AT25: An Eye on the Future
Michael Stuhlbarg,actor, New York City
The next 25 years begins with economic adversity, new national leadership, inter-union dissent and technological advances that, while simultaneously bringing knowledge and communication to our fingertips, also seem to be taking away our face-to-face interaction and leading us toward screen-to-screen interaction.
The skill in, patience with, and presence of human exchange is dwindling, which will make what we do all the more fearfully esoteric, as the tools that are meant to bring us together also keep us further apart.
I have never thought of my occupation as merely entertainment.
There is something spiritual about What We Do.
There is precious little like the communion between audience and artist.
There is hope for the world in those moments.
I participated early last year in a discussion at the Actors Center's Congress at Lincoln Center about the role of the actor as collaborator in today's creative environment. I spoke briefly about having been a part of collaborations where I had been welcomed into the process, and, on the other hand, of collaborations where I had been told what to do, how to do it, what I would wear, and with no acknowledgment of, or interest in, my own insights.
The talk moved to actors taking their rightful place as collaborative voices in the artistic process, and of taking a leadership role in guiding artistic endeavors themselves. I shared an anecdote about one of the first classes I took as an undergraduate—playwright Robert E. Lee was invited to speak with us, and what he said, simply and emphatically, over and over, so as to burn it into our minds, was, "CARE."
It struck a very deep chord with me.
It comes back to me both in times of despair and revelation.
A call to reassert one's rigor; to "get one's mind clean and vigorous," and to go deeper.
It was at this Congress two years earlier where the idea of artistic leadership found its way into Marco Barricelli. That day he took a step away from being a frustrated artist, and took a step toward becoming the present artistic director of Shakespeare Santa Cruz.
The future will be what it will be.
I believe that we are creative resources to be utilized, and also the Life Force in magic-making.
If we take responsibility for ourselves, open our ears, hearts and minds to each other, together we'll do amazing things.