changing the broadway narrative
I am lucky. I got my Broadway credit early in my life. As a result, no one ever questioned my abilities as a professional actor-singer; my credit entered the room before I did. Ironically, one of the most difficult junctures in a musical theatre career is what happens after you get the Broadway credit. When you are young, you dream only of getting to Broadway and all your training and strategizing builds to that singular pinnacle. Then you get it and you think, “That was it?.” Don’t get me wrong, I am proud, grateful and yes it was an incredible experience and I understand the immense value it has given my life, opening up many doors. But many end up feeling lost afterward. We spend all our time preparing for that pinnacle moment and no one tells us how to create a life and career after that juncture. And what if that credit and path doesn’t fulfill your next dream for your life?
This is why I am skeptical of programs that sound like “Broadway Boot Camp” or “Broadway Stars and Dreams” and narratives that sound like, “If you dream of becoming a Broadway star, we’ve got the formula!” The emphasis here is on the destination and the fame and allure of something that you honestly have little control over. You can control the effort you put in and the way you show up for your creative self, but you can’t control whether the person behind the table thinks you match what they have in their mind that they need in that moment. There is a certain amount of luck and timing to it all. And yet, I have so many friends who after years of pounding the pavement, feel like failures. We end up creating a culture that over validates and prioritizes the bright lights of Broadway fame. As a result, too many worthy creative beings feel they have failed themselves, failed their parents, teachers, friends, because their efforts have not been validated by the credit.
This is why I am endeavoring to change our narrative around creative careers with The Creative Edge. I want to focus on the process of creativity, relying on exercises and work that builds skill sets that frame creative work as something that is transferable and available for you at any juncture of your life. What if we change the narrative so that the end goal is not always Broadway (although amazing if you get there!), instead the goal is to build a healthy, stable, constant relationship to our creative self and capabilities so that we can apply those abilities in any stage of our life with or without someone giving us permission to be on a Broadway stage. Through The Creative Edge Studio, I emphasize strategies to instill creative habits and mindsets that force you to exercise your creative muscles daily and find fulfillment in the process of being creative so the performance is just icing on the cake.
Creativity is too multi-faceted to be stuck on a one way path. We need to embrace multiple paths toward creative fulfillment and teach ways to empower young creatives to take ownership of their creativity, so that they never feel lost on their path and don’t have to wait for someone outside themselves to give them permission to shine. Broadway is one small possibility along a path of a lifetime of creative possibility, let’s not get stuck on a one way road.