Friday, September 30, 2011
I know what it’s like to have failed, baby
2AMt: Over nearly twenty years of striving, struggling and occasionally thriving in the theatre, I have honed my strategic approach to rejection. If it’s a biggie, I give myself 48 hours to pout, weep, question my fundamental decency as a human being and eat raw cookie dough with a large spoon, but then I have to get on with it.
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The blunt honesty in this article is quite impressive. The courage to write an article revolving around failures and thoughts such as "I’m not where I want to be in my career. I’m not where I thought I’d be" is admirable and sobering. Rejection, although a part of every profession, seems to hit those in the theatre business quite frequently. How each person deals with the feelings that stem from all that rejection does revolve around the kind of rejection, such as the ones she pointed out, differing between an actor or playwright or director, etc. Hopefully, the passion a person feels about their work will out weigh those depressing moments of rejection that we all must deal with down the line.
Rejection is definitely a difficult aspect of this industry to swallow and is the reason why many do not proceed with it after some time. To be told that you're not good enough is quite possibly the hardest thing a person to go through, and what kind of a crazy person would purposefully stomach that kind of nonsense? It must take complete determination and passion to continue on after do much let down. perhaps this is what makes theatre such a magical business.
This article addresses one of the painful and ever-present realities of our work as theatre artists: rejection. Rejection happens to people in all lines of work, yet rejection in art is one of the most painful, at least from our reasonably biased point of view. Perhaps this is because we pour so much of ourselves into our work. From actors, to directors, to designers, we are creating art; and any art contains at least a small part of its creator. So when our art is rejected, we feel that it is not only our work, but also ourselves that are deemed insufficient. This is not a particularly optimistic conclusion, but on the bright side, if we are personally affronted by the rejection of our work, it means that we are pouring all we can into it and doing our personal best every day.
This is the nature of what we have chosen to do. Some people get the big job immediately. Maybe it works out and maybe it doesn't and many others of us just keep slugging along until you slowly climb your way upwards. It will drive you crazy trying to figure out why someone got a job that you didn't. So you instead have to look at yourself and improve the things that you can. Sometimes you have to adjust your tactics in order to get to where you want to be. Maybe for this person it is time to try a new way to get what they want. It seems like the same route has not worked so well for them.
This article describes something that theatre professionals have to deal with much more than many other industries and so provides a lot of interesting insights. I think one of the most useful things he writes is that everyone experiences a different kind of rejection. Even if two people receive the exact same rejection letter, it means very different things to each of them. One could see it as a judgment on their character, the other as a judgment of their abilities. SImilarly, the rejection of a director is different than the rejection of an actor is different than the rejection of a playwright and in all cases, is so much more pervasive than in any other industry that, like others have commented, it really has to be the passion for theatre that keeps you in the industry.
The main point of this article seems to me to be: work through rejection and you'll get some good things along the way. It's not entirely inspiring and uplifting, but it's honest, and I think that will cause people to think a little bit more about whether this is something they should also be doing. I appreciate the honesty in this article, and although I do not agree with the way this writer claims to deal with rejection, this doesn't upset me because I feel like everyone can agree with the idea that, no matter how you specifically react to rejection, if you don't surpass that feeling, you'll fail.
I like the way she writes. It seems like she would be a good director, and it's a shame she's struggling so much, after so much time. Such is the life of theatre, I suppose. She brings up really interesting points, especially the silent rejection. I don't know what it's like to 'put myself out there' and receive only...silence. It seems like that would almost be worse than being bluntly rejected as an actor. Because, on some level, she is probably still hoping that someone will call her up and want to meet. Someone who has thrown her resume in the trash.
I think what bothers people the most is the unfairness. Maybe this Kate is an amazing director that would change people's lives if she got a big project, but she doesn't, while mediocre directors are making tons of money and reaching millions of people. Networking in theatre is strange. Also, theatre is strange. And it seems a lot more 'unfair' than other jobs/industries. Something to deal with.
I do appreciate this director's honesty and sympathize with her situation but am more appreciative of her understanding that she's not the only one struggling. In struggling times, I find myself and other sucking themselves into a pity party in which everyone is perfect except them. This director is a very observant person well aware of the rejection of theatre, a process that is more prevalent here than anywhere else, in my opinion. Of every aspect of this article though, my favorite was the Chekov quote in the beginning because of how much it encourages growth. Pity parties happen and sometimes help in the grieving process but they rarely contribute to a person's growth or understanding primarily because it requires wallowing and swimming in a pool of dirty thought water. But by having growth as the goal, everything in life is manageable.
I really appreciate Kate Powers's straightforward writing style. When facing professional rejection, it seems that the best course of action is to allow yourself to be disappointed but focus more on how you can improve. There are a lot of different tactics for how to handle rejection, but if you choose to work in theater you need to be able to develop at least one tactic, as it is a pretty large part of the job.
Well, you win some you lose some. Rejection is never a good feeling, and I feel like that's something we have to remember. I definitely agree that one of the worst ways to be rejected is when someone just never gets back to you. I have experienced that before, and it's awful just waiting to know whether the answer is yes or no. I think that we all have to remember what it feels like to be rejected, and how much better it can feel when the person hiring is nice about it, because when we are in the position to hire people and we have to tell them that they didn't get the job, we shouldn't try to break their hearts or just forget about them.
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