Meet Brian Delate

We recently connected with Brian Delate and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Brian, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

For me, a combination of things. For one thing, I learned over time to either succeed or fail, but don’t quit. As a kid, I quit a lot. In high school, I gave up with achieving. That changed when I when I was drafted into the army, where I was subjected to a strong structure. I was excellent with the tasks at hand and learned i possessed leadership skills and confidence I didn’t know I had. The war in Vietnam went even further with the responsibility I was handed. There were times over there when I wanted to give up and somehow I didn’t. That overall work ethic became an asset with college following the war. And allowed for taking risks as far as my career in the arts.

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?

As a writer and performer, I have channeled my experience as a veteran and theatre/film artist to address the issues of veteran suicide and PTSD. I was doing well in the entertainment business until 911. On that day, I was downtown and stood underneath the first airliner that plowed into the World Trade Center. My war experience emerged almost immediately, which forced me to seek help at the VA. Soonafter, I began to take stories into the Actors Studio and developed the play Memorial Day, which expressed the issues of combat, suicide and the hope that is possible with addressing these topics. I performed Memorial Day in a variety of places, culminating in two nights in Hanoi, Vietnam in front of the former enemy. The success was shocking in the best way. Healing for all concerned. Fast forward to today. Guardian Angels is a solo show I developed, again at The Actors Studio. GA is a story about the guardian angels in this world and the ones that reside outside of time and space. I had a one-time experience, a close encounter with entities not of this world. The encounter with these entities from Beyond provided an experience that was filled with Truth, Beauty and Goodness. Combining the war and its aftermath, along with the message relayed to me — ‘You need to live as long as you can’ was a divine convergence. We filmed the last show of Guardian Angels, with projections and added a setup scene and a score. Guardian Angels is now headed to the film festival world.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I would say, continuing to develop my writing skills through classes and aligning myself with other writers. Being willing to make mistakes and learn from them. As far as any advice, I’ll repeat, succeed or fail but don’t give up. And be patient with yourself. Learn that any of these endeavors require belief in what you’re doing and a vision that will inspire.

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?

In college I took a reading course that changed my life. In my second year I discovered theatre. Acting and directing became my focus and a number of wise real life guardian angels pointed the way. As a professional, the Actors Studio provided an arena to explore, take risks and absorb the help I needed.

Image Credits

None needed.