Why We Do It

“Stanislavsky once wrote that you should ‘play well or badly, but play truly.’ It is not up to you whether your performance will be brilliant-all that is under your control is your intention. It is not under your control whether your career will be brilliant-all that is under your control is your intention.

If you intend to manipulate, to show, to impress, you may experience mild suffering and pleasant triumphs. If you intend to follow the truth you feel in yourself-to follow your common sense, and force your will to serve you in the quest for discipline, and simplicity-you will subject yourself to profound despair, loneliness and constant self-doubt. And if you persevere, the Theatre, which you are learning to serve, will grace you, now and then, with the greatest exhilaration it is possible to know.” -David Mamet, Writing In Restaurants, Cabot, 1985

“To laugh is to risk appearing a fool,
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.

To reach out to another is to risk involvement,
To expose feelings is to risk exposing
     your true self.

To place your ideas and dreams
     before a crowd is to risk their loss.

To love is to risk not being loved in return,
To hope is to risk despair,
To try is to risk to failure.

But risks must be taken because
     the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

The person who risks nothing, does nothing,
     has nothing is nothing.

He may avoid suffering and sorrow,
But he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live.

Chained by his servitude he is a slave
     who has forfeited all freedom.

Only a person who risks is free.” -poem Risk by William Arthur Ward

Why do we actors do it? Why do we put ourselves out there, night after night? Why do we risk?

Because the highs…are really f-ing high, man.

When it’s working and that audience is in sync with you…there isn’t a better feeling in the world.

That’s why we do it.

P.S. – I found both the above quotes pinned to a cork board outside a high school theatre.