Your Life as a Labor of Love
Back in 2001, I took acting classes at a well-regarded studio in Los Angeles.
The format of these classes was “scene study.” This meant we would work on scenes with acting partners (fellow students) on our own time outside of class, and then present them in class for critique and discussion.
The classes were held in the evening, twice a week, for four hours or longer at a stretch. The critiques could be exhaustive and intense. So many different aspects of the art and craft of acting would come to light via the dissection of our scenes and performances.
There was one standout lesson, though, that I took away from those classes above all else. It has stuck with me for over two decades, probably because of its applicability to so many aspects of life outside of the field of acting.
It was the idea of being an “artistic killer.”
An “artistic killer” is, essentially, someone who puts everything they have into their art.
For example, in the context of our class, students put varying degrees of effort and preparation into the scenes they would stage.
When someone went all out, it was obvious.
Maybe this meant they put together elaborate costumes and paid close attention to the physical details of the makeshift set they…
