An Accidental Meeting: Director Tim Major: Part Two. Blog 32

Tim Major - The Sixth Sense

Good morning -

I am still rolling about with laughter at an email I received yesterday from Tim, the enigmatic and lovely director I found myself in conversation with last week. I have tried to call him and sent him an email in response - but his enigma trail means he's not available today! He's wonderfully nonchalant! (and a little Bah Humbug? I don't believe it for a minute!) So I am biting the bullet and sharing it here anyway. I'll deal with any flack later! 

This came from Tim in response to my blog about Stanislavski's Seven Questions.

Tim: 

So I have been trying to get 'into' Facebook. To be honest I don't see the point and find a great deal of the postings shockingly banal but figure a trillion people can't be wrong and I must be missing something. So I have applied myself and look at it on my iPad as I fall asleep so as not to waste too much time!!!

On the morning in question (yesterday actually) I had to be awake early as I was running a schools workshop. I had been at an event the night before so had not had enough sleep. As is the way in this modern world the first thing I do as I wake is reach for the iPad to check emails. 

As the last thing I have looked at the night before is Facebook, that page is still open and your blog entry is the first thing I see. I am immediately drawn to it as its title references Stanislavski's Seven Questions....

... The very questions I have the day before sent to one of my students to feed into the preparations for her imminent Drama School auditions. 

(Cue Spooky Music)  - (He can't resist the dramatic structuring can he? CP)

Now then .... In my sleep deprived, foggy headed state yesterday morning, it will not be too much of an imaginative leap for you to understand my confusion. 

Is this a huge coincidence? 

Are Carole and I so much on the same page that we are having the exact same thoughts at the exact same time? 

Am I in some kind of a 'A Beautiful Mind' meets 'The Sixth Sense' psychotic episode and will eventually wake up and discover I AM Carole!! (A perfect example of a bifocal perspective! CP)

Of course I eventually did wake up fully and decided it was a coincidence.  Two theatre practitioners would be constantly referencing the great man's work, right? I have to say though it did affect me through the day in the way dreams sometimes influence your waking moods (or is just me maybe?). No big thing but definitely there. 

You will imagine my relief though when a friend reveals he is the colleague to which you refer in the blog and reminds me I cc'd him in on the email sent to the student!!!

Once I had calmed down, realised I am not insane or in some huge coincidental universe and had another look , your blog once again makes intriguing reading. In the interests of discourse I thought I might try to extend your theory a little ....

A friend with whom I trained and I came up with a (probably drunken) thesis that if the tools of the actor were to be applied to everyday life generally, people would have a much more focused and fulfilled existence. 

We imagined a world in which everyone plays clear, strong objectives, achieved through creative and inspired tactics. A world in which, through examination of the text and application of 'the work', ones hopes and ambitious were suddenly clearer and obtainable. 

Whipped into a drunken frenzy over our brilliance, we further reasoned that since actors are generally the only ones privy to this thinking and training, they must all be driven, centred, balanced individuals.....

Our argument fell apart at that point and we probably brought another drink.

Anyway - just thought I'd share.

Tim 

Sixth Sense

I love that drunken thesis - and it really holds water up until the moment that they suggest that actors have special access to this human motivation thing which by definition must make us more aware as people! Ah therein lies the flaw of course! Physician heal yourself.

So there you have it - I have to say I am not surprised that Tim doesn't like banale Facebook postings - I don't either - but I hope he'll join me as a guest blogger here from time to time! 

A beautiful Mind

Ps (Uncanny - the similarity in the looks in the eyes in the photos eh? - I'd say be afraid, be very afraid!)

Pps Just got from Tim at 9.42 am

'....Glad you had a little chuckle. There's nothing funnier than real life. 

If you feel the story warrants a wider readership then I am more than happy for you to 'do your thing' - I shall look forward to reading it.'