As the new year begins, we fret about January bills, health insurance plan choices/renewals, and how to improve ourselves in the shiny, pristine days ahead. A simple turn of a calendar page, and one new numeral, and suddenly there is a blank slate which we are eager to fill in with gigs, income, social plans—anything to feel less adrift and uncertain.
Actors, artists, and creators are paradoxical beings. Known for their generosity, charity work, and commitment, they give, and then give some more. Yet such creative types also have a reputation for being endlessly self-absorbed. Is there any other profession in which the self figures so prominently? How can actors act, or creators create, without using their brains, bodies, and souls to imbue their creations with a sizable piece of themselves? The self and the work are conjoined.
Perhaps, then, this would be the ideal time of year to put aside worries about taking new headshots, getting new representation, networking, and pushing one’s career forward. Perhaps, with no timetable, this could be a time of letting go, of putting aside, however briefly, the ravenous ego which can rule each of us and often drown out the very real needs of others. Those of us in the arts and
Leave a Reply