Uncharted Territory

Abbie Britton M.A.

Description

Uncharted Territory: Life Lessons from The Theatre is a roadmap to creating a life of authenticity, despite fear, from the Academy Award winning actress, Estelle Parsons as told to her journalist daughter Abbie Britton, M.A
When one of the last remaining American theatre icons, Academy Award-winning actress Estelle Parsons, asked her journalist daughter, Abbie Britton, to record her professional accomplishments and the development of her acting process, Britton made an inspiring discovery: that here were lessons which anyone could live by.
In a fascinating personal investigation between actor and journalist, mother and daughter, Parsons shares her maverick spirit as she moved through uncharted territories in the theatre, and on the road in search of great plays to perform. This is for anyone whose compass may take them off the map into the unknowns of creativity. It is about how to become curious and release fears to craft a successful life. While the narrative provides common-sense and profound lessons, it also chronicle’s the gains and losses of complicated family relationships—encouraging anyone who wants to live courageously.
Uncharted Territory: Life Lessons from the Theatre, is a roadmap to a life of fearlessness and truth, and the places we go to discover our deepest sense of belonging, as told by Academy Award-winning actress Estelle Parsons to her journalist daughter, Abbie Britton.

Sujets

• Performing Arts
• Life Lessons
• Theatre
• Biography
• Authenticity
• Creativity
• Entertainment
• Acting
• Autobiography

Informations

• Publié par: Balboa Press
• Date de parution: 25 mai 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798765240557
• Langue: English

Extrait

UNCHARTED TERRITORY
LIFE LESSONS FROM THE THEATRE
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
AS TOLD BY ACADEMY AWARD WINNER
ESTELLE PARSONS,
TO HER DAUGHTER
ABBIE BRITTON, M.A.
 
 
 
 
 

 
Copyright © 2023 Abbie Britton.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
 
Balboa Press
A Division of Hay House
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.balboapress.com
844-682-1282
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
ISBN: 979-8-7652-4056-4 (sc)
ISBN: 979-8-7652-4057-1 (hc)
ISBN: 979-8-7652-4055-7 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023906619
 
Balboa Press rev. date: 05/23/2023
CONTENTS
Be A Maverick
You: The Instrument
Curiosity Creates Backbone
Discipline and Discovery
Follow Your North Star
Fear is Fertile Ground
When in Peril Stick to the Script
Abandonment Won’t Kill You
Survival Basics
Cry if you Must, But Problem Solve
Transformation Can Be Accidental
Don’t Make a Move Until You Have To
Change Plans
Do Something Useful
Go to the Horse’s Mouth
The Words You Speak Affect Your Body
Integrate Everything
Know Where You Are Going
 
About the Authors
 
For my fierce originals: Eben, Augustus, Sandy, and April. For my other side of the coin, Martha. Profound gratitude to Augustus Parsons Britton for being my editorial Jedi. And for all the dogs, creatures, and trees here and in the beyond with PZ. Tribe is all when facing lions.

Estelle Parsons in Orgasmo Adulto Escapes From The Zoo ©The Al Hirschfeld Foundation. www.AlHirschfeldFoundation.org

