¶ … Dance
Jose Quintero's If You Don't Dance they Beat You is a recounting of his career as a stage director, in particular his time in New York. He worked with a many famous actors during this period. The book contains a lot of valuable information for actors and other people in the theater about what the theater business is like.
He talks a lot about his career, and reflects on what it has meant to his life. He recounts how becoming successful changed him, and the way he looked at life. He captures well the spirit of the artist, the place from which the artist derives satisfaction and the challenges that the artist faces in finding satisfaction in art and life. It is quite relatable to people who have artistic tendencies, even those not as successful as Quintero was.
The title refers to the reality that in theater, or indeed other forms of art, there is a necessary compromise that has to be made between one's artistic ambitions and the demands of the audience. Ultimately, it is the audience that pays the bills. The audience must be pleased with the work. This is true of anybody else who is putting money, for example financing a production. The performers in particular have to be able dance if that is what is required (metaphorically speaking) but the director does as well, in a sense, because he must cater to the demands of the audience. In show business, you have to give people the show that they want, even if that is not the same as the show you want. This is one of the central lessons that Quintero...
He notes that success is something that often just sort of appears. One day you do not have much success, and you are just working hard like everybody else. Then, suddenly, you are famous and successful. Things can change quickly in a business where somebody has a high level of exposure, and that is a something that can be quite frightening for many. Living with success is one of the bigger challenges in show business.
He also tries to explain how to capture the magical things. He muses on seeing the things you cannot see, on being able to reveal things that others cannot see. Actors and directors in particular have to be able to capture the soul of things. Quintero usually directed the plays of other people; actors must play characters not themselves. As such, they must be able to identify the essence of something and express that essence clearly and concisely. When they do this, they are creating magic, but this is also quite difficult to do.
I like the book, because of what it can teach us about artistic endeavor, and the theater specifically. The stories he uses to illustrate his points are pulled directly from his experiences doing theater at the highest level. But ultimately, they are about all art, and about the conflicts artists face. They must be commercial enough to live well, but at the same time they must also fill their soul in a way that only performing or writing…
