The Importance of Humility, Confidence, and Graciousness in Theatre

Written by Pandora Scooter

August 7, 2017

The first rule of artistry is humility.

Though we don’t always like to admit it, there will always be someone better, more talented, more skilled, more effective, more innovative, more popular, more anything than you.  Even if you’re Bono or Kevin Spacey or Helen Mirren or Meryl Streep – there are still limits to what you can do.  There are so few true Renaissance artists in existence, ones who can “do it all.”  And as soon as they do, someone else comes along and does one thing better than they do. It’s the nature of the business.



With this in mind, it is so vital to remember that your worst and best competition is yourself. Working on sharpening your skills, achieving goals you set for yourself and not trying to “out do” other artists is key. Being an artist can be set in a competitive context, but being an artist, in and of itself, is not competitive. It’s creative. And being creative is about being true and open to your impulses – which may be entirely different from anyone else’s impulses. So, your play about political enemies is going to be entirely different from another writers. And one actor’s Hamlet will ring totally different from another actor’s.



I’m always listening to rappers and thinking, “why can’t I do that?”  “I would be so much more popular if I could do that.”  “I need to learn that.”  And then I sit down to write a rap and I end up with a ballad.  Or some spoken word piece.  Because that’s where my voice is.  That’s where my rhythm is.  As much as I appreciate rap and admire those who do it oh-so-well, I’m not able to create rap.  But I can create a mean spoken word piece that sounds just about as organic and conversational and real and challenging as ever.  That’s my forte.  And I feel confident about it, while also always pushing myself to get better at it.  To go deeper. Deeper each time.



Humility is not the opposite of confidence. Humility is the opposite of arrogance. Being arrogant may get a person popular and noticed, but it’s rarely going to make a good artist. To me, underneath every arrogant artist is a truly insecure being who is, at core, worried about not being good enough. This is what pushes him to do better, to hone his skills, to be the best.  And that’s where some of our great art has come from. But it is so much easier to be a confident, humble artist. Confident that your stroke of your pen will come from your heart and if it doesn’t, you’ll know it to change it. Confident to know that your artistic choices will  resonate with yourself and if they do not, you will alter them.

Humility is the first essential element to being an artist. Confidence is the second.



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Pandora Scooter is a national touring performer.  She’s written and performed 13 solo shows. Most recently, she wrote, produced and starred in a feminist punk rock musical called wRETCH as part of the Fresh Fruit Festival.  On the faculty of the esteemed Terry Knickerbocker studio, she has developed a methodology to script analysis about which she has written a book.  She is a native of Washington DC and lives with her fiance and daughter in central New Jersey.