Bartlett Sher’s Advice on Directing

July 8, 2009 by Dennis Baker 

Though he talks specifically about directing, I think this is good advice for all artists. It is interesting that Sher considers an artist not having debt “as a bit off the wall”. It says something of the state we are in that there is an assumption that after all the schooling an artist must go through, that it is a necessary evil that an artist will have a six-figure debt from their undergraduate and graduate studies.

Bartlett Sher American Theatre Wing“You have to see alot of stuff. You have to see everything, all over the world and all kinds of…dance and all kinds of things. Really learn about art and how people express themselves. You have to do alot obviously. It’s always really helpful to find some body who is a model for you. Even if you end up rejecting everything about them, somebody who inspires you greatly whether its in film or whatever else. And the last one is a little bit off the wall, but it’s, you know, stay out of debt. Its always a big one because debt is the one thing that can prevent you from having the freedom to stay in that place of being an artist as long as possible without having to go to the other side and ramped capitalism that we live in makes that extremely difficult because of all the other pressures about living.” – Bartlett Sher, Fluidity and Change: Directors 2009, American Theatre Wing

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Filed under: Theater/Theatre

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