Five good reasons to get Drawing with Act The Maggot

Robot on Horse1. Pleasure
Your teacher Alexander Reilly is a gifted artist and experienced teacher. This is one of his drawings here. It is fun to try something new. Get our of your comfort zone. Meet new people. What could be better than being able to fill an empty page and bring our thoughts and musings to life? Drawing is fun, and should be enjoyed.
2. Relaxation and Mental Attitude
Some people feel most at ease when drawing. Drawing is often used for therapy and stress relief. Creating something from nothing also makes us feel productive, and that helps us feel good about ourselves. Being present in the moment and focused during a drawing session can be a feeling akin to meditation. We only get down on ourselves during a drawing if we let our ego get in the way and try to compete with others or ourselves.
3. Coordination
If you play basketball, you develop hand-eye coordination and gross motor skills. Drawing works the same way, except for your fine motor skills. The more you practice drawing, the better you get, and the better your hand, eyes, and brain can harmonize together. Your hands become an instrument to help you record the world around you.
4. Cerebral Benefits.
Drawing helps our brains grow. It is so easy to be distracted by social media and our digital devices. Our brains get a temporary endorphin release from these diversions, and it is easy to devote a large amount of time to them. Unfortunately, this can make us less industrious in our free time. Drawing is a great release, and because we are using our brain while we are drawing, we build new connections and pathways in our brain. Both sides of the brain actively participate, as the left side is responsible for logical thinking and the right supplies the creativity. As a result, our brains grow.
5. Visualisation.
Drawing helps us to map out mental images of the world we see around us. This is helpful for numerous reasons. We can map out plans, diagrams, and concepts for what we want to bring into the world, or we can make images of how a system works. Visual aids often help us comprehend large amounts of data that our brain cannot understand through numbers or words alone. On the more emotional side, drawing allows the creator to open one’s expressive vents and let emotion become recorded in the marks of your drawing. Often feelings are too complex for us to understand, and art helps record and express them.

Read more about our upcoming Beginners’ Drawing class in Temple Bar. Email us at acthemaggot@gmail.com for booking/queries.

Choose how and when you want to Act The Maggot with us!

img_4446.jpgC’mon you know you want to. So much talk about tapping into your creativity, getting out of your comfort zone and minding your mental health has sent lots of fun-seeking adults to try Act The Maggot! We are now offering four different courses on Tuesday and Thursday nights in Temple Bar. Want to complete your first ever short screenplay in just six weeks? Try Beginners Screenwriting starting April 25th, 2017. Want to relax and use pencil sketching to open up all sorts of creative possibilities in your brain? Try Beginners Drawing starting April 25th, 2017. Want to gain confidence and have lots of fun while improving concentration and focus? Consider our flagship Beginners Acting class starting May 11th, 2017. Or do you love to write? Want to develop a good practise, learning lots of new skills along the way? Try our Beginners Creative Writing class. Many people try more than one. There is so much to choose from. All aimed at the absolute beginner. All courses cost €180 and take place in Temple Bar. Call us today 087 3744926 or actthemaggot@gmail.com for queries/bookings.

Poem to start the week

Wake up. Day calls you

Wake up. Day calls you
to your life: your duty.
And to live, nothing more.
Root it out of the glum
night and the darkness
that covered your body
for which light waited
on tiptoe in the dawn.
Stand up, affirm the straight
simple will to be
a pure slender virgin.
Test your bodys metal.
cold, heat? Your blood
will tell against the snow,
or behind the window.
The colour
in your cheeks will tell.
And look at people. Rest
doing no more than adding
your perfection to another
day. Your task
is to carry your life high,
and play with it, hurl it
like a voice to the clouds
so it may retrieve the light
already gone from us.
That is your fate: to live
Do nothing.
Your work is you, nothing more.

Pedro Salinas
1891-1951

translated by Willis Barnstone

Great creative writing testimonial!

quote1-w“I loved the course. Niall was amazing as were the other participants and I revived my thirst for writing. I went into the course with an idea I had started writing about. It was due to our “non-compulsory” homework for the course that a TV show proposal I wrote ended up getting commissioned for a pilot by a TV station. Everyone had different interests in the course, which is what made it so much fun and it was really laid back. Couldn’t recommend it more to get your creative juices flowing. I did it for the craic and it delivered big time.”

