Some sort of resolution

I am often impressed by the other blogs I read and of course feel I have to follow suit. I still use Pie Corbett as my educational muse: "imitate, imitate,imitate,imitate,imitate; innovate,innovate,innovate; invent."

So. in full imitation mode, I have decided to eschew the usual form of resolutions and also to limit myself to three, although the second is an extended one.

(1) Take more risks and try to avoid staying so comfortably within my comfort zone.Idle and indolent are perfect adjectives for me and only very rarely am I seized by the need to burst into action. I don't think at this stage in my life I am suddenly going to become a thrusting, dynamic sort of person. However if offered options I will try to take the one that is outside my comfort zone and requires more effort on my part. I love taking part in Bench productions but do tend to end up putting a couple of months aside to do one and putting the rest of my life on hold while I do it. I have worked out that if I do small scale Bench productions rather than the major ones I can do more rather than less. It also means I have created more space to respond to other offers and indeed to come up with ideas and projects of my own. We are continuing with our Tale Tellers series of stories for children at the Arts Centre in the spring months. We are also going to use the Southdowns Literary Festival as a guinea pig venue for taking our storytelling to adults. This has already involved starting to look at short stories with a view to turning them into stories to be told rather than read. There is a possibility of a monologue that would certainly stretch this old actor. I will also take part in Totton if asked and in the Supernova event planned for September, perhaps even writing and directing if I can stir my stumps in plenty of time.

(2)See more cinema (weekly), read a book per week and see more theatre (monthly). These are things I enjoy thoroughly and are therefore no hardship upon which to base a resolution. However they still count as guilty pleasures and I can be easily deferred by pointing out what I should be doing instead. I think I am going to have to allocate a sort of Orange Wednesday approach. The Best Beloved is forever saying I must be more flexible but that does mean I usually end up not doing anything. She also sometimes sidetracks me by saying something like "Oh I want to see that film as well!" but we then spend the rest of the week trying to work out how to fit it in and the film has dropped out of the cinema schedules. This is my fault really, not hers, I must say "I am going to see it on Wednesday at 1240. Are you able to come?" Please note the lovely daytime viewing, which I love. Theatre is more difficult because it is more expensive and is usually at a distance, i.e. London. However, I want to see Mark Haddon's "Polar Bears" at the Donmar. Book reading I think I can fit in if I get started at the beginning of a week and don't spend too much time on the computer!

(3) More walking is needed.