The Box

A late musing on Sunday…

What is “The Box”?

It is the dreaded containment that is often imposed on a young, wide-eyed and innocent freshmen/1st year student entering theatre/music theatre/music school. That young, wide-eyed student is excited for what is possible. Feeling chosen. And yet…

The Box looms large. It quietly sits there. Waiting…

If you dismiss it, you are considered “difficult”. You are taught in one way or another that if you want to work, you must abide by The Box and the rules attached.

And said wide-eyed and young performer simply does what they are told, or suffers the consequences.

Sound familiar?

The decision of what The Box is, remains in place. We carry it with us, not because it necessarily serves us, but because it’s familiar. We know the boundaries, we don’t have to think, we just have to fit. And we try. We are chastised or ridiculed when we don’t. We navigate a road of passive-aggressive engagement when we can’t.

As we “emerge” into the professional world, or pursue that world, there are more boxes. There are “types” of boxes depending on who needs to “organize” us. Same but different.

Suddenly we are asked to release the box we’ve been told is where we belong, and suggested another box; or confirmed we are fine where we are.

WHEN DID A BOX TRY TO DEFINE YOU???

ENOUGH!

You are not a box. You are not defined by a box - imposed on you by your insecurities, or by someone else’s inability to see you.

You do NOT belong in a box.

A box is to collect, to store, to contain.

You are a living, breathing, always morphing and developing and evolving artist and performer. YOU decide how you want to be seen and you develop and reveal what that means, and how that is seen.

Someone may have authority over you, but NO ONE has power over you, unless you relinquish it. My guess is, you didn’t relinquish anything. You were simply trying to do the right thing.

The power you have is in the behavior of personal and artistic boundaries, and the behavior of your technique and how you weave your craft. No box contains that. No box can.

Your commitment to YOURSELF and development of the talent you possess is your power. That commitment leads to hard work to embody a technical behavior to summon that talent at will and to tell a story that has authenticity and integrity.

Great technique is to become conscious of none. This is what we strive for. True craft, true artistry and true story telling that is unique, and completely YOU.

True integrity and authenticity doesn’t fit into a box. It vibrates at a much higher frequency and cannot be contained in an easy and organized way.

So, acknowledge The Box; acknowledge who the snake oil salesperson is trying to sell you The Box. Simply smile and say, “thank you, but no. I can’t learn or grow or evolve in that space. I need air and sky and breath to discover and make mistakes, and learn and grow and see where I will be tomorrow, next week, next year.”

Stand true in that awareness. Difficult? They don’t know what difficult is.

with fondness & fierceness,