Many people go their entire lives without knowing what their true passion is. They pursue a career that will either please their family and friends or one that will result in a high-paying salary. It is an all-new breed of individuals that know what they want to do for the rest of their life and decide to explore that avenue regardless of opinion or monetary benefits. Melissa Jane Shaw is one of those exceptional individuals.
Melissa Jane Shaw, commonly referred to as MJ, has always had a passion for the performing arts. Growing up in the fast-paced entertainment industry beginning at the age of eight, she has acquired a skill that only a seasoned veteran can possess: the ability to be a successful performer while still having a life separate from the stage. She is truly an all-round artist, entrepreneur, and actor.
In the past four months, MJ has worked with prolific and nationally-recognized playwrights Norm Foster and Tara Beagan, with travels to British Columbia and New Brunswick, all in the sake of her passion: Acting. Although she has played four different roles in that period of time, she is still able to maintain a strong sense of self. She recalls a role that involved being beaten and killed on stage every night, and when she would walk out of the theatre her body would feel the after effects of an abused woman. She would have to make a conscious effort to tell her mind that although her body is feeling the effects that it’s not real. Jokingly she says, “I am able to separate myself. I walk out as MJ. Staying in a role, that’s how people go crazy. I am a human being first."
Some of her more recent characters have ranged from a telegram delivering porn star to a melancholy girl with a sad outlook on everything in her life. MJ believes “taking up certain roles and being able to tap into different facets of my characters is more therapeutic than I think it is.” The popular idiom - walk a mile in my shoes - is one that describes the experience MJ has any time she jumps head first into a role. Whenever she hits the stage, she is able to strip away MJ and become a totally different person for the performance. Having the opportunity to experiment with a variety of characters, attitudes, and mindsets, she is able to explore her individuality and become comfortable with who she is. “It makes me more secure and it does make me brave in many aspects.”
As any responsible adult will tell you, it is always smart to have a backup plan. MJ has taken the concept of a backup plan a few steps further and has created several for herself. She founded Seventh Stage Productions in 2005 with the intention of creating a firm that produces theatre, film, TV as well as providing corporate entertainment and job opportunities for artists in the industry. Shortly after, Seventh Stage Productions was broken into two more manageable entities: a charitable women's based theatre company, and a small developing film and television production company. In 2008, the corporate entertainment division was also separated to form La Rouge Entertainment.
Wearing the businesswoman and producer hat is a big challenge to MJ, but one that she has embraced openly and willingly. In the beginning, she recalls that “pure ignorance made me think it was easy. I have to move from thinking in a non-linear way as an artist to being linear as a producer. The further along I get, the harder it gets.” The trick to being just as successful a producer as an artist is closing the floodgates of emotions when heading into a business atmosphere. “As an artist I have to be sensitive, open, cry, yell, fly, jump at anytime and as a businesswoman I had to worry about sponsors, money, organizing, answering emails or dealing with 200 rejection letters. I have to shut off or be a disaster. The reality of business is that you can’t react emotionally.”
MJ believes that although the business world was not created for, or by, women, we can succeed in it. Innately women are emotional beings and the language of business is totally and completely void of emotion. She explains that when she goes into a meeting immediately after a rehearsal or performance, it is like she is speaking a completely different language from her male counterparts. However, she acknowledges that women have been born to be multi-taskers because we do what is required to get what we need whether it be as a wife, mother, or businesswoman.
Entrepreneur MJ would, without a doubt, choose to be Artist MJ if she had to, but having the resources, time, energy, and health to