Actually, I'm a lawyer. Fries with that?

The continuing joys of being asked what I do for a living. 
"I'm an actor."  "I'm a  theatre artist."  "I'm a playwright."

I'm finding it gets more embarrassing the longer I stay at my day job.  
I know, it's a day job.  Every actor has at some point had, or still do have jobs they go back to when they aren't working (acting).  I've been at my current day job not quite a year yet, and I've made work for myself this year so that I feel like a theatre artist, or at least feel like I can keep telling people that.  

(Warning: it gets pretty cynical from here on in.  it's the mood I'm in today.  And yes, I am at my day job right now, but it's a slow day.)

In what other vocation is this a thing?  

Sure, going through the education system future lawyers, doctors, business administrators, accountants, estheticians, scientists etc. work other jobs to support themselves until they become what they set out to become.  OK, this is barring any layoffs, firings, or job loss.  I just have yet to see someone in a career that society values as necessary to our way of life- enough to pay for it's existence- out there serving up cocktails and appetizers on a patio in the summer, or pouring coffee for all the folks with "real" jobs or, doing what I do outside of my "real" profession, answering phones as a receptionist as a way to supplement income not derived from the chosen profession.  As an actor, the supplemental part of my income is most of the pie, making it harder and harder to convince people  "no really, I'm an actor!" when the bank statements and the t-4s  show otherwise.

It will never stop being like that.  At this time in Canada, with all the funding cuts to the arts, the growing number and combination of artistic disciplines, and the continuous stream of emerging and established artists the pot of soup supposed to feed everyone (which is not big to begin with) now holds a thin broth enough to keep the arts alive but not enough to nourish.  


Imagine if this wasn't the case.  Imagine if one could just be an actor or a theatre artist and live.  ahhhh.


In Winnipeg this is not an option.  Unless you have some sort of supernatural hold on a character type that will continuously get you work, or if you make your own work.  As you probably have noted, I make my own work and this is one way by which I can still call myself an actor (that and telling people I have an audition coming up).


One might ask "If you make your own work, you can always be working.  It is up to you."  I hate that.  Why?  because of funding of course.  Even if I am an expert grant writer (not that I am, but I've written alot of them) it depends on a jury of one's peers to decide what one's fate will be.  Yes I can always be working on something, but on my own time and I will still have to work at a job that I did not go to school to learn how to do.  I certainly didn't go to school to cultivate a hobby.  I have no interest in theatre as a hobby.  I would never suggest that of anyone's profession, that they should do it as a hobby, on the side.  How insulting. 

Since we don't value the arts as much as we should given that if there were not an arts and cultural industry unemployment would be through the roof and the economy would tank, (wait, in our current economical climate and state of arts funding, does one thing have something to do with the other?  Hmm?) I don't think we'll be seeing the day that my day job is in my chosen field any day soon.


Ok, I've had my rant.  Back to work.

Producer vs Actor: Who Am I?

Little Echo Theatre is prepping our show for the 2012 Winnipeg Fringe Festival.  Program copy is written up and edited, photo shoot for graphic and poster design has come and gone, most of the cast is confirmed.  Gee, looks like we're on our way.  Did I forget anything?  Something important? Rehearsing the play perhaps?

Sometimes producing a play I intend to perform in, which tends to by why I am producing the play in the first place, is a difficult thing to balance.  Often performing the role is the last thing on my mind and usually gets shoved to the back burner until I'm standing in front of the director being asked actor questions like "why do you think you're doing that?", and, "can you face down stage when you say that?".  At this point a strange thing happens in my brain.  A little person in my head puts her hand on a switch and is staring me down, wondering if I'm going to stop her from flipping that producer switch off so the actor light can shine.  This is a precarious situation. I've got practicalities and box office numbers, costume decisions and rehearsal schedules floating around, bumping into each other in the semi-darkness making it very hard to even see the play as a play, the role as a role, and me as the actor. 

In the end, when finally that little person in the mind is successful in turning that producer switch off, it is a rewarding experience to have accomplished so much.  Playing Actor and Producer roles earns more space in the pride and accomplishment room of the heart, but it would be a nice break, a vacation you might say, to have someone else do those things, and I can just be an actor.

