In re: acting

I am getting some of the hardest questions lately in my inbox and comments. Among them:

>>Are you still going to be an actress?
>>
>>--
>>Posted by Obesio to The Heart Approaches What It Yearns at 5/10/2006 12:05:48 PM

Short answer: not today.

Long answer: Recently I spoke to several of my drama teachers and coaches and asked them if I had a chance on the stage, since I never seemed to get the kinds of parts that I wanted to get back in college. They all had varying degrees of the same answer: “You have heart and you want it badly but you are not really ever going to be a good actor. With work you can be a better actor, but that spark of something that most really, truly good actors have is not within you.”

Now, being faculty, they said that in a much kinder, gentler way, such as:

• “There are things that you can do with your acting that do not involve acting in the theater, such as teaching drama, PR, public speaking blah blah blah…”
• “You might try to hone your skills by pursuing other venues and you may end up finding something worthwhile and rewarding blah blah blah…”
• “You have a wonderful personality and a great warmth that could turn into something big for you, although it may be nothing but disappointment for a long time yet blah blah blah…”

You know what? I think I am happy right where I am for now. There has lately been a lot of interest in the local HomeSchool network for doing a theatre program, especially since your correspondent is now a part of that HomeSchool network. They are thinking, “wow – we got a real actor, with experience in directing/stagecraft/tech and literature, maybe we could herd some of these hammy kids into a production of Where the Wild Things Are or something.”

Although I think it would be more fun to get the 9- to 14-year-old boys to do Glengarry Glen Ross, just to channel the young hormonal need to say the word ‘motherfucker’ every eleven seconds into something lofty and fine.