How to win an Oscar in “Lifeskills”

Friday January 27th, 2017

This morning Orlando Bloom is due to fly to Manchester to work with pupils at Cheshire Comprehensive school to teach them acting skills, voice production, improvisation, presence and posture. This is aimed at helping the pupils to understand more about acting as a career. But there’s more to it than that.

The hope is that developing acting skills in pupils will enhance their social ability and boost their chances to impress at university entrance and job interviews.

Having a good presence, manners and voice are part of the polish you receive at public schools. 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 these days.

There’s a nagging suspicion that a persona is a fake, a mask that hides the true self. But often the stage mask doesn’t hide but amplifies the character and having the ability to present to the world our inner true self is where we start playing our part most effectively.

Being unable to express the truest and most authentic part of ourselves makes us feel more vulnerable than we should. Simple shyness and lack of confidence creates barriers and prevents people from accessing our inner and best self.

Something as simple as lack of eye contact, for instance, could be interpreted as restlessness, anxiety or even indifference.

Orlando Bloom was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child and acting lessons helped him to express himself better in different ways giving him the confidence he lacked.

Every public school in the UK recognizes the importance of acting skills. Drama is not just offered as a subject but is a very important part of any public school life. Expensive full scale theatres, professional stage technicians, plays staged every term are all part of creating that skills set equipping the children to navigate this world and giving them that edge in life.