It's also where you are.

 This is the long-overdue second in a series of posts about geography and its effect on artistic practise. See the first here.

At the risk of sounding cynical in this and my previous entry, let me acknowledge that some of the hardest working, most talented actors, writers and directors I've come across have been administrative assistants, retail sales people, systems administrators, copyrighters, soldiers, bakers, candle-stick makers. It remains, however, especially outside of Canada's cities, that these moonlighters feel compelled to be just that, in the interest of eking out a decent standard of living. "Artist" is not available as a primary self-identification in a rural environment.  The arts are always presented as pipe-dreams. There are few, if any, visible models for Theatre as a career path to follow.

Theatre, the arts, and entertainment as a whole are an industry that looks dramatically different on the outside than it does from the inside. I did not find other artists per se, in my rural area, so much as I found keenly enthusiastic, and often rather talented amateurs. Well meaning people who's inspiration could have come from their devotion to Glee.  People who come to the art, having seen it from the outside, and assume that they too will shine glamorously under the lights and pizazz if you let them. But, you know, since they run a car wash, work at the McCain factory, or manage the SuperStore, they're just doing this for fun, ok, so will only be here on Thursday for 3 hours. God, Nanette. Why do you have to take this so seriously?

Rejected from NTS (A hilarious story for another day) I headed to the closest University campus, fully convinced by the world around me of the foolishness of my desires, and enrolled in a BA programme in Fredericton, NB. Despite being a small town even by Canadian standards, Freddy Beach seemed to me at the time, to be The Big City(tm). And it was. There were bookstores, record shops (both corporate and independent) there were bars with live bands. There were concerts. There was the Playhouse. The Beaverbrook Gallery. An arts community. A whole new world of culture that I hadn't even considered tapping into simply because it's very existence, I'd been taught, was totally unrealistic. But it was real. And there I was.

It is often said that show business is all about who you know. This is true, in a lot of ways, but it's not nearly as important as where you are.