Most creatives tend to give their all to a project and then collapse in a heap afterwards. There are those few disciplined ones who manage to do their thousand words a day or a song a day but I am sure even those goddesses of organisation still end up with the mad panic of last minute work on edits, deadlines and the sheer wonderful exhaustion of days, weeks or months being wrapped up in your current project. You then stop and realise the mountain of stuff that is awaiting your attention.
I have now been back from the Cannes film festival for a few days and even though I have been super lazy it is only today that my brain has even started to work. All my hoped for re-thinking and dreaming on the next big projects have not yet happened as I0 days of networking aka champagne fuelled beach parties, red carpet premieres, constant chat and no sleep have left me drained. Link to my video vine from Cannes I always find myself tired after filming or doing a theatre run but I think the extra alcohol has killed me off !
However I do know it is important to give myself permission to be ‘lazy’, to not stress myself out about into the business of being an actor, to not tell myself off for being at 50% capacity for a few days. The more I let myself relax, the quicker I can bounce back. In the inspiring podcast interview I did with Paul Clayton he talked about hating the phrase ‘resting actor’, he said
‘It is not resting, it is fighting for your life!’
I had to do a final pick up scene for a short ‘Venus Flytrap’, I am rehearsing for the Actors Centre choir concert we are doing Sunday June 8th (Tristan Bates Theatre & gig details here )and have continued to slowly develop my next solo show as I am performing the next 15 minutes of it at the Lost Theatre on Tuesday July 8th with a few other solo theatre artists. (See the flyers) Solo theatre website

Flyer for whole week of the Solo theatre festival, our group are all trying 10-15 mins on July 8th Tuesday, at the Lost Theatre Wandsworth
So I am not being that lazy, but still I am not sure when my next job is coming from and that makes me feel I need to go out and shake some bushes.
So try to find time this weekend to completely relax as that way you will bounce back much quicker with a creative brain on fire!
Tags: actor, Actors Centre, Alan Bates, American films, Cannes, Cannes Film Festival, Colin Watkeys, English-language films, Film, It, Lost Theatre, Paul Clayton, Sleep deprivation, The Extra, theatre, Tristan Bates Theatre, Venus Flytrap
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