pssst! wanna buy a shovel? death by ironmongery
The act of acting is the easiest aspect of the profession.
Writers write and Actors act. If you are not: preparing for a performance; giving a performance; recovering from a performance you are not an actor. Only you can define what the preparation, gift and recovery involve but your conscience knows when it is not related to acting.
The very fact that acting is so poorly rewarded, un-structured and vocational leads to our draconian self-punishment.
Normal occupations demand a specific amount of work from us in return for specific compensation. We know when we have done enough. We know when we are hitting the target. We know when what we are delivering is sufficient.
The vocation of acting demands nothing, but requires everything. If we gave up tomorrow it would neither know nor care. There are no generic targets. With no targets there are no hits. With no hits there is no 'sufficient'. With no 'sufficient' we can never do enough. We are always one pick-axe strike from striking it rich. We are always on the lookout for any tool, any crutch, any magic bullet which will give us the edge.
This makes us vulnerable to the ironmongers.
To explain: During the Gold Rush the people who became millionaires were not the wide-eyed prospectors but those who sold them the shovels. That's right, the true millionaires were the ironmongers and, as the prospector's journey was often a one way ticket, the quality of tools and equipment was frequently both criminally and fatally poor.
The world of acting is bursting with parasitical ironmongers predating on our hopes and dreams.
Hundreds of drama schools claim to be able to turn you into a star while intoning the litany of the myth-od and spurting thousands of ill-prepared aspirants up the industry's grungy fallopian tubes. Inumerable agents will sign you up, take whatever disguised fee they demand ("for photographs, web-site admin and our time you understand my pretty") and then, having done nothing to promote you, bleed you of the 20% that is their 'right' on work you secure yourself. Thousands of coaches, stylists, photographers, webmasters, casting services, WHATEVER are circling the shoals of aspirants happily nibbling lumps off us at their leisure.
All of the above ironmongers have one thing in common.
Their success and continued existence is not dependent on your success.
In our vulnerability; naivety; willing ignorance; stupidity we desperately want to believe that they have our best interests at heart. Wake up! They are not you family. They are not your friends. Their primary loyalty is to themselves and their pocket-books.
In fact, the longer you believe that you need support, representation, moulding, permission-to-exist the better it is for them. To take it even further - their interests are best served by keeping us just this side of failure. Okay, they do provide us with a life jacket but they control its inflation and somehow we just keep bobbing under reminding us of who has the power.
Now the shovel was a vital piece of kit. The solution to the problem of charlatan ironmongers was not to do without it entirely. The solution was to ensure that you had the right shovel of sufficient quality from a reputable source and the knowledge of how and where to wield it.
Tools are essential but peripheral. It all comes from you.
Writers write and Actors act. If you are not: preparing for a performance; giving a performance; recovering from a performance you are not an actor. Only you can define what the preparation, gift and recovery involve but your conscience knows when it is not related to acting.
The very fact that acting is so poorly rewarded, un-structured and vocational leads to our draconian self-punishment.
Normal occupations demand a specific amount of work from us in return for specific compensation. We know when we have done enough. We know when we are hitting the target. We know when what we are delivering is sufficient.
The vocation of acting demands nothing, but requires everything. If we gave up tomorrow it would neither know nor care. There are no generic targets. With no targets there are no hits. With no hits there is no 'sufficient'. With no 'sufficient' we can never do enough. We are always one pick-axe strike from striking it rich. We are always on the lookout for any tool, any crutch, any magic bullet which will give us the edge.
This makes us vulnerable to the ironmongers.
To explain: During the Gold Rush the people who became millionaires were not the wide-eyed prospectors but those who sold them the shovels. That's right, the true millionaires were the ironmongers and, as the prospector's journey was often a one way ticket, the quality of tools and equipment was frequently both criminally and fatally poor.
The world of acting is bursting with parasitical ironmongers predating on our hopes and dreams.
Hundreds of drama schools claim to be able to turn you into a star while intoning the litany of the myth-od and spurting thousands of ill-prepared aspirants up the industry's grungy fallopian tubes. Inumerable agents will sign you up, take whatever disguised fee they demand ("for photographs, web-site admin and our time you understand my pretty") and then, having done nothing to promote you, bleed you of the 20% that is their 'right' on work you secure yourself. Thousands of coaches, stylists, photographers, webmasters, casting services, WHATEVER are circling the shoals of aspirants happily nibbling lumps off us at their leisure.
All of the above ironmongers have one thing in common.
Their success and continued existence is not dependent on your success.
In our vulnerability; naivety; willing ignorance; stupidity we desperately want to believe that they have our best interests at heart. Wake up! They are not you family. They are not your friends. Their primary loyalty is to themselves and their pocket-books.
In fact, the longer you believe that you need support, representation, moulding, permission-to-exist the better it is for them. To take it even further - their interests are best served by keeping us just this side of failure. Okay, they do provide us with a life jacket but they control its inflation and somehow we just keep bobbing under reminding us of who has the power.
Now the shovel was a vital piece of kit. The solution to the problem of charlatan ironmongers was not to do without it entirely. The solution was to ensure that you had the right shovel of sufficient quality from a reputable source and the knowledge of how and where to wield it.
Tools are essential but peripheral. It all comes from you.
heidless (1:19 am)
<< Home