One big lesson we can all learn from Tony season

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The Tony Award nominations were released last week. For theater geeks like me, this is our Super Bowl. We have our preferred “teams,” our favorite “players,” and passionate opinions about who does and does NOT deserve to win. My team of choice: A Strange Loop. It’s a special piece of theater for a lot of reasons. A Strange Loop centers a Black, queer protagonist; it’s also warm, hilarious, and brilliant enough to win the Pulitzer.

Something historic happened on Tony nomination day. L Morgan Lee was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical for her performance in A Strange Loop, making her the first openly transgender actress to receive a Tony nomination. It’s a beautiful thing. A necessary thing. A step in the right direction toward equity and representation in the arts.?

So what can we learn from L Morgan Lee and her history-making triumph? Keep reading.

Hitting a wall? Climb over it.?

I’ve heard “no” many, many, many times in my life. I started out as a musician, where you face rejection and criticism constantly. When I started my business 6 years ago, I thought that I’d at least be able to handle the rejection part well. I’d been applying to opportunities since I was a child, surely that was worse than this would be, right??

Wrong.?

It was different, but it wasn’t necessarily easier. No matter what you do for a living, hearing that someone doesn’t like what you’re doing or doesn’t want to work with you is tough to hear! Even the most confident among us can start to question our value when we experience a few of these losses in succession. Even if you know you weren’t the right fit for something, it’s still easy to slide down the slippery slope of “but what’s wrong with me?” Once your thoughts go down that path, it’s very difficult to turn them around. Trust me.?

I see this happen all the time. All of a sudden the focus is not on adjusting a tactic or business strategy that may not be working, it’s on you. On your worth, on who you are as a human being. And that, my friends, is a recipe for disaster. If you try to please everyone, you won’t please anyone.?

Not everyone is going to be on your team, no matter what you do or who you are. So you might as well be exactly who you are.?

If you feel this way, I want you to think about L Morgan Lee. While you may see the arts as an open, progressive haven (and it can be), in many ways, it is just the opposite. While progress has been made, stories still tend to center around white, cisgender, able-bodied, thin, heterosexual characters. The world is slow to change, and I’m sure that L Morgan knows that more than I ever could. If you’ve ever been walking around midtown Manhattan at 5am, you may have seen a long line of actors in leotards and winter coats, waiting by the dozens for a chance to be seen. Think about L Morgan in that line. Think of her in the audition, if she was able to make it inside. I know she heard “no,” just like you.?

But here she is.?

She had this to say to Playbill about her nomination:

“I hope someone will see this moment and feel like they can go on. No matter what the world, or school, or people tell them they are 'supposed' to be, how they are 'supposed' to sound, that they will keep striving to love and embrace the fullest version of who they are. That they can safely find breath in choosing truth. That they will keep studying and working and dreaming the biggest dreams."

L Morgan knows her worth, as a human being, as an artist, as a performer. It’s not easy, but it is one of the biggest differences I see between a successful thought leader and a struggling one. A professional “failure” isn’t the story of your life, it’s a moment. It’s a rock in your shoe. Keep going.?

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