By Isaac Butler
Today and tomorrow, I will be up in the Catskills, working as a resident artist with the Exchange's Core Company, a group of college students and recent grads who have gathered together during the summer to train and do workshops of plays and other awesome things. I'll be talking to them about being a writer and a director and about my own journey and hopefully about theirs.
Obviously, then, I've been thinking over the past couple of days about what I'd say to them and what questions I'd ask. I'm sure many of you readers have thought about this before, so let's make it a question of the day:
If you were speaking in front of a college class dedicated to your particular creative discipline... what would you tell them?
"There is no such thing as luck, good or bad; there is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe." That's Robert A. Heinlein in "Have Space Suit--Will Travel" talking about life in general, but I think it is applicable to the theatre. Work hard; therefore, even if you fail, you will have honored yourself. Which brings to mind a sentence chanted by a bunch of Hunts Point seventh and eighth graders at the beginning and end of a show they wrote and performed: "All that is good and accomplished in the world takes work! Takes work! Takes work!"
Posted by: Robert Stanton | June 22, 2011 at 08:29 AM
Take inspiration from the other arts, be they music, fine art, dance, film, television, books, comic books, video games, whatever. Theater artists tend to become to inward looking and insular.
Posted by: Josh | June 22, 2011 at 09:20 AM
Work hard at your craft all the time. Make your own opportunities. Do not assume someone will come along and give you everything you need to ply your trade with ease and comfort. If you don't see what you need around you, create it yourself.
Posted by: Ken | June 22, 2011 at 10:50 AM
Ditto on what Ken said, and add that in theater, you can never really just be an artist. You have to be a smart, well-organized business person if you want to make this a career and ensure opportunities for yourself and the artists you respect.
Posted by: Jeremy M. Barker | June 22, 2011 at 11:16 AM
Decide whether your focus is on the work, or on acquiring fame. If the latter, head to New York or LA; if the former, choose a place that has a low cost of living, that you wouldn't mind living in for a while, and then create your own opportunities there.
Posted by: Scott Walters | June 22, 2011 at 12:28 PM
unlike a lot of other art forms, for actors and dancers, you are the art - different than the craft of visual artist, musician, writer. And since you are the art, take care of yourself and your health. Start now. Develop habits that are healthy now and they will serve you and your art for the decades to come.
Posted by: VW (SF Actor) | June 22, 2011 at 12:33 PM
I'd tend to agree with Scott as well.
Posted by: Josh | June 22, 2011 at 01:11 PM
What Albee says: if you can do anything else, do it. Only stick with this if it will drive you crazy not to.
Posted by: Jack Worthing | June 22, 2011 at 02:24 PM
You are doing this for you and that's okay.
Posted by: Travis Bedard | June 22, 2011 at 05:06 PM