Do what you love? Love what you do?

Can I do what I love… just because?

I cracked open my favorite fashion history book this evening because I wanted to entertain myself without a phone. As I read and analyzed the garments pictured in the book, I thought to myself, “god I should start taking notes or something”. Suddenly I didn’t feel like reading further.

I placed an expectation on something that I just wanted to do for fun. The lines between work and pleasure are so thin sometimes. We talk so much about doing activities outside of our profession, finding hobbies and life outside of theatre. When you choose to do your high school extracurricular as a career, you have to. But what happened to doing what we love for fun? I love fashion and clothing! When did I loose the ability to just read about it for pleasure?

So I decided I would not be taking notes tonight. I was not studying, I was not researching, I was not planning. And you know what? I was so creatively stimulated. I had so many ideas about character and how I could implement and infuse character in the way a bustle is drapes or the shape of a neckline. I started drawing connections between fashion movements and getting giddy about the evolutions of garments. I was having fun.

My new mantra for working in theatre has become “if you are not having fun, you are doing it wrong”. Of course there are parts of it that suck. I also hate tech and sweaty actors. But you should put up with that suck. Maybe it’s partly because some people have to pretend that anything that happens during tech will make or break the foundations of the universe. I don’t, personally. Hopefully you do it out of love of the craft. That’s mostly why I do it.