Two Things That I Learned in Theatre as a Teenager That I’m Having to Unlearn as an Adult
2Visual Description: A woman addresses the camera. She's dressed in a blue, prairie-revival style dress. Her hair is worn in a bun and she wears blue-rimmed eyeglasses that help her to see. She uses her hand movements, vocal intonations, and facial expressions to help communicate her thoughts and ideas. There's a cabinet in the background.
Description: I want to talk about two things that I learned in theatre as a teenager that I'm having to unlearn as an adult. 1. I was taught to audition for everything. 2. I was taught "yes, and".
I'm quickly learning that auditioning for everything isn't a good idea. I shouldn't be auditioning for projects that I don't even want to be involved in in the first place. I also don't want to audition for projects that have "red flags" or signs that they're not going to be completed.
I was taught "yes, and" in theatre when I was a teenage girl. I was taught to go along with whatever directions the director gave me. I realize that this has been pernicious advice that's stuck with me into adulthood as a content creator. Being taught to be over-encompassingly accepting of other people's ideas and ignore my own intuition has led to me putting up with situations that made me deeply uncomfortable. I've had to relearn how to set boundaries, and advocate for myself. I feel like teaching teenage girls "yes, and" is unsafe, especially for those of us who go on to become content creators. I've dealt with sexual harassment as a woman on the internet. I think that theatre educators need to be doing more to teach young women to advocate for ourselves, instead of setting us up to be prey.