We recently connected with Lynn Adrianna Freedman and have shared our conversation below.
Lynn Adrianna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
As an artist, the learning process never ends. Even at my age, and with my level of experience, I’m still constantly digging to go deeper in my work, find more honesty and spontaneity in my performances, and push myself to stay out of my comfort zone. I’m currently in a play which has been a wonderful vehicle for the learning process. The story is lean and mean. Not a lot of exposition, but a solid plot, relationships and arc. Theater is a great training ground. Especially if you’re fortunate to have a wonderful story, cast and director (like I do with this show). However, when you’re not a famous actor, there can be long stretches of unemployment, and those times can be soul crushing. In 2022, I had 114 auditions, 4 pins (when it’s down to you, and one or two other actors) and only one official booking. It was a hard year. But, my acting class saved me. In spite of the constant disappointment around not booking jobs, I’d go and sit in class and listen to my teacher talk about the craft with such reverence and expertise, and it would enervate me. It didn’t matter that I’d already graduated from Conservatory, or read a zillion plays and books on the craft, or worked a ton, I needed to be back in a learning place in order to re-fill my artistic cup, get inspired and keep going. Being an artist can be challenging, but if you can maintain a growth mindset, and choose to see the slow times as opportunities for learning, the rewards are endless.
Lynn Adrianna, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m one of those lucky people who’ve always known what I wanted to do. I had my first lead in a play at the age of six and I’ve been performing, in some way, ever since. Whether it’s on a stage, in front of the camera, or teaching an acting class, performance for me has always been about sharing and collaborating. It’s truly a give and take. I love creating, exchanging ideas, learning, giving back, and most of all, growth. When you’re an actor, growth is a never-ending part of your job. Whether you’re growing in a class, in a role, or through the process of self discovery, your work as an actor is only as good as, or as honest, as you allow it to be. That’s very exciting to me.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck. Every screenplay or play I’ve ever read. I also highly recommend reading fiction regularly which forces the brain to practice imagining what’s on the page, which is integral for an actor. I’m an avid reader, but a few of my favorite books are NW by Zadie Smith, All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, The Wind Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami, The Human Stain by Philip Roth and basically anything by John Irving.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Even though I come from an artistic family where my goals felt supported, I realized that I was also given some dissenting messaging that I hope to avoid passing on to my own kid. In my family, there was a cap to dreams, there was the concept of “being realistic”. I could be an actress or a dancer but I also had to “be realistic”. I didn’t quite understand what that meant; were my big dreams unrealistic? Should I aim lower? Was that because I wasn’t good enough?
Even though I railed against those concepts as a young woman, whenever I didn’t book a job, that voice which touted “realistic” would say, see? You were unrealistic. You can’t do that. You’re not good enough.
In hindsight, I know that messaging was only expressed to me in an effort to protect me from the inherent disappointments of my chosen career, but I’ve had to work really hard to unlearn it. In life, there are disappointments. There is rejection. There is injustice. I try to teach my daughter and my students that this is something that they can expect and learn to accept, as opposed to something that they should try to avoid. There is no dream that’s too big. Now, if my family had offered realistic solutions to my big dreams, like goal setting, then perhaps that insidious messaging could’ve been helpful…
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1842419/
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/lynnadrianna811/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynnadrianna/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lynnadrianna811
- Other: https://linktr.ee/lynnadriannafreedman Teaching stuff: https://www.freedominartstudio.com https://www.instagram.com/freedominartstudio/
Image Credits
headshots by Matt Kallish