ACTOR

In life you may be fortunate enough to find a passion that supersedes the trivialities of life.  For me acting is that passion. It ISN'T about making money, it’s about being CREATIVE.  It ISN'T about finding fame it’s about expressing IMAGINATION. It ISN'T about a desire  for adulation it’s about the need to be TRUE to myself.

I started studying Constantin Stanislavski 'Stan the Man' as a teenager. Stanislavski's  approach known as 'The System' immediately resonated within me. His ideology and  techniques of how 'An Actor Prepares' laid the foundation of my acting prowess.  I love his psychological approach and the idea of connecting to your instrument. His objective of human awareness and the importance of improvisation and his own termed 'pyscho physical union'. For non 'thesp' readers this is a concept that psychological thoughts are expressed through physical actions. In my humble opinion 'Stan the Man' is the godfather of method acting and all the practitioners that have followed this acting God owe a great deal of gratitude to his ingenuity and sheer brilliance in developing the first real definitive structure for actors.

I further enhanced my own knowledge base by studying and examining Lee Strasberg's 'Stras',  who for me is an amazing acting practitioner and a demi god in the thespian world, well certainly  in my world. The 'Stras' developed what is known as 'The Method' hence method actors. His ideology  further enhanced the original teaching practices laid down by 'Stan the Man'. There have been many other acting teachers who still have a significant influence upon modern day actors that practiced throughout the 19th century like Yevgeny Vakhtangov, Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner and Robert Lewis. There are many more that really deserve a mention but I'm trying to keep this fairly short and sweet. For me my first love is for Stanislavski as he was the initial pioneer, every other practitioner that has succeeded him have all based part of their teachings on his ground breaking philosophy. This is my own opinion and may differ for other actors remember we all have different views as we are all unique and peculiar beasts! So realistically I am a 'system' actor but as the original techniques were enhanced and expanded, 'The System' later became known as 'The Method', so here I am a method actor. Remember Stan developed 'The System' and Stras developed 'The Method'. If you do not grasp this section please re read this astute and groundbreaking chapter, personal opinion, just take your time, you can even grab one of your favourite beverages and a couple of biscuits whilst pondering this curious and compelling passage of my website!

Through the study of one of the key elements in both 'The Method' and 'The System', affective or emotional memory, I realised how important it is to have a vast wealth of emotions to draw upon. After recognizing this as a young man I temporarily stepped away from acting and went on a journey to gain richer life experiences in order to provide me with a more profound emotional understanding to draw upon. Now that I am a fully grown sophisticated chap I mean dingbat I feel I have the right balance, maturity and experience to play any given role sincerely and convincingly. On a personal note my acting career got derailed for a while when I was diagnosed with an incurable condition a few years ago. Now I'm not going to harp on about this as I'm not looking for the sympathy vote and I certainly do not want anyone getting the violins out! On the one hand the experts were saying I would be ill for the rest of my life but through desire, courage and tenacity I overcame the odds. What helped me was having such a single minded determination and a desire to question what the experts were telling me. I decided to seek the most natural and unconventional therapy and I made a full recovery within twelve months of taking control although the whole ordeal lasted for a number of years​. OK 'whinging' over now lets get back to a more positive subject.

When preparing for a role any portrayal should be convincing, it should be credible and it should be authentic. Initially I observe, analyse and extract from the narrative the who, where, when, why, what and how scenario. Starting with creating a character my own preparation begins way before the very first line of a given screenplay. I love building a character from scratch, from putting the clothes on, to adding the personality to attaching personal history whilst not forgetting those all important quirks and nuances. What I am trying to do with this analytical approach is understand what human conditioning and experiences the character was
exposed to from a young age as these will all have an effect on how the character acts, moves and speaks. Those of you who are not actors may find this extreme but to be good at anything requires knowledge, fortitude and dedication and I bought these three qualities off e-bay so I know what I'm talking about! 

I base all my characterisations around wild animals and creatures focusing on their physicality. This adds an elevated dimension to a portrayal, where movement, traits, speech and nuances can become more poignant, subtle and dramatic in the same instance. The focus is on taking many of my own behavioural habits away to become fully immersed in the role. It’s a classic method technique used by many method acting greats like Marlon Brando in The Godfather who based his character around a bulldog and in A Streetcar Named Desire he based his portrayal on an ape and Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver based his character on a crab. Once I have a ​solid understanding of my characters background I then proceed to add those all important traits through my chosen animal,  you'll be surprised how different and peculiar people and animals can be! Going deeper I explore how my character undertakes daily tasks the list goes on and on and on and on and on, details, details, details and even more details and another detail on top of that! Now I know this is super intense and it may sound like I've got a screw loose to a non thespian audience but this is what drives me, remember 'if you take care of the small things, the big things take care of themselves' not too sure who said that quote but it sounds good so I thought I'd put it in! To sum up acting is my passion, my driving force, my obsession.

Actor Training

​Secondary Education Drama
Advanced Level Performing Arts
Advanced Level Theatre
Advanced Level Film
Birmingham School of Acting
LAMDA: Communication and Performance Art Training
Improvisation Course
Stage Combat
Mind, Body & Voice Training
Audition Technique
Physical Theatre Training

Accents - American (standard), Caribbean, Mediterranean, Eastern European.
​Dialects - British (standard), Birmingham, Cockney (London East End), Geordie (North East), Street Slang.
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​​- ​15 years studying and practicing Constantin Stanislavski & Lee Strasberg's Method Acting.
- 12 years studying, observing and analysing human psychology & human behaviour.
- I average around 20 hours actor training per week going to classes whilst also working alone using techniques ​  I have learned from professional teachings, acting classes and those that I have personally developed.
- I am always topping up my knowledge reading Method Acting books like The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit, A Dream of Passion, The Ultimate Guide to Method Acting, The Science of Acting, An Actor Prepares, Building a Character,  Creating a Role, The Vakhtangov Sourcebook,  the list goes on and on and is never freaking ending :)
- Examples of ones work can be discovered on Vimeo (click Pics & Vids for the links).