I came across this word the other day: Bricolage. It describes my approach perfectly. What does it mean? "Re-purposing stuff".
It's a French word that translates to "do-it-yourself" or "DIY" in English. It comes from the French verb "bricoler," which means "to play with", "to adjust" "to tinker". Bricolage means making do with whatever materials are at hand, creating something new from a diverse range of available materials. For me in my coaching practice, that means reaching out to the worlds of psychology, philosophy, art history and science and drawing these inspirations into the worlds of acting and directing.
Today I flew back home from the Acting Mastery Studio in Sydney where I taught a two-day screen acting workshop for newcomers to my work, plus a one-day advanced workshop for experienced actors. It was so rewarding! And really, the whole workshop was bricolage: Playing, tinkering, making-do, adapting, re-purposing so we could feel alive inside the text, and cross the space wit…