claytoncast

I think it must be age because round about this time of November for the last few years I have begun to have deep empathy with the principles of hibernation. If you told me that I had to go to sleep this evening and wake up sometime in mid-February I don't think I'd be too disappointed. It is not that this time of the year has been particularly empty work wise-in fact the past month or so I've been phenomenally busy.  It's easing off a little now, but there are still a couple of days in the diary. Quite a few social events coming up as well, the agents party, various drinks dos at  the Actors Centre and some home entertaining. We've also just come back from a weekend in Yorkshire for mum's 91st birthday. Cake, flowers, local village Christmas fayre, fish and chip restaurant lunch, and a new microwave for ourselves out of a branch of Comet that was closing down all packed into a 36 hour visit to Rotherham. That is of course "national headline makin...

One of the most boring things I think it's possible to witness is actors talking about acting. How they did it. How painful it was. How emotionally dredging. It drives me nuts. Just get on and do it. In the rehearsal room I've always been of the same mind. Get up there and do something. Then have a discussion about whether it works or not, but just keep trying things out. I know acting is supposed to be an art and  we are artists, but to me acting has always been a trade. A job. That doesn't mean to say it can't be done with the highest level of craftsmanship, but it involves technique. It is an artifice that is used to show truth. "To hold a mirror up to nature" as the great bard himself put it. I think the best jobs have a mystique about them. I have absolutely no comprehension  as to how our plumber makes our boiler work, and this actually this makes me appreciate him even more. The fact that he  went to Eton, is blonde and has got arm muscles as ...

So having updated my DragonDictate to the latest version, I'm anticipating that narrating my blog on this rather damp Sunday lunchtime will be easier than it has been of late. The percentage of accurate recognition by the software is rather brilliant, and the fact that I can sit here with a headset on just talking to my computer and have my words appear on the screen, is a delight for my type talentless fingers. This has been a week off. No work, but something that I was looking forward to with a chance to potter around at home and catch up with a few people.I think my body knew that as well because within 48 hours of my week of leisure starting, I had a runny nose. Within another 24 hours I had a full-blown blocked up  ache inducing  cold. In fact it's my somewhat nasal diction that seems to be the biggest  obstacle of total understanding between my new dictation software and myself.  On these days off I'm rather missing having my book to work on. It w...