Winter’s Artistic Doldrums

So the holidays are over and what awaits me now, looming on the horizon like a dark storm cloud of cold snow, is the dreaded depression of mid-Winter. That annual low point in the great cycle of ups and downs where I find myself questioning my general worth and wondering if perhaps Dad was right all along: maybe I really should have become a biomedical engineer or a lawyer first and then, after lots of success, tried my hand at acting. Jack Frost's blahs drag me down like slushy quicksand to an underworld where I am forced to watch the movie of my life like that guy in A Clockwork Orange. And while I'm happy with most parts of my life's film, when it comes to my acting career I often find myself slightly nauseous and wondering: "What the hell am I doing??!!"

This year, in an attempt to stave off the feeling that my acting career is simply a cute delusion of grandeur, I've decided to let myself off the casting hook for a while and retreat back into the world of acting class. Enough mixing my art (the thing that makes my soul come alive) with my career (the thing that pays my cable bill). Enough of being in the position where I'm either cast in the part (and get to feed my art) or not cast (and get to watch my starving soul whither away). I'm going to practice my art regardless. Art for art sake, literally.

Now there are all sorts of worthy acting studios teaching and all sorts of methods that work for all sorts of actors, but working with the NY IT Awards has exposed me to one in particular that stands out in my mind: T. Schreiber Studio. I've seen their work and really like the acting that results from it. They recognize many different levels of instruction and firmly believe that no one single acting dogma has dominion on the "right way to act". They are all-encompassing. Plus, they are so friendly and energizing there that I may even be excited, for once, to tackle the animal & statue exercises that surely await me in scene study class.

Thanks to the IT Awards, I am reassured of three things:

(1) I have found a place to improve upon my art

(2) I know, from all the registered theatre companies, that there are vast and verdant seasons of Off-Off-Broadway waiting for me the minute I emerge from my artistic hibernation.

(3) While I will still jump at the chance to play a biomedical engineer on TV or in a play, I can report assuredly that I am happy to let others become the great lawyers of the world.

Desmond Dutcher
JudgeWrangler
NY IT Awards