Drama schools are promoted as being places of learning where you hone your skills as an actor before going out in "the real world" and are turned down by the exact people that run the drama centers. The artistic elite is very choosy when it comes to who they will ritualistically abuse. It is not good enough that you are simply willing to endure the constant criticism and micromanaging that comes along with a performance job. It is not even enough that, by some luck of the draw, you actually look the part. You must be a broken shell of your former self in order to impress the casting czars. That may seem far fetched. After all what would be the point in exercising emotions from actors, the people who should enjoy being emotional more than anyone else on the planet? Well, there is a point and it has nothing to do with extracting the best performance from the actor; it is about controlling the actor. The performance world is laced with stories of intrusive and aggressive "creative genius" as they, and every other idiot who loves abuse and abusers, like to call it. This "genius" is basically the same rude, dismissive and disinterested attitude that permeates through every profession in America; it is the notion that the work comes first, and the worker comes last. As an actor, you are to do your job and that is all, regardless of how capable you are at any current time of performing said job. This makes sense to many Americans. Working endlessly is a badge of honor, and, like all badges, a completely meaningless one at that. A person who is going through abuse will always search for ways to justify it; this is the reason most groups, schools or churches quickly deteriorate into cults. Casting agents, directors, producers and other abusers in entertainment dangle the carrot of fame and success over actors. They say, "well, just try a little harder; it's not that I cast the show wrong. That can't be it. I am a high paid artist and that means that I am always right. Everything I do is right and everything you do is wrong. If you were more like me than you would have gotten the role." Yes, it is quite easy to say such things while sitting in a million dollar house in the bay area or eating a steak dinner in a New York high rise. I mean, geniuses simply would not be paid if they did not deserve that money; they simply would not be where they are were not for all of the "sacrifices" they made. I often hear high paid artists refer to all of their "sacrifices"; they paint themselves as artistic martyrs, who suffered to forge a better world for artists everywhere. Reading their incredibly long bios, which take up more space on their home pages than any casting notice ever will and tends to list everything from school plays to times they bought out and subsequently ruined small theater groups (a common tactic used by big theaters to create monopolies so they do not have to pay actors), you would think that there were no problems at all for actors today. I mean, these rich artists have done a lot for us poor artists. They insults us for not looking the part, they turn their backs on us during pandemics, they forget our names as soon as we experience transportation issues, they laugh at us when we are sick and tell us to get over it. Thank god for these artsy fartsy types! How would I eat overpriced cheese and crackers without them? Of course behind their "giving" natures, the artistic elite have been caught time and again abusing their power and their entertainers. They have subjected normal, hard working artists to a kind of artistic monarchy where they and only they decide what is acceptable or unacceptable. Whenever you give that much power to a person, they are bound to abuse it, and they have abused their power. By making erroneous demands, injecting sexual situations where they do not belong, encouraging self harm, and creating unnecessary stress, these artistic captains of industry have ruined art for actors everywhere.