Meet Dana Schwartz

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

Dana, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

Ugh, Imposter Syndrome. The thing that every woman and like three dudes has, where no matter how talented or successful or respected you are in your field, you feel like you actually don’t know anything about anything and any second, someone is going to find out. Or everyone is going to find out.

You know how many books there are about Imposter Syndrome? I looked it up. 762. Podcasts? 574. Articles? I don’t know, I got bored googling, but I’ll bet you it’s a lot.

And they all have amazing titles; “Own Your Greatness.” “Escape Your Mind-Trap.” “Un-Fuck Your Brain.” Honestly though, sometimes I worry that if I were to actually Un-Fuck my brain, I wouldn’t even recognize myself.

Imposter Syndrome seems to get worse with age, at least with the people in my world. We used to be young and carefree and skinny and gorgeous and probably like 5 inches taller. I was always told that with age comes wisdom! We will no longer care what people think! We are confident and secure in who we are!

Lies.

With age comes terror. The absolute certainty that whatever you have done or are doing it’s wrong or it’s not enough. Everything becomes a thing. Dramatic. God forbid, performative. Buying firming cream and eye bag cream and wrinkle cream and neck cream. Drawing on eyebrows and cheekbones and lips. Dressing with a wink at fashion but focusing more on classics in muted tones.

Even the way I write now is performative – I make sure to single space after a period because I read somewhere that two spaces shows you’re over 40 and no one wants that! I’ve taught myself to reformat.

The sneaky thing about Imposter Syndrome is that it takes all of your worst words and uses them against you. My top five worst words are average, medium, fine, ambivalent and competent. And moist. Obviously. Imposter Syndrome takes a word like “competent”, a perfectly lovely word that can mean expert or gifted, and turns it into a word that means tolerable. Decent. Good enough.

And the worst parts, the most humiliating things, are those moments when you really do feel like you’re crushing it. You feel like you’re actually pretty great at whatever you’re doing. You kill an audition or you give advice to a friend that genuinely helps or your kid does something and you’re like “wow that’s good parenting right there!” And then you don’t get cast. Or the friend gets back together with the toxic nightmare. Or your kid graffities the locker room. And whee, you spiral right back into the muck. That Imposter Syndrome mud bath. And you soak in it. Because let’s be honest, familiar is soothing, even at its most insipid.

And then. I met a guru. Named Derek.

I was at a conference for Stage Directors and Choreographers from all over the country. We had a week’s worth of 12 hour days full of workshops and guest artists and seeing plays and talking about theater and drinking margaritas and – why am I here is everyone going to know I don’t have any idea what I’m doing or how bad I am at everything I’m doing oh my god I’m medium medium medium – and one day, we had a round table discussion about – guess what – Imposter Syndrome.

Because of course we did. Of the 26 of us selected to be there, 23 identified as women and 17 of us were over 40. And all of us seemed to suffer from this insidious force. Except Derek. Derek is neither female presenting nor over 40. And in this discussion, we all went around the circle and performatively spoke about how we feel like frauds and blah blah whine, and then we get to Derek and he says this:

“I love Imposter Syndrome. I am 100% full stop an imposter. The first time someone asked me to direct something, I had no idea what I was doing and I was like “hell yeah I can direct!” and I just did it. Every job I get feels like I pulled a fast one. Every grant I win feels like money I stole from the government. I have no clue what I’m doing half the time and it’s great!”

I was struck dumb. This was a revelation. This spoke to a place so deep in my soul. This place that has been beaten up and scabbed over and dehydrated like a sad gross raisin. When he said that, “I love Imposter Syndrome!”, a tiny light flicked on. And I remembered that for a long time, my motto was “How Hard Can It Be!” That’s who I was. The How Hard Can It Be girl. And sure, sometimes the answer was “very” but who cares, hard things are fun. I know, I heard it too. But hard things ARE fun! And I’m good at figuring stuff out! I LIKE to figure it out!

So, maybe I needed to reformat this too. What if I told Imposter Syndrome to go “Un-Fuck” herself and starting looking at those moments instead as How Hard Can It Be moments. What if I don’t have to be the expert, the pro, the hitter. What if I simply have fun and be willing to play. Willing to say “I don’t know, let’s figure it out!”

What if – and this a little subversive so hang on – what if the ability to figure things out on the fly is the true mark of an expert.

Here’s the thing. We all have buckets we need filled. If you don’t understand this analogy, let me momsplain. “Filling your bucket” is a way of looking at all the facets of your life – social, emotional, mental, physical, whatever – and making sure that you find ways to keep them all rich and full and in balance.

Imposter Syndrome tells you that your buckets stupid, and that of course no one has filled them because you suck. How Hard Can It Be tells you that if your “friendship” bucket is a little empty, it’s okay to call a friend and chat about nothing for an hour. If your “sleepy” bucket is low, take a nap! If your “salty snack” bucket is hungry, eat a carb! So what the hell, I’m trying a little re-formating. I mean, how hard can it be?

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I’m a Los Angeles Theater artist. I’m a Playwright, Director, Actress, Producer and Prop Designer. I’m also the Program Director for the MADLab New Play Development Program at Moving Arts Theatre in Atwater Village. Theater is my first love and longest relationship! I adore working in theaters small and large, all around the country and the world. Los Angeles theater is a very special community, filled with incredible multi-hyphenate artists who love theater. Though many have very active careers in television, film and video as well, they remain dedicated to the theater.

I do a lot of work as a Director and Dramaturg, with a focus on New Work. I love working with writers to develop their plays and take them off the page onto the stage. Adding audience to a production is my favorite step, because it’s an unknown quantity and changes every performance. I am also a playwright, and love writing dark comedy with a focus on womens’ stories. I’m interested in pushing aside the veil and talking about women’s stories, sharing them with a wide audience and hopefully making people laugh as well. As an actress, I’ve been very lucky to work with wonderful writers and directors over the years, and as my own journey from ingenue to “non-genue” has progressed, I’ve loved taking on different and rich characters.

The MADLab program is one of my proudest projects. I get to work with writers from idea to public presentation of their new plays in a year. It’s so exciting to watch other artists at work, and I’m absolutely blown away by the incredible creativity and originality of the LA writers I get to work with each year.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

As someone who has focused on the theater, I would say work in a lot of different places. Expand your world as much as you can. Even in a situation that might feel mundane or boring, you can always find something that sparkles. Look for extraordinary moments in ordinary situations.

I would say the three qualities that serve me best are creativity, thoughtful engagement with other people, and my ability to be in awe.

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?

I was so lucky to have had parents who never said “that’s not for you to do”. It didn’t matter if I wanted to learn the saxophone or play soccer or move to Florida for a year to do dinner theater, they would help me figure out a way to do it. We didn’t have a lot of “extras” growing up, but they always found ways for us to have the things that matter. That innovation and open minded atmosphere allowed me to become all the things I wanted to be. There were rules and boundaries of course, but they were wonderful about empowering me to find creative ways to explore the world. They gave me roots and wings. I hope I’m empowering my kids to do the same.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.danawritesplays.com
• Instagram: danaschwartz24
• Facebook: dana.schwartz.733
• Other: https://movingarts.org/about-the-program/