Busy Doing Nothing

Having suddenly noticed that I haven't blogged since the end of May, I cast my mind back to recall what I've been doing for the last month or so, and I'm instantly reminded of Snow White's melodic trill "Busy Doing Nothing".

 Actually it might seem like nothing, but in reality  there's been a hell of a lot going on. Of course I'm not even going to touch on the matters that have been in the public eye. Incensed, jubilant, or plain tired, whatever you are, you don't need to hear more about the Westminster Game of Thrones from me.

 A trip to New York at the end of May for four days to deliver one 90 minute seminar with my favourite corporate acting associate  Marianne O'Connor was a joy, even if our return was slightly marred by a cancelled flight at 12:15 AM   resulting in a very short nights sleep,  an incredibly expensive flight back for the  two of us  the next day, and a Twitter battle to achieve compensation.

A pleasant Devon weekend followed to celebrate Richard's parents golden wedding.  50 years of marriage is one hell of an achievement, and it was celebrated in great style by my extended family. I felt a little smug being the only son-in-law who actually turned out for the event, but it was great to catch up with Richard's aunts and cousins, and to be part of a richly deserved celebration.

Sarah Berger,  the Mother Teresa of British actors  asked me to direct a play reading for her fabulous institution, the So and so Arts Club (which you can read all about in The Stage on July 7th). It's absolutely the sort of organisation I think actors should be part of.  One of the things that the club does is bring together groups of actors to read new scripts, and I had the pleasure of working with a fabulous cast, two of whom I already knew and the rest of whom were new to me. We had a great two days, a fun script, and an appreciative and complimentary audience on the evening of the second day at the reading.

Holidays followed which, as regular readers of this blog will know, are something that I absolutely recommend for everyone. Five days in Menorca and five days in Majorca  proved relaxing, refreshing, and re-energising.

 Then it was time for me too to take part in a play reading. A good friend of mine, Dave Jackson, has written a very funny script entitled "May Contain Nuts" and we gave the first act of it a tryout reading at the Actors Centre on the evening of Friday, 24 June. Great script, very funny, and, for me, the added nerves of having my partner and two of the fabulous young actors who I have mentored  over the last four years in the audience. While they may have watched my work on television in the past, they've never been sat in front of me while I have done it, and it certainly gave me an edge. Particularly as one of them had just managed to win second place in the Ian Charleson awards earlier that day at the National Theatre.  Mercifully Elliott Barnes Worrell and Luke Dale are both boys with immaculate taste and they seemed to like what I did.

 Any new project always  fills me with nerves and sometimes foreboding. That was certainly what I felt at the prospect of spending a week in Romania working with TAG theatre. I needn't have worried. I returned last night from a fantastic week, which are not going to go into here as it has already been commissioned as one of my columns for The Stage,  so I hope you can catch it in The Stage, online, or on twitter. This week you can read just what I found out when I chatted to six graduates who left drama school this time last year.

 So yes, Miss S White, I have indeed being very busy doing nothing.