some musings today...
As we ramp up for the fall season, preparing for auditions and possible work, I see a great deal of classes about brand, the game of the business, hype developed by some teachers about themselves and more.
Do we need these classes? Of course we do. If we don't know how to market ourselves in our area of the business, we can be at a disadvantage.
However, I simply ask - what about CRAFT?
The business of show - from opera to music theatre to theatre to tv/film to voiceovers is simply oversaturated. Some are actually talented; some are not. Some have actually studied; some have not. Some have actually developed craft; some have not.
I just see too many resumes with "industry" type classes and not enough actual STUDY OF CRAFT classes. To me, this is simply ass-backwards.
Industry classes present you with a door. As a singer/actor if you don't have the tools to walk through that door, it is wasting everybody's time.
The tools are the craft. Not the game, not the hype, not the brand. You cannot find your brand, your type, your marketing until the TRUTH is in working order. The truth is simply craft, technique, knowledge, and the ability to access it, and develop it, and draw on it without hesitation.
How can you create a brand if you haven't studied the craft of your discipline enough to inhabit it fully?
Those that start with the packaging and fake their way into the room will begin to be exposed as surely as those that bring something real and truthful and present that!
Ironically, the hype and the game exposes itself when the resume is set on the table and has no craft or discipline represented. Then, all you have to do is open your mouth and we know if the hype is larger than the talent, or the brand is more aggressive than the craft.
If you want to really find your brand/your type - you will drop the hype and the game and simply pursue your craft and your technique with the talent you hold. The stronger your ability to understand and inhabit your craft, the more obvious your brand and your type become. Often it even gives you options!!!! Or it simply narrows it down to what you CAN do, not what you WANT to do.
What do you need? The desire to be where you are and discover what you have. You need to pursue craft with passion. You need to find out what your instrument can do - and what you need to do to get it to a place to inhabit fully and luxuriously!
You need patience, you need focus, you need honesty with yourself.
Your game, hype and brand will show its facade very quickly if the truth of your craft doesn't exist.
Ironically, when the truth of craft is a living, breathing part of you, the game and hype is unnecessary. The brand reveals itself, and gives you choices as to how you want to be seen in the industry.
None of this is instant. Surprise!!! If you want REAL, you gotta work for it. If you want instant, you got a whole lot of nothing. The packaging might be interesting, shocking, and may catch someone's eye, but once you go back after the double take and begin to unravel it, you are disappointed, disgusted and bored - nothing there but hype and game and no real craft or technique.
However, if you DARE to work from the inside out and actually build craft, build technique, discover WHO you are and HOW your talent blossoms with the craft of discovery, you don't have to be fake and shiny to become noticed, to get a lingering look, a longer discovery, and an invitation to come into the room and show us MORE!
It is hard to show more, when there really is nothing there, or you simply are a one trick pony.
So even though the industry classes are bright and shiny, and we need them, ask yourself if you are ready to be SEEN there yet. If you haven't begun your journey as an emerging, discovering artist, you have nothing yet to show. Be seen when you know there is craft you can rely on.
Find the substance first - create it, mold it, and know it is an ongoing journey. The icing of discovering where it will be best molded happens when that journey is well on its way!
As we ramp up for the fall season, preparing for auditions and possible work, I see a great deal of classes about brand, the game of the business, hype developed by some teachers about themselves and more.
Do we need these classes? Of course we do. If we don't know how to market ourselves in our area of the business, we can be at a disadvantage.
However, I simply ask - what about CRAFT?
The business of show - from opera to music theatre to theatre to tv/film to voiceovers is simply oversaturated. Some are actually talented; some are not. Some have actually studied; some have not. Some have actually developed craft; some have not.
I just see too many resumes with "industry" type classes and not enough actual STUDY OF CRAFT classes. To me, this is simply ass-backwards.
Industry classes present you with a door. As a singer/actor if you don't have the tools to walk through that door, it is wasting everybody's time.
The tools are the craft. Not the game, not the hype, not the brand. You cannot find your brand, your type, your marketing until the TRUTH is in working order. The truth is simply craft, technique, knowledge, and the ability to access it, and develop it, and draw on it without hesitation.
How can you create a brand if you haven't studied the craft of your discipline enough to inhabit it fully?
Those that start with the packaging and fake their way into the room will begin to be exposed as surely as those that bring something real and truthful and present that!
Ironically, the hype and the game exposes itself when the resume is set on the table and has no craft or discipline represented. Then, all you have to do is open your mouth and we know if the hype is larger than the talent, or the brand is more aggressive than the craft.
If you want to really find your brand/your type - you will drop the hype and the game and simply pursue your craft and your technique with the talent you hold. The stronger your ability to understand and inhabit your craft, the more obvious your brand and your type become. Often it even gives you options!!!! Or it simply narrows it down to what you CAN do, not what you WANT to do.
What do you need? The desire to be where you are and discover what you have. You need to pursue craft with passion. You need to find out what your instrument can do - and what you need to do to get it to a place to inhabit fully and luxuriously!
You need patience, you need focus, you need honesty with yourself.
Your game, hype and brand will show its facade very quickly if the truth of your craft doesn't exist.
Ironically, when the truth of craft is a living, breathing part of you, the game and hype is unnecessary. The brand reveals itself, and gives you choices as to how you want to be seen in the industry.
None of this is instant. Surprise!!! If you want REAL, you gotta work for it. If you want instant, you got a whole lot of nothing. The packaging might be interesting, shocking, and may catch someone's eye, but once you go back after the double take and begin to unravel it, you are disappointed, disgusted and bored - nothing there but hype and game and no real craft or technique.
However, if you DARE to work from the inside out and actually build craft, build technique, discover WHO you are and HOW your talent blossoms with the craft of discovery, you don't have to be fake and shiny to become noticed, to get a lingering look, a longer discovery, and an invitation to come into the room and show us MORE!
It is hard to show more, when there really is nothing there, or you simply are a one trick pony.
So even though the industry classes are bright and shiny, and we need them, ask yourself if you are ready to be SEEN there yet. If you haven't begun your journey as an emerging, discovering artist, you have nothing yet to show. Be seen when you know there is craft you can rely on.
Find the substance first - create it, mold it, and know it is an ongoing journey. The icing of discovering where it will be best molded happens when that journey is well on its way!
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