My stories, music, reflections and workshops revolve around the idea of empathy and hope. With humour and playfulness I ‘hope’ to create a place without fear. Recovery is a journey not a destination. The same, I think, is true of Art. I try to make theatre, and perform creatively, in order to connect. In order to recover from the fear of not being good enough. The fear of rejection and isolation. I need to share and collaborate without judgement. Every day I need to connect in order to remind myself that I, you, we are enough no matter what the world may try to tell us. I do this through drama, music, writing and encouraging, enabling and facilitating opportunities for others to do so by creating a safe place.
Aidan’s personal statement.
The truest artist, arguably, and perhaps the first could be the Potter. She makes from clay, the basest of materials and the very substance from which we ourselves are created, a thing of beauty and purpose. Into this we place that that which we would preserve or hide. In Pandora’s myth, the sealed jar contained all of the causes of misery suffered by mankind, leaving only hope. The allegory of the clay vessel and the human psyche is not lost in even Erasmus’ translation. That which emerges from the jar cannot be put back. They are like gasses. Toxic, frightening and hard to identify. They have names like Despair, Fear and Grief. For myself, some are revealed through my actions and behaviours but despite all that toxicity, if I look deep enough into the clay, I find that Hope in all its true and beautiful quality remains. Caught in the right light under the right circumstances I can glimpse what Selina Busby so eloquently describes as Utopia. A way of being, that I can imagine, without fear, trauma and oppression. My work, as far as I can describe it, involves, looking into myself, not for answers but for hope and creating a safe place for others to do so. There can be no hope, in my mind, without humour and irony and so laughter and fun are central to my personal Utopia. Melancholy and pathos, empathy and compassion and kindness to self and others. These also are my goals. Much of my life has been characterised by addiction, alcoholism and cognitive distortion. I have not been kind to myself or others. For years, as an actor, my behaviour was narcissistic and unkind. This, I recognise, was an illness. After many years of trying, I have managed to forge a path of recovery and to divert my creative energies toward that which is kind and useful. Perhaps even beautiful. Many of us seek recovery from many ills and circumstance. Therapy and counselling are important as is a spiritual dimension and I do claim to offer these but equally important in my own recovery has been the opportunity to define myself as a creative, loving person and not let addiction define me. I do not wish to deny my past nor dwell on it. I wish to live in the present and build for the future. Theatre and writing allow me to do this. Nurturing that gift in others is, for me, a gift in itself.
aidan's studio 