Dispatches from the field: Act I, scene 1
“If you love anything more than performing, go do it.”
That’s a saying I have heard, and repeated myself, more times than I can count since I started to chase a career as an actor. Hi, I’m Carlyn. At age 16, I began to pour hours of work, tears, sweat, and (my generous family’s) money into a career that I have always been told will never return the investment. Finally, I sit here behind my computer screen as a recent college graduate of one of the top musical theater programs in the country. Having emerged from the “I’m a big kid now” honeymoon phase that is making the actor’s pilgrimage to NYC, I wake up every morning a little bit frightened. I am constantly reminding myself why I am doing what I am doing. The answer? Simply put, I love it.
Yes, the costumes, the music, being under the lights. Oh, and of course, the applause. Sounds dreamy. But this isn’t what fuels a successful career. I personally equate success in this field with longevity. And a career with longevity in the performing arts is exclusively contingent on risk. The play, the musical, the underfunded student film — that’s vacation. The job is walking into every room you audition in braced for possibility. Possibility of rejection, hope, connection, success, failure. Anything can happen once that door closes behind you. You can crack, forget the words, or perform the best you ever have in your life. The reality sinks in when you realize that even in the event of that last possibility, it still may not be enough to secure you the paid vacation that is making art.
I have walked out of many rooms elated and defeated. I have received my fair share of “Thanks so much for submitting. Unfortunately…” emails. That’s a hard thing to stomach when your life-blood is your profession. So naturally, something has to keep that fire burning. In my experience, the way to not merely cope with that toll-taking reality but flourish under its circumstances is through my intrinsic sense of purpose.
In a workshop recently, a participant asked me what I thought my Purpose was. My life’s purpose is to connect. With strangers, loved ones, stories, melodies. My dream, a dream which is reborn every time it comes true, is to be someone who looks out into a sea of people who are feeling and learning and processing because of an experience that I have helped to curate.
It is a scientifically proven fact that when an audience sits in a theater for an extended period of time, their heartbeats synchronize. That cohesion, that purest form of democracy, is why I love what I do. And why I know it is my life’s calling.
While I am an artist type, I am also very much a realist. And, as I mentioned before, to pay the bills, a career in the arts necessitates a side hustle (what we in the Biz call a “survival job.”) Most of my friends wait tables or bartend. Many are in retail. I chose to work at Rule No. 1. My aforementioned calling is not dissimilar to what I have been experiencing in the consulting world; I chose to work here because I see my own values as a human and performer in the work we do in this company.
Over a series of articles, I’ll be drawing from experiences from my training and work in the performing arts to highlight best practices for companies who strive to live their purpose every day in everything they do. Stay tuned for my Dispatches from the Field!
