“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” This is a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt and it has become my credo and my advice to young actors and all artists. In this rapidly changing world, we cannot just throw up our hands and say, “I don’t know how to do that.” We have to learn how to do it, or find and work with those that do know how to do that, or you will simply be left behind. I’ve never had a business sense. All I ever wanted to do was be an actor, from the time I was five. I didn’t want to start my own group, The Artist Theatre Group. I wanted to be a part of a group and just show up. That wasn’t in the cards for me. If I wanted to act, (and I did) I had to find a way to do it. I started the group so I could be around acting twice a week, at least. I didn’t want to teach, but I did have certain qualities that I wanted in my acting and those I would work with. To Live Moment to Moment, to Live Truthfully Under Imaginary Circumstances, to Feel things Deeply, to Not Act but to Be. So, I began teaching. I didn’t want to produce plays, but I had to learn how to do it and get the right people in the right positions, so I would be able to act. I didn’t want to write, but I had to learn to, in order to guarantee work for myself. I didn’t want to write a blog, but I had things I wanted to say. You learn to do those things that are important to you. We can’t go around complaining and making excuses, for why we are not doing what we want to do. If you really want to do it, you’ll find a way. And along the way, something unexpected may happen. It happened to me. I found out that I really loved doing all these things I thought I couldn’t do. As an artist we have a voice that needs to be heard, and Producing, Writing and now Blogging, have given me other platforms in which I get to express myself. Another quote from my quote book, To Be An Actor, that speaks to me deeply is by Emile Zola, “If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I am an Artist, will answer you. ‘I am here to live out loud.'” Well me too. I am living out loud. I love quotes. They are fuel for my soul.