The Solidarity of Survival

Sunday Musings…given our industry and our world…

Where to even begin?

How to dismantle and dig out the rotting roots that are so mangled and twisted that many say “it’s just how it is”?

When were you told directly, or when was it implied that if you wanted to have a career or a chance at one, you keep your mouth shut, don’t rock the boat, and just be happy if you are offered something?

Was that “voice” the same one that tried to then put you in an industry “box”?

Or, were those voices so constant, so subliminal, that you didn’t even realize that you had shut up, and crawled in that box without even realizing it?

Those of us who went through theatre school, or music school often connect through the solidarity of survival.

Some of us survived. Some of us did not. All of us are injured or traumatized. Few leave unscathed.

And then the industry perpetuates that myth, that we have been taught and been forced to swallow, and we continue to push it down; accept the scraps; hope we are enough for them; stay in the box “they” say we are supposed to be in; believe that even though we use our voices to create, we cannot use our voices to speak out and call out and reveal what is there!

No. More.

We need to pull those rotting roots out of the ground and expose what is useless, and in the way of real change.

We need to plant new seeds and nurture the soil and space that possibility and creativity can grow and thrive. We need authentic integrity to rise up.

We need to rid ourselves of the trauma, of the “Not Enough” mentality.

We do not need to give thanks for scraps. For less than a living wage. We do not need to stay quiet when we KNOW what is happening is wrong. What is spiritually criminal.

We all have our survival stories. I do too. When I tried to speak out, I was told I was difficult, I was told I was a liar. I was made to feel as if i was the problem and needed to be isolated away from others. I was not seen.

And that’s just one aspect of the survival.

Trust me, I see you.

There is solidarity in survival.

But together? We ARE the change.

It isn’t a wish anymore. It’s a reality.

These changes need to happen in the attitudes, in the cultures, in the atmospheres of every music school and every theatre school; in every theatre space and every opera space; in every casting space; in every rehearsal space; in every studio space.

Is it messy? Yes. It is hard? Yes. Is it necessary? Hell, yes.

We cannot heal if we don’t have change. We need to WANT that change and want that HEALING.

It is the deep, personal work of each of us as human beings and artists; as storytellers who REFUSE to climb into anybody’s “box”. We REVEAL, we UNVEIL, we EXPOSE what is true, what is real, what is messy, and what is possible.

In doing this, we, collectively stand in solidarity and can be the change, be the healing, be the barometer of what is needed in our industry, and in our creative world.

Let’s get to work - our own work, and our work together!

I will stand in solidarity of our collective and our personal survival.

BUT - I want MORE than survival. We DESERVE more than survival.

I want us to stand in the solidarity of THRIVING in CREATIVE ENERGY and of ARTISTIC TRUTH.

Let’s get to healing, and exposing, and pulling out those dead roots that we were still so tied to. There is living and there is creating to do!

With fondness & fierceness,