On the way home from a political fundraiser for a local dad running for political office, talk turned to how much his wife had to do to pull together the event on short notice.
The Husband said of the politician dad, “He wouldn’t be possible without her.”
Moments later, my mind returned to a conversation during one of the breaks during the mask workshop I’m taking this weekend. Ensemble companies were being discussed one their merit and why some had disbanded. Mid-career women, one part of a small self-producing company another who had written her thesis on ensemble theatre were discussing a well known group that had fallen apart “after they all had babies”. A passionate young man broke in to say a variant of “If people want to create that kind of art they shouldn’t have families.”
Not until I was on the way home did I think to myself, firemen still get to have families, police officers still get to have families, mountain climbers have families, even that strange French man who climbs buildings like Spiderman, has a wife and kids. Why are performing artists who generate new work expected to devote their lives to to their practice while at the same time doing without the family that for many people is the primary reason they get out of bed to go to work each day. Only priests and nuns are held to such a vocational standard.