Fame

I'm collaborating on a play by a wonderful local actress, Gina Gold. One of the themes in the piece is the addiction to fame, to getting noticed, to being seen or heard, to ..to... to.. being loved.

In the theater world we understand the attraction to applause. Getting attention from an audience can be addicting; lack of attention from an audience can be devastating.

I notice that these days, non-theater folks seem to want fame too.

"I'm trying out for American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance and America's Got Talent." We can have a blog (ahem, like this one), we can see how many friends we've got on Facebook, followers on Twitter, connections on LinkedIn, how many hits on YouTube. My voice students long to catapult to Idol status; then they wonder why fame doesn't happen from singing a song fairly well along with a recording. Fame should be instant, like Facebook, right?

By the way, how are all the famous people doing? I wonder - when I read about the celebrities in rehab or on their sixth divorce. Is there something about the addiction to fame that makes us want more and more?

"The only reason to sing is because you love it," my 80 year old voice teacher, Margaret Sheldon, said to me years ago. We're seldom in control of whether we get noticed or not, so why not find something we love doing for its own sake? In a culture where we do things to "get" money or status or to "build" skills, I like the idea of "art for art's sake."

In fact, I think I'll take Mrs. Sheldon's wise advice even further. Maybe the only reason to live is because I love it.