that is all about solidarity, fairness, justice and community. Go HERE to find out more. Or check us out on insta.

Bodies, Borders & Belonging - New Screening

The film of 'Bodies, Borders & Belonging', which the students on my Creativity & Collaboration course helped to co-create, has been selected for the Flickfair Film Festival. As the original exhibit could only be viewed by a tiny number of people due to Covid, it's great that the film of the exhibit is having such a vibrant life beyond that initial showing. Flickfair is an on-demand film festival and you can find out more about it HERE.

The film will be live and available for viewing June 1st @ 2pm PST.

HAC21 Pitch Deck

We’ve been working on our pitch deck for the doc series ‘How to be an Anticapitalist in the 21st Century’. It’s been a labor of love, that has taken us into high school classrooms and academic institutions, through dance numbers and animated flip books and across the world as we research how we might move towards a post-capitalist future. We are now in the process of cutting together a teaser with the fantastic film and TV editor Celia Haining (The Crown). Watch this space!

Why Be An Anticapitalist?

We are at a tipping point. The climate is in crisis, the pandemic has upended the traditional role of work in our lives, and millions of people are left wondering if democracy still works. We need to make a decision. We need to ask ourselves, as a society, do we have a responsibility to look out for all, or only ourselves? What we need is a fundamental re-envisioning of our relationship to capitalism. How To Be An Anticapitalist In The 21st Century – is a  is a new docuseries, inspired by the book by American Sociologist Erik Olin Wright, that explores how we can take concrete steps towards a sustainable, post-capitalist future.  Coming Soon!

Words to Live By

I was out to lunch with my sister and she mentioned this quote from Arthur Ashe. It really stuck with me. Because so often we jump ahead of ourselves, or try and do something without the necessary resources, or we’re hard on ourselves when we are unable to save or change the entire world. By focusing on where we are now, who we are now, and what we have now, it keeps us in the present and encourages us to tackle goals that are truly doable.

Creative Tips

Tip #2

Challenge perfectionism

For all of you perfectionists out there, this is a really useful tip. We often pressure ourselves to do great, or to be the greatest. But this is a pretty high pedestal to fall from. Instead, when we practice consistently, without worrying about being perfect, we get good at being consistent with our practice. And this is a much more sustainable way to make progress. Whether you’re building a new creative habit, trying to lose weight, improve your fitness or write that novel., this principle applies.

2020 Was a Year About Perspective

Perspective Painting Acrylic on watercolour paper

When you look down on a landscape from the window of an airplane, it’s often unrecognizable. But as you descend, those abstract patterns become ordinary things: trees, houses, rivers, fields. When you are stuck, a change in perspective often leads to inspiration .

2020 was a year that required us to often change our perspective. If for no other reason than to stave off boredom. When you have been looking at the same four walls day in and day out, it can be interesting to do a headstand and literally look at those same four walls upside down. What do you see from this perspective? How does the room change?

Research shows that traveling to new places can enhance our creativity, so what do you do when travel is impossible? When we change our perspective, the mundane can become exciting, showing that even when we are physically constrained, we can still travel in our imaginations.

I.S.A. Writing Fellow

Stowe Story Labs

Litza Bixler is the 2020 I.S.A. Fellow!

Congratulations to Litza Bixler, the International Screenwriters' Association Fellow to the 2020 October Narrative Lab. We look forward to working with Litza on her animated family feature project, THE CITY OF CLOUDS. Litza creates absurd, darkly comic worlds populated by fairies, fallen angels, cowgirls, lonely aliens, talking birds, witches, and water-sucking monsters. The team at ISA had this to say about the project: "There is a voice here that we really responded to, sort of like a westerner’s take on a Miyazaki film. It’s whimsical, clever while still being emotional and approachable." We thank the team at ISA for their continued support.

The Creativity Workbook for Coaches and Creatives OUT NOW!

I recently contributed a chapter to this wonderful book full of inspiring exercises designed to strengthen and build your creative muscles. It’s currently available on Amazon HERE.