By Taiwo Ajai-Lycett
I have so much looked forward to this awesome day with you. And I hope that, at the end of our time together today, you’d imagine I’d got something really special for you!… Prepare yourself then for a bumpy ride, and what may prove to be one of the most important lessons you’ll ever learn, and by all means… pass it on to the important people in your life and career. Please.
Needless to say, we are sent to this world with tasks and missions that are as specific to us as our fingerprints. We have particular corrections to make and unique light to reveal on our journey. And my journey has been truly remarkable… I am a missionary! My mission is Acting. My pulpit is the stage. I am a culture evangelist!
And someone, I forget the name now, said: “Once you know with absolute certainty that nothing can trouble you but your own imagination, you come to disregard your desires and fears, live by your own truth alone.”
Let me share another Thought for The Day: Dr Martin Luther King Jr., said, “All labour that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”
I am genuinely interested in guiding young talents to the highest possible state of professionalism in our industry today. I like to think of myself as a catalyst… Indeed, I am a catalyst – for the new, young Light and Love… that you are… My intention really, always has been to enable your light to shine more brightly in this entertainment firmament. My aim is to help young actors tap into the mind’s resources, they didn’t even know they had.
I want young talents to set goals, make plans, prioritise, synergise, organise, optimise; acting, here and now, with energy, a sense of mission and boldness in attitude. What I want to give to young talents is empowerment; that is of course, people who want to affect their world, to make a difference, in big, positive and decisive ways – to transform their lives, to leave their footprints, and even … Change the World. Tall order? Not at all. It’s Completely doable! After all, the major currency the young possess in this world is surely – Possibility – the ability to see the world in new, simple, and shining ways. Usually brilliant monochrome!
Thoroughness, precision, and commitment to excellence are what I am here to create; and what your lecturers and your University are all about. Part of that creation is trust, focus, openness, and a kindness of being with one another. As practitioners, and dedicated seekers of the truth, I ask that we approach one another with the intention of respect and grace.
So keep an eye out for my special message on –excellence and execution… I am talking about … Bursts of creativity and inspiration. A sense of intuition and clarity in what you undertake… Increased levels of drive and self-motivation… And so much more. As Steve Jobs said in Secret Mind Technology … “You see so much more than you could see before.”
By the time I finish here today, I hope to have opened your mind to see, and act on opportunities for professional achievement, as you discover the secret behind CREATIVITY, CLARITY, AND SUCCESS… And how it can be YOUR easy path to extraordinary success…
Each one of us comes into this world with our own package: our own energy, our own job, our own position in the Game of Life. For most of us, the road to achieving what we’ve been born to do is riddled with challenges. The value in having certainty is that we can come to understand that the more difficult the challenge, the more effort it takes us to reach our place of growth, then the more energy there is for us encased within the process.
As you already know, the key to living life with purpose and fulfilment starts with our minds. More specifically OUR SUBCONSCIOUS MIND. Success becomes accessible, when we clear any mental blocks we have and reprogram our subconscious with more empowering thought-patterns and habits. That’s when success becomes effortless. For success is not about the results. It’s about the process you use to create the results.
Most of us know that how we eat, sleep, and take care of our body is of great importance in determining our health and well-being. But even more important is how we function and operate internally and spiritually: how our mind works, how we feel about ourselves, how we love or do not love, how we care, how we share, and how we give to others and how they give to us. These are the keys to creating the most important aspects of our state of being.
Today, and always, be gentle with yourself. Be patient. Remember that you are an expression of the Infinite Divine Energy in this world. Be conscious of what is going on inside of you, not only what is going on outside of you. Awareness of where we are now is the first step to creating positive change for the future.
That is obviously the point to this event. We all dream of fame and fortune. Don’t we? We can dare to dream… And we should. Because he who never dreams, never has a dream come true! One favourite affirmation of mine titled – DARE TO DREAM! – says:
I dare to dream
I know I am Special
I am Wonderful.
I am unique, valued, beautiful and talented!
I now align with the Best in everything.
I incorporate the Best of me in all I do…
I deserve the best.
So, the major premise of my message today — Excellence and Execution — is that, for an individual, team, company, community, or country to become great and reach the full peak of their potential, they must seek out, and rise to the great challenges that are thrust upon them.
As Eric A Burns said: “Greatness is more than potential… It is the execution of that potential. Beyond the raw talent, you need the appropriate training. You need the discipline. You need the inspiration. You need drive.”
In order to pry out some of the dark arts of the actor, let’s go behind the curtain, to give us a taste of the preparation necessary for a life on the stage or screen; and consider my personal perspective on the actor’s professional technique and Re-inventing Talent.
