THE CREATIVE JOY OF A PROCESS… FOR LEARNING ACCENTS!?
Accent work can feel fun. I promise.
It can feel like a creative act.
Like a juicy, integral part of your approach to acting.
It can stop feeling like hard work and start feeling like a gorgeous journey of curiosity led exploration and discovery.
But only if you take the time to develop and nurture your relationship with it.
If you take the time to understand how accents work and how you work with them.
If you take the time to develop a process for acting in them that makes sense for you.
That’s the key, really.
And it’s the bit most people skip.
The first few years of my coaching career were spent fighting fires.
Prepping panicked actors for those last minute accented castings was my bread and butter.
And, honestly, back then, I loved it.
Helping you take a stressful situation and turn it in to something magic was exhilarating. It made me feel good because it made you feel good.
But, after a few years, playing the fixer started taking its toll. And I found myself wondering about a better way.
It’s wonderful to be able provide a salve for your last minute casting stress but wouldn’t it be even better if we could work together to ensure you don’t have to get stressed at all?
Wouldn’t it be better to help you develop an approach to accents that leaves you feeling so empowered that those last minute random accent requests fill you with excitement instead of panic and dread?
That’s why my Empower, Embody, Connect programme exists.
Because I want to help you circumvent that stress.
Because I much prefer helping you prevent fires to helping you put them out.
Because the midst of one of those last minute casting crams is not the time to be trying to figure out your process for approaching accents.
Because allowing yourself the space and time to explore and create a process that works for you - for your brain and your body - one that leaves you free to respond creatively and instinctively - will transform your relationship with acting in an accent.
Because, as the fabulous Julia Cameron put it, ‘Focused on process, our creative life retains a sense of adventure. Focused on product, the same creative life can feel foolish or barren.’
Because getting familiar with a set of tools, and test driving, experimenting and fine tuning a set of processes ensures that when the accented castings come a calling you’re ready to tackle them.
You’ll not be scrambling about trying to understand vowels and consonants and all the other elements that make up an accent.
You’ll already know the step by step process that works for you.
One that takes an accent from something you hear to something you embody.
Something through which you connect.
So why not do yourself a favour and make some time to redefine your relationship with accents?
Grant yourself the gift of that magic combination of time, curiosity, patience and play and go on a mission to experiment until you find an approach to learning and acting in accents that works for you.
And, if you find yourself denying yourself the gift of that gorgeous, exhilarating, creative expedition by focusing on how far away that end goal seems, try shifting your focus from the length of the trip to the joy of the journey. Remind yourself that motion towards a goal is much more enjoyable than staying stuck for fear.
“At the heart of the anorexia of artistic avoidance is the denial of process. We like to focus on having learned a skill or on having made an artwork [but] creativity lies not in the done but in doing... Doing the work points the work to new and better work to be done… The grace to be a beginner is always the best prayer for an artist. The beginner’s humility and openness lead to exploration. Exploration leads to accomplishment. All of it begins at the beginning, with the first small and scary step.”
Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way
Are you ready to take it?
P.S. Do you feel like you could do with some help developing your own process for approaching accents? I’d love to be your guide on the side.
“After leaving drama school I always felt daunted by accent work when a quick turnaround was involved. Since working with Maeve I’ve discovered a process which is not only quicker to the mark but much more practical, specific, fun and freeing! It’s out of your head and into your body. It’s so worth spending the money because the amount that you learn is just invaluable. It’s priceless what she’s teaching and the way that she’s teaching it. She’s unlocked a hell of a lot and brought the fun back to accents for me. I now feel so excited to continue exploring accent work in a way that simply doesn’t get taught at drama school or by other coaches.”
“Dare I say I’m almost excited for my next random-accent self-tape to come through!?”
