Thursday 12 November · 7pm UK time Improv is more than fun and games—although we’ll certainly have some of those! It’s also a chance to practise really listening, responding honestly and trusting your instincts when you don’t know what’s coming next. Those skills carry straight into your auditions, scene work and performances. We’ll explore both sides: games to loosen you up, and focused work to stretch your craft. You don’t need to arrive with something clever or funny prepared. Come ready to listen, take a risk and work with whatever we give you. Join Claire and me in the Green Room. Come prepared to have some fun—and do some work! Find the session in the Skool Calendar. See you Thursday ❤️ Tracey and Claire

UPDATE - @Shawn V. Brow unfortunately saw the time as 11am PST not BST - Now while we encourage you to work at your craft, 3am is pushing it! Any takers - it's a great scene opp @Eliza Leonard Saturday 14th November, 11am UK time Our first Saturday Scene Study with Stephen was a rewarding session, and we’re ready to go again. This Saturday, we’ll be working with @Shawn V. Brow and @Eliza Leonard in one scene, and @Ellen Molina and @Yasmine Sabir in the other. Each scene has been written especially for the actors, giving them a chance to explore the kinds of roles they’d love to play or that we feel would challenge them to grow. Want to take part next month? Get in early — there are already only two slots left! Not performing? Come and join the audience. Watching other actors work is a brilliant way to learn. You get to see the choices they make, hear the feedback, and watch what happens when they try something different. A note given to another actor might be exactly what you need for your own work. Even Claire and I, as the coaches behind these sessions, learn something every time. That’s the thing about this craft: it’s constantly evolving, and none of us ever stops learning. We’ve said it before: we’re here to support you, but we can’t do the work for you. Showing up, getting involved and making time for your craft is your part. Whether you’re in the scene or in the audience, we want to see you there. Saturday, the 14th, at 11am UK time. Tracey and Claire ❤️

Let’s talk today about a quiet habit that often costs actors the role, and that is playing it safe. Here is the truth. Casting remembers the tapes where the actor clearly made a choice and committed to it. The safe, correct, perfectly acceptable ones tend to slip straight out of memory, not because the acting was bad, but because there was nothing in them to hold on to. Here is a trap, and many actors fall into it. You open the sides and some part of you starts hunting for the right way to play the scene, as though there is a correct answer buried in there and your only job is to find it and not get it wrong. So you play the obvious beats. You keep it clean, you keep it reasonable, you keep it safe. And what you end up with is a take that nobody could criticise but it may not stand out. But casting is not marking an exam. There is no right answer. They are not sitting there hoping you guessed the reading they already had in their heads. The truth is, they love to be surprised. They are hoping that someone will arrive with a point of view, a take on this person that is unmistakably their own. Because that is the one thing they cannot manufacture and cannot teach, and it is the real sign that there is an artist in front of them and not simply a tidy reader of lines. So let me tell you something that should lift a weight off your shoulders. You are allowed to be wrong. A bold, committed choice that a casting director personally would not have made is worth ten times more than a safe one they have forgotten before your tape has even finished uploading. Wrong and alive beats vague and safe every single time, because wrong and alive at least tells them who you are. Picture two actors with the same scene, a woman being left by her partner. The first plays it exactly as you would expect, hurt, tearful, perfectly fine. The second decides she is not going to cry at all, that she saw this coming months ago, and she plays the whole thing with a terrible, quiet calm. Both are good actors. Only one of them just became the tape they keep talking about after the session.

This is what community looks like: showing up for each other. 💚 Four members of the Green Room have made it to the regional finals of the World Monologue Games! Today was Europe’s turn, with @Panos Kalomanas and myself, both taking part. And I have to give a shout-out to Elina Rutherford from Switzerland. If you want to watch something exceptional, head to 33:19. I’m absolutely convinced she’ll win the judges’ vote. What a performance. But the viewers’ choice also goes through—and this is where we’d love your support. Please spare five minutes to watch our performances and give us your votes: 🎭 Panos Kalomanas — 31:14 🎭 Tracey Collis — 18:20 Watch the European regional final here Then click “More” beneath the video to find the voting form. We’re not allowed to share the form directly, so please go through the video description. A few minutes of your time could help one of us take the next step, and it would mean so much to have our Green Room community behind us. On Sunday, it’s @Eliza Leonard and @Nanette Clarke turn! Look out for another post so we can cheer them on, too. Community supporting community. Thank you for being part of ours. 💚

Community supporting community 💚 It’s time to cheer on @Nanette Clarke and @Eliza Leonard in the European regional finals of the World Monologue Games! I know how much heart, courage and preparation goes into putting yourself out there, and I’d love us to get behind them both. Please take a few minutes to watch their performances and give them your support by voting: 🎭 Eliza Leonard — 19:13 🎭 Nanette Hern-Clarke — 28:06 Watch their performances here Every bit of encouragement means so much—and sharing this post helps more people discover their work. Let’s show Nanette and Eliza some love! 💚