Life IS NOT easy as a second year graduate/conservatory student. It sure isn't a piece of cake. I find myself longing for last year when my biggest responsibilities were to show up and somehow participate in great theater, either by assisting in helping it happen or just to be a supportive audience member. I remember being THRILLED watching the 3rd year students performing in "A Tale of Two Cities" and giggling with the second years as I saw their first run of "Murder by Poe".
WHERE IS OUR SUPPORT? Perhaps a bit from the 3rd years, but they are so busy with their INCREDIBLE performance of "The Giver" that we haven't seen much of them at all this year.
I find that the majority of the first year class is, well, 'self focused'. Instead of being supportive, encouraging and engaging...they are, well, flat. We have performed for them at least three times now...and three times, the majority of their class ceases to acknowledge that we just performed for them. I mean seriously! WHERE IS THE SUPPORT???
SAVE YOUR PERSONAL OPINIONS OF THE SHOW FIRST YEARS!!! WE ARE YOUR SCHOOLMATES AND WE JUST PERFORMED FOR YOU...ACKNOWLEDGE THAT!!!
I am repeatedly shocked at the lack of professionalism from this class. (There are a select few that do take the time to say things...but as a whole the vibe is strictly negative)
I have performed professionally for 5 years now...and if there is one thing the professional theater world has taught me, it's save your opinions and support the art. Being critical of your peers will get you NO WHERE in this profession, being supportive and caring goes A LONG WAY!
When I see a fellow actor friend in a performance (regardless of what I felt about their performance or the show) I will always come up to them and say "Congratulations" or "Nice work". Because heck...they just spent x-amount of time performing for me and the very least I can do is acknowledge that. If I have something more to say, than great...but usually those simple words are the best.
AND I'M NOT SAYING that you can't be a critical artist in your own right...but save it for someone not involved in the performance, save that conversation, that attitude for outside of the theater...for someone else's ears.
What the majority of the first year class doesn't get is how nerve-wracking it is to get up in front of your peers and bare your hard work while trying to accomplish everything you've learned in grad school over the last year. And knowing as we know now..that they won't be supportive, only makes those nerves worse. Thank God for the third years who have been through it all...and are nothing but supportive when they're there. But what about the other eleven...those new students who have yet to show anyone their skills? What they don't understand is that they will be in our shoes next year...and they're going to hope for the support that we hope for from them. But the longer this non-supportive attitudes continues...the less likely we will be there for them next year.
I just read a snippet from a blog written by a first year who spoke about The Greeks, which we (the second years) did a performance of on Wednesday. Clearly she didn't enjoy the performance and chose to talk about this in her blog:
"To their credit, I think that the 2nd-Years were probably doing what they were asked to do to the best of their abilities; some were just more comfortable doing that than others."
Though this might not seem like a dig, it is. To do the Greeks in the capacity that we did on Wednesday is NOTHING but vulnerable. YES, we were given very specific direction, and yes we were doing it to the best of our ability. But what right have you, as an actor to say that some look more comfortable than others doing this??? Wait until you're asked to do the same next year, wait until you have to reach such emotional extremes and keep it together somehow...and what if you're one of the ones who doesn't seem comfortable in that form and your fellow schoolmates acknowledge that instead of what was good.
So I put this out there...full well knowing none of them may ever read this blog...but this is my advice to you first years:
*STOP YOUR CRITICIZING AND BE SUPPORTIVE!
*DON'T GIVE ACTING NOTES WHEN YOU KNOW FULL WELL IT ISN'T YOUR PLACE TO.
*SUPPORT YOUR FELLOW ACTORS AND CONGRATULATE THEM FOR THEIR HARD WORK, REGARDLESS OF WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT IT.
And here are some pictures from the Greeks that we performed from our acting class this week: Trojan Women and Agamemnon.
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