So, I decided to leave Starlight Express Bochum, a job I wanted to continue until my body would no longer hold me up. I found it necessary, however, to cut the ties that bind; binding turned into… strangling. Then I started to read posts, messages, and articles from fellow performers in America that caused me to believe we all might be getting ushered into the same …transition. THEN a few weeks ago my horoscope, which I read more for pleasure than for spiritual stimulus, suggested I speak up. Sooooooo, here goes! Every person who works in a performance space or theater has the privilege of working a job that is unlike what we all think of as normal. The hours, the sights, the sounds, and the energy make our work place very special, especially when compared to others. We all, those of us who work in theater, including the lighting crew, the backstage crew, the wardrobe crew, the sound department, all the personnel in the front of house, the orchestra, and the performers; we all work, sometimes tirelessly, to create a world that is transformative. With focus and fortitude, that which we can accomplish every night, together, is the provision of the best entertainment experience possible for a paying audience. So, in fact, no one is better or worse than anyone else, no one is more important or less important than anyone else. Remembering that fact can help us all to maintain a higher individual level of self-worth, and it can, ultimately, affect how we treat each other in the theater workplace. Another fact, however, is important to remember: Not every person here is creative. Not everyone has the honor of putting himself or herself in a position to be judged on his or her talent, instantly by that audience, every time he or she simply walks out onto that stage. Not everyone suffers the fear, the anxiety, and the build up of mental and emotional callouses necessary to work through making personal choices in front of an audience every night, never being quite sure what will happen or how what eventually happens will be received. Not everyone creates a life he or she can believe, in order to help believably transport that audience with him or her, for two and a half hours, to a place far from the reality of their daily lives. We, the actor, the singer, the dancer, the tumbler, the player; we , when we do our jobs well, do that, every night. For you, whoever you are, to take all of that for granted, to forget that, to not realize it… is to do us a great disservice, and that disservice may allow you to dishonor, to dismiss, and to disrespect what it is we do and what it takes to do it. It will most likely allow you to take what we do (and us) for granted. Some call what we do brave, because we step out of most people’s comfort zone and put ourselves in a very personally vulnerable position at every audition, in every rehearsal, and in every performance. Every day we give of ourselves so that others can love us, laugh at us, hate us, dismiss us, sometimes take advantage of us, or in many instances take us for granted. We push through fear and anxiety, we forget about our lives, we struggle through exhaustion and illness, and we go out on that stage in front of that crowd to be personally judged on our talents. But what if we didn’t? What if actors, dancers, singers, tumblers, and artists did not go onto that stage in front of that audience? Ever see a performance where the performers refused to play? When was the last time you met someone who paid a high price for a theater ticket, entered the theater, walked to their seat, watched the lights go out, and then sat, content, in the dark for two and a half hours to enjoy the sounds of the orchestra while watching a dark, black stage with no lights? When was the last time you heard of a family of four buying tickets at the theater box office just before show time, checking their coats, and then walking to the bar and sitting at that bar for two and a half hours for family night entertainment? When was the last time someone told you of their three or four hour bus ride from another city, with thirty or so friends, during which time they drove to a theater, drank a few drinks at the bar, followed the usher to their seats, sat down and enjoyed each others excitement, and finally hooped, hollered, and applauded for two and a half hours while watching a beautiful costume sit still in a well lighted chair on the stage? Well, that is what theater is without the performer. That is what theater is without the actor who has studied to relax in order to be alert, to focus in order to be open to whatever happens around him, to read the same text eight times per week while using his learned ability to be in the moment. That is what theater is without the singer who has studied how to breathe in order to support his vocals while moving or dancing about the stage, how to stand in a relaxed position to best support his diaphragm while standing or sitting or moving as directed, how to sing in harmony with the music and chorus all around him while not being able to hear herself. That is what theater is without the dancer who has studied, usually for decades, to gain a technical acuity and control over his or her body so as to move gracefully and strongly to create the most beautiful, intricate, emotional, and tangled images without injury to the body, their tool; who has constantly visited unfamiliar spaces to get naked with strangers while changing clothes to then work up a sweat while learning choreography in less time than some people can learn to solve a math problem or proof, only to then be judged on that talent and performance, often by complete strangers, and then, more often than not, to be rejected. That is what theater is without the performers, those men and women who work less than they do not work, who never know how long a job will last, who physically audition for each of those jobs, who need each of those jobs in order to fill up a resume which can allow them in time to get better jobs and better salaries, who never know if that next job will ever come, who can at any moment sustain an injury that can diminish or end a career, who rarely (during a career) ever work a complete year but must claim yearly wages on various applications and paperwork throughout their lives, who must constantly compete against their own peers, and who lead nomadic career lives that usually require constantly relocating with each new job, and leaving loved ones in order to go where the work is,…and the work is almost always somewhere else. Could you do that? Any of it? If you could… would you?? Well, we do, and we love it! Most of us could not imagine choosing any other way of life. It is a life that requires a dedication and a spirit and a degree of faith that most people can only ever imagine and can never completely understand. In fact, most performers who are lucky enough to work never get quite what they deserve, because most people outside the business, and actually many who work in the business, treat the performer like he is a child living a fantasy life, like she is a little girl “playing around” until she “grows up” and gets a real job. Performing, though, is a real job…that can lead to a real career, and performers deserve to be treated like real working professionals. Performers deserve to be treated well, fairly, with dignity, and with respect. Performers deserve to feel safe, to feel supported, to have an advocate and a protector. Performers deserve to be paid…- honestly, fairly, and well. Performers deserve to be provided a space where they are allowed and even motivated to relax, to be open, to make mistakes, to make fools of themselves without judgment, in order that they may ultimately create something that can transport and inspire them, you, and an audience of complete strangers or peers. See, performers are not lucky to have a theater in which to play: the world indeed is all a stage, and a performer can perform anywhere, simply for the love of performing. On the contrary: a theater is lucky to find and to have an accomplished performer to grace its stage in front of that audience. The audience deserves that. That is why we are all here!
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 08:38:00 +0000
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