Bruce Lee by Eli

Bruce Lee by Eli - November 2018 Scholarship Essay

My quote would be something from Bruce Lee. That quote is "Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is your own." This saying is from the point of view of an artist, specifically an actor. I've been a connoisseur for acting for quite some time and while I was in a Shakespeare apprenticeship, I was introduced to this quote while working on my personal monologue. Ever since that quote has stuck with me like a tattoo because when you create something with criteria there is sticking to the guidelines but it's also important to include something in there that especially makes it YOUR work. This doesn't even have to be in the setting of the theater, it can be when you're writing an essay, cooking a dish with a distinct recipe, or even giving a speech. It's important to embrace the things that help your creation, turn down stuff you don't need, and include the things that are your own.
To break it down part by part, when adapting what is useful, it's coming from an outside source and it just helps whatever you're creating. Adapting what is useful is following a cookbook, the text of a script, or following the guidelines for a piece of art. It can also be interpreted as advice or critique from someone trying to help you. There's also finding what is useful, that's where the experimentation of creating takes its place. Sometimes like preparing a Shakespeare monologue can take weeks with the right work ethic because Shakespeare has been construed in different ways for centuries so there's always the process of finding what works for you personally.
Next, there's rejecting what is useless. This will be happening a lot when experimenting with your craft. When producing a project, there will be a lot of times where you feel like something isn't working for you, and when that feeling occurs, that probably means you should try something different. When something is useless, it doesn't mean it's completely worthless, it just means that some things just don't work for what you're doing right now, and there's nothing wrong with that. When creating a song, speech, monologue, dance, a piece of art, the list goes on and on there will always be something that doesn't work and you get a simple feeling that it needs a different approach.
Finally, and most importantly, adding what is your own. Artists, actors, musicians, and dancers all have their own place in the world because they all have something different from the person on their left and the person on the right. Imagine how boring Shakespeare would be if his plays were performed the same way at every production for four centuries! People dedicate their lives to studying his work because everyone has their own personal view of how his text is meant to be interpreted. Every scene, monologue, line, every word has its own meaning and those who idolize Shakespeare because they see something different than others and that's what makes that work their own. There's nothing interesting about seeing one actor do the famous "To Be or Not To Be" monologue from Hamlet if every did actor did it the exact same way, that's what makes us human.