Cathy Belton, actor

Cathy Belton, actor - The Empty Space by Peter Brook

"I read this when I was 18, during my first summer in college. I had studied directors and theorists that first year and had come across British director Peter Brook and his work, but another actor in a show I was doing that summer gave me a present of the book and I was hooked from there.

"I can't say that it exactly changed my point of view but it certainly enlightened me about the essence of what it means to be true and alive on stage and to attempt to stay in each moment of the performance. I remember it hitting a core within me from that first read, of what an actor needs to attempt to do each night, stay in the moment.

"As I am still attempting to be a good storyteller, after 20 years it is still a handbook that I go back to again and again to remind myself of how we can strive as actors to tell the story as truthfully as we can.

"As Peter Brook says, there are no empty spaces, an actor walks across a space and something has happened, air has shifted. I guess that I am trying to stay in the moment, shift some air and fill an empty space and Brook's book certainly remains with me, always will."

Cathy Belton stars in Strandline by Abbie Spallen at the Project Arts, Dublin from 17 November to
5 December.

www.projectartscentre.ie