#32: And he goes"Mutter, mutter, mutter, mutter, yes, Jerome”

Tuesday 8/13/24

Last night I hosted a free workshop/presentation on zoom for over 40 families who were feeling they were a bit behind the ball starting the college audition process. It’s early/mid August and while some people have been working for months, it’s still possible to do this all successfully. Hang on with me - I’m getting to a broader point. 

I did my presentation and then probably fielded 30ish questions. I imagine that if you have zero exposure to theatre and definitely zero to this process, its the same as if I tried to learn my fathers job as an engineer in 1 hour. I’d have lots of very basic questions - and i had to remember that those basic questions to me are life changing questions to others. I’ve worked in this field for nearly 20 years the same way any other person has a long standing job in a certain field. 

It’s funny because something I’ve always struggled with is being succinct and editing. I have a HARD time editing myself. And I have to remember that sometimes my efforts to provide such credible and layered information can end up being TOO much and TOO overwhelming. 

Now, I didn’t get negative feedback on the night, all of it was positive but it is something I clocked for myself. At one point, I skipped some prepared slides because I was like “julie, you’ve already explained this”. 

All this to say, COACHES. Remember that it is your job to ask questions. Not leading questions “do you think this character would really do that?” but “how did you come to that conclusion?”. As someone who loves having an answer and a solution, I’m sometimes so quick to give away an answer. This is something I work on every single day. Being ok with silence. Being ok with someone having to come up with the answer themselves.

As a coach it is your main job to help the student connect the dots themselves and giving them the tools in which to do that on their own in your absence. Of course the point of my workshop last night was to GIVE information - but there is something to be said for self editing in general. It’s something I’ll continue to work on. It never ends haha!

Dreams Don’t Die

Julie