For many years I worked as an actor. I say worked for two reasons.
Firstly it was my profession, how I earned my money and what I occupied my time with. Devoting my thoughts and creativity toward the discovery of ways to improve upon my craft, in order to increase the possibility of getting work and to foster in my self a certain eye and skill that I could employ as a conveyor of the truth. This latter explanation is what I wish to focus on, to convey the truth. Many think that being a successful actor mans being able to lie well, to create false images and perform well, to entertain. What that gives you is an entertainer.
An actor is in constant pursuance of the truth. For it is the truth which one seeks in order to lift a character off the page and on to the stage or screen so that what an audience sees is something of them reflected back. To reveal something of humanity, of our common themes, across all race and creed, to look into a mirror as it were and take heart in the sameness. Or perhaps observing some aspect of life that appears different, yet on closer inspection, shudders or humours one in to a realization beyond words or science, to bring a pause and reflection of the awe of being alive, and finding a deeper and more constant reality.
Even though I am not at this stage of my life engaged in that most wondrous of art-forms, it is clear to me that the same experience is what I want from life, and after working with many people over the last ten years as a facilitator in Personal Transformation, that it is what others seek. To live a life full and rich and alive, a life that lifts out of the rhythms that surrounds us and become truly revelatory and deeply meaningful.
What gives an actor this ability is a craft. Most people stumble though life holding on to broken beliefs in the hope that one day it will all come together. Like any artist, when we have a craft in our hands we can engage life with something that will keep us focused, yet allow us to tip over into the wonderful world of uncertainty and find a consistency. Life becomes art. We become the artist and the work…..
Phillip C Gordon Brisbane 2008