Round The Twist: Basic Instinct

You know that stretchy rubber sheet your physics teacher used to demonstrate the bending of spacetime? My mind feels a bit like that at the moment. I've spent the last few years playing supporting roles, and my brain hasn't had to do seat-of-the-pants rehearsing for a while, where you have so much material to learn and practise that you can't get far enough out of its gravity well to enjoy a clear view. At the moment, my view of my part resembles those scratchy little pictures of the dark side of the Moon the Soviets took using radiation-resistant film they nicked off a downed American spy satellite. Ah, I see my simile has run away with me. Let's move on.

I usually calculate my performances pretty carefully as I rehearse. This time round, I feel more need to run on instinct. I don't have time to plan too consciously at this stage. I have to trust that I have the lines, the moves, the thoughts, SOMEWHERE, and they'll turn up on cue: just getting everything present and turning up in the right order proves hard enough for now. I'll finesse in week 3.