There’s No “I” in Team

Jesse is a young high school actor. During his school’s Spring Drama Festival, Jesse was fortunate enough to be cast in two different shows—a striking affirmation of his talent. His first show was a wonderful but draining experience, and he became involved in the second show right after finishing the first. Jesse was tired, both physically and emotionally, and, in addition, the second show was not of the same caliber, and he felt he didn’t understand where the director wanted to go with the material. As a result, he had a very negative attitude in rehearsals, and finally, a fellow member of the cast who was a close friend approached him about it. She told him that the rest of the cast was getting a very “negative vibe” from him.  

Currently in a high school focused on performing arts, Jesse has been deeply involved with theater since the age of ten. His parents warmly welcomed his inclination, and Jesse’s parents helped him pursue his passion for a theater career in every way they could. As a result, Jesse is an astute actor. He knows what it takes to become a successful professional. 

Through his own experiences in high school and summer theater programs, Jesse learned first-hand not only about methods and skills, but also about the value of collaboration—the importance of working together as a team. He singles out collaboration as one of the most intriguing and rewarding aspects of theater: 

“I love [theater] so much. Theater is the most collaborative art. You have a set designer, a costume designer, a lighting designer, a director; you have a composer and lyricist … And then you have all of these actors, and you are all working towards a common goal, but you are all fitting your pieces together.”

He explains further: “So if there’s any kind of tension or hostility in that, it’s really difficult. And that’s why I think you have to be nice in the business. And that’s something like they try to teach you as well. You have to be competitive, but you have to be kind.” 

Jesse experiences tension between competitiveness and collaboration. In his program, he and his fellow students spend three years working together— honing their skills, learning different philosophies and methods, and developing characters through their work on collaborative scenes. Not until senior year do they have the opportunity to audition for a show. This process, Jesse explains, is purposeful. At the end of their senior year, when the students are learning whether they have been admitted to colleges or conservatories and whether they will be entering theater professionally, his school hosts an annual Spring Drama Festival—three plays in repertoire, for which everyone auditions. The stakes are high in these auditions: these are the only productions in which students perform during their entire high school careers, and professional agents come to the festival to scout actors. Jesse describes this intensity: 

“Senior year, all of a sudden you’re having to be really competitive. Everybody auditions and goes through callback processes together, and all of a sudden it’s not the same as working in your studio acting class, where everybody has a scene and everybody is going to have equal time. Not everybody gets into a show. The directors actually choose the people they want to show to the industry.”

Jesse knows that the issues of competition and collaboration with peers will pervade the professional sphere, and he views this process as preparation for the real world of theater. In addition, he understands that once cast in a show, he needs to demonstrate cooperation, loyalty, and dedication to the collaborative effort.

In the Spring Drama Festival, Jesse was fortunate to be cast in two different shows—a striking affirmation of his talent. His first show was a draining experience. Although he loved the script and the director, the time he devoted to the production was exhausting. Because the show was so complicated technically, rehearsals took twelve hours every day. Jesse did not mind. He looked forward to going to rehearsals every day, and says “it was one of the best experiences I ever had,” mostly due to the director. But the second show he was involved in was not of the same caliber. Jesse became involved in the second show right after finishing the first. He says that the new play was “less successful” for him, in large part because of the director: “I had to work too hard to make the material work, because … I didn’t understand where she wanted it to go. And I didn’t understand what she was trying to accomplish. Her vision wasn’t clear to me, except to make it funny.”

Jesse was tired, both physically and emotionally: 

“I just really didn’t want to be there. And so for the first week of long rehearsals, I just watched and I would say really negative things about the show.”

Jesse did not want to participate in this second show for two reasons: first, sheer exhaustion; and second, fear that the show would not come together and might ultimately tarnish his reputation as an actor. A few weeks into rehearsal, one of the actors, who was a close friend, approached Jesse and said that the whole cast had felt a “negative vibe” since he joined. She admitted, “We know that we have a lot to work on and we know that it’s not the best thing in the world, but the only thing we have going for us is our spirit. And we feel like since you’ve gotten here, there’s been a very tense atmosphere.” This confrontation really hit Jesse. He didn’t realize that his behavior was having such a negative impact on people, or that his lack of energy and his indifference were affecting the rest of the cast: 

“No one will ever have to confront me like that again. Because I now see that even if you think you’re hiding your feelings, you probably aren’t. You have to be very in tune to the environment, and what’s around you. The show was a very awakening experience because it made me think, if this was professional and they were feeling that, I probably would have been fired already.”

In theater, one actor’s level of engagement has a direct influence on the work of the ensemble. In other professions, this connection is not always as obvious; nonetheless, it does exist.

If you were Jesse’s friend, how would you have handled this situation? Have you ever felt negatively toward an activity you were involved in? How might you know when to “push through” and when to take a break?