Wow! Act The Maggot is thrilled to deliver this latest testimonial from one very happy maggot. We are delighted with her success. Can’t wait to see it on telly. See what you can do if you knuckle down and focus in just six short weeks? The next beginners screenwriting course begins on Tuesday, April 25th and the next beginners creative writing course will begin on Tuesday, June 6th. Both classes take place in Dublin city centre. Email us to book your spot.

Read the latest testimonials for beginners’ creative writing class

quote4-wTempted to try our next Creative Writing for Beginners class? Have a read. The latest testimonials are in from the January creative writing class – thank you maggots!

“I loved the course. Niall was amazing as were the other participants and I revived my thirst for writing. I went into the course with an idea I had started writing about. It was due to our “non-compulsory” homework for the course that a TV show proposal I wrote ended up getting commissioned for a pilot by a TV station. Everyone had different interests in the course, which is what made it so much fun and it was really laid back. Couldn’t recommend it more to get your creative juices flowing. I did it for the craic and it delivered big time.”

“It was stimulating, engaging and great fun. Well facilitated. I grew in confidence with each passing week.”

“I have already recommended your course. This was a great experience. It stretched my abilities and gave me confidence to carry on scribbling. Keep up the good work.”

“I really enjoyed the course, its was so much fun and it motivated me to get my creative juices flowing again.”

“Very good. Great to do the course with a mixed bunch of people but with a common interest. Great fun.”

Read more about the next Creative Writing course starting June 6th in Temple Bar. Contact us on 01-496 7021 or 087 374 4926 or email us at actthemaggot@gmail.com to reserve your place.

Last few spots available on Beginners Acting – more new courses kick off after Easter

wholetmeadult!There are just three more places left on the March 23 course in Beginners Acting. If you want to sign up email us at actthemaggot@gmail.com to secure your place. After Easter, there will be Beginners Drawing and Beginners Screenwriting, more Beginners Acting (May 11) and a new Beginners Creative Writing course. All courses cost €180 and take place in Temple Bar. Hurry. They do book up!

Wednesday Poem

ADVICE TO WRITERS

Even if it keeps you up all night,
wash down the walls and scrub the floor
of your study before composing a syllable.

Clean the place as if the Pope were on his way.
Spotlessness is the niece of inspiration.

The more you clean, the more brilliant
your writing will be, so do not hesitate to take
to the open fields to scour the undersides
of rocks or swab in the dark forest
upper branches, nests full of eggs.

When you find your way back home
and stow the sponges and brushes under the sink,
you will behold in the light of dawn
the immaculate altar of your desk,
a clean surface in the middle of a clean world.

From a small vase, sparkling blue, lift
a yellow pencil, the sharpest of the bouquet,
and cover the pages with tiny sentences
like long rows of devoted ants
that followed you in from the woods.

Billy Collins

Congratulations!

boomWell done to the maggots who have just completed their six-week beginners’ creative writing course tonight. An excellent bunch of writers in all with so many interesting characters and stories. Watch this space! Congratulations is also due to last week’s bunch who completed their six weeks in beginners’ acting. A rowdy lot they turned out to be once they got to know one another! A great time was had with both groups and we look forward to the follow on courses as well as launching our new introductory courses in drawing and screenwriting. Oh yes, it’s going to be a very creative spring here at Act The Maggot. Sure we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Learn to draw in relaxed surroundings?

lecorbusierAct The Maggot is delighted to offer a brand new Drawing for Beginners class this Spring. Want to learn the basics of drawing? Chill out and have fun in a beautiful room with no distractions, just pencil and paper. Sketch away in good company. Good for the head and the heart. Join us on Tuesday nights in Temple Bar, 7.30-9.30pm – April 25th to May 30th (€180). Limited places. actthemaggot@gmail.com to book your spot.

Wanna write for the movies?

robertmckeeAct The Maggot is thrilled to announce a new departure in our creative writing department. We are offering a brand new six-week course in Screenwriting at the end of April. This course is designed for the film and TV buffs among you. It is specifically aimed at those of you who have never tried it before. Here’s a thing. Imagine how alarming it might be if you did the maths on how many hours you actually spend watching feature films, short films, sketch comedy and episodes of TV shows per week. Content is everywhere now. We cannot avoid it. All is not lost, though. Let’s throw our oars in and make our own content. Let’s put those hours to good use and get creative. Imagine how much you have already learned about character and plot without really thinking about it. Yup. It’s time to tell the stories that you want to see up there on the screen.