The AC Story

As part-time Marketing Director for the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts, I am able to work in the Adirondacks and still live in New York City while I continue on a path towards a career in acting. But regardless of being an actor or a marketing director, there are always the age-old questions of “How do I look? What do they think of me? Am I doing a good job?” It is human nature to be concerned with what others think (even for the many who claim that they aren’t), yet there is something most unnatural about reading an article dedicated to the critique of your work… regardless of it being a school evaluation, job performance review, or in my case, a theatre critique. How can people sum up weeks, months or years of hard work with just a few sentences? And what if they got it wrong? Or just simply misunderstood? In my showLimonade Tous Les Jours, currently running Off-Broadway, I am for the first time dealing with the New York City Theater Review circuit. Now for someone who considers themselves rather confident and self-reliant, it is quite disarming to have the success or failure of your production dependent on somebody’s 300 words. Luckily enough, of the many reviews that have come in, only one has been particularly scathing. But what is interesting to me was outlined by one of my cast mates, Broadway, Film and TV legend, Austin Pendleton. “An actor can feel good when they get a nice review, even a great one. But it’s the negative reviews that one can actually use. Remember that feeling and store it for when your character might need it.” 

And I thought that’s true, there are things that make you feel better than a good review… a surprise party, a hug, a sunny day, but there aren’t  too many things that make you feel worse than a bad review. And while the feeling is strong, it isn’t particularly devastating or very life or death. I mean it can be, no one wants a bad job evaluation at their work, but if you don’t ever receive negative feedback, how can you be sure that what you’re doing is the opposite of that? That’s not to say I want more bad reviews, but I guess in order to learn, in order to grow, maybe a bad review is not so “bad”. If nothing else, it makes you appreciate the good. Now we’ve had several great reviews come in and hopefully more to come but now as  I look back at the work that I’ve done over the past weeks, I think well, I’ve done my homework, done my best, and for me, that is undeniable. There is always room for improvement, but as I walk out onto that stage every night, regardless of how I’m feeling, how my day went, what’s happening afterwards, for those moments, I’m giving all that I am. And for me that’s not only what theatre is about, but life as well. 

-Anton Briones

Marketing Director

(Incidentally enough thanks to some of the good reviews and support, the production has been extended to May 9th!)

Visit www.limonadetouslesjours.com for more info!