Kate Veihl was my theater teacher in high school.She pretty much got me to graduation. (In theater girls found me charming, and I didn't have to risk broken limbs like the football players). She had a remarkable influence on a lot of kids in her years as a high school teacher. Timothy Busfield, Lela Ivey, Greg Ganakas, Dana Brazil and Pat Cain are just a few of her former students that went on to make successful careers in and around theater, television and film. She retired to Hawaii a few years back, but she was in the old home town two summers ago and she and a couple of her past students put on an actors workshop which I attended. I was in that workshop for about 30 seconds and thought:
...well damn! This is all I want to do! It's not like I ever got rich doing anything else. I know how to be broke! I want to be an actor when I grow up...hey. Wait a minute. I am grown up. Hell, I'm 52 years old! Any more grown-up and I won't have the energy to walk on stage....'
So I took a couple of classes from Lela and Dana and did a workshop with Guy Sanville at Jeff Daniels' Purple Rose Theatre.
And then, the coup de grace! I bought a copy of "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron. (If you're not familiar with it, it's a sort of inspirational guide to help people recover their creativity, or rediscover their creative nature).
Yikes!
What is this talk of "Synchronicity"?
"We undertake certain spiritual exercises to achieve alignment with the creative energy of the universe."
We do??? Seriously. I had no idea.
"We tend to think, or at least fear, that creative dreams are egotistical, something that God wouldn't approve for us"
Ahh yes. That's something I can relate to!
But wait a minute. You're suggesting that if I believe that God the creator created me in his image, (basic Judeo-Christian ism-ology that a former Catholic school kid can certainly get behind), then creativity is an essential part of my d.n.a.! You are telling me, in writing!, that it's possible for me to ''forge a creative alliance, artist-to-artist with the Great Creator''??? I can act?
No, I mean for money??? I can go beyond dreaming and into "doing"?
No shit?
"Leap and the net will appear."
And the long and the short of it is I quit my job and I've been acting full time since January of '06. It's actually pretty funny. I didn't mean to quit my job right away, it just sort of worked out that way. I had no clue how to get an agent, how to get a gig or, essentially, how to act.
I know. It's not right. OK, it's pretty stupid, actually. But guess what? If it wasn't for the money, I'd be the happiest man in America. I'm working pretty regularly in commercial, print, voice-over and industrial film around the midwest. I have done some live training for a couple of companies that took me all over the country. I have also done some stage stuff that has been huge fun. I got a couple of principle parts in a some small films, and recently had a scene in "Youth In Revolt" starring Steve Buscemi, Ray Liota and Michael Cera (the boyfriend in "Juno").
(Oh yeah...sounds terrific, but being, essentially, wallpaper for Steve Buscemi isn't really the role of a lifetime....Oh God. I pray it isn't my role of a lifetime....).
Of course, I've also lost my house, I'm so broke I can't afford to pay attention and I'm not really impressing anyone when I try to explain that I quit my job to be an actor in Lansing Michigan. But there you go. Somehow, through it all, I cannot escape the sense that I am doing what I should be doing.
So. How's that for a trip to the zoo?
I have great kids and three grandsons in California. I have been so lucky to experience a lot and travel a bit and make some life-long friendships. I can still make people laugh when I don't try too hard and I guess I am a happy guy and a lucky duck.
You know. For the most part.
And when I'm not happy, I try to remember to be thankful for the life god's given me, take a minute to remember the times I could of screwed up waaay more than I actually did and be grateful for what didn't happen.
The rest of the time I'm a pain in the ass.
Counting blessings. So much better than shaking your fist at the universe.
Posts
1 comment:
love it. and i love that i can hear your voice and see your facial expressions as a i read it. bravo daaaaad
Post a Comment