Doug Stewart, the founder of Cirque Us, took some time to answers questions for us at TheatreArtLife on how he got into this genre of entertainment and the drive behind creating a circus collective.
As performers, having enough energy and stamina to get through a performance week without feeling depleted is the ultimate dream. Few of us reach this point, and it has become the norm to feel constantly fatigued, run down, and burnt out. This feeling of “barely making it through” is never questioned. It is totally accepted […]
I’ve always been an action taker. I decide what I want, then I proceed to make detailed lists, action steps, and to-do lists. Can you relate to this? This way of being has got me far in life, I won’t lie. However, sometimes it gets in the way of me enjoying the things that are […]
So you’re at a networking event but haven’t spoken to anyone yet. The room is crowded and charged with energy, the energy of what looks like everybody else connecting. How do they make it look so easy, you ask yourself, feeling simultaneously invisible and painfully exposed so obvious in your discomfort? I’ll never be any […]
Are you interested in pursuing a career in talent management but not sure how to begin? Continue reading. Here, we’ll discuss a few things you can do to get there and become successful. What is a talent manager? Talent managers are people who work in the entertainment business and help actors, models, and performers get […]
Or at least why it feels like you are… Over the past few years, I’ve been diving deep into marketing for musicians because the truth is, I really knew nothing about it. I gave it a go as a singer/songwriter in my 20s which was a gazillion years ago and didn’t know anything back then. […]
Are you thinking about starting your own business as a recording studio or music producer? Have you recently finished audio school or interning? Have you simply been recording and producing on your own for a while, but are hesitant to go into business for yourself? It can be intimidating or outright terrifying to think about […]
The old adage “the journey is the reward” has been around for thousands of years and has been known by many names. The Tao Te Ching refers to it as the way, while in ancient Greece the Oracle at Delphi spoke of “living life in the present moment” when she prophesied about her own death. […]
Becky Willard As a creative person, it can be a pretty big shift to think like a business owner. Entrepreneurial instincts aren’t exactly natural for all of us, just as musicality isn’t as natural for some as others. As I’ve worked with artists, songwriters, musicians and creatives of all kinds, I’ve found that creating a […]
Working in the entertainment industry, especially for large-scale acrobatic circus shows had been my life’s dream. A dream which I had, over the years, painstakingly realized. I had found the backstage experience exhilarating and highly addictive. Magical. In the end, I decided to say goodbye. Yet, how do you let go of something that lives and breathes in every fibre of your body?
As I mentioned in my first article, I decided to pursue my dream of becoming a composer and music producer. Starting from scratch in music production can be overwhelming, with endless acronyms, tools, software, plugins, virtual instruments, audio concepts, technical issues everywhere, everything is new, and everything is daunting. But despite all difficulties, I feel […]
In this week’s article, I’ll briefly touch on some concepts around giving and receiving feedback. Communication is such a large part of how we manage people in production and can deeply impact results. Feedback is one of the most important pieces of how we can communicate with our teams and collaborators. Below is more of […]
I recently learned that there is a trend on tik tok called shifting. Sometimes called “reality shifting”, apparently it is just a way of training your mind to enter a new reality. Although I don’t spend much time on Tik Tok, I do dedicate a great deal of my time helping people shift their energy […]
From a very early age, music was everything to me, I remember sitting on this sofa in the corner of the living room, I was around 4 or 5 years old. I had just put my favorite Richard Clayderman vinyl (yes, it’s true!). On my hands, I had this little ‘piano toy’ borrowed from my […]
Written By Joshua Morgan Between us actors, we’ve got our hands full: Not only are we self-producing new projects (yay!!), but we also need to find ways to fund them (ohhhh….). And, it doesn’t help that there aren’t too many resources for actors out there that teach us to do that very thing. You see, […]
Disclaimer: The thoughts expressed in this article are purely my own. Whether you love them or hate them, since 2019 the number of self-tape requests has increased tremendously and with this has the need for a reliable reader. For anyone in need of a quick refresher, a self-tape is an audition that an actor films […]
Written by Becky Willard If the thought of being a freelancer scares the bajeebers out of you….I completely understand. Because it IS scary. Especially if you’ve had a good few years feeling the comforts of a steady paycheck and insurance a “regular job” can bring. After being a freelancer (aka being a music business owner […]
Despite the fact that your mind might be doing its very best to make you believe right now that you are not enough, I am here to promise you that that is a lie.
I recently had a conversation with a young songwriter, who found it frustrating trying to objectively scrutinize her own music. “I can’t even tell if a song I wrote is good or horrible.” It reminded me of the first time I was able to hear my own music objectively. It’s a really interesting story that I sort of forgot about. In recalling it, I realized there must be a way for songwriters and artists to hear their music objectively without the utter humiliation that I experienced. Let me explain.
Imagine a scenario where you are the landlord, and you have a tenant who has been living upstairs for as long as you can remember. The tenant is loud and opinionated, and has, on many occasions, kept you up at night, unable to block out the noise. You’ve considered evicting them, but you always avoid confrontation instead. Besides, maybe the tenant is right. Maybe your demands are too much. The tenant doesn’t contribute at all to the environment you share and criticizes you anytime you try to make an improvement in your living conditions. They don’t even pay rent! In fact, it costs YOU to have them stay in your home. And yet you let them stay.
Protecting your energy as a performer isn’t always a walk in the park. As artists, having enough energy and stamina to get through a performance week without feeling depleted is the ultimate dream. Few of us reach this point, and it has become the norm to feel constantly fatigued, run down, and burnt out. This […]
Working in theatre can be full of ups and downs. You get some jobs; you lose out on others. You don’t always get to know why. Some production processes are smooth; others are nightmares. Since I resumed working in live theatre in 2021, I’ve had my share of all these experiences, and everything else in between. But one thing that has changed for me post-shutdown is how I approach those messier situations. And learning to survive them and still do my job well has helped me learn an important lesson about letting go of some of my emotional attachment to my work.
Be it internal or external, collaboration has always been a backbone of our work and company wiring. Over the years, we’ve been fortunate enough to maintain, nurture and develop fruitful creative partnerships with peers we’ve grown to consider friends – and inspirations. London-based theatre group Les Enfants Terribles has been one such trusted ally, accompanying us through a variety of large-scale live projects, and smoothly succeeding in the transition towards the hybrid.
I don’t know about you, but I love quotes. Words are powerful. Quotes are morsels, tidbits our mind can engage with. They are the hors d’oeuvres of the literary arts. Connecting us in words to anything our mind wanders to at any particular moment. Quotes are also mental post-it notes, reminding us of what is important and of why we do what we do, love what we do.
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