Inspiration

I was looking for inspiration for my blog this week. I was busy. Really busy. And I thought:

- What was the most inspiring thing that happened to me lately?

Nothing huge, nothing sensational. And then I thought:

- Anna. Stop looking for the huge, the sensational. What were the little things that jumped on your diaphragm and just took your breath away?


Here are the things that affected my breath this week:

1. Leading students to breathe for the first time at the and seeing their faces as they discovered they could.

2. Watching a student reach the heights of exploration during performance, not knowing where her breath would take her.

3. A woman nearly backing into me in the car park.

4. My daughter running with her shoelace undone.

5. The silhouette of this beautiful city as I drove towards her down a long highway.

6. Breathtakingly brilliant dinner conversation with some pretty special theatre folk.

7. A photo of a very handsome rugby player texted to my by my friend Simon......

8. Stubbing my toe.

9. Receiving a long-awaited parcel in the mail.


10. A phone ringing during one of my classes (not mine - and whoever you are, you still owe us a packet of snakes).

11. Every word falling out of the face of a Shakespeare scholar I shared a bottle of bubbles with.

12. Rigorous argument with a colleague I respect very much.

13. Discussion of a business idea that seems too big to comprehend.

14. My phone going off in a class (there is a first time for everything).


    It is no coincidence that the word inspiration means to both to breathe in and to be stimulated to do or feel something.......

They are ultimately one and the same thing. Our breath reacts to the stimulation of everything we do and want to do (intentions folks). If you really take the time to LISTEN TO and OBSERVE your breath, you will find you are able to really live in those moments of life that you have hitherto glanced over. You'll take in colours, smells, textures that you would have taken for granted.

And it is this specificity that we must bring to our acting. Where is the breath of that character at every moment, heightened or not. And how does the rest of the body, the voice and therefore the text respond to that breath?

With the inspiration comes truth.

With the inspiration comes life.