We were lucky to catch up with Craig De Lorenzo recently and have shared our conversation below.

Craig, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I learned from seeking out others who were doing what I wanted to do. I sought out teachers who knew something that I didn’t. From a young age, I was lucky to discover that I was passionate about “movie making.” I loved movies and spent all day, every day, consuming them. Afterwards, I would run around outside with my friends, “playing movies.” It was an important distinction – I was never “playing Superman…” I was playing “the movie of Superman.” I was always imaginatively recreating a “movie.” This led to my parents taking me to live theater for the first time. I found out that I didn’t have to wait to grow up – I could be making movies now as well as making theater. I became obsessed with theater and plays and I started it all by entering the performing space. That was a wonderful place to start. Everything comes down to the actors at the end of the day. It’s a collaboration, but they are the instruments with which the story resonates on. It taught me, not only about craft, but about life. How to navigate people and the world. A vital lesson I’m still learning. Throughout my teens, I became very serious about acting. I wanted to imitate my favorite actors. I read everything I could about them. I learned where they studied and then I went to those places, in an attempt to learn what they had learned. As I’ve gotten older, my container has grown bigger to encompass the other aspects of theater and movie making – such as directing and writing. That’s truly where it all started for me – wanting to envision my own stories. I’v come to learn that I am obsessed with dramatic storytelling. It’s a craft that is filled with endless learning. I also learned that it’s a craft that requires you to learn how it works for you. I can’t be any of my heroes. I can’t be Francis Ford Coppola or Pedro Almodovar. The world has them already. I can only be me. And that’s quite exciting, when you fully embrace that possibility.

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?

I started out as a professional child actor in the Atlanta area. I spent all of my formative years performing in professional plays. I did commercials and toured around the Southeast, doing children’s theater. This led me to studying drama at Carnegie Mellon. I learned “how to learn” which is the best thing you can get out of those programs. Afterwards, you leave and enter the real world – where you really learn your craft. I came out too young and too green, going through massive growing pains while failing at every audition I could get my hands on. And it was worth it. I grew more from my failures than successes. What was really important, is that I was cast in big parts in small plays with no money. They were at really great regional theaters with modest budgets. I never cared about money. As long as I could put five dollars in my car to get me to the theater and back, everything was good. But what I learned at those theaters was how to carry the play while working with older, more experienced actors. Most of the plays were two handers. They required a lot from me. I could have been in a Broadway show, playing a spear holder making way more money ( and believe me, I wanted to!) but I wouldn’t have learned no where near as much. I also had to work restaurant jobs (and still do) to keep my artistic goals afloat. This has taught me a huge lesson – to always be humble, no matter what stage you are in your life. You have to be adaptable. You’re never above anything. And you can learn from things that you think have nothing to do with your craft, but actually do in the long run. I have learned so much from waiting on my fellow human beings; observing them in their moments of celebration, loss, anger, resentment, hunger and everything else that happens at the watering hole. All of it has been brought into my work and creativity. I’m proud of my work ethic, but I’m most proud of my resilience. Work ethic is important, but the ability to keep getting back up in the face of failure or rejection, is vital. It’s about staying with something, regardless of how hard or unexpected it may turn out to be. The question I always ask myself: if nothing were to change right now in your life for the rest of your time on earth; if you were to never become as successful as you wish to be…would you give up all your artistic endeavors? The question is: absolutely not.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My goal is to tell stories that invite people to really see who we are. What our real nature is – with no shame attached. Stories that can be experienced on a visceral level (plays, movies, music) have the power to really change and shift things. I don’t really think I want to change anybody – I don’t know if I have that power. But I certainly want people to see things differently. More nuanced, deeper, surprising. Maybe a type of person or a way of thinking or a time in history that they thought they knew, but don’t really. And I want them to see these things by having an experience. I don’t want to tell them it. I don’t want to lecture it to them. I don’t want to shout at them. I want them to experience it. I want to create the necessary environment for them to have a point of departure. I want to do this through creating an experience where you feel that you are with the characters, going through the things they’re going through, getting as close to that experience as one can while still watching from a safe distance. This is what other artists and craftspeople have done for me. They’ve given me an experience where I felt I was there, in those circumstances, having those feelings, wanting to do those things. This is what a great story can do. It can connect you to a part of yourself that you never even knew was in you. This deepens the well.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Learning. The best thing is having to seek out ingredients. Creativity is like cooking. Every project is different and every dish requires their own ingredients. Going out and finding and discovering those ingredients is the best. It opens your eyes to things you never thought were interesting, and before you know it, not only are they interesting, but they connect to you on a level that you never thought was there in the first place. For example, this morning, I read in the newspaper about a tailor – a very well known and respected tailor in New York. He made suits and had done this for some of the most important people in the world. Where did he learn this craft? In Auschiwitz. It was a skill that helped him survive, because that was the only way to survive, is if you were useful. In the paper, he said that was the moment when he learned that clothes had power. I never thought about clothing and fashion put in those terms before. You can make an entire story out of that one phrase alone. It has changed the entire way I think about fashion – not just as a means of expression but as a means of survival. This is what being an artist can give you – a point of view. As an artist, you have to have a point of view.