I WORKED AS AN ACTOR FOR MOST OF MY LIFE IN ALL AREAS of the profession. At one time I was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and at another time I was the vicar in Emmerdale Farm. I still get royalties and fan mail for my appearance in four episodes of Doctor Who in the seventies and I spent twenty minutes in front of the camera filming a scene for Four Weddings and a Funeral.
A high point in my acting career was touring The Tempest with Mark Rylance’s company Phoebus Cart and a low point was having to quack like a duck to sell toilet cleaner on Dutch television. Between a mixed bag of professional jobs I have been involved in quite a lot of poorly paid artistic and/or experimental performance projects, a few of which could possibly have altered people’s theatrical expectations.
Then I gave up acting and started teaching. As ever, the elders of the tribe pass on their survival skills to the younger generation.
I would like to thank all the students I have ever taught for their energy and enthusiasm in my classes. I experimented with some bizarre prototype Improvisation Cards, and my students always tried to make them work – they were even positive about some of my less-successful home-made games and exercises. Thanks for that.
I would also like to thank Amanda Brennan because she was the one who said, ‘Come and teach Improvisation at the Kensington and Chelsea College’ when I had absolutely no experience.
And, of course, special thanks to Jane Harrison, without whom . . .
Then, if it wasn’t for Nick Hern, this book would have been a confused mess. Thanks for such detailed work, Nick (and for the grammar lesson). Thanks also to everyone else at Nick’s place for their different skills, particularly Matt Applewhite who has kept me focused and on track.
JOHN ABBOTT