Monday 16 January 2017

Episode 0: Origins


In case we've not met before hello and welcome...my name's Tom Lincoln- how d'ye do?

I started this blog back in 2009 when I was about to spend the year applying to drama schools. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you'll see that first post, which began:


It is my ambition to be a professional actor.

It was a relief to have finally found a goal to work towards...a path to follow. The previous years had not been easy. I'd been wrestling with clinical depression since leaving school and just couldn't get my shit together.

By 21 rock bottom came in the form of a psychotic episode and a three month stay in hospital. Things could only get better and did. I took some part-time work with my cousins who run a Garden Centre. Working outdoors, learning about gardening; it was a wonderful turn for me and I began to grow back into my ol'-happy-confident-self.

After a couple of years of finding my feet I joined a local theatre group. For the first time I now had the self-confidence and health to explore this avenue. After a year of part-time study I was hooked. Acting became my passion and focus.

That passion and drive served me well throughout my acting training and during the past three years as a professional actor. I've won some great theatre and film jobs, worked as an acting teacher/director at various schools, founded a youth theatre, and as of last month have even begun to sit on the audition panel for acting admissions to my old drama school!

It is my ambition to be a professional actor...ACHIEVED! :)

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Which brings us to the 64 Thousand Dollar Question...the question I ask myself now, the question that befalls anyone who achieves their primary ambition...WHAT NEXT?!!

I'm a professional actor yes. But what kind of professional actor do I want to be? Should I now set my sights on being an Oscar-winning actor? Go to LA and try to land a big TV pilot? Do I want to build my professional profile here in the UK and earn enough to live a comfortable life?

Perhaps I should do further acting training and continue trying to master my craft...with Philippe Gaulier's clown school for instance. Or should it be my ambition and responsibility as a story teller to form a theatre/film production company to create work that acts for positive social change, such as raising awareness of mental health issues?

Or perhaps I should focus on refining and developing my teaching/directing skills? Or commit to a new passion such as dance or yoga? Or entrepreneurialism? Or activism? Or spiritual enlightenment? Or writing?

OR ALL OF THE ABOVE?!?!

As you might be gathering; I really enjoy (and need) the structure and focus of an overarching, long term, juicy goal. I love to plough all of my nuclear-grade energy into whatever I'm doing with full commitment and single-minded zeal. I think it was one of my major strengths as an acting student and now as a performer. So not quite knowing what to do next is a source of some...consternation, shall we say.

The solution? I'm fucking off.

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That's right. Sayonara, see ya' later...I'm off travelling for 8 months. I've got some money saved up from an advert I did for Adidas years ago and I've just now arrived in Bogota, Columbia with the very loose plans of spending 5 months in South/Central America and 3 months in America. I'll finally head back home in September after Burning Man.

I'm footloose and fancy free...hungry for new experience, fun, and most importantly fresh perspective on what exactly I want to be doing here in London...if in fact London is the place for me. So this was Episode 0 of what will hopefully be many blog posts about my year ahead as I begin working towards my new ambition...to be a professional actor who knows what he wants to do with his life.

Writing a blog seemed to bring me luck last time so here's hoping it'll work a charm again. I also hope it will be of help to others on a similar path. Wish me luck and please subscribe to stay in touch. And do get in touch if you have any questions, thoughts or comments!

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