Yesterday afternoon, I had the chance to work with some very talented actors currently performing in, The Last Tiger in Haiti, a production nearing its run at Berkeley Rep.
The actors had all agreed to participate in a reading of my screenplay. I was less concerned about casting the right people for the roles than I was just having terrific actors play with the words I'd spend the past several months putting together.
After the reading, the six of us engaged in a spirited dialogue about what it means to be an actor. We talked about the lifestyle, the struggle, and the rewards. Each of us agreed the story I was trying to bring to life was important, relevant, and needed to told. But they also voiced their frustrations with getting people to care about storytelling in general - to get people to appreciate how stories shape our culture and identity.
What I learned during our conversation was nobody can force you to care about anything. Whether it's a compelling film or animal rights, each of is wired in different ways. As a result, we all have unique desires, hopes, questions, concerns, and passions.
What you can do is present YOUR interpretation of the world through anecdotes, stories, or facts and then allow people to make up their own minds on how they feel about it.
I suppose what people ultimately think is less important than making the effort to create something in the first place.
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