THE MUSE #81
In this edition: Happy Graduation Season! To celebrate the beginning of this next chapter, we revisit Bryce’s letter to the 2020 Nine Muses Lab graduates.
A Letter to Nine Muses Lab Graduates from Bryce Dallas Howard
To my beloved Nine Muses Lab graduates,
I enrolled in NYU Tisch the fall of 1999. I and many others were on edge about Y2K but felt pretty confident and excited about the new millennium — as long as we got through New Year's Eve, which we thankfully did.
When I left school two and a half years later (and a year and a half before graduating), it was December 2001 and the world had changed forever. The concerns of Y2K seemed like a joke in comparison.
I left school ahead of graduating because I got an off-Broadway acting job. Given how the industry was significantly struggling after 9/11, I jumped at the opportunity to work professionally, especially as it would allow me to join the Actors’ Equity Association. But I fully intended on graduating one day. In fact, I continually deferred the following semester and the semesters after that, hoping that instead of “dropping out,” I was simply taking a “leave of absence.” Again, and again, and again.
I was lucky enough to continue getting acting work and by the time I was twenty-one, I was making a living doing exactly what I loved to do most. However, I legitimately missed school and dreamed of one day getting my masters, which meant I needed my BFA. So I enrolled part-time at an accredited university with the goal of eventually transferring credits back to NYU.
In the last two decades, my career has continued to include ever-evolving passions and curiosities. I got married to my college sweetheart and we had two awesome kids. There have been world events where we felt the rug pulled out from underneath us (hi, 2008) and personal challenges that led to a real crisis of confidence (looking at you, motherhood). Despite all this, continuing to pursue my degree and complete schoolwork never felt like a chore. I had put off taking my social science classes while at NYU, so I enrolled in various sociology and psychology classes. I took literature and philosophy courses — heavy academic stuff, and I was ready for it in a way I would never have been earlier. Since I wasn’t physically in New York, I couldn’t complete my studio credits, so they were converted into even more social science and humanities credits. I got so hooked on classes that if I was curious about a class but knew full well it didn’t fall exactly into what qualified as a credit that would transfer, I would still take the class! “Writing for Video Games,” “Creative Nonfiction," and “Entertainment Law” to name just a few.
As the years passed, a passion for personal development and learning blossomed. Similarly, a desire to exist within a community of individuals who were also experiencing the transformative effects of an education. I remained focused and determined to complete my degree and often fantasized about walking at graduation. I wasn’t at all intimidated by the fact I would be decades older than the majority of graduates. Seth (my husband) and I did the math and realized that many babies born the year I first started NYU were probably graduating alongside me, which made me even more excited. How wild, how weird, and what a great story.
In fact, many of my friends and family have asked me, “Will you walk?” “OF COURSE!” I always say. During these last few semesters of teaching I have thought many times, “Wow, it’s going to be such an amazing experience to graduate alongside so many of my students.”
But now, here, standing before you (theoretically) as both your fellow classmate and your teacher, I am keenly aware of the incredible privilege of my position. Upon my “missed” graduation, I will not be entering the workforce and the adult world for the first time.
I am thirty-nine years old and while there is still so much uncertainty ahead, I have significantly less uncertainty in my life now than I did when I left school two decades ago in my early twenties. And even then, I left because I got a professional acting job! I cannot imagine what I would feel right now in your shoes. Not only incredibly bewildered and bummed to have missed my graduation, but quite overwhelmed by the prospect of entering the world when we don’t have any way to imagine or understand what that world will be.
When I reflect on the more eventful global moments in the twenty years since I left NYU, I’m aware of two things: (1) this is a bigger deal than anything else that has happened for a very long time and friends and (2) family, but at this age especially friends, get you through everything. I mean, of course we know this from the 90s hit Friends, but I’m reminding you here. It’s not just friends who are soothing and nurturing and make you feel seen, although, those friendships are vital. The friendships I’m talking about cultivating are ones that make you feel alive.
Reach out to people who inspire you, excite you, impress you, fascinate you; folks who might be acquaintances rather than your best friend. Reach out to peers and find ways to consistently connect with one another post graduation. I have no idea what in the world the entertainment and storytelling industry will look like on the other side of this, but I can for sure have a say in the matter of who I am standing beside, and who is standing beside me.
