Glasgow Acting Coach on…Mediocrity

Hi All.

I’m sorry to say that I look about me and see a lot of mediocre performances. Flat, lifeless crap and shabby, flabby, overdone shit. It’s frightening that these people got through drama school and are paid to perform in front of you. Under a unique law in the UK, you can’t ask for your ticket money back.

I believe mediocrity has slipped inside our business. Directors are accepting mediocrity because it’s better the Devil you know, than the Devil you don’t. It scares me what passes for performance these days. I rarely can bare to go the theatre, the plays are boring and the performances lack a shred of truth. Of course, there are exceptions. There are already exceptions. But rarely do I leave the theatre without thinking that ticket money would be really great in my honeymoon fund.

Mediocrity is all around us. People accept it, because it’s safe, it doesn’t challenge and it makes the people in power (you know the ones) feel safe because they don’t feel threatened. We daren’t upset THOSE people, they may be talentless, but by God, they’re powerful. And so we prostrate ourselves and join their mediocre band.

So how do we make a change? First of all, we don’t accept shite. We walk out of shows, we turn off the television, we leave the cinema and don’t return. Okay, that’s all unlikely to happen. Okay, how about this, the people in power realise that they have no need to be afraid, that the creative people are there to help. They offer not a threat, but a chance to excel and when you put your faith in these people, they will bring you a return on your investment.

We have also let diversity in the arts hurt us. What do I mean? Oh, I don’t mean like social diversity, I’m all for that. But there are hundreds, no thousands of acting courses. They can’t all be exceptional people. The training course providers have a moral and ethical responsibility. But of course, they won’t listen to me.

So, I urge you as individuals, because some of you will HAVE the power and some of you already HAVE the power, to insist on excellence and to consider all acts of mediocrity in the arts, and for me in acting particularly, as minor crimes against culture. I just mean that if you have the power, use it, use it to help the excellent to excel and the punish mediocrity with absence and silence.