Cherish the Dream ... Expand the Horizons

    I imagine that every person with an artistic career has a dream, most likely one they have treasured since childhood. It is often the most important thing in a person's life. It can surpass family, obligations, love, and everything else in its urgency and refusal to die. Probably it is nearly impossible to rise to a high level of prominence in the arts without such a dream. So if your passion for the arts is such that you cannot let it go, and cannot imagine doing anything else with your life, then definitely cherish that dream and let it motivate you always!

    But very often, those of us with a lifelong dream of being an artist keep that dream so narrow, so tightly protected in its own little box, that it becomes difficult to accept any altered version of it. Sadly, this sometimes means that people with enormous talent actually pass up or ignore the very opportunities that could carry their dreams into reality. I am not a psychologist or a fortune teller...but I feel pretty strongly that those who allow their dreams to expand, to bend and flow, to be open to unexpected alternate possibilities, will realize their dreams. They are more likely to achieve a high level of fulfillment and lifelong happiness, than those who do not give their dream any breathing room.

     One thing is for sure -- everything in the arts is unpredictable. A great singer can have a bad night, a theatre can suddenly close, an accident or illness can wipe out a visual artist's ability to work, a life-changing event can seemingly erase all the years of hard work toward the dream. But we can, and should, allow this unpredictability to expand and open our mental catalogue of possibilities, rather than tightening it. If your only dream is to be published in Poetry magazine, you may accomplish that....but many poets have failed to ever be published at all. Ignoring all the other thousands of outlets for poetry in the world of printing could rob you of the very achievement you have always wanted.

     On this planet there are hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of actors/singers/dancers whose only real dream is to perform on Broadway. Such dreams should be cherished; they can provide years of motivation for a person to slog through thousands of hours in the practice room, along with all the other sacrifices that must be made. But let's ingest a tiny dose of reality: if you multiple the number of theatres that actually qualify as being 'on Broadway', by the number of productions they are likely to mount over, say, fifty years; then multiply that by the number of available roles in those productions --- the result is that there will still be hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of artists whose only dream is to be on Broadway....and they will never perform there.

     I am not saying for one instant that anyone should give up the dream of being on Broadway...or of winning an Oscar or of playing Carnegie Hall or of achieving any other universally recognized pinnacle in the arts. What I am saying is that if you expand that dream, you allow for a huge number of other possibilities which can give you the same thrill and pride and professional and financial success.....without as much angst and disappointment. Sure, Broadway is great, but being in a musical at a high school is probably just as much fun as almost anything else on earth!

     As a college student I heard a friend say he had been hired to accompany a two-piano version of The Music Man in some small town. I was insanely jealous; I had been acting since age five, I was studying piano and composition at a great university, and what I wanted most was to perform everywhere, and be recognized at the highest levels. It seemed so unfair! As it turns out, I went on to give a couple of thousand performances as a pianist, actor, conductor and composer, some of them in high profile locations. If I could have told myself at age twenty that the same dream can appear in a million ways, I probably would have saved myself a lot of frustration and anxiety.

     Don't ever let your dream disappear....but recognize that not only are the arts very competitive -- but that the arts are everywhere. Seven billion people on this planet want to hear music, want to be entertained, want to be enriched by what artistic expression can teach them. If you have artistic talent and a passion for the arts, your dream is reachable. If you are willing to put in the time and the hard work, it will becomes yours. Don't ever let go of that dream -- but don't box it in so tightly that you miss the forest for the trees!

James Gibson 

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