Respect For Acting

[originally published 2008]

Perhaps you recognize the above-quoted subject heading as the title of Uta Hagen's famous book on acting. A few years ago, in the green room of a well-respected LORT theatre, I sat with some fellow thesps, sipping coffee - all of us on our Equity ten. This one actor, as well respected as the theatre in which we were working, was explaining the path that his life had taken. He had married a woman - not in our business - who has, for a long time held a lucrative position in a university.

"My wife's job allows me to act. Thank God she's got a REAL job."
Taking umbrage, I said, "I consider THIS a real job!"
My co-worker sniffed and shot back, seemingly conspiratorially, "Well, you know what I mean."
"Yes," I replied, "I DO know what you mean. And THAT'S the problem"

It's bad enough that civilians, on hearing what we do, say, "From that you make a living?!" or, "What do you REALLY do?"

But often we don't get the respect that we deserve from fellow theatre artists, either. Worse still, we don't value ourselves.

Degrees of respect in our society are many times quantified based on an (assumed) income level. I didn't get into show business to make money, but I am like a not-for-profit organization: making a profit is not my primary goal - but it is a goal, nonetheless. One of the hallmarks of our art is that, at its best it looks effortless. You and I know what an artificiality that is.

A not-yet-famous Mick Jagger once said, "I play concerts for free. It's getting to play's what I gets paid for."

I always say that what I do is like being a life insurance salesman. I try to sell new policies to people and try to get past customers to buy more. Glamorous, no? No one has to tell you how much work you put into your career. You know the sacrifices; the training; the effort of presentation; the enuring of oneself the word, 'no.' But then, the show itself makes one almost forget what one had to do to get there.

It's an inside job, and we have to value ourselves first if we want to have that value respected in the marketplace.