I am tired of plays with conventional characters. I am tired of plays with conventional sets, costume, and props. And I am especially tired of audiences that are so shut off from the awe of what theatre used to be.

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Holistically, the focus of my work applies to every art form as I am an artist not limited by my interest in one particular field. As such I have spent the last decade expanding my creative skills in acting, visual arts, fashion design, directing, as well as many other roles across the Arts industry. My past studies and current focus are primarily on live theatre which implements my beliefs in the following ways; I put my all into what I create through setting standards and wanting to strive for higher levels of learning, something I cannot do if I do not feel challenged to do so; the work I create will have my name on it and it will have my voice attached to it for centuries to come; it is fundamentally understood that one’s art is individual and in my personal belief, the use of AI destroys all individualism and creativity associated and therefore, erases the creator which I aim to avoid at all costs; and finally, to settle for convenience is to do the work and one’s imagination a great injustice that the art had been created for. It is because of these beliefs that art thrives and yet, to disagree with these statements is to contradict the application of creative skills and imagination which in turn, denies your own capabilities of creating art. To call yourself an artist, you must understand the purpose and meaning of creative art—which I should add, “Because I want to” is an acceptable answer. This is because it speaks to a deeper part of the soul that craves creation. It is essentially why we have ideas in the first place.

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Theatre, performance, and the Arts in its entirety comes from the act of giving purpose.

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“To be an artist is to spill your own blood”, is the first point of giving purpose to what you are creating. It is you who is creating the art you want to make and to leave your mark so, put in your all (AKA figuratively spilling your blood) and leave the mark -- bleeding your pride all over your work until it stains. You should want to. If you never wanted to finish the project you wouldn’t have started at all. So, do not waste your own time.

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“Your goal as an artist is always to start war with the normal”, Yet another point of clear purpose which also links to my third point; “If your art isn’t controversial, you aren’t an artist”. It is often said that art’s purpose is to; challenge, inspire, entertain, question, empower, and so on. It is to make a statement. And to make a statement is to make war with the normal. I hear you already, ‘But that doesn’t make it controversial!’ It does. To make a statement is to start a discussion. You do not go around stating the obvious just for the sake of it, do you? There is always a reason—always a purpose. There will always be something to discuss. There will always be a war.

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Ironically, the thing with the Arts industry is that to create in it, you are creating something so much bigger than yourself. Something so much bigger than most other jobs in any other industry. The reason behind this is the act of finding yourself, making and impact and inspiring someone else to find themselves too. Raëll Padamsee best describes this in an interview regarding her career in theatre, stating, “Theatre is an art form that demands discipline, passion, and an unquenchable thirst for learning… it is not just about learning a skill — it’s about discovering oneself” (Kohli, 2025). Because of the impact of theatre as an art in which people put their all into, several generations of history have considered it their souls’ home. It is and always will be the act of putting ones all into the work that this comfort can exist in a timeless manner.

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If you do not put passion, drive, and your all into your work, if you do not use art as a form of expression for what matters to you, if you use others work and claim it as your own, or if you excuse the potential of your art because you cannot be bothered then you are not creating art. You are wasting your time, and your imagination must be drifting elsewhere. And I highly recommend you catch up to it before you lose yourself too. In other words, if we as writers, directors, designers, performers, and all artists are collectively aware that the work being made is going to live in us, the audience, and in history forever, then we better make sure we say it with our chests. We better make sure we own it.

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- L