Act Natural: Everyone Should Take It!
Cathy McNally recommends Act Natural – and below Sasha Kay writes about how she took up Cathy’s suggestion!
Dear Friends,
I am excited. Want to share with you. Having just left Act Natural, what I notice is that I am not “thinking” something new, I think I am embodying a newness in my being.
This comes from doing two scenes in the program where the directors, Jane and Sarah, spotted and pinpointed places I was doing something passionately … but it wasn’t working. So they directed me to try a new tactic. To dig into my resource bag and find something else.
They had me do this two or three times … and eventually I really, really stretched … and it worked, magnificently! … leading to a different outcome than anything in my life previously.
Now, back in my daily life, I have a felt sense of having gone to a place I have never been before, and having it fit like a glove. Feeling my strength from within, holding my head a little taller, being grounded and celebrating who I am.
I am so excited to realize this that I am actually recording this awareness as a note into my phone while I am out walking my dogs! Why? Because it has only just landed. I haven’t had the words until this moment.
I highly recommend this program. Each one of us will have our own journey – this is actually my third time in Act Natural. I am a slow learner – slow fish as Ernie would say! – and man did it land this time!
I recommend everyone take it. I think all interns should include it as part of your self-journey. If you are a faculty member or assistant and haven’t taken it yet, I invite you to take it because this is one of those “We are never done learning … I wonder what I’ll take next?” programs. And the program will be extremely helpful too for people in all sorts of other work and life circumstances.
With lots of love from me.
Cathy
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From Sasha Kay
My experiences at The Haven have always been abundant with new learnings – awareness of self, of others, of the world I inhabit. From my first Come Alive to my last “biggie” in Living Alive Phase I, I have come away with experiences that have impacted my life and made it richer and more meaningful. I have become familiar with the Haven Communication Model, so was surprised when I received an invitation from Cathy McNally to experience something, which on first view, appeared completely different. Act Natural? An acting program??? At the Haven, no less! But as it was Cathy who proposed it – the answer was YES.
I don’t know whether I can find adequate words to describe my experience, but I can try and find the words of how I felt and still feel following the weekend: connected – inside and outside – playful, bubbly, vivacious, empowered, courageous, big, spacious, alive, grateful, and authentic. I went into the weekend cowering behind my attitude towards myself and my chronological advanced years; I came out full of piss and vinegar!!! The change is palpable. I am loving the chuckling, bubbling sense of playfulness that seems to be sitting inside my belly, mischievously waiting to jump out at you at any given moment. Delicious – à la Joann Peterson.
Thank you Jane Geesman and Sarah Lucht! I now have my mini-vacation planned – to return to Act Natural in 2016 and laugh once again until my guts ache!
Sasha Kay
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