There is more than a touch of the conjuror to the whole business of theatre. The actor pulls on a whole new personality, and persuades the audience that it is as easy as breathing. As actors, we make them laugh and cry or leave them stony-faced and furious; we send them out of the theatre weak-kneed or bring them to their feet in a rush to applause.
So, What is acting?… And … What is acting for? At its very centre, theatre is a form of storytelling. Every kind of society has its web of stories and folklores. How they are told, by whom, to whom, in what ways – these will be different in every culture. But for each, storytelling is often to be found at the core of the community, at the heart of people’s identity and sense of belonging. In our own, theatre can be the place where we come together, reaching with and through stories, to who we are and to who we can be.
When a good piece of theatre comes to an end (such as, HEAR WORD! in which I recently performed), there is often a collective exhalation, and you know that many people there have somehow felt recognised, or that all who are there have recognised each other. They have seen and felt and perhaps have examined their common experiences.
What has happened is a sort of hybrid between the story the actors are telling, and the story the audience are receiving, interpreted by their own subjective responses and personal histories. For these reasons I think that, at its very best, theatre has the potential to breed compassion and tolerance. If you can understand why people do what they do, perhaps you will leave the theatre a little less ready to judge. I think that this sharing of experience, this process of mutual recognition, is among the most poignant and vital kinds of communication.
My own romance with acting came from a realisation that I wanted to be part of that communication process – I wanted to be the conduit for somebody else’s experiences, as I dig downwards towards the roots of the person, filtered through me, and passed on to other people. Which was and is, really, the job description of the thespian. That passion, that conviction, that almost out-of-body experience, has stayed with me, to this day.
Some swags do say that acting is not a religion, after all. I beg to differ. I most certainly disagree. I have quite a few little rituals I have to carry out every time I have a new part!
When I have the script, I go through it a great deal, in clinical detail, to help me get at the pith of the play, and still keep everything as a whole. But not in so much detail as to make the form more important than the content. Everything must be about getting to the truth of the matter. I ensure that whatever groundwork I’m doing on the play is in direct reference to the whole project by being careful not to try working everything around something that I like, or trying to make everything fit with that detail or phrase that I have come to love so much. I have to get rid of those things, those affectations, those mannerisms and comfort zones. I am one of those who strongly believe that practice makes perfect. And indeed, it does. So, I start by reading the play, and then read it and read it until it becomes almost essential to me.
I learn my lines early. But in a recent production, the director insisted that the actors must not attempt to learn their lines until after the first reading. Being open to try new methods, I reluctantly complied. But I found it awkward – and regretted it… Although you don’t want to develop your character too far before you begin to rehearse, but I’ve found learning lines too late uses up valuable rehearsal time needed for teasing out, and exploring the character.
When I’m in performance mode I get up early, by 6.00 am; meditate and practice Yoga for thirty minutes. Then I work on my script for three to four hours. In the afternoon, I go swimming for an hour or two. I am a dedicated yogi, and swimmer. I’ve come to believe that my obsession with swimming fuels my creative process. There, in the pool, I go through more contemplation, and reflection on my role. I go to bed at 10.00pm.
I listen to a lot of old fashion Jazz Classics, and Classical music; Brahms, Beethoven, Shostakovich, Mozart, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, “Satchmo”, Oscar Peterson, Quentin Jones, Miles Davies, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Dinah Washington, Etta James, at last, my favourite of them all – the Sassy Miss Sarah Vaughan.
When I come back, in the next life, I want to be The Divine Miss Sarah Vaughan! But without all the added drama … of drugs, alcohol and … multiple marriages!
I keep to this routine everyday without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing. It’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerise myself to reach a deeper state of mind. To hold to such repetition for so long – six months to a year – requires a good amount of mental and physical strength. In that case, appearing in a long run, (or living life, as I do in reality, as though in a long running production), is like survival training. Physical strength is as necessary to me as artistic sensitivity.
Who says acting is not a religion?!!!
I am guided by what the great scholars, writers thinkers, and creators of ancient Greece knew yet so many modern-day creators have abandoned. It is that there’s a vital connection between physical strength and creating magical extraordinary performance … on stage and on screen.
It is an indisputable fact that the physical state of our bodies can either serve or subvert the quest for creative genius. We all know this intuitively. But with rare exceptions, because Nollywood, like life, seems to value output over quality, and sadly, the humanity of the process, structure, and the ability to sustain genius, quality, attention to health, fitness, and exercise almost always, take a back seat – regrettably… And that is tragic. Choosing quantity over quality, art over health rather than art fuelled by health kills you faster for sure, it also makes the process so much more miserable and leads to poorer, slower, less innovative, and shallower creative output.
