The Balanced Life Quest

Somehow, Friday was a really balanced day.  I got some exercise, took care of a few things for my two biggest day job projects, worked out some actor business, got to be artistic as I prepped sides for a callback, ran a few errands, and even spent some quality time w/my partner.

This kind of day almost never happens.  Usually I can touch on two or three life areas, but rarely this many in a single day.  I can't remember the last time I've had a day this balanced.

I've learned to think of balance in the aggregate - over a week, or even over a month, and surely over six months or a year, it will all balance out.  This keeps me from stressing too badly when I've had three days in a row of major day job crunch time and I'm feeling 'under-yoga'd' or during tech week, when I only see my partner late at night and early in the morning and one of us is very very sleepy - in the long run, I have to just trust that my life will have balance.

But I can help to ensure that balance.  I write scheduled downtime, dates, even major cleaning projects into my calendar.  Sure, I'll break those appointments if I get an audition, but I'll reschedule them.  Writing them down helps hold their place. 

Also, I've learned to have a weekly 'appointment' with myself to check in on how I'm doing.  I've timed this appointment to coincide with my weekly acting class, which I really look forward to and almost never miss.  Basically, I write in a journal during class for about 15-20 minutes on how I'm doing w/balancing my artistic growth, healthy relationships (to myself and others), financial comfort, and community connections.  Some weeks are better than others.  I drop balls regularly, but I know I can pick them back up.

And then every once in a while something like last Friday happens. 

Submit for Counting Actors

Since it's a short month it's already time to get those stats in for the Counting Actors project!  I'm closing in on 100 shows, so it'd be great to get your stats.  If you've seen a show or worked on a show with performances in February, go here for info on what I'm looking for.  Takes 5 minutes.

A confession

I am an actor who is not good at imagining.  At least when it comes to the objects and things that might surround a character who lives in a time/place from history that is different than my own.  I need some help - a place to jump off and get started.

So I love love love when I can visit historical homes and museums like the Tenement Museum in New York where you can walk through a tenement apartment building and see different apartments restored to reflect different time periods in the building's history.

And I had a great time when I went to Dublin's Georgian House Museum, which is a house from 1794, restored and filled with objects from that time.

And I was super excited to learn about this book, which came out of a joint project between the British Museum and the BBC.  It is what it says - an attempt to cover all of human history, using 100 objects from the collections of the British Museum.  Each object gets its own essay/presentation and was originally presented over a period of 25 weeks (one object/day M-F) as a radio series on the BBC.  And it's archived here.

So, if like me, you aren't the best imaginer, the objects in this book, and in museums and historic homes everywhere, are a terrific resource for our actor imaginations.