The other day, a friend and I watched a movie made in the year 1931. It was fascinating as the credits for the movie came at the start of it, unlike these days where it comes at the end. It made me think of all those moments I was at the movie theatre, when the credits and the music played at the end of the movie and most of the audience would just be walking out; most of us do not pay much attention to the names and job titles, that move at a rapid pace and are projected in so small a font, one would maybe catch one name out of every ten. There are often almost a thousand names but most of us aren’t even aware of who they are or what they do, except for the main actors and possibly directors or producers, who get bigger fonts and spaces for their names. These are the people we never see in the movie but are essential in the production of the film.
Back in the day when I was a teenager, I had daydreams of being an actor; of being the star of a movie, walking down the red carpet, being looked at and being admired. I was a rhythmic gymnast from age 12 to 16, as well as a dancer till 30, so being put in the spotlight was part of my life for a little bit, whenever I was on the competition floor or on the dance stage. When I became a coach at age 17, I learned to hold space for my gymnasts; this included multiple training sessions in a gym giving instruction, listening to lots of music, editing to fit the music pieces into a-minute-and-a half sequences, doing choreography; repetition day-in and day-out. Then competition day came, I woke up early with the gymnasts, did hair and make-up for them, led warm-ups and waited with the nervous gymnasts till their turns to perform came. Then when their minute-and-a-half routines were in progress, I had no control over the situation, I just had to stand by and watch in the background. If they performed as we had trained and were successful, then they were on the podium receiving their medals and flowers; I was on the sidelines clapping joyfully for all the fruits of our labours. If they didn’t perform well and they were emotionally down, I was there to console them and hold their hand after. There are no medals for the coaches. That is the life of a background artist.
In university, I minored in dance; every Spring we had a big stage production. One Spring, I was part of the dance production class, meaning that we learnt everything from performing on stage, to doing lighting, tech and music, to setting up props; we dressed in black, ran around doing jobs backstage looking inconspicuous but at the same time making sure that the performers were making their cues and being in the right place at the right time. Those backstage-helpers were there for most of the rehearsals and all the performances, but were not on stage at the end of the show, taking bows or receiving applause in front of the audience. In fact, when everyone went home, they were cleaning the stage front as well as back, and packing up material. It is essentially one of those jobs that we see on the movie-credits rapidly moving up the screen, that not many notice - the background artist.
I believe the biggest role of the background artist I have played so far is being a Mother, and I capitalize the `M,´ as it is a role so often overlooked. Many years ago as I worked as a dance coach for an artistic gymnastics academy in California, one of my bosses, Donna told me to enjoy my time and the attention then, as I had just gotten married, because once I had kids, she said everything would be about the children and everybody would ask how your kids are doing and not how you are. She was right. As a parent, not only is one the child-bearer, nurturer, care-giver, one is also the taxi-driver, psychologist, manager, etc. This is THE ultimate background artist job. One has to play every role possible, except being the center of attention, unless things do not work, in which case the Mother is often given the fault. There are often no credits given when things work out and let’s not talk about the salary, there is no financial renumeration. One of the most important “jobs” in life and is seldom positively acknowledged by our society. What we get as Mothers is one day in the year as acknowledgement, in most places on the second Sunday in May, which has been exploited by capitalism to sell us more stuff.
Let’s give real credit where it is due to the most essential background artist, who makes things work rain or shine. This Mother’s Day, let’s do something different, let’s not get stuff for our Mothers but gift them something real and meaningful, like time together or a home-cooked meal or a hand-made gift. Gift your Mom from the Heart and be present with her, leave the store-bought stuff in the store!
Image by Sevda from Pixabay
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