I felt that there must be a part 2 or epilogue to my post from yesterday.
Life is about choices, and we make them every day. Theatre is no exception to this. We can choose to participate in a project or not, determine how involved we want to be, how much we want the project to take over our lives...
For some people, myself included, there is high satisfaction when the theatre project does take over our lives. There's nothing like that blend of enthusiasm and collaboration and anticipation and passion that work on a performance project will likely bring.
When a theatre project is not there in daily life, or concludes, I may not know what to do with myself! There's an initial feeling of emptiness, then enjoyment of "more free time" ... and sooner or later, the desire returns to be part of a project again.
But wait! There's other parts of life, too! In my case at least, there's grad school, local friends, family, friends farther away, a Buddhist community, engagement in San Rafael, Marin, and the Bay Area, the possibility of traveling around a large and beautiful US State, and many more opportunities. All worthwhile and exciting endeavors in their own right.
Nonetheless, I still feel like theatre work takes a different kind of ownership of my/our time. When I'm not with that artistic process, I feel guilty about it, like a friend is being left behind. If theatre work took human or physical form, I wonder what it would look like, how I/we would interact with it, and if others may notice this feeling, too.
yes yes yes yes yes
ReplyDeleteWhat would it look like? I imagine it sometimes as a wonderful swirl of rainbow and glitter as an aura of some other-type being...and sometimes it's a flamed red glowing monster, depending on my mood...
But you are right, we do have choices, and we do have other parts of our lives. However, any book you read on "making it as an actor" tells you to make the pursuit of this your foremost and sole priority. What other career choice demands that kind of attention?
Enter the abuse of drugs, alcohol, pills, and sex. Is there a simpler way?