Lisina Stoneburner
Her approach to talent has been creating successful actors across stage and screen since she began coaching in 1991.
"An actor with talent is expected. A talented actor with skills is employable. Craft and technique are gifts for actors in every medium. Put the right tools in the right hands and magic happens." ~ Lisina Stoneburner
Posted Date: May 13, 2010
Define Success
I personally have had to remind myself of what it means to be successful in my own life. What I expect out of myself to be proud of what I have accomplished. What I consider achievement, and what standard I set for myself that establishes a clear mark of whether or not I have obtained a level of marked success.
More often than not I am confronted with people in our industry whose standard is always set on fluctuate. When I spend too much time with those people I have to step back and remind myself of my own measure of the word.
More than one seemingly reasonable parent has asked to discuss the reason why their child is not yet represented by a talent agent. (sigh) I get my hopes up about some parents I meet, because I will have a wonderful conversation with them, or see them at my parents seminar where we talk openly and frankly about how children should not be banking on getting an agent and that getting one at their age is not the mark of their real talent or success, and that they should be encouraging them to love and enjoy acting any way they can do it, not to necessarily be in pursuit of a career. That blending those two ideas into one can be harmful since the rewards are different.
Yet, there I am several times a month fielding phone calls and emails about this very topic. The worst part about it is that the parents have it in their mind that something is wrong with their child because they have not been picked up by an agency. They believe there must be something they are doing wrong. They often start to doubt their child has talent. They begin to doubt why they have them in acting classes at all and if they should even be allowing them to pursue this. I hear these things and get so frustrated and disheartened. These parents have somehow equated the success of their children with whether or not an agent has a place for them in their agency. They do not concentrate on the talent they see in theatre productions they do, they do not focus on the hard work and enthusiasm the child has for coming to acting class, they do not listen to the instructor who says they are one of the most naturally talented kids in the class. All of these take a back seat to the fact that they have not achieved representation yet. They forget about all of the other factors that are not related to talent that come into play when an agent is choosing actors for their roster. The idea that these parents would consider discouraging their kids to continue and take away their acting classes, or their theatre opportunities, is crazy to me. They have chosen to define success for their children as to whether or not they are granted an opportunity to go on boring auditions, for commercials with no lines that they might book a couple of times a year, rather than define it by their growth in a program, their ability to perform on a stage in front of hundreds of strangers, their ability to understand complex scripts and reach emotional levels and perform complex improv. Somehow, somewhere the definition of personal success got skewed.
I don’t completely blame the parents though. This is not a fair industry and that’s really the lesson people must learn coming into it. That’s not a negative statement at all. Nothing about our industry is fair and if people recognize that from go, it’s a whole lot easier to work in it. A place where I do put some blame is on some training facilities and people who produce workshops and events where the emphasis for the students is on showing them to agents. Long ago our school stopped holding showcases of any kind. We did it knowing that many actors want them and choose their training facility based on whether or not they had them. We knew it might turn away some perspective students. We stopped holding them, because we knew it was wrong and unfair to say that all students would definitely reach a place where they would be ready to be seen by a professional and legitimate talent agent. We were not going to play the role of saying who would be ready and who wouldn’t. We work with some of the most talented kids and adults in our school and they cannot get representation because it’s just not a look, a type, or some other thing an agency needs or wants. We work with some actors who get representation without having nearly the same amount of experience, skill or talent as some others. There is no fair to the system. I am not arguing that there should be. We are in an entertainment business, and there is no need to be fair. What I am saying is that some schools and events promote what is supposed to be an educational situation, class or workshop as an opportunity to meet an agent. This sends a message to greener actors and parents that it should be the ultimate goal rather than training for the purpose of education itself. It also sends a message that the word of an agent is the decisive word of what a talented actor is. It gives them way too much authority on what is good acting and what isn’t. I have some wonderful friends who are agents and who are very good at their jobs, but the majority of the really good agents trust in reputable acting coaches and teachers to tell them who is really talented and can do the job. They know which of those they can then market.
What many parents and new actors do is they place a scale on themselves that weighs their level of success. They look to the wrong sources to help them balance it because they have not set standards that really accurately measure it. I ask myself often what legacy I want to leave behind me one day down the road. I look at my resume and think, is this all I want people to remember? That I worked on some television shows and films once? That the people I coached worked on some television shows and films once? Those are their successes, not mine. (And that’s a whole other life lesson I will write about by the way.) Sure, I am proud of those credits, and I am proud of the work I have done with people, but I am always going to feel most successful that I held the four walls of acting school up that stuck to teaching honest and traditional skills for actors. I will feel successful that I made a point in every classroom to act as a servant to the needs of the artist, and that I was not selfish when I taught. I will feel successful if I can maintain a family and serve them as much and better than I serve strangers. I will feel successful if I make choices based on my principles and not compromise for someone else’s.
I am still defining success in my own life and I am grateful for every situation I encounter in my work that helps me understand more of what I think it means for me. I know I will continue to add to my list, adjust my standards and ask more of myself as the years go on. So that I can answer my question about what kind of a legacy I will leave behind and know that I fulfilled many quests for personal and professional success based on a measure I felt was a real true measure of the kind of person I would want to be remembered as.