Meet Carla Kissane

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Carla Kissane. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Carla, so happy to have you with us today and there is so much we want to ask you about. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others developed certain skills or qualities that we are struggling with can be helpful. Along those lines, we’d love to hear from you about how you developed your ability to take risk?

I trained as an actor at an elite performing arts college in Australia with talent-based entry and a policy of culling students who didn’t perform well. At the end of my first year, I was told I was at risk of failing, and had six weeks to prove myself. The staff told me that there was nothing ‘wrong’ but that they had been ‘waiting for me to fly’ and encouraged me to ‘take more risks, and make more mistakes’. I couldn’t believe I was going to fail because I wasn’t making enough mistakes!
I did my utmost to take this advice to heart, to put myself at risk throughout my classes and I ended up passing and making it to the end of the three year degree. I also discovered that in order to be at risk as an actor, I needed to live a life that supported my ability to take risks. In my second year of training I was directed by an industry giant who gave me top marks along with the comment ‘If you don’t take big risks, you won’t receive big rewards.’ This shifted my understanding as to WHY I would choose to take risks. Rather than risk to avoid failure, I could risk in order to be rewarded. It was a different paradigm, and I embraced the mental upgrade from a mentor I trusted. Years after graduation, I discovered I had gone slack on my risk taking again – I started to try things that ‘scared’ me professionally, and found that they weren’t actually much of a stretch of my proven ability. That my concept of what I was capable of was much lower than the goals I could actually achieve. I started to set the bar higher, and found that I still cleared it, with ease. So I set the bar higher again, and then I started ‘just’ making it. Then I knew I was actually closer to a growth mindset – a space where I may, or may not achieve a goal was much closer to training my ability to be courageous and try new things. These days, I occasionally fail at goals, which I’m happy to admit, having finally learnt how to adjust my expectations so that I’m often in a place of challenge and growth. I’ve found that that space of being at risk is akin to surprise, and that surprise often goes hand-in-hand with delight, followed by laughter. There’s a Gloria Steinem quote that sums it up perfectly for me: “Laughter is the only free emotion – the only one that can’t be compelled. We can be made to fear. We can even be made to believe we’re in love because, if we’re kept dependent and isolated for long enough, we bond in order to survive. But laughter explodes like an aha! It comes when the punch line changes everything that has gone before, when two opposites collide and make a third and when we suddenly see a new reality…laughter is an orgasm of the mind.” Isn’t that great? I’ll also admit that laughter is my favorite reward for taking a risk.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I’m Carla Kissane (she / hers) and my passion is solo performance of Shakespearean Cabaret.
‘Carlotta-B-from-1593’ – my clown, time-traveling raconteur and alter-ego believes in the power of words to be wielded as a weapon to speak truth to power. She is devoted to the development of new works which highlight the satirical nature of Shakespearean text. By interrogating the language and the structures and systems of thought that pervade our belief systems and cultural landscapes today, ‘The Ultimate Feminist Shakespearean Contemporary Leading Lady’ shows us how to hold up the mirror to nature in the most frank, poetic and lyrical of ways.
Carlotta’s shows to date include ‘Whores and Weeping Women’ (2012-2021) ‘Unbecoming’ (2022) and ‘Petty Tyrant’ (2023-2025)
She’s also premiering a new piece called ‘Sonnets and the Self’ at the SPEAK UP! Festival in honor of Youth Pride at the Old Stone House in Brooklyn on June 21st from 12-3pm. It’s a collaboration with Opera on Tap, La Nuestra Tango and Shakespeare Slay Fest for Brooklyn Pride – free, family-friendly and open to all!
More details here: https://www.shakespeareancabaret.com/speak-up-festival
You can donate to help us pay the artists here: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/opera-on-tap/speak-up-festival-help-us-pay-the-artists

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

For me it’s patience, generosity and kindness. My practice, performance, abilities and skills have shifted profoundly over the two decades I’ve been a professional performing artist. Patience ensures I’m always a student, always humble – but there can be no alchemy without patience. Nothing can transform without adding time and discipline to a practice, no miracle is sweeter than a miracle wrought by patience. Generosity is essentially proof of greatness. The people I look up to are unwaveringly generous, even when it seems unwarranted. Generosity is also its own reward. It’s like a warm fire – the heat you generate from building this fire warms yourself, as well as everything within reach. It’s wise to be generous. Generosity makes more, and the cycle of life continues in this way. Kindness is essential in every pathway in life – and particularly in a profession known for scarcity and competition. The truth is – there will always be a more skilled, talented performer than me. But kindness is always memorable. I love the quote from Maya Angelou ‘“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” As a performer, I have the ability to influence how people feel on stage, through my performance, but that means nothing if it’s not magnified by how I treat people offstage. Everyone is worthy to be listened to and appreciated with respect – and kindness just goes the extra mile and makes people feel valued and cherished. That’s my goal.

Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?

I was trained in a feedback system known as ‘via negative’. This translates as only being directed or given feedback when something isn’t working. That may sound harsh, but it builds an incredible resilience and trust in your own process that it’s hard to replicate. In clowning, you always know when it’s working. There’s instant feedback when an audience laughs, or gasps, or waits with bated breath. When it’s not working, you are searching for the way to get back to what WAS working! That’s where feedback and efforts to learn to improve are really useful. For this reason, I firmly believe in going all in on strengths! I’m someone who tends towards a lack of self-confidence than over-confidence – so focussing on my strengths allows me to be on the front-foot and be unapologetic about making an offering of my self and my art. Sure enough, I’ll be presented with my shortcomings along the way- and can then address these as they arise. I’m also someone who doesn’t shy away from spending the time to repair the net before going back to fish. So, for my sensibilities, it’s not an either / or paradigm – I’ll be spending time on my strengths AND my weaknesses…but I love to lead with an open heart, a beginner mind and a feeling of permission to put my best foot forward, whilst being open to the moment when it’s time to stop, listen and learn what didn’t work before starting again. That’s what practice is for, and I love to practice. For me, the practice itself is the gift.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Josh McClure – (image 1, 6 and 8)
Nelson Luna (image 2, 5 and 7)
Michelle Baginski (satirical sketch)
Iman Fate (Unbecoming poster, image 4)

Josh McClure also took the ‘hero image’ – the one photo I selected as the main image.

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