Monologue to My Generation

Permission. That’s what my generation needs. WE need permission. To do anything. To do anything of consequence. You think Da Vinci or Stanislavski or Chekhov needed permission. They changed things. They took risks and gathered people to take risks with them. We don’t do this. We go to cattle calls and audition for stuff we don’t even care about because that’s what it means to be a “working” actor. Success is marked by how long you've been in the game not by what you've done while you play. I'm sick of it. I don't want to work at some tiny theatre in West Virginia just because they offer EMC points. I don't want to do a tour of Cyrano: The Musical just because it pays five hundred bucks a week. And I definitely don't want to be one of those actors that goes union and all the sudden forgets what it's like to scrape and claw your way for everything. We beg to even get into the waiting room for an audition but all the sudden when you've got the gig and a dresser or something actors start to think they're a big deal. They aren't. And the more they can remember those dark days of hustling the more happiness will follow them through life.  

I mean what is wrong with us? Art is under attack in our society. There's ZERO funding out there. We rail against the government because they won't give us money to do what we want but honestly art is about the only thing that doesn't need money to be successful. Sure it helps. The great artists of old were commissioned or given funds to work on their own. This would help. HELP...but not make or break. We have to work with what we're given and right now we're not given anything. So let's make something out of nothing. Let's work for no money late into the night because this is what we need to do. I don't care if I can't go home and watch Netflix tonight. I don't care if it means I have to sacrifice. That's what art requires. That's what finding something that you fucking believe in requires.

And yeaaaaah I could rail against society that I can't make enough money doing this. But if you don't have to have a car and a house and six Apple products you can do it. If you need the creature comforts then fine. But don't make it seem like you had to give up your dreams because it didn't pay enough. It takes courage to do this and I don't wanna work with cowards. I want to do something worth doing and I'm not gonna drag others along with me. I don't want to be the leader. I'm willing to HELP lead, but I don't want this to be an autocratic process. We all contribute equally and we all share in the profits and the glory. Shakespeare didn't have directors in his day. But there was some semblance of organization and leadership.