BE A MAVERICK
There is, on ancient maps, a classical phrase used by medieval cartographers: HIC SVNT LEONES when denoting unknown territories. The Latin translation is Here are Lions.
In this book we go there; where the wild lions live in uncharted territory, to the unknown place. Because there is where my mother has taken me.
I used to jokingly tell people that my mother was not born with the mothering/nurturing gene.
It wasn’t a joke.
Trust me, there will not be more on that later. This is not that type of book.
Because what she supplied me with was something far more important than a feeling of rightness and safety, a soft place to fall family—the things a regular mother is supposed to teach.
What my mother gave me is the maverick spirit.
A lifetime of going off the map; aggravating, hair raising, terrifying, inspiring, fearless, intrepid, adventurous times in pursuit of everything theatre.
She gave me maverick.
My mother is an explorer. What a gift.
My gift.
This book began at the request of my mother, Estelle Parsons, Academy Award winning actress ( Bonnie and Clyde , 1968), Obie winner and 5-time Tony Award Nominee. It was to be a record of all the things she had created and accomplished in the theatre. On stage, with an audience, not in front of a camera. But it soon became clear to me that what she was conveying was her capacity to become an inner Navy Seal diving into the stormy depths of her own internal wars and fiercely rising to the surface clutching treasure in hand: full blown truthful theatrical artistry and a life of authenticity.
I had thought this was just a small handbook for actors. What I discovered is that it is for anyone with a maverick spirit willing to move into uncharted territories where the wild lions live to discover their own truth, sometimes violent, sometimes terrifying, always honest, and finally peaceful and whole. My mother’s courage is what made her the actor she is today and always has been. She gave me an education of a different kind.
Our life (my twin sister Martha, mom and me) began with the traipsing’s of a nomad tribe. From theatre to theatre. A childhood of costume shops filled with hoop skirts, faux rags, soldier’s gear, Victorian boots, bustiers, tuxedos and anything one can imagine to transform a child’s world were Martha’s and my playground.
Dark matinee seats were our babysitter during the day, dressing rooms and pots of makeup kept us obsessively occupied by night. This was home.
Martha and I could sing and perform the entire score and recite every character’s dialogue of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera , and the entire libretto of The Fantastiks by the time we were eight having sat through so many performances day after day, while mom was in rehearsals for another play after play after play.
Often our bedtime was after midnight on a Naugahyde booth in a late-night bar and grill where the actors hung out after the show. The Espresso Café in Woodstock, New York, comes to mind.
A maverick childhood, worth beyond what is the imaginable in terms of inspiration, exploration, fun and wildly outside of the lines magic and mystery.
Theatre brats.
What came out of a life of picking up and searching across the country and half the globe for great parts, incredible texts, collaborative work, summer theatre, dinner theatre, any kind of theatrical experience, were life lessons . Mom will hate that idea. But it’s true. Life lessons from the theatre—for anyone who lives untethered, whose compass takes them at any moment off the map.
An education of a different kind…
Not purposeful life lessons. Bumbling in the dark ones: the way a play begins to shape itself—take some action on a stage and the life of a play and its characters begins to happen, something eventually makes sense.
Move into uncharted territory and eventually, if you survive, you find your way.
My mother is one of the last remaining American Theatre Icons. Indeed, she did a few movies to support the education of my sister and me, but from age six for her it has been the stage—an entirely different landscape, both inner and outer—than film. Even after winning an Academy Award for best supporting actress in Bonnie and Clyde , and being nominated the next year for Rachel, Rachel directed by Paul Newman, and hundreds of other awards and accolades—her impulse was to escape. Back to the theatre. To her home both in the dark and under the spotlights.
Her background certainly did not prepare her for this. And her family did not approve. When she told her father, Eben Parsons, after whom my older son Eben is named, that she was leaving law school, moving to New York to work on the Today Show on television, he said to her, “We Parsons don’t leave home.”
Full stop. Terrifying.
See, she was raised in the rigidities and crushing melancholy of New England Protestantism. Her family were founders of our country, the backbone of New England, attorneys, boatmen, intellectuals. They arrived on the big ships from England for God’s sake. Feelings? Suck it up and shut up. An actor might as well be a thief or a whore or institutionalized.
But then shape began to take shape. Through sheer force of take no prisoners action, a trajectory of creative importance.
A few things you should know about my mother, that I did not know until our three-week conversation that ended up being this book:
• She’s been acting since she was six years old.
• She’s created theatrical firsts which mark new territory in the way actors act and theatre happens.
• She doesn’t believe you can talk about acting, you must do it.
• She’s been practicing yoga for, oh, maybe 50 years.
• She believes that the most important thing an actor can do to release his or her talent is have therapy.
• She’s uncomfortable around people.
• There are two places she’s at home—in the theatre and the wilderness.
• She’d rather live out of a suitcase.
• When sh