001. Introducing Linda

Linda is terrified. She doesn't know whether she can act or not. It's hard to tell. I've never met anyone so nervous or self-conscious. I gave her a few theatre games to do but she froze. She finds it difficult to sight read, - not because she can't sight read but because her nerves get in the way. Because of this, I have a problem about finding the right speech for her to work on. Any speech if it comes to that. She's tight, with an almost impenetrable barrier around her. She smiles, laughs nervously - and that's that. I just want some reaction, - anything at all. Some sense of emotion. The feeling that she's willing to throw herself into a role or exercise come what may. Is it that she doesn't want to appear silly? Or is it that she's so much of a perfectionist that she freezes at the thought of failure?

I asked her to imagine that a small bird had got into the room, flying in panic around her head. Granted, it's not an easy exercise to pull off but I simply wanted to see if she could let herself go. She couldn't. She couldn't move. We talked about it and she tried again. For 3 seconds she got into it. 3 seconds! That might not seem a lot but for her it was major and I was very pleased.

Now what though? Where to from here?