Why Do I Act Like That?

Why Do I Act Like That?

Being home for the holidays is an excellent opportunity for you to examine how your family’s dynamics have shaped your personality. If you’re an actor, you can use the experiences to grow your awareness of human nature and, of course, apply it to your creative work.

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Integrating the Unthinkable: How to Respond to Election 2016

Integrating the Unthinkable: How to Respond to Election 2016

“This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”
-Toni Morrison

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Cultivating Resilience: Managing the Risks of the Biz

Cultivating Resilience: Managing the Risks of the Biz

Resilient people do not let adversity define them. They find resilience by moving towards a goal beyond themselves, transcending pain and grief by perceiving bad times as a temporary state of affairs…

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Tortured Genius or Underemployed Professional?

Tortured Genius or Underemployed Professional?

Is the harsh reality of trying to make a living as an artist responsible for the mental health issues that actors, dancers, and musicians sometimes experience?

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Stage Fright Solutions: Acceptance, Preparation and Confidence

Stage Fright Solutions: Acceptance, Preparation and Confidence

Acceptance, preparation, and confidence make up therapist Bill Harrison’s three-part antidote to stage fright.

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Overcoming Performance Anxiety

Overcoming Performance Anxiety

Some folks combat their social anxiety by avoiding the kinds of situations that provoke these responses. But if you’re a performer, avoiding is not an option; you’ve chosen an endeavor that requires you to put yourself in emotional harm’s way every time you take the stage.

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The Trauma of Vulnerability Betrayed

The Trauma of Vulnerability Betrayed

Here’s what may seem like a stupid question: Why are so many members of the Chicago theater community feeling so overwhelmed by the publication of the Reader piece about alleged abuses at Profiles Theater?

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Getting Out of Our Own Way: Embracing Vulnerability

Getting Out of Our Own Way: Embracing Vulnerability

In order to use our gifts we have to be both willing and able to allow ourselves to be seen. For most of us, showing the world what we consider to be our least attractive traits is damn hard.

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