A Hate on for Arts and Culture

While I was washing my dishes Sunday afternoon listening to CBC radio, Rex Murphy's Cross Country Check-up came on.  Normally I'm not a big fan of this show because it allows anyone with an opinion to blast it over the airwaves no matter how idiotic and misinformed it is. Sometimes the opinion is informed and I am proud that there are intelligent thoughtful people out there.  This particular day, this Sunday, the topic put up for discussion was the federal budget.  People from all over Canada called in to Rex to air their grievances over old age security, tax cuts, and of course, everyone's favourite, arts funding. More importantly, why hasn't the government cut arts and culture funding altogether?  One such person had the seemingly oblivious gall to call this program on the CBC and state that the only thing we don't need is Arts & Culture.  This man said that he worked in a bar making $50/hour, has a wife and two children and it'll be a cold day in hell the day he spends his weekends paying to go to a, wait for it, Museum. Just any museum I presume.  I think he hates all of them, whether he knows what a museum is, it obviously doesn't matter. You know what else he hates?  Education.  He told Rex Murphy that he will "teach" is daughter to be self-educated, and when she decides what she wants to do with her life then she can go to a post-secondary institution and pay for it.  Being self-educated and a young person in the world, I wonder if her world is made up of  anything besides arts and cultre.  I hope she wants to be an artist.  Wouldn't that be perfect.

Compartmentalise!!! & Talking in Specifics about Theatre

A few words on talking about Theatre:

The actors didn't write the play or come up with the character (in most traditional plays).  If you didn't like the character, it doesn't mean the actor didn't do a good job.  Maybe they were really good at being unlikeable.  Same goes for likeable characters.  Just because you think the character was a good person and you liked the journey, doesn't mean the actor was amazing.  That just means you enjoyed the playwright's intent for that character and the story arc.

Of course, it's always wonderful when the actor is good and the play is good and the words and actions  are married together to a satisfying end, regardless of whether it's a tragedy or comedy.


After overhearing people discussing recent plays, I have to say that there are a number of people missing the option to compartmentalise when talking about a show.  To those people I say: Try it, it stretches out the conversation and you can talk about the play for hours and days and....



 

Theatre Season's Greetings

RMTC announced their 2012/2013 season today.  Highlights (for me): Gone With The Wind, because it is not the musical that flopped in the West End several years ago.  Penelopiad (Margaret Atwood), because I love the mythology and I heard Steven Schipper during the WFP Cafe interview say that there will be "11 great Winnipeg Actresses" in it.  I hope to be one.  Hey, at this point, there is still hope, we just heard the announcement, and I haven't spoken to anyone who might have more inside information, i.e re: cast. 
And the carnival thingy...cyclone...dead teens...roller coasters...sounds up my nightmare alley.
Oh, there are a bunch of other plays that sound either good , or I have no clue yet what to feel about them.  You'll have to check the website to peruse the titles.  If you get a chance to watch the WFP video of the Steven Schipper and Niki Landau (adapted GWTW) interview, stay 'til the end as you'll find out one of the best reasons to go to the theatre as put by Steven, and Niki's surprise at his comment is pretty good too.

Hula hoop hopeful

I've found myself in a situation where I have to build my own hula hoop.  In the past (one time) I bought a hula hoop at folk fest.  This hoop has served me well.   In performance, swirling around my middle while I brushed my teeth, or playing the ukulele while hooping for my own amusement. Now, the unthinkable has happened.  Can the circle be broken?  Yes.  I'm leading a beginner hula hoop class next week, and will eventually be hooping for Circus of Objects in the fall so it is necessary I have a working hoop. You can find many DIY sites showing you how to BYOH, but most involve heat guns and couplers.  I'm not sure I can spell "coupler" right, and I don't own a heat gun (although my hair dryer, which I barely use, shoots heat.  Does that count?)  At any rate, I can't seem to be able to just buy a hula hoop (of quality, no plastic with sand for me) so off to the hardware store I go!

The Smell of Dead Mums has wafted away...Lulu takes the spotlight

From one thing to the next.  The workshop of my play "The Smell of Dead Mums" is over, with tumultuous beginnings and middles but a spectacular end.  Many bruises (literally all over my legs) to show for it and great feedback, I know exactly where to take the play now.

But of course, the Theatre won't let me alone, and I'm right back on the horse with Lulu: A Monster Tragedy by Frank Wedekind, German expressionist extraordinaire, translated by theatre artists fabulaire Edward and Elizabeth Bond.  This is, as my director has put it, a satirical look at the outcome of unfettered capitalism.  As Edward puts it  "Money plus Sex = Violence".  And that gives us Wedekind's Jack the Ripper.  A consummer as well as a capitalist, taking and selling (at the ultimate expense of others) objectified female sexuality.  As an object.  Disgusting, but that's where we are today.  A very timely piece that I am very excited to start work on.  I need a little breather from my own writing and am so glad it's THIS!!