We were lucky to catch up with Lauren Evans recently and have shared our conversation below.
Lauren, thrilled to have you on the platform as I think our readers can really benefit from your insights and experiences. In particular, we’d love to hear about how you think about burnout, avoiding or overcoming burnout, etc.
By acknowledging that gestation is just as important as blooming. In more simple terms, acknowledging the value in pauses of productivity. Everything in nature submits humbly to its seasons and allows them all to take place. Understanding my own seasons and that their timing is the catalyst for the next to unfold will be the perpetual study I apply to what I think of as “me” and “my life”. I think of it as follows:
Spring – Inspiration from lived experience
Summer – The Creative Act
Fall – Integration of Actual experience
Winter – Gestation/Next Idea being lived
As an Artist, I thrive from the confluence created when my work is witnessed and generates accolades. Even this interview is a gift in that regard. However, to attempt to stay in the season of being witnessed, in the ‘Summer’ of the creative act so to speak, means I would not then glean from the Audience’s reaction to me, my reaction to them, my reaction to everything about putting my work out into the world. I will burn out and not be naturally led to the next season of living the seed of my next inspiration because I am exhausted instead of receptive to input. Jim Jarmusch has talked about the importance of Input/Output in the creative process; I am extrapolating that in more detail because the between is so rich with influence and vital to the Artist (and their Audience.)
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I was born in Toronto to parents of African-Jewish lineage. Being a child of immigrant parents is really fertile soil for the soul of an Artist. It certainly was for me. I was drawn to acting classes from a young age. I mean, foundation is really important for actors of any age. You’ve got to know how to break down a scene, a whole script, not only to understand but also to ensure that you’re never relying or blaming your performance on anyone else. That’s the kind of stuff you learn in Conservatory Theatre School. If you just rely on your feelings and moods you’re gonna burn out and always deep down know that your surroundings have more control over you and your work than you do. That doesn’t sustain a career. Training does. I went to George Brown Theatre School in Toronto. It was like the Acting Army. They really kick your ass. No diva’s allowed! Ha ha ha.
I have to address the obvious: This is a revolutionary time to be a SAG-AFTRA member, which I proudly am. It feels as though the arcane shame Actors who have yet to be recognized “names”, is finally melting off and is being replaced by a widespread understanding, appreciation (and hopefully forthcoming compensation) of their vital place in the Entertainment ecosystem. The current strike and picketing is like nothing I have ever experienced. There is a true sense of empowerment and collective rage in the air. It is humbling to be a part of and I am so grateful that our sister labor unions, namely the WGA, have been unwavering in their self-respecting requests of the AMPTP. I think Ms. Lombardini is losing as much sleep as unemployed artists do many months of the year as of late.
During the strike and in between other Film/TV projects, I continue to put out episodes of my years-long series ‘Waiting for Godot’ based metaphorically on the concept by Samuel Beckett’s 1952 iconic play. It is part Cinematic Art Installation, part run & gun indie film, and all parts me. I shoot, direct, edit, and star in it. The iphone is a very helpful tool. It is viewable on Instagram. Each episode is a minute or less. I use music as the narrative, so watch loud–but not at work!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The Ability to know.
When people talk about their childhood being a time when their artistic ability was more readily available to them, it can be distilled down to their inclination to perceive and approach something in a more abstract manner. I used to think Acting was “The pretend game”, that I just played with my brothers, my friends, my imaginary friends–anyone or no one. Then in school, it was named. They called it Drama class. I thought it was so weird to be taught something that I already knew how to do, innately. I was just glad to do at school, what I loved to fill time with at home. The ability to know what you know before the world names it for you is imperative in finding what it is that you truly want to do. It’s okay for this to not happen when you’re young in age. Being able to retain that knowing, even after training, study or exposure to others who do what you love is so essential in being able do what you do, authentically and not be creating from the outside in, trying to replicate someone else’s work.
The Ability to not know.
My approach when I was younger was entirely abstract. It just came from a feeling inside, instead of a thought suggested from the outside. That is the underlying quality of all Art; the quiet ability to not fill in the blank with assumptions of how something should go but to create space for the revelation of what is coming to be, the art’s final form, through one’s paying of attention and total curiosity in the birthing of its content. The Art of not knowing precedes all Art. Knowing is what curiosity and paying attention leaves in its wake. What I am NOT saying is that one’s best Art is created when they’re young, what I am saying is that the faculty of the mind to clear space and allow for a more innocent and abstract approach to one’s craft will create fertile conditions for surprise and inspiration. I actually think this approach would work well in any business endeavor. It’s problem-solving in its most elevated form. I have leaned into different tools such as meditation to help me hone this as I have gotten older and had to deal with my ego’s perpetual desire to fill in blanks and think it knows what will be, before it actually, is. But what I am pointing at is way beyond meditation it is a state of being; it is fertile receptivity.
The Ability to know again.
The third quality is allowing everything lived to be fertilizer for Art. Everything. Heartbreak. Winning the lottery. Losing one’s way. To trust that in between the time of actual creative work, one is germinating. This matters. This changes the relationship between the Artist and their life lived between projects as holding a sacred and actual value, instead of only allowing the world to dictate their value once witnessed (as a next work of Art). For example, I do not want to have my heart broken. I don’t want to struggle in any aspect of my life. However, everything I have lived, whatever it was, ends up serving me in my understanding and ability to truthfully bring to life, each role I play. Whether my ego categorizes it as wonderful or horrific, does not matter. Only my courage to tell the truth as it actually was and as I am now knowing it again to be, affords me entrance into the great room of Truth where all Art invites the Artist. The more honest I am, the more I earn the trust of the audience to come with me and feel what they may ordinarily resist in their waking life. Even if it’s only a flicker of a heartbeat that they come along. That’s enough. Everyone knows the feeling of being witnessed by Art and its ability to look you right in your face and say “Yes. Me too.” We don’t just feel seen, we feel known by the Art that we love.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
I’m going to answer this in a way that is sort of backward but it’s the truth. A Producer and Writer, Kyle Zanika who runs SSZ Films with his wonderful wife, Karmen, asked me if I had ever taught acting after we met through auditions for one of his projects. I never desired to, but upon his suggestion, I started coaching a young actor whom he cast in one of his projects. And then another. Teaching Acting between projects I’m actually in, has allowed me to refine what I know, lived, and created. This has bred greater acuity when I’m acting myself. It’s surprising and wonderful and has reignited my passion for Acting in a way that’s really surprising and fulfilling. I take a really personalized approach with each person and do with them what I always wanted coaches and professors to do with me; to see what I was dealing with as a human and not gloss over it, or ignore it, but provide guidance on how to fearlessly understand: how you do one thing is how you do everything. And to gently, but entirely, help them face themselves. Their true selves. Acting is the most supreme mind training work–if you let it be. Again, everything I’m teaching others gets reinforced within and I am more in love with Acting and the love letter it is to life than ever. I’m slated to work on a few projects in the next few months with SSZ Films. The only one I’m at liberty to discuss here is an indie feature ‘Zeta Volantis’ shooting April 2024. In essence, by helping others build and develop essential skills, qualities, and knowledge, I have amplified and refined them in myself. How humbling.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.imdb.com/
name/nm1543207/ - Instagram: @yeslaurenevans
- Twitter: @yeslaurenevans
Image Credits
Green Bodysuit and White Outfit photo credit: Sela Shiloni.
