The Whole Truth...and nothing but the Truth

The truth seems like such a simple concept doesn’t it? It’s what actually, physically happened surely? Simple. Yet for every event, ever occasion we will all have our own truth of what’s actually happened. We can all witness the same event, but by seeing it from slightly different angles, with slightly different agendas, we can create a truth that isn’t actually truthful at all.

truth

noun

1. the quality or state of being true.

   "he had to accept the truth of her accusation"

   
   

   • that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality.

     noun: the truth

     "tell me the truth"

     
     
   • a fact or belief that is accepted as true.

     plural noun: truths

     "the emergence of scientific truths"

     
     

So this is what google has just told me as the definition of truth. It’s the latter definition that is really the most confusing one though…we ‘accept it to be true’. Why is that? Why do we just ‘accept’ at all? Isn’t our job as intelligent beings to actually question the truth to go out and discover a collective truth?

Now I’m not trying to get all philosophical here - in simple terms I’ve read a few things online recently which I personally don’t believe to be true…they have not been my experience of the truth.  I’m not calling the writers liars, as I believe that they own every word that they’ve written, however they’ve been so one sided - where is the other truth, and shouldn’t all truths be told for readers to make informed decisions?

Infamously most of us ‘get this’ with the Daily Mail don’t we? They write ‘a truth’ that thousands of reads believe, then the Guardian gives another truth which sheds more light on the Mail article.

For example:

People have been appalled that ‘so called’ refugees have been coming over to this country ‘with their mobiles’ so we’ll negate the fact that their homes were bombed, and they fled with whatever they could carry, fearing for their lives, we’ll forget entirely the fact that they were leaving a developed country, they weren’t your ‘mud hut’ refugees that you understand a bit more, we’ll brush over the perilous journey that they had undertaken to get ‘this far’…and we’ll focus on their mobiles shall we? ‘These people’ are ‘us’. I’m sorry but to everyone that knows me, they know that if I had to flee my home, after ensuring that my family were safe, the first thing that I’d take would be my mobile, my communication to other friends and relatives, an opportunity on a contemporary smartphone to find out what was really happening in my country. Surely a mobile makes the most sense? Oh yes…and ‘these people’? They are doctors, and lawyers and students and shop workers..and….they are ‘us’.

Two truths….in that very paragraph above…you chose which ‘truth’ suits your agenda….your deep seated belief will actually decide for you, without you actually realising.

‘THEY’RE NOT CHILDREN…THEY’RE ADULTS’ they cried….next day ‘NOBODY SAID THAT THEY’D BE TODDLERS’ (I’m paraphrasing both headlines) tomorrow it will be the ‘TODDLERS ARE BEING TRAINED TO KILL headline again. All are true…yet all have the bias of the author or the publication attached to them.

How do ‘these people’ fight back? Do they have a platform to write ‘their truth’? If they don’t we’re left with very one sided discussions aren’t we, with the rest of us basing deep rooted decisions based on one person’s interpretation of that word ‘truth’.

Over the years in this profession, indeed in my life (says old granny Thomas) I’ve had various run ins with people saying that the college couldn’t work, I didn’t know what I was doing, calling me a liar (which is a fascinating one to try and disprove because of all the above)…and back in the day I used to get really worked up about it. I would be adamant that ‘my truth’ be heard…as I didn’t want the last word to be my ‘untruth’. Social media took off and I began to realise that you couldn’t police it all. FB and Twitter allows anybody to write anything about you - and you can’t really stop it. You’ve given up the will to live by the time their ‘authorities’ look into it. Our own personal FB pages gives us the freedom to vent….and if we don’t like what the other people say…we delete their words….and eventually we delete them.  I’ve done it myself on numerous occasions - life is just too short to be arguing all the time.

So maybe it’s good for us all at times to stay curious about that word truth, as it’s actually not an absolute. It’s a transient word based on one person’s experience, and one person’s agenda…and might…just might, not bear witness to a collective truth.  

My head goes above the parapet so often I just as well buy a stool (I’m too short to actually just stand), so I am bound to come under fire again at some point…so I would say, the next time you hear a ‘truth’ about me…ask me about it….as we should all have the opportunity to collect THE ’truth’

#time4change If Just One Person

#time4change the #mentalhealthcharter is now 3 weeks old. To date 46 companies have signed the Charter. In the wings are 3 colleges seriously looking at it (none of them Drama UK colleges I should add), and a few production companies and a couple of agencies.  