Why then should today’s professional actor’s training and development be confined to the ‘neck up’ – to the theoretical, mainly, when the demands placed on modern actors touch every facet of their lives? Strong creative performance develops the whole person, providing the necessary base for high performance in the long term, as well as increasing the efficiency of other learning elements focused solely on acquiring new knowledge.
Clearly, whole person, sustainable development is required for tomorrow’s actors.
Building on established professional practice wisdom and combining with sound performance models, leading modern research in the fields of psychology, neuroscience, biochemistry, provides insight towards measurable action that drives personal change and transformation.
The vision is to create Actors who not only maintain higher performance for longer on personal level, but who can lead the entertainment industry to a more lofty height, resilient, enduring, fragrant, and responsible in an ever-demanding societal environment and international show-business landscape.
The responsibility of the actor with a clear understanding of what he wants to accomplish is therefore to learn how to change the old paradigms and breathe new life into the industry’s old misguided, ill-informed operational practices. It is the actor’s job to make the industry do more than chug along – to move it forward in surprising, savvy, and innovative ways, by a combination of focus, energy, and sound knowledge.
I am a lifelong student of Yoga, mind science, energy mastery, and leading edge models that make life better and more joyful. I have worked assiduously always, on acquiring competence in translating ancient knowledge into “quantum” modern wisdom and putting it all together to make it practical in my everyday living – by observing the “effect” – what it means, how it works – and how to use it to create the “new me” going forward – the difference between Quantum Thinking and ordinary thinking.
My name is Taiwo Ajai Lycett. I am an internationally tested professional actor and a ‘conscious breather’ who believes that mastering your breath is mastering your mind, and I am wholeheartedly convinced that when you master your mind, you master your Life.
I have studied around the globe with many gurus; acting professors, diction and elocution coaches; voice and singing teachers; dance, mime, movement and improvisation teachers – to gather the secrets of the professional life force, which has propelled my career to the present day. This life force mastery basically informs my life, my performances, my work, travelling through my career affording me my own modalities and methods to promote healthy, conscious breathing during critical performances, and specifically for using the breath as a tool to cultivate optimal wellness and experience wholeness. I am committed to making sure that actors understand and experience the power of the breath.
Through these professional disciplines I have discovered:
* How life force mastery can empower my being by getting my body, heart, mind, and spirit, all moving steadily, in one direction;
* How to work with my life force to give me access to the great power of NOW.
* How my life force can eliminate debilitating stress and anxiety.
* How to live my life in a way that gives me the utmost joy, purpose and meaning every single day.
* How to access the doorways to higher states of consciousness through the power of conscious and synchronieous rib-reserve breathing.
* Why, if I want to be on the cusp of creative evolution and growth, I must be in touch with conscious breathing.
* How to access peak performance and operate at optimal levels – on demand. When you’re “in the zone” or “in the flow” (as many elite athletes, performers and leaders call it) … achieving the results you want becomes faster, easier, more predictable – and more fun.
I’m therefore interested in sharing the way for actors to – “live” the wisdom – not just “know” it. To do this, is to go straight to the core of the dynamics of creating a good performance; a way to make the leap from “knowing” the wisdom of the science and – to actually “living” it. The pursuit of excellence through mindful execution of sound technique, is a way to do it – and – it is a state of mind! Your state of mind!
And, my state of mind – my Passion are Acting, Writing, Reading, Meditation, Yoga, Swimming, and my friends. In my job as an actor, I have overcome challenges caused by fears, limiting, conflicting values and beliefs, to move on to create tremendous professional and personal breakthroughs I didn’t realise were possible for me. As well as being empowered to accomplish more personal growth, self-awareness and inner peace to effectively achieve freedom, Acting has made my life so much more productive, leading me to such improved creativity, and cognitive function – I’ve found a path to true happiness and the realisation of my dreams.
In conclusion, Ladies and Gentlemen, Acting for me is most certainly not about deception. It is about what John Hurt, the famous British actor, aptly, and graphically referred to as, conveying something “gob-smackingly truthful!”
And don’t forget! Remember, remember – Master Your Breath. Master Your Mind. Master Your Life!!!
Thank you for lending me your ears!
• Taiwo Ajai Lycett, {Mrs.} OON, FSONTA, Delevered this lecture at the University of Ibadan Theatre Arts Association induction seminar.