If you are an artist of any sort, loss is part of the Life….and not just losing,but rather making losing as much an art as any other art you strive to express into the world.
Show Business has been my total art…. (and writing of course…but i’ve never really entered that very private art into the world arena as I did with my acting career)…and in Show Business, losing is most often more prevalent than winning what you want….each audition, obviously is a chance to win or lose…
…..win and rent gets paid…
……lose and it’s just another pound of chocolate consumed on that
long West End Avenue bus ride home…..if you are an actor, as the famed lyric goes “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose…'”….to become comfortable with losing that role you so desperately wanted is hard, but essential to what one hopes will be a long career…as many Opening Nights you have, there are also that many essential critics’ reviews one dreads reading….or delights in reading that same benighted critic, if he loved you….
…….one step forward two or three steps back…losing that role to the actress who looks just like you but has a higher singing range, or forfeiting the role meant for you to another who is blonder or is the producer’s daughter……well..thats the game, babe…and if you cannot get used to that fact, if you cannot walk out of an audition room head held high, even though you know the audition was terrible, then that’s all the more you will suffer….losing while being convinced it’s more their loss than yours, is an art all by itself…that beauty queen smile, even when you are second runner-up…? You’d better have good teeth!
Nice, strong, bright, wide an even shiny teeth …because one gets knocked in them so often in the world of theater and acting….have a good dentist handy….an essential part of your winning/losing team.