Serafina Salvador, 10 January 2016

A fantastic session graced by the contributions of very open and experienced artists.

As artists, we are constantly driven by our need to find our magic and keep it alive. Be

it on a page, on stage, on a canvas, any collaboration, really.

An aspect of life that contributes to that magic is the interaction of our fear and our

fearlessness. And then, the often dreaded, interaction with each other's fears and

fearlessness.

As we discussed this interaction, Tyron a very experienced actor and Penelope a very

experienced teacher called for the need to distinguish between being an actor and

being a performer and understanding where your loyalties or priorities lie. An actor's

priority is the writer and a performer's priority is the audience's experience. This

contribution lead to the group examining the creative collaborative process that

ensues between director and actor. And we concluded that a possible way of being

fearless together was to go into the rehearsal space with a “Yes And” attitude as

suggested by Lauren rather than a “Yes But”. So as to maintain a loyalty to both your

own personal process as an actor and your duty as a collaborator. After all, everyone

feels fearless in a “safe” space. So how do we create that safe space? Its a lot of

things, amongst which foremost is committing to a common vision: whether its the

director's vision or the writer's vision. Second, defining clearly and understanding

clearly, the degrees of freedom available to each the actor and director at the start of

the process; will disengage any catalysts for robbing people of creative satisfaction at

the end of the process. A call was made for less micro managing by directors and

allowing the actors a performance within defined boundaries.

Our conclusion: Fear is necessary and welcome to the creative process, in the right

amount. I think of it as adding salt to a dish. We need to get it right. And sometimes,

the right kind of salt. Some of the contributions recorded were that it gives us that little

slap just before we go on stage and teaches us the “ways of courage”.

No discussion about fear is complete without speaking about our special friend “EGO”,

as rightly brought in by Lawrence. As he mentioned, the Ego is so important to give

definition and direction to a piece of work but indulge in it too much and you are closed

off to the benefits of collaboration forever - the biggest benefit being growth as an

artist. So de-ego, but mostly during collaborative negotiations.

As we concluded this discussion, we found Fear is both a friend and foe.

I am reminded of the words to a song by one of my favourite band, UB40: The more I

learn, the less I know about before. The less I know, the more I want to look around.

Digging deeper to a higher ground.

Keep Learning, Keep Sharing, Keep Growing…!

Tags:

Fear, experience, fear, collaboration, Experience, Collaboration, Ego, Fearlessness,

ego