Being in charge of a small organisation it never ceases to amaze me how much discussion has to go on in other companies to make things happen.  EG in our recent Senior Faculty meeting it was suggested by our Health and Welfare consultant that we should offer our students a quiet space during the lunch hour for those people that wanted it.  Within the hour that suggestion was implemented, because I could unilaterally make a decision to take a studio and designate it to be that time.  Now I'm not saying that this is good...if I suddenly became power crazed I could equally have opted to make that studio something far less helpful to the students' welfare.  Fortunately though I'm reined in by a very opinionated faculty, and an extremely interested Board of Trustees who watch my every move.

Having worked in larger organisations, I know that big decisions like opting into the #time4change Charter can take a lot of work. For example Rose Bruford signed the Charter this week. A massive decision by a major and prolific UK college.  Behind the scenes I'm aware that Pat O'Toole worked patiently within her role there until the college were comfortable enough with the Charter to sign. Here's my point really - are YOU in an organisation that needs to sign the Charter? If so....please get that bit between your teeth and stay with it. Don't take no for an answer. Come back to us if there are bits that you disagree with, and let's find a way together that will enable your organisation to sign up.  

The world will only change if each and every one of us takes  a stand for what we believe in.

Should your college sign the charter? Let them know your feelings about it. Ask them to read it. Send it to them. Explain to them how it works.  Take a collective responsibility to get this discussion up and running.

If you do one tweet in support of the charter, as amazing as that is, it is lost within seconds. Social media dictates that we live in a 'rolling news' world, everything lives for around 1 minute(if that really)....after which more news comes in, and the original post is already forgotten.  Those people that follow me on twitter must dread those couple of hours that I've spent every day trying to get this message across, as there's suddenly a deluge of posts talking about Mental Health.  Yes, there are better ways of spreading the word, but we have no budget, and that's all I can spend is time. . . time to keep talking, because I know that I just have the hit the right people on their TimeLines once.  It's a bit like the roulette wheel. I have to keep rolling that ball.

I said today in a tweet that if Equity, Spotlight, the ITC and Drama UK got behind this initiative it would be job done for me.  Imagine a world where with your annual Equity diary you got a copy of the #time4change Charter and a Mental Health MOT sheet (Angie Peake's idea again....not mine).  Check in with yourself how you were doing, and have an annual check that things are ticking along nicely. Any niggles that raise the red flat on the MOT sheet, get yourself along to the Doctors for a check up. Simple.  Go safe in the knowledge that our industry understands mental health issues as well as we understand physical health issues.  

We almost need a mental health equivalent to 'Physio Ed's' don't we? A one stop place where people can get affordable therapy without feeling any shame or embarrasment for being there.  

So...the campaign wades on.  Suddenly organisations that have forgotten about my emails are suddenly responding with me, and arranging meetings...which is just brilliant.  Here's hoping that for each of these organisations there is a Pat O'Toole amongst them, that won't give up until the company/college/organisation is signed up. To be continued ;-)

Self Validation...it's worth more than a blue tick

I'm always being asked about when The MTA is going to expand and my answer is always the same - it's hard enough getting one course right for 22 people, I just couldn't contemplate for a moment adding anything more into the mix.

Already the course has changed so much since I opened the college in 2009.  In 2013 we added a screen component to our acting course. Hell today we're now having to add a 'self tape audition' workshop into the mix, as this new phenomenon has swept through the industry.  If you'd told me 8 years ago that we'd be doing a workshop on how to audition via your mobile/computer, I would have felt like I was in some surreal scene in the new 'Back to the Future' film.  

One thing that we've always taught though is how to manage your social networking life.  Back in 2009 it was a simple lesson of how to protect your Facebook profile.  Even that seemed complicated as FB constantly changed their security settings. Then Twitter took over, and that became a game changer. Very quickly we were hearing that in the US people were getting cast based on how many followers they had.  Knowing that the UK would invariably end up following this example, we started to promote the use of Twitter amongst our students. In fact we insisted on it.  I became the nagging Principal, reminding them to Tweet, but also checking their tweets to ensure that they weren't saying anything that could come back and bite them on the backside later on.  The world of the screenshot meant that you had to act really quickly if a 'bad tweet' had gone out (with the knowledge that somebody might already have saved your error).

These days 'Managing your Social Network' is a minefield. You can Tweet, Facebook, Instagram, You Tube...the list is endless, but they all have one thing in common -  manage them wisely as they can make or break careers.

Back in ye olden times, we'd meet audiences at the stage door, they might write to our agents for an autographed picture. Of course there were always the Stage Door regulars who seemed to appear more times than you felt comfortable with, but you'd say hello, sign another piece of memorabilia then go home, safe in the knowledge that your job was done.

