'Tuesday discussion group' on 3/10/17 @ 5pm & Thoughts on authenticity

Yesterday it was the first 'Tuesday discussion group' for this academic year and for a lot of us the first ever. For the module one students who were unable to attend yesterday and are unsure of what these sessions are about I wanted to say a few words about what I gathered from yesterday. These sessions are not about the course, but about our practice, but as the course is about our practice too this makes sense. We all drop an idea on the table something we've been thinking about, relating to our practice and we discuss it applying critical thinking to it. We produce questions and form judgements and we start thinking about what we can learn and how we can apply this newly found knowledge into our practice. 

One of the topics we discussed yesterday was authenticity and some of the questions raised were: How do we remain authentic (in an industry that demands us to be in a specific way)? Do we/should we have to compromise our authenticity as artists ever? Is it always possible to remain authentic and finally should we have to be authentic or is sometimes better to adapt? 

Initially I would like to say that as we all come from different disciplines (actors, dancers, musicians, teachers and more) the notion of authenticity and the answer to these questions can differ greatly for each one of us. The answers can also differ even within the same discipline depending on the specific experiences and specific work each performer is more accustomed too. However, as yesterday proved, it can be extremely useful to hear the thoughts of other performers around these questions since it can help you understand why your answers might be different and therefore solidify your knowledge and better your understanding of why you believe and do what you do, rather than just do it out of habit. 

To me the idea of authenticity is something I have struggled with. I am an actor and nowadays at least actors are generally being told to always be themselves as this is what makes them different to everybody else. We're being told that our headshots should "look like us" and yet we are being told to have 3-4 different headshots. I always feel the pressure to be authentic in my work and yet sometimes I feel that there are sides of me that if I were to lean more towards to I would be more succesful in a specific job. 

From yesterday's discussion and my further reflection on the aforementioned questions, I feel that I have a better understanding of when, how and why I should remain authentic. I still strongly believe that my own unique experiences should always guide me in my work as all we all have is our own experiences and not someone else's. When we act there is nothing interesting for us or the audience if we try to play a part how we believe someone we admire would play it, because frankly why would anyone want to watch us and not them? However, sometimes part of what makes us authentic is simply not relevant or not useful and in these instances "compromising" our authenticity or part of it can make us better professionals and more successful at our jobs. Such instances I identified include working with other people and having to compromise in order to respect their views too and in order to achieve a successful collaboration, working on a character that requires you to explore a side of yourself that is not 100% you and working with people of different cultures and/or in a different country where maintaining your authenticity can offend or even get you into trouble. 

Let me know your thoughts too!