You are all going to “make it.” You just are. You are all winners and I know you are ALL going to make it — either in the conventional sense or the unconventional sense. You are all going to truly find success in your lives and careers and I am so certain about it and am looking forward to it all unfolding. How much success depends on who you surround yourself with.
Are the people you are spending time with smart and funny as hell — in fact, smarter and funnier than you? Articulate and helpful? Thoughtful and inventive? Charismatic and winning? Unique and courageous? Curious and generous? Responsible and hardworking? Yes? Awesome. Now think of ways you can support them. Assist them. Encourage them. Work with them. We can so easily see opportunities for others, and less so for ourselves. This will get you working, creating, generating, connecting, and growing.
Are the people you are spending time with not the above? Then proceed with caution. It makes all the difference in the world.
My primary goal for this class was to connect peers and creatives with one another, not so you would all become best friends, but so you would have a common foundation with like-minded and respectful individuals who will empower you and show up for you in the years ahead and the challenges to come. Keep this community in your life, I promise it'll pay off big time. Staying connected takes effort, now more than ever. I know. But at this moment in your life, you are in the habit of making an effort and a considerable one at that. So keep the habits going.
Most of you have accomplished in four years what took me twenty one, and not only that, you prevailed in the midst of a global pandemic, sitting through Zoom call movement classes, transforming your live work to new mediums, and showing us millennials what the future of creativity and collaboration could look like. You are a creative, innovative, brave, loving, and worthy bunch. I have learned so much from you all, and I am honored to be your collaborator. And I also must say, as your teacher, I am so proud of you.
Though the world and future you are stepping into is ever-changing, I believe you will move forward with the same determination, spirit, humor, and passion that has been required of you in order to simply get through this semester. I hope you know that I am with you, cheering you on, all the way.
David Brooks’ article titled, “A Commencement Address Too Honest to Deliver in Person,” perfectly describes an attitude I myself am going to embrace upon graduation. I'm serious!
"Use this hiatus to do something you would never have done if this emergency hadn’t hit. When the lockdown lifts, move to another state or country. Take some job that never would have made sense if you were worrying about building a career—bartender, handyman, AmeriCorps volunteer. Don’t worry about where the job you take puts you on any status hierarchy. Our society’s career status hierarchy is in the midst of changing anyway. Instead, try to do something that people will ask you about for the rest of your life."
And if there is one mantra from class that you remember, I hope it is the following:
Go a layer deeper. The process of gaining mastery is ultimately what provides creative longevity. I encourage you to find your Bullet Journal and return to our first prompts about goals, intentions, and dreams. Do another free write and go a layer deeper. This applies to all aspects of life. When you are cleaning, you can go a layer deeper. When you are asking someone questions and they don’t seem like themselves, you can go a layer deeper. Keep mining until you strike gold. Push yourself to break through the surface of whatever challenges lie before you, and as you face those obstacles, continue to move through them with the immense grace you have already shown. You are well on your way to mastery. You are well on your way to making it.
Congratulations to Class of 2020, we did it!!
xo
bdh
Newsworthy & Opinions
2022 Tony nominations mark a historic shift on Broadway
"The announcement of the 2022 Tony nominations was one for the history books. Not just because the Tony Awards themselves are hitting their milestone 75th year. […] L Morgan Lee of A Strange Loop is the first out trans performer to be nominated for a Tony. Adam Rigg, scenic designer of The Skin of Our Teeth, is the first out nonbinary designer nominated. Toby Marlow, SIX co-creator recognized for Best Original Score, is the first out nonbinary composer-lyricist nominated. Lileana Blain-Cruz and Camille A. Brown are the second and third Black women to be nominated for Best Direction of a Play. … Seven performers were nominated as Leading Actor in a Play, the first time the category has seen that many nominees since 1958.... 68 nominees are first-timers, and of those, 40 are nominated for their Broadway debut.” Read Broadway News’ full report and responses from nominees here.
“If a muse knocked at our studio door tomorrow, how many of us would even notice?”
Newsletter run by Nia Farrell, Director of Development & Production at Nine Muses Entertainment
