Roughing it
Yesterday, sore, tired and covered in a fine layer of red dust I returned from a leadership retreat with high schoolers. The retreat was part the theatre apprenticeship program with which I have recently become involved.
These kids are incredibly focused, talented and full of lofty goals and notions. They are passionate enough about their art to have sought out this program in what seems to be a generally barren arts education scene. They are years ahead of where I was at their age. I hope their passion does not fade. I hope they do not become disillusioned as they began to face the harsher realities of the field. There was a refreshing naivety and optimism. While I know they only gain more experience and the green fades away, but I hope it does not become replaced by cynicism.
When do you tell someone in the arts that when you first break into the scene, the art you are passionate about cannot clothe you, feed you or house you? When do you tell them their time and health is worth more than what many theatres offer? How do you show them how to balance their health and time so they can continue to pursue this passion? How do you show them how to be in the right place at the right time...that happy serendipity that is a huge part of breaking in...perhaps more so than hard work or raw talent? And how do you explain when someone seemingly less qualified gets that lucky break and they didn't? How do you keep them from burning out? How do you push without pushing too far? How to you criticize without crushing? How do you prepare them to stay unique in a field that, at least commercially, is slowly homogenizing the art form?
This is a tough group of kids. I'm really eager to see how they rise to these challenges.
These kids are incredibly focused, talented and full of lofty goals and notions. They are passionate enough about their art to have sought out this program in what seems to be a generally barren arts education scene. They are years ahead of where I was at their age. I hope their passion does not fade. I hope they do not become disillusioned as they began to face the harsher realities of the field. There was a refreshing naivety and optimism. While I know they only gain more experience and the green fades away, but I hope it does not become replaced by cynicism.
When do you tell someone in the arts that when you first break into the scene, the art you are passionate about cannot clothe you, feed you or house you? When do you tell them their time and health is worth more than what many theatres offer? How do you show them how to balance their health and time so they can continue to pursue this passion? How do you show them how to be in the right place at the right time...that happy serendipity that is a huge part of breaking in...perhaps more so than hard work or raw talent? And how do you explain when someone seemingly less qualified gets that lucky break and they didn't? How do you keep them from burning out? How do you push without pushing too far? How to you criticize without crushing? How do you prepare them to stay unique in a field that, at least commercially, is slowly homogenizing the art form?
This is a tough group of kids. I'm really eager to see how they rise to these challenges.
posted by Unknown at
12:59 PM
3 Comments:
Sam -
I'm glad to hear the camping trip went well. I wiah I had some thing to say for those questions you pose. I feel like I'm watching my fellow interns go through that disillusionment as this place is a little nuts right now. Its hard to tell or watch people discover that this is a very difffcult field and that finding a way to have a normal life is increibly hard to do. I know that, that knowlege has been espeically diffcult for me to deal with at times.
On the other hand--the trial by fire really separates those people who are doing it for teh love and those who are doing it for the paycheck. (speaking as someone who's doing it for the love right now though, I'm not exactly sure why I picked this field again, unless theatre really is a drug, in which case...)
I think what you're describing it true in a sense in every field. I know I spend a lot of time encouraging other Peace Corps volunteers not to be so cynical which is hard considering I have very little hope for the future in general with things are the way they are in our country.
I think the best you can do is be honest with them about your experience and admitt that you don't have all the answeres, but you're still choosing to pursue your art when you could have fallen off a long time ago and become an accountant or something. Once people start to call themselves artists and identify as that, it can be pretty hard to let go of.
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