Louise Osbourne is set to conduct an ‘Act As If You‘ workshop in Birmingham and London in March to bring a fresh perspective to acting
Who knew you could perform your way into reclaiming the real you?
Actor and acting coach, Louise Osbourne has combined the art of acting with building self-confidence into a workshop called ‘Act As If You’ specifically for women and non-binary people.
The course focuses on nurturing the inner self and gathering communication tools to thrive in personal and professional environments.
Louise seems to have cracked the code with her expertise to empower women and non-binary people to find their voice through acting and improv.
Louise said, “For 14 years I’ve been doing acting classes in Birmingham for people from 16 upwards all levels of ability and what I noticed was that men and women but definitely mainly women would come to my class not necessarily to go down the path of trying to get an agent and trying to book acting jobs and auditions, but they had lost their identity. Whether that was from marriage or children, and Birmingham is a very Asian multicultural city so a lot of it’s from marriage and not working anymore, they’d have their children or their children would be a little bit older and they’d come to my acting class, not thinking about acting but actually because they gain confidence.”
Before she came back to Birmingham in 2011 to become an acting coach, she had a blistering career in the States as an actor and worked with several award-winning actors.
During this time she noticed that some pretty big names in Hollywood were still nervous first day on the set and found it interesting.
Louise said, “I’ve worked with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn and everybody’s nervous, everybody! It was mind-blowing for me because I was like, there’s no way these seasoned Oscar winning actors are nervous but everybody’s afraid they’re not gonna be believable. I think sometimes it’s almost harder for them because they’ve got to do better than their last best show, because they’ve already reached a level and your next thing has to top it or else you’re gone.”
This helped her identify that a more holistic approach was needed to uplift one’s confidence to play any role in life.
As a founder herself and an advocate for inclusion, Louise felt called to blend her experience to help women and non-binary people become strong leaders.
Her friend, Samantha Grierson, who has contributed generously through her art to the LGBTQIA+ and neurodivergent communities in Birmingham, saw great potential in Louise’s mission to build a safe environment for women and non-binary people to express themselves freely.
She helped Louise bring her vision to life and continues to support and set up this acting workshop with her.
The primary aim of this workshop is to go beyond acting and dig deeper, let the soul’s voices dance and acknowledge the core identity.
Louise added, “It’s not even about the acting it’s about taking the mind off the inhibitions and you can get that through playing say improv games, I’ll give them really interesting fun scenarios and I’d roll the camera, they’d have no scripts and they just have to play along. Sometimes at the beginning they’d be very quiet, let other people do the talking and then after a couple of weeks they’d find their place, find their voice and then they’d interject. And then I’d say to the rest of the class that improvisation is about giving and taking. You don’t need to fill every silence, silence is real life, let the silence be. Silence is where things brew from.”
The last line couldn’t be more true as we all prepare in our silence to present our “best’ selves on various occasions.
It’s almost like an inner dialogue or conflict that needs to stretch out thin until our minds can finally be satisfied with a fitting approach. So much of this is caused by overthinking, social anxiety and in some cases, cultural upbringing and sexual identity as well.
Women and non-binary people have struggled to assert their voices in male dominant environments. They feel dismissed, overlooked and often forgotten.
Louise’s workshop provides the perfect platform for participants to train their inner voice and not feel ashamed to speak up. And to become comfortable with the idea of voicing out their needs and wants to the fullest.
Louise continued, “We have had so much stuff holding us back as females and non-binary that it’s time to kind of step up and speak for ourselves. My belief is that if we all have that inner confidence that we do deserve a seat at this table and feel important from within, it won’t feel like we’re there just to tick a box.
I think that’s what we need to get our heads around, we need to make sure that we are not sitting at that table because they have promised the shareholders that they’re more inclusive. It’s like oh yeah we’ve got a non-binary, tick! We’ve got a woman, tick! But no voice? Screw that. We need to make sure that if we’ve got a place at the table that our voice is just as heard as everybody else around that board.”
Louise brings a rather powerful yet light-hearted approach to trigger a change that women and non-binary people can utilise as a launch-pad to acquire any position in our society or the corporate world.
Acting isn’t always a piece of cake but what is capitalism without a little performance? In the famous words of a TED talker I don’t remember, “You have to fake to not only make it, but become it.”
The art of performance is used to churn out versions of oneself that were suppressed, Louise intends to unwrap those gifts that reside within.
By urging her audience to create their own compelling narrative, uniqueness comes to life with a little artistic direction, reassurance and a whole lot of fun.
Louise added, “There’s got to be a lot of laughs in my class, I want people to leave feeling confident but have fun. It’s also about using the fear, switching the fear to be excited about the story you want to tell. So you switch the fear to what you’re pitching about, what your journey is, why should I be telling this story. Why now? At the beginning of the classes I will definitely ask everybody what they want to get out of it and then work with them individually on creating a monologue that’s going to fit into their pitch about their journey. For the first half of the day it’s just going to be improv, it’s just going to be exercising, not thinking about business or anything.
In LA, I’d tell them yeah you’re a teacher, you’re the boys in the class, you’re casting for Matilda. And one of the little boys in the class nailed Matilda, he knew all the songs, he knew everything. He told me he wants to be Matilda but his dad doesn’t want him to be so and then I’ll just roll the camera and it’s really interesting because they have to act. Whether they feel that way or not they still have to go with it and take on that character. Afterwards there’s such a big sigh because it’s not who they are, it’s a different character. Sometimes I make them play two businessmen, and they both end up crying. It’s funny the stuff it brings up. They go, I can’t believe I was crying! A lot of stuff comes to the surface and then you’re way more relaxed and you get more involved in it. I think fear is something, if you switch it, it’s something that can be propelled by you.”
As humans we have a tendency to overestimate the power of fear in our lives. We almost think it’s superior to us and without even trying, we admit defeat and live out our lives not knowing what could’ve been.
Acting as an art-form in general requires an individual to become friends with the chaos lingering inside. There’s a lot of emotional release; you laugh, cry, scream, howl and it almost becomes essential that you feel.
Louise aims to purge all of these emotions out to make women and non-binary people rediscover themselves as leaders of their own lives.
The purpose of ‘Act As If You’ is to break free from the ordinary constructs of gender roles and eliminate the limiting voices that were given to them without their permission.
For more information about the workshop, go here: https://www.actasifyou.com
2Shades Magazine 