You know, if there's one piece of advice I give to myself and to others, it's to be confident. Even if you don't know what you're doing, compose yourself in such a manner that you at least appear like you do. Walk tall, act with conviction, use words only when necessary. I'm not always good at these things, in fact I'm terrible at almost all those things, but when I have a friend who's down or I'm down these are the things I advise them to do or try myself to do to help get their or my life in order. Be confident. At least be confident in yourself. You may not know what's going on, but you can sure as hell act like it.
But I think this ties in to taking yourself too seriously. See, I must act confident when I go and do theatre. If I don't, people will step all over me. ... On second thought, everyone does step all over me ... Anyway, when I go into auditions, I act confident, no matter how nervous I am, because what kind of director wants to cast a nervous actor? I buck up, do my thing, exit humbly, and cast or not-cast I never regret it. And then when I get on stage, I act confidently in my choices for my character, I don't make a choice wishy-washy. When my character does something, he does it, because I don't want my characters to seem wishy-washy and there isn't a director on the planet who wants an actor making wishy-washy choices.
Wishy-washy.
Just had to throw that one out there one more time.
Anyway, I'm finally coming to my point: Sometimes, I take myself too seriously. I make theatre some big, huge, important thing, practically like a god. It's so ARTISTIC, it's so DEEP, it's so IMPORTANT. Hey, theatre is important. But it's not life. It imitates life. If I spend my entire life doing theatre non-stop, when do I get to live the life that I'm supposed to be imitating? That's just a personal thing and it's neither here nor there, but what I'm trying to say is: just because there's something that you do, and just because you take it seriously, doesn't mean it's all that fucking important. I'm in a show? So what. I'm not gonna make my friends and family drive 30 or 45 minutes from Olathe to KC or wherever unless they really want to. I'm in a show? So what. I'm not gonna loose sleep over whether or not every little thing is going well. I'm in a show?
So what.
Now, I do take it seriously.
And I do love it.
And I always do my best.
But Theatre? It's a part of life. It isn't life itself.
And no matter what it is that you do in life that you take seriously? Keep that in mind as well.
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| lol. sorry. couldn't resist. |
A friendly (or maybe not so friendly depending on how you take it) reminder that there are 6 billion people on this earth and probably only a handful of them actually give a damn about whatever it is that you take seriously and love. And no, that's not cynical. It just makes whoever it is that you do the things you do with that much more special.
Corbin
What a nice update. I have some feelings on it, mainly on the point that's neither here or there.
ReplyDeleteWatching your stuff come across the line I do get a general feeling of concern. Theatre can be a fine thing and drama has some very important uses, but the culture that surrounds the trade and the dramas that are commonly selected and played are often degrading and cankerous. Since you seem to post only about theatre and stupid patrons at the bank, I grow concerned that you'll get yourself in trouble.
So I guess it's good to hear that you realize it's not completely necessary, though our contexts here seem a bit different. I'm still concerned about it though.
@Joff Cook: Thanks, Mr. Cook. I think you have every right to be concerned. I agree mostly with your thoughts on the degrading and cankerous nature of theatre, especially in the particular line of work I've been involved in (that is, working my ass off as much as a full time job but not seeing a penny for it. Then again, I do it because I love it, but how far is too far?) And as for my protestations on customers at the bank, that's becoming a growing concern for me as well, because it exposes the degredation my virtue of patience as taken over the past few months. I'm working on it on all fronts though, I promise.
ReplyDelete