Honest conversations with professional performing arts workers about the challenges of forging a career in the arts, and strategies for overcoming them. House Lights Up has been produced with the insights, expertise, experience and generous contributions of Greta Bradman, Chris Cheers, Cristina D’Agostino, Monica Davidson, Rachel Dunham, Gabriel Edwards, Susan Eldridge, Matt Heyward, Luke Hunter, Zoe Knighton, Ian Peel, Rob Tremlett (AKA Mantra), Anne Wood and Deone Zanotto. Presented by the Arts Wellbeing Collective - an Arts Centre Melbourne initiative dedicated to promoting positive mental health and wellbeing in the performing arts.
If You Want Perfection, Rent the Movie “Sometimes when we talk about stress or anxiety, we talk about it as something we have to try and get rid of. But being stressed or being anxious isn't something you have to get rid of. It's something we can really listen to and give meaning to, to understand what it's trying to communicate to us about ourselves or about our environment. The key is trying to learn strategies to accept and allow space for emotions as a normal thing that will come up as ...
21 Sept 2020
11. People
(Re)Connection “A really easy trap to fall into is if your entire world just exists within this bubble of being a performer. If you are getting this form of therapy or this form of validation or this form of security from your expression as an artist... At the end of the day, it might be a reflection of who you are, but it's not being given to the person you truly are because these people don't know who you are. Only you know that, and the people around you in your personal life know t...
20 Sept 2020
10. Courage
Breaking it to Make it Work “I think there's such a big shift for women after they've had children – coming back to their identity, and realising who they are, and knowing your own value as a human. You're not just a feeding machine, you can do so much more… The best thing that I ever did was jump back into the work pool.” (Deone Zanotto) In this episode of House Lights Up, our arts workers describe how they make their career and their family life work together. Psychologist Chris Cheers exp...
19 Sept 2020
9. Experience
An Unprecedented Pivot “If we can stay calm and kind and loving to each other and our community, things are going to be okay. The work we do is needed, it has value and we've got to remain committed… If we haven't got skin in the game, we won't get the work when the work comes back.” (Susan Eldridge) The Australian government’s mid-March ban on non-essential public gatherings effectively cancelled the live performance industry indefinitely. In this episode of House Lights Up, our arts worker...
18 Sept 2020
8. Adaptability
Putting Down the Feather Duster “Working in the performing arts, every job we do is different to the last one. So whether we know it or not were accruing all of these different skills and this really wonderful level of responsivity to anything that's thrown our way... We're constantly developing our ability to respond to new things, which makes us infinitely employable.” (Anne Wood) In this episode of House Lights Up, we explore some of the most important contributors to financial surv...
17 Sept 2020
7. Insight
Avoiding the Judy Garland Syndrome “This will always be a path that requires you to hold yourself to account... That is one of the hardest things that you'll have to do, and it might take you the rest of your life to learn how to do it well… but I think that is the measure of the people who make it and the people who don't.” (Monica Davidson) In this episode of House Lights Up, we consider the role of insight in helping to create a thriving arts career. Our interviewees explain the imp...
15 Oct 2019
6. The Performer's Job
From the audience, to fellow performers, backstage colleagues, creators and the work itself, the performer's duty extends across and beyond the stage. In this episode we explore the purpose of the performer's role, including some of the key relationships that feed into their work. Our performing arts professionals share their insight and experiences. Musical theatre actor Matt Heyward and cellist Zoe Knighton consider the responsibility and support they feel when it comes to the...
14 Oct 2019
5. Compromise
How many times have you heard someone say, “I’m a perfectionist”. It’s usually declared with pride – as a measure of how much that person cares about their work, and the level of quality to which they hold themselves. But say you hold the view, as many people do, that perfection is impossible. Perfection doesn’t exist. Does that mean the pursuit of perfection is pointless? Or worse, that it’s dangerous? Cellist Zoe Knighton shares her thoughts on how to move on from a less than ...
13 Oct 2019
4. Validation
Judgement is something all performing artists must learn to navigate. And how a performer approaches judgement and criticism can have a lot to do with their ideas about validation and their individual definition of success. As social creatures with the need for approval and acceptance wired into our brains, the promise of external validation looms large in the minds of many. In this episode, we consider the dangers of this innate need for the performer. We look at varying sources of va...
12 Oct 2019
3. Vulnerability
In this episode we consider some of the features of a career as a performer, as well as features of the industry in general, that make entertainment and performing arts workers a particularly vulnerable population when it comes to mental health and wellbeing challenges. "Artists create from the heart. When you create a piece of art, when you perform your craft, you're putting yourself out there to an audience who are sitting there with expectations of being entertained... And because you're...
11 Oct 2019
2. The Mind On Stage
In a perfect world, a performer is able to focus their mind on command, reliably and predictably, to the benefit of their work. In the real world, the mind can have other plans. It wanders, plays tricks on its owner. It can take control of the body in that crippling affliction, performance anxiety. In this episode, we consider these common experiences and ways in which they can be addressed. Hip hop artist Rob Tremlett, cellist Zoe Knighton and actor/singers Rachel Dunham and Matt Heyward sh...
10 Oct 2019
1. The Audition
"Auditions are awful because they’re foreign. They’re not a performance... You’re outnumbered, you’re outgunned. You’ve just got to hold your head up high and do the work and hope for the best..." Musical theatre actors Rachel Dunham and Matt Heyward share some of their audition experiences, while music director Luke Hunter gives us the perspective of those sitting on the selection panel. We consider different ways of interpreting the audition process, and counsellor Gabriel Edwards provides...
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