I am currently attending the Hear Now Festival in Kansas City, Missouri. It is a gathering of many of the greats of voice acting, film, TV, animation and audio book narration, and related fields.
I am also getting to hear members of Firesign Theater weave their beautiful insane story magic multiple times. I cannot begin to tell you how happy that makes me.
This morning I attended a round table discussion by a group of top voice actors. We were invited to listen in as they discussed the state of their field.
At one point they were discussing the long grueling hours that voice actors and readers of audio books often put in. Which led, not surprisingly, to a discussion about burn-out.
One of the panelists, Donna Postel, then said something incredibly profound. She talked about her gradual recognition that you can’t just keep working non-stop.
In the long run, in order to continue to be good at your craft, you need to take care of your general health and well being. But the way she phrased it was beautiful.
I loved what she said so much that I wrote it down: “Self care is part of my job description.”