To inspire others, you must first be inspired.

These last few weeks I’ve found myself trying to come up with the perfect inspirational blog post, and over and over again, I’ve come up empty. You see, I was trying to inspire, yet I was feeling quite uninspired myself. 

I was so occupied with what I could share that I forgot to fill up my own cup. I was sitting here holding my cup upside-down waiting for the inspo to drop…..and nothing came out. I was empty. I had nothing to give.

I thought to myself, “How was this possible? I’m surrounding myself with people that inspire me. Shouldn’t that be inspiring to me? Isn’t that how it works?” The problem was that I wasn’t fully receiving their generous gifts. Instead of just taking it in and being open to how it hit me, I was listening/reading/watching their content and thinking to myself, “man they are so amazing, and inspirational, and wise…. How can I be like that?” The thing is, a beautiful platter of food does you no good unless you actually ingest it, taste it, and experience it. I was so busy admiring what a beautiful plate of food it was, that I forgot to taste it. 

What if instead, I simply said, thank you, grabbed a fork, and dug in? What if I reveled in every bite, and enjoyed every drop of that wine?   What if I decided to pick up that book that I’ve been wanting to read, not because someone told me to read it, but because I just want to read it.  What if I got dressed up and put on lipstick just because it made me feel good, not because I was expecting a compliment?

Well today, I did just that. I chose to fully take in the beautiful plate of inspiration that surrounds me. I did it with no expectation, and sure enough, my cup was refilled. 

In a time where my “what’s the point”-ism has reached an all-time high, I’m choosing to work on properly nourishing myself, and I challenge you to do the same. Not to prove that you’re productive or change-making, but just to take care of the very precious you that you are.  Trust me, you are more valuable to others with a belly full of happiness. So, don’t just admire, take it in! Eat the shit out of that plate...then share it. You’ll find it may just replenish itself. 

Annnnd...ACTION: Find ways to fill up your inspo cup. Watch a favorite Disney movie that always made you feel better as a kid. Re-visit your favorite play just because you feel like it. Watch a Christmas movie in September, cause this year, we really do “need a little Christmas, right this very moment”...then watch as the well refills itself… it’s pretty damn magical. 

Drop what’s filling up your cup right now in the comments below, it may be the very thing that someone else has been searching for. What a gift.

It's ok to say you want a role.

Yep. I said it. And I’m gonna say it again. It’s ok to say you want a role.  

Can we please stop making this taboo? (Dancers, I’m talking to you.)

For years, I was afraid to say that I wanted a role: Afraid that they wouldn't think I was good enough or that I didn't deserve it. Afraid that they would think that I thought I deserved it, when inside I was afraid that I wasn’t good enough and never would be. Afraid that I’d be humiliated if I said what I wanted out loud and didn’t book it. Afraid that, if I did book it, I wouldn’t be able to pull it off. Afraid that talking about wanting a role with someone else who was in for the same part would be interpreted as me thinking I was better than them and simultaneously being afraid that the other person would think I was ridiculous for thinking I had a chance.

But when you stop and think about it...don’t we all want roles? That’s why we got into the business in the first place, isn’t it? To tell stories? To use our voices and express ourselves...even if we are “dancers first”? So say it out loud, sister! Say it and own it. 

And when you hear someone else say that they want that role, too, that’s ok. Instead of feeling threatened or competitive, perhaps you could have a super-interesting conversation with them about the role. Find out why they love it and are drawn to it. Perhaps you could learn something about the character that you hadn’t thought about before. What an amazing opportunity to learn from each other!  

So stop hiding, say it out loud, and get to work on that character! During this pandemic, you’ve been given the gift of time. Use it. 

Annnnd….ACTION: 

What roles do you want to play? Make a list of roles that light you up inside. Pick one and really get to the bottom of WHY you want to tell that character’s story. Then drop it in the comments below, so we can all cheer each other on! Then GET TO WORK ON IT! 

Bonus points:  What other roles in your life, outside of the theatre, are you ready to step into? Say them out loud!

Proving vs. Sharing

Art /ärt/ noun: the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination.

Somewhere along the line as theatre artists, we began moving further away from sharing our expressions and closer towards proving ourselves.

We were taught that, if we really wanted to make it, we had to prove it: We chose training every day over family events and friends’ weddings to prove that we were serious enough, we went to competitions to win awards to prove that we were good enough, and after successfully booking jobs were told that we had to consistently prove our worthiness, as there were thousands of “hungry” artists waiting to fill our spot. Though the competitive nature of our industry is impossible to deny, I think that this approach to our field takes us further and further away from our artistry, our “human creative skill and imagination.”

What if we stopped trying to prove ourselves, and started sharing instead? 

In this time, when our artform is relying heavily on social media and other digital platforms,  I encourage you to share rather than prove. When going to post something, ask yourself: “Am I posting this to share? Or am I posting this to prove something?” 

There is freedom and impact in sharing. Proving is limiting and out of your control. Sharing is the generous option. 

Choose to be generous. 

Annnnd…..ACTION: Sing a song because it’s meaningful to you. Speak your thoughts on a topic because it might inspire someone else to share theirs, as well. Put on your favorite song and go IG Live while channeling Robyn Hurder! 

