We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Altaire Gural. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Altaire below.
Altaire, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you wish you had started sooner?
Altaire Gural
I’m a novelist, playwright, screenwriter and professional acting coach for film and television. I came to my multihyphenate career rather late in life (I’m now fifty three), and though my path has been circuitous, I acknowledge that I needed varying skill sets to get to where I now find myself. I was never a student for traditional learning, but it wasn’t until I was in my forties that I was diagnosed with ADD and dyslexia. Sadly, that led to a lot of self doubt regarding my artistic leanings for the first half of my life.
Having said that, my life experiences outside of academia have considerably enhanced my abilities as a writer, stage director and teacher. I don’t think I could have done what I do now, given that I didn’t have the tools at the time that make me stand out.
It’s never too late to pivot.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My children attending theatre brought me back to my writing roots, and my eventual directing of youth for stage, with a large number of my students moving on to professional careers in the industry. Over time, through word of mouth via talent agents and casting directors, clients began seeking me out for audition coaching. My particular superpower is understanding text, and relaying it in a way psychologically that is highly relatable to clients.
With my coaching, I see the individual actor, and what they’re particular power is, and marrying that to their specific auditions so that what is unique to them is not lost in the audition process. They often leave a mark in Casting’s memory for future projects too as a result. I glow when any of my students excel, but obviously I’m most proud of my own children and their careers, with their films premiering at festivals such as Tribeca, TIFF, VIFF, Whistler, Florence, Palm Springs, etc. Also, they’re just really good people. So, there’s that.
It was inevitable, having read hundreds of scripts/sides a year, that I would become savvy rather quickly at determining strengths, weaknesses and patterns in the script writing process itself, and I’ve been tapped to write several features for production companies slated to go to camera in 2024/2025,
With my writing in particular, I’m blown away that I just completed a YA novel titled Forgotten (Bannister Press 2024). My struggles with ADD made this seem like an impossible task at first, and I wrestled with myself, not understanding that my issues were bigger than a mere lack of willpower. My brain is definitely a wild horse.
I’d had the idea for Forgotten years before, but my daughter read some of the chapters I was tinkering with and asked me to turn it into a play. I completed the play first (2014), and it’s been performed by theatre troupes and schools in England, Scotland, Australia, Canada and the U.S. Every time a school performed it, the students would skype me and ask when it would become a book or a movie. I’m only half kidding when I say I think I finished the book out of guilt. I’m happy to say that Forgotten has since been optioned for television.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
My answer will not speak specifically to management or entrepreneurial thinking. But I will speak to those who have anything to do with relaying the human experience in a similar capacity to me (writers, directors, acting coaches, drama teachers):
Get your hands on as much written material as you can regarding psychology, social drama, cognitive behaviour therapy, dealing with dysfunction and family dynamics (and in particular, the Drama Triangle), and ideas such as Attachment styles, etc. You’d be amazed at how many scripts I read (published and unpublished plays, etc. as well) where the writer or director/producers do not understand these dynamics, so stories are not layered authentically, and character arcs are untruthful. You’ll do yourself a tremendous service by mining these kinds of tools. This applies to actors with self tapes/auditions as well.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Stop telling children that artistic careers are not viable.
Without art, what are we?
My father was a brilliant, artistic man. It was ingrained in him by his mother that financial security was far more important than pursuing anything as frivolous as his music and art. I got to see first hand how being financially secure in a 9 to 5 job for his entire life was not the right fit for him, and it ultimately destroyed him. This has guided me in how I handle my own dreams, and the dreams of others.
I’ve mentored playwrighting and screenwriting high school students in co-op programs. I advise former students when they reach out. I think we learn to walk a balance of charging for our art, and giving back to those who will appreciate it and send the process forward to the next group. As long as the tank is not depleted, we’re on the right path. But that’s always an individual choice.
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Image Credits
self, Jordan Harvey, Rachelle Richard Mack