DIY Theatre: Not About Yourself

Do It Yourself theatre is not a new idea for me. I know about wokring hard for projects I care about and using non-traditional methods to see those projects through. Just because its not a new idea to me doesn’t mean I don’t smile wide when I see it hit the news.

So reading this article definitely brought a smile to my face. Not only was there plenty of Do It Yourself spirit in it, there was a book titled DIY (Do. It. Yourself.) linked about taking art into your own hands.

But what really struck me about this article was when it talked about the collaborative process that goes along with any Do It Yourself project. It put the focus on the collaborators and not the self in this instance. In fact, the measure of success came from the growth of the collaborators and the successes they see. So instead of Do It Yourself the concept given was Do It Together.

Do.                                                                                                                                                                                             It.                                                                                                                                                                                   Together.

OH HELL YES! I will admit that I am a bit greedy when it comes to any self-officiated project I work on. I get very Memememe and only want to think of my own growth. I sort of put other people’s successes as a bi-product of my own success. In other words, if I am succeeding and doing my job right than everyone else probably is too. This is to say I won’t help or care about other peoples work, but it is to say I overlook their success. It shouldn’t be that way

The takeaway? I know I need to put other people’s successes over mine in any collaborative process. At the end everyone is going to see the collaborative work, not just the section of work that I did. Sure I should do my job to the best of my ability, but I need to think back to the days when I played sports.

Sports?

My coach always highlighted that the team is only as good as its worst player because they are on the field too. This meant that everyone needed to work their hardest, and anyone excelling above the rest needed to drop back to help the people trailing behind. If someone couldn’t throw, you helped them learn how. If someone was having trouble finishing a miracle mile, you ran beside them. It was a matter of making everyone better for the experience, and something I lost sight of.

So going on into the future I will no longer DIY, I will DIT, do it together.