Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Fanny Kienberger. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Fanny, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your career and how did you resolve those issues?

Many artists, myself included, might shy away from admitting this, but sometimes you can fall out of love with what you do.

I had to face that challenge many times throughout my journey – and still do. Acting kind of got stuck with me unexpectedly and therefore, it always sort of served as an escape from the academic pressures and other things that were occupying my mind.

The true “falling out of love with the craft” came after graduating from acting school. The harsh reality of sustaining oneself solely as an artist hit hard. What was once a form of release from stress – became the very source of it. Daily applications, auditions, and self-tapes started to get on my nerves and frustrated me instead of bringing me joy. While I still cherished diving into characters and new projects, spending every waking hour trying to fulfill my artistic dream, became the very source of my anxiety. I realized I needed something that distracts me and has the potential to stress me out a bit, so I look forward to auditioning and filming self-tapes again. This led me to explore new areas. I started as a personal assistant in a creative company, far from the spotlight, which was hard because I hold a certain amount of arrogance and tendency to jealousy inside me like every actor. Still, and I didn’t think that was going to happen originally, I started to see the beauty in another aspect of the industry and still go home and get excited about the smallest self-tape. I am still too ignorant to accept the fact that it might be a while until I can fully support myself by being an actor/writer, but at least I don’t fall out of love with it anymore.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Fanny Kienberger and I am an Actor, Writer and occasional stage manager from Vienna, Austria. I wish I had a more interesting story about how being an artist became my job but it’s not that spectacular. I like to say that acting was never something I started, it was something that just weirdly happened to me. While I always had becoming a writer in the back of my head, I mostly felt lost when I was asked who I wanna be when I grow up. I spontaneously decided to take a detour when I was in Dublin and applied for the young actors program at The Lir at Trinity College. I saw it as a way to improve my writing by understanding what it’s like to be in the shoes of someone who has to bring the words of a stranger to life. Thinking back to my extremely talented, and for their age, very experienced classmates, I still don’t know why I got accepted to the program. I like to believe that someone dropped out last minute and they had to fill the spot. Anyways, after that, I just applied to some schools in Vienna and ended up taking a bunch of classes at the Film School Vienna and Vienna Shakespeare, while finishing my High School diploma in Tourism Marketing and Hotel Management (I know – super random). After graduating I moved to NYC to attend the two-year conservatory at The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute where besides acting, I was introduced to the world of stage managing, finally reconnected with my writing again and found my place in the world of the theatre of the absurd. Circling back to when I took that acting course at Trinity College, I now know what my goal as an artist is. It’s not only to bring my and hopefully someone else’s feelings and thoughts into words but to bring those words to life in whatever way possible. I think that is the reason why I fell in love with absurdist writers. The world is a crazy place, it is therefore nearly impossible for one to express their feelings in a “normal/mundane” way.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

My love for absurdist writers took a turn when a teacher at Strasberg introduced us to Elliot Norton’s interview with Martin Esslin. In this interview, Esslin, who basically invented the term “Theatre of the Absurd”, dives into the topic of every artist’s fight with finding “the true meaning” of a piece. I, like many writers and actors, often fall into the trap of forcing emotion and a certain message into my work. However, when Esslin starts talking about symbolism and metaphors, which are tools I like to use as a writer, and how you should “Look at it as it is, and then it becomes all the other things” really got me thinking. In the end, the simplest ideas can hold the most powerful meaning, as long as they are honest. This interview is a must-watch for any actor or writer wrestling with the idea of “finding the meaning” and will also change anyone’s approach when criticizing someone’s work.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I guess most people would think the answer to this question is the money, attention, and compliments that come with being an artist. And surely those things are nice, but for most creatives, the true reward lies deeper. It’s the moment you get any sort of reaction or thought from an audience member or peer. When I perform or write, I always appreciate the common courtesy of people telling me how great it was post-performance. But what I actually crave are those rare moments where one person out of a hundred stops me and tells me a part of my work resonated with them or caused a feeling they didn’t expect. And what’s even better is when somebody comes up to me and in all honesty tells me they didn’t really understand what was going on and starts asking me questions. Because that means, even if my writing or performance isn’t immediately understood, for whatever reason my words stuck with them and made them want to figure out the meaning.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://fannykienberger1.wixsite.com/fanny-kienberger
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/fannykienberger?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fanny.kienberger.3?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/fanny-kienberger-b09954299
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/Mqxic3xZFnw?si=qG683oKIpi2HnEmi