Write the Bill

In NY Governor Andrew Cuomo’s press briefing on June 14th he talked about the NYS Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative and how NY state is taking action to redesign the police force. If you have not seen it yet, I recommend watching this clip.

The framework of redesigning the NYS Police department made me wonder how I can apply this on a personal and familial level, as well as in the communities that I’m a part of. How can I reinvent and redesign things in my life that are no longer working for me and/or my community? 

PROTEST/DEMONSTRATION:

This is the phase where you identify what is no longer working for you.  What complaints, however big or small, do you have in your life? Where do you want to see change, whether for yourself individually or in the industries and communities that you’re a part of?

LEGISLATION: 

Now that you know what you DON’T want, ask yourself, what you DO want. What is the change you DO wish to see? Personally and/or for your community. Get really specific. Thrash on different ideas and collaborate with others in your family and communities. Don’t be afraid to reach out to people who can help you!

Once you’ve established what you want, WRITE THE BILL. Put it in writing and make it a “LAW” for yourself.  For example, if you want to break the habit of hitting the snooze button every morning, you would write, “I will put my alarm clock on the other side of the room so that I have to get out of bed to turn it off”. For the bigger issues, like transforming an entire industry, start small. Get together with a small group of leaders in YOUR community and have a conversation about the changes you would like to see and then strategize and put into writing how you can make them happen. 

RECONCILIATION: 

Effectuate it. Put it into action. Follow the LAW that you wrote for yourself just as you follow the laws society has written for you. When you break it down like this, small changes can be tackled more easily and bigger changes start to feel less overwhelming and more attainable. 

Individual by individual and community by community, we can create international change. It starts with us. 

Tick tick tick tick tick. What are you waiting for? Our world needs you. 

ANNNNND….Action: Identify one place in your life where you would like to see a change. Write the bill and see the changes through. 

Do something.

I don’t know about ya’ll,  but I am struggling these days. The content overwhelm is REAL. There is so much to watch, so many live classes to take, digital workouts, books you “finally have the time to read”, recipes to finally try….yet I find myself spending so much time staring mindlessly at my phone or getting sucked into watching the endless news about how things are getting worse. 

Then I find myself feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, lazy, angry at myself because I feel lazy, which makes me more exhausted and keeps me mindlessly scrolling and feeling like a piece of literal shit. 

When I’m feeling this way, the thing that always makes me feel better, is to just decide to put my damn phone down,  get up and DO something..literally anything. It doesn’t have to be something big. You don’t have to run a marathon, or write the next King Lear, or invent the vaccine to COVID (unless you can...then you should probably do that). Just get up and do a little something. 

It could be a 5 min stretch, 5 pushups, a couple lip trills,  trying out a new recipe, going for a walk or a run outside (with a mask on, of course), singing a song just because you love to sing it, or putting on your favorite song and having a dance party in your living room. 

I can promise this will almost always make you feel better and shake you out of the funk. It may even inspire or energize you to do another little something. And at the end of the day, a lot of little somethings add up to being quite a lot. 

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it, Go out and get busy. (except maybe do it staying at home…) ”

— Dale Carnegie

Annnnd…ACTION: Set a timer for 10 mins, put your phone down, and do a little something. See how it makes you feel.

The Gift of Time.

Here we are, 50-some odd days into this quarantine. Like many of you, I have so many feelings about this very strange and unsettling time. 

We have no idea what the future of our industry is going to look like. We don’t know when things will be back to “normal,” or if they are ever going to be “normal” again. Is the future of our industry going to be an endless stream of zoom calls and IGTV? Will we ever be able to perform to a full house again? Will we ever be in a hot and stuffy holding room with WAY too many people WAY too early in the morning ever again? The amount of uncertainty is overwhelming. 

Instead of being overcome with fear, depression and anxiety about what the future holds for us, what if we reframed this as a gift? A gift of time. Time to work on developing some skills that you feel less than stellar about, or diving into that role you’ve always wanted to play but never carved out the time to work on. Maybe it's that inconsistent high C in the song you absolutely LOVE to sing or that f***ing backbend in the Cassie dance.

Maybe it’s finally learning some music theory so you don’t have to google “what key is 4 flats?” ever again. Instead of being at an audition wishing you had more time to work on your cut, or your flexibility, or whatever, you are at home with the time to work on all those things with ABSOLUTELY NO PRESSURE. Now is the time to indulge in the challenge of getting better. Legendary acting teacher, Larry Moss, once wrote that the only essential ingredient for a healthy acting career was “the thrill of the challenge to be a better actor”.

Maybe, for you, it looks more like taking the time to reconnect to why you got into this business in the first place. Why do you still do it? What do you want to accomplish with it? Why do you want to be on Broadway? Maybe you don’t, maybe it looks like something else for you, and that’s OKAY! Use this time to ask yourself these hard questions and get clear about what your special talents can offer this world. 

“Take a breath, Take a step, Take a chance…..Take your time.”

Annnnnd…ACTION: Brainstorm a list of all the things you want to work on with this time you’ve been gifted. Get crazy, get outlandish, get CREATIVE. Then pick one. What can you do in the next week to take action on that? Today? In the next ten minutes? Tell us in the comments below what you have chosen to work on so that we can cheer you on!