Now though, the savvy actor will be tweeting snippets of their life in a bid to attract the Stage Door regulars. Of course you have to be careful exactly what you are saying on these public forums.  Suddenly strangers appear to be your 'friends', as you can converse with them over the 140 character limit, they feel like they know you a bit more than they probably should; they come to see you in your shows, taking selfies with you.  To some of them (and of course this is the minority) they are friends with you.

These people don't know you - but they most definitely know the public persona that you've put out to the cyber world. For those of you not wishing to be 'friends' with the famous (or indeed the not so famous...but they're in your favorite show, so they've suddenly become famous to you) start Twitter watch...it's like people watching, but at a faster pace.  Watch the performers who slowly start to believe their own press (always a danger with performers)...see them grow into PR hungry professionals.  Some are subtle and discrete, answering their followers in a genuinely grateful way, others are practically screaming for you to follow them.  They start mentioning the bigger stars that they know in a bid for their followers to follow them. They start dropping hints about what they'd like to eat/wear before a show, in a bid for some firm or another to 'surprise them' with a load of cupcakes with their faces on (or whatever the latest craze it).

However there are also the performers who start to need those followers.  It's like some sort of real life SIMS. They build an online rapport with them, and you almost sense their fragility as they post (quite genuinely) about how shit they feel about some performance or another, and watch their hoards of followers bolster them and tell them how wonderful they are.  Some troll attacks them and a hundred minions attack the troll, in defence of the person, because that 'persona' is their friend....their famous friend whose picture is probably their phone's wallpaper.

The only thing that I can compare it to, is that years ago I watched a Broadway/Hollywood legend on the stage.  This person was showbiz personafied, and I was desperate to watch them perform live.  Half the show was amazing, my absolute dream come true. Then the other half was tragic. Missed notes, hell...missed keys.  Still giving the showbiz razzle, but they were truly awful. Yet we applauded for the performer that they used to be, not the performer that had turned up that day.  At the end watching them soaking in an ovation, which in truth, they didn't deserve...but which was given because we all wanted them to be brilliant.  Then I watched as their need for applause, became like some addiction for the adulation.  It was tangible that we were 'feeding' them in that moment. However it felt like an Audrey II moment. We were simply being sucked into their memory bank, for them to relive in moments of lonely desperation.

Twitter is littered with these fragile stars. They are the fodder of the social networking world. They are 'fed' by the minions telling them that they're wonderful...because in spite of having the infamous blue tick to prove that they've been verified...they failed in life to verify themselves.

Today's performer has to be marketing guru, selling 'brand X' to everyone. Brand X has to deliver the goods and keep up the persona 24/7...but only in the SIM world of social networking.  Behind Brand X is the performer...the human being. Invariably suffering from ...well ...life! 1 in 3 performers suffer from Mental Illness, they mask this by self medicating in ways that you wouldn't think e.g. drink, drugs, sex.  So you see 'a party animal'...and I sometimes see the person screaming for help.

The 'followers' love it - it's part of being brilliant isn't it...the fragile star?  Well actually no! It doesn't have to be.  Friends and family need to see the warning signs much earlier. We need better Mental Health information out there. The party animal is as likely to be your severely depressed friend. If a person is looking for validation so blatantly on social networking...you need to talk to them.  You need to check how they're really doing.  You need to tell them that the only person that can validate them is them.

Twitter, Facebook...all of it, feeds the brand not the person.

Your agent, PR company tell you to tweet, build up your fan base, it'll help your career.  That'll be the career that they're taking a commission on right? Your friends need to tell you when to stop, as their investment is much bigger - it's in you!

So we teach our students 'how to tweet', but we also tell them that it's not real.  After shows I'm RT'ing' like a person possessed, but I'm only going to be RT'ing' the good stuff aren't I? It's not real, it's a fantasy world that we all buy into and accept.

However, like in life, read what isn't being said (especially with the 'over sharer)? Then suggest that they get some help quickly.

How quickly a story spreads these days, and how thoughtlessly we can all fan the flames. Everyone 'sharing' a headline because 'it's interesting'? Well to someone it's not interesting at all. It's their life. Surely everyone deserves to have some privacy, especially when it's clear that they're struggling? Why share it? Why RT it? I guess you'll pick up a few followers yourself won't you....and so you too get 'validated' by the 'minions'.

Isn't it our responsibility as a college to teach our students about the potential perils of social networking? Isn't learning how to tweet responsibly as important a lesson to the contemporary performer as learning how to self tape? Then there's that elephant in the room, the one that looks like mental illness, but we can't name it can we? Easier to be part of the problem rather than helping to find the solution? But then we teach our students all about that too...so when the day comes that one of them is in trouble. We can but hope that the others run to help.

That's why The MTA could never get any bigger.  We need to evolve with the industry whilst taking care of our past.  We wouldn't have it any other way