Dear Well-Meaning, Concerned Parents,
Please don’t tell your kids not to go into acting. Please. (Or, for that matter, any career choice you may not agree with… but I digress.)
I taught acting for over twenty years. Recently I caught up with Noah, a former student who is making a killing on Wall Street.
Noah had yearned for his father’s approval his entire life. His father had never, ever given it to him and was particularly unhappy with the idea of his son going into the arts.
Noah loved the craft of acting, and he was good. The joy I saw on his face when he was onstage, playing in the land of make-believe, was infectious. When he was onstage, everyone was better.
After college, at only twenty two, under tremendous pressure and constant shaming from his father, he turned his back on acting and chose a different dream. His father had always dreamed of achieving great wealth, which he associated with respect, power, and prestige. Noah took that dream and made it his.
One day, while visiting NYC, I randomly ran into Noah. I barely recognized him. We talked for a while, and he told me what he was doing. His job was so all consuming he had not walked on a stage, even for community theater, for years.
