Are you Settling or Challenging?

Friday musings...

After the response from "They Only Want to Hear Belters" these thoughts continued...

Are you settling for what "they" are typing? Or are you challenging that? You have the power to challenge it you know - just by COMMITTING TO YOU! And challenging what is known and what is NOT known. (!!)

Many of you have said that being self is great, except "they" don't know what they want, or "they" just want someone who looks/sounds like the person who did the role before...

You have a point! This is the struggle. How do we know what "they" really know? We don't.

However this is my question - when are we, as artists, going to take our business and make it ours????

We have to challenge this cookie cut out process of casting and really step out! Challenge it!

Are you willing to do that? And what does that mean?

Ultimately - it means true dedication to the craft and skill of your talent. THE ULTIMATE DEDICATION. It means honing craft, developing skill, not settling for "good enough" from self, being RUTHLESS with your development and your ability to deliver! It means really developing your talent to its fullest and getting out there and not apologizing for showing it all!

There is always going to be someone better than you. Always. In some way - better voice, better acting skills, better technique, better something...so what do you have that can CHALLENGE???? What do YOU have that is unique and strong and can lead and make people sit up and take notice?

If "they" don't know what they want...then we as artists must show them what they want to hire! We must challenge ourselves and them to see us!!! To be inspired enough to take another look and another view and another possibility...another angle.

We as artists are settling if we only do what is expected. If we are artists, we should never NEVER settle for expectation!!! We should CHALLENGE expectation and GO FURTHER! If we are artists, we are to CHALLENGE EXPECTATIONS and show MORE!!!!

Part of the reason our business has become so "beige" is because we have compromised as a community. We have to stop that. NOW.

We have to ignite the passion of our craft again. We have to find our individuality again. We have to stand for something!!!

We have to bring MORE into that audition than what is expected...to show the difference between the people who are slumming in the business and the people who are truly there for the long haul and willing to do the work to be there.

If we settle for cookie cut out - we devalue our craft, our artistry, our business and ourselves. If we challenge ourselves, each other, the business itself - we start to create a fire that will allow for TRUTH to emerge.

Imagine hearing REAL singing informed by the character and the artist embodying that character on that stage ALL THE TIME?????? Imagine hearing well produced voices because the SINGER HAS COMMITTED TO IT FIRST instead of believing "it's good enough"????

Craft takes COMMITMENT. Craft takes TIME. Craft requires and demands TRUTH.

If you settle for less, you will not challenge yourself enough to find your full potential and you will not have enough to say to challenge what the business says either.

If you challenge - in order to discover TRUTH and REALITY - and challenge to push for a higher standard in self and therefore a higher standard in the business - it will allow you to find a more developed artist and an opportunity to be seen!

The business will not change until the artists who inhabit it are willing to INVEST COMPLETELY in challenge of status quo. If you don't fit in the box the business has tried to type you in - and even if you do - then DEVELOP YOURSELF BEYOND IMAGINATION and go in there and CHANGE THEIR MINDS!

If we don't try, we won't know if we can. We have to at least try, don't we?

At least if we try and it doesn't work all the time, we are still successful in our pursuit of truth and artistry and craft and we can hold our heads high because we stand for something real.

We will not make a change unless we are willing to INVEST IN OURSELVES. Discover the TRUTH about what we have to offer. This needs to be brutally honest. It may not be pretty but if we want truth we have to discover it, even if it makes us uncomfortable.

Start with you. Are you settling? Are you compromising? Do you really HONESTLY know what you have to offer??? Or are you truly CHALLENGING yourself and thus, taking in MORE to challenge the ideas in the room for a possibility????

Possibilities bring change. Change means growth. Growth means movement. Movement brings possibilities and choices.

GO GET IT! GO DO IT! GO CHALLENGE IT! GO CHALLENGE YOU!!!!!

Challenge your knowledge...

THEN CHALLENGE "Their" KNOWLEDGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Make them responsible, because YOU HAVE BEEN!