If you’re proclaiming, “the theater is dying!” I hope you’re just singing “Intermission Talk” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s flop musical “Me & Juliet.” The theater isn’t dying. Enter, the multihyphenate.
I’m a multihyphenate, an artist who has multiple proficiencies, cross-pollinating to help flourish professional capabilities. I not only survived COVID, but almost mocking the virus itself, I was able to mutate and adapt to what theater became during a global pandemic. I created two podcasts, two virtual galas, revised my one-man show, taught numerous workshops, wrote a 75-page book proposal, started preproduction for a web series, and supported Zoom readings and presentations. But how?
Cynthia Henderson, my acting professor at Ithaca College, implored us to understand our “why” which now serves as the underbelly for my multihyphenate journey. I produce non-quotidian artistry that benefits the world around me and if I’m going to commit time and energy to a project, an audition, a photo shoot, or whatever it is, it has to fall under that principal. It’s almost a guaranteed way I know I can do my best work. Understanding this helped me survive not only COVID, but quarantine as well. The sheer act of creating kept me focused enough to recover, but what I created was able to change, to help, and to heal others. Plus, I maintained an income, which was quite helpful.
You can do the same. Your stories are so much more than 16 bars at Ripley-Grier Studios. Now is the time to cultivate them. Ask questions. Do research. Get inspired. Fail. Throw spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks. Ask politely. Deliver fully. Have boundaries in your heart and be boundaryless in your art.
An Acting Coach’s 8 Tips for Mastering Your Zoom Audition Being a multihyphenate requires using my connections, my drive, and my spirit to deliver an undeniable product by looking around to see who needs me to help tell their stories–and quarantine called upon it. I call this being a responsible artist, someone who isn’t telling stories out of self-focused energy but rather, helping the world around them. As a photographer, an actor, a producer, and a writer, I’ve found many opportunities to lend my proficiencies to where they’re needed and sometimes you land on someone’s doorstep who doesn’t even know they have a story to tell. But as an artist, you help them figure it out and that’s part of the fun, finding the story and the heart!
With multihyphenates budding all over, more people are becoming the CEOs of their own micro-companies. That means individuals are garnering their own income, on their own terms, solely by creating art. We must not just adapt, we must understand from the beginning that there are no boundaries when it comes to art. An Equity Principal Audition should not be the only way you’re in search of work because then, during a pandemic, what do you do now?
Have no fear, just reframe your mindset. As my mentor and multihyphenate inspiration Elena Maria Garcia often says, “Can and stick theater is the best theater, baby.” What she meant was pick up a can, pick up a stick, and create something new. My visual talk show podcast was born out of the can and stick mentality. I pressed record, picked a Playbill at random, and told a few stories. The why of the show is to keep Broadway alive. So, no, the theater is not dead.
Are you ready to start your multihyphenate journey? Now that you know to figure out your why and to be boundaryless, my next advice is to tell a story per day. Pick up a pen and start writing. You may have no idea what you’re doing but who cares? Make a movie with your iPhone in your backyard and teach yourself Final Cut Pro.
What is it that Sondheim wrote? “Anything you do, let it come from you. Then it will be new. Give us more to see…”
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