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Available for over a year

Good morning. Tomorrow morning the famous film actor Orlando Bloom is due to fly in to Manchester to work with pupils at a Cheshire comprehensive. He’ll be teaching acting skills, including voice production, improvisation, presence and posture. It’s a start in a wider scheme to help state school children understand more about acting as a career. But there’s more to it than that; the hope is that by developing acting skills the pupils will enhance their social ability and so boost their chances of being able to impress at university entrance and job interviews. Having a good presence, voice and manner are part of the polish you expect from public schools and the training he’s offering is intended to help close the gap. This is all about helping young people develop a persona, a version of themselves which enables them to have an effective presence in the world. This aspect of growing up often gets ignored today. We tend to think that there’s something almost hypocritical about cultivating the way we are with others: I am what I am, if you don’t like me its your problem. There’s a nagging suspicion that a persona is a false self, a mask – in fact the word translates a word for the masks that actors wore in the ancient world. But these masks were not intended to falsify; their aim was to amplify; to make it obvious in those huge classical open air theatres what character the actor was playing. We all have roles to play in life, and we play our part most effectively if we make it our own. We may think our inner self is the truest and most authentic part of us, but if others have no access to it, we are unlikely to do ourselves justice, and will feel more vulnerable than we should. Acting is part of being. I became particularly aware of this when I was involved in training clergy. You would think that trainee vicars would be aware of the need to have a public self; but I found there were quite a few who found it hard to keep eye-contact, or who somehow conveyed restlessness, anxiety or indifference. Not helpful when preaching a sermon, or comforting the bereaved. Of course such difficulties often stem from shyness or lack of confidence. Orlando Bloom was diagnosed with dyslexia at school, but the acting lessons he had as a child helped him find his way, and that’s what he hopes to pass on. Our inner and outer selves should support each other. Acting a part in life nourishes inner confidence; while the reserves of inner experience give depth to the public self. In the story of the Garden of Eden God did not send Adam and Eve out into the world in their nakedness. He clothed them; protecting them for the wilderness ahead. That is what we need to do to equip our children to navigate the wilderness of this world.