Resilient Artist Thoughts of the Week

Hi TRAs,

It’s been a strangely full week — full of creativity, frustration, small victories, and a few humbling lessons I didn’t quite expect.

I started the second week of our workshop on Rebecca Frecknall’s new musical, the week when everything was meant to lift off the page and onto our feet. I got through one day… then collapsed with flu.

Two days off — feverish, shivering, and utterly without strength — shouldn’t have bothered me as much as they did. But I’m not used to being stopped. I pride myself on resilience: early mornings, stamina, fitness (even in middle age!), and the quiet engines that have kept me moving through this profession for 25 years.

So, being unable to show up felt like a pegging of my wings. I worried I was letting the team down, especially as I’d already arrived late the previous week thanks to transport chaos. To top it off, there was talk of replacing me if I couldn't return.

That was all the motivation I needed. Fever receding, I got myself back in for the final day, learned the remaining material, and will now be performing the piece on Monday.

Illness also cost me a rare gift: being invited directly into the room by a director I deeply respect — with no self-tape required. For once, it felt like a shortcut through the usual system, directly into creativity.

But I couldn’t risk infecting anyone. So I stepped back.

By some grace (and the work of a very good agent), the team extended the window, and now it looks like I’ll get the chance to meet them next week — back on my feet, back in my body, back in my right energy.

Meanwhile, I heard back positively from a recent self-tape — the second tape for the same project, months apart, and for a different role.

To me, this is always a win: it means the first tape worked, even if it wasn’t right for that character. The essence landed. Something about the approach came through clearly enough for them to bring me back.

This second success — months apart — was another reminder that the Kooky Loopy Method isn’t just theory. It works in my practice, and I’m increasingly hearing from others that it works for them too: more ease, more confidence, more callbacks, more joy.

Not certainty — because nothing in this game is certain — but creative stability. A buoyancy. A way to keep the head above the sea of No’s.

With my temperature gone, and everything I missed now behind me, I’m looking to this new week with gratitude. Two or three new TRAs joined us. I’m very nearly ready to publish the Scorecard — the gateway into the Kooky Loopy mindset.

Some won’t like its provocations. That’s fine. Many actors cling to what feels safe, even when it isn’t working. Sometimes feeling “in control” actually means being stuck in habits that diminish us.

But for those willing to try something new, I think this scorecard will shake loose some of the entrenched thinking around self-tapes — and open a door to something more freeing.

The eBook is close behind — more detailed, more structured, more hands-on. And after that, the course and the coaching.

On Friday, an actor I’d never met stopped me on the Tube. Not for TV work — but to tell me that my Instagram advice had actually helped him. That he’d used the Kooky Loopy Method and booked work from it.

He quoted it back to me.Word for word.

That meant more to me than any bit of recognition I’ve had for screen work. Because it means this stuff is reaching people. Helping them. Doing its job.

That’s my week. A messy one, but a meaningful one.

Illness, near-misses, small wins, returning energy, future possibilities — and, throughout, this community gathering strength.

I start this week positively. I hope you do too.

And if you know actors who could benefit from this space, point them my way.This community grows one conversation at a time.

I am The Resilient Artist — and so are you.

Take care of your Self-Tapesteem,

Elliot

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