WHAT DO YOU VALUE - A SEMI-RANT

In a recent email, I had mentioned to my mother that I was about to enter into a fairly long span of time (3 months) when I would be 'unencumbered by employment'. She said that it must be demoralizing to have to get a waitering job. I thought about it for awhile and came to the conclusion that being a waiter is not a problem at all, in fact it can be a nice change of pace, and fun depending on where you're doing it. No, the problem I have is that in any other job, once you had been doing it for 20 years, and you were actually pretty good at it, you wouldn't have to consider supplementing your income by waitering.

Have you ever stopped to think about the enormous commitment any artist has to have in order to keep being an artist? Have you ever heard of a doctor, teacher, engineer or chef supplementing their income with another job so that they can continue with their chosen career?

Part of the problem is that we are not taught to value any art form as a past-time, a leisure activity, so that means less attendance, less money, fewer jobs, lower pay. Also, especially when it comes to theatre, we are not taught to value talent. There was a day when people would crawl a mile over broken glass to see a great actor because they were a GREAT actor. Now, we value only success and, thanks to Hollywood, you don't really need any talent at all to be a success. In fact, I've noticed a similar trend in theatre as well. All too often I've watched a show thinking, "Who the hell did that talent-free hack fellate to get this job?"

What's the answer? I don't know that there is one. Change will happen. It makes me sad, however, that most people's ideas and opinions about art, the arts and a life in or with art are based on what they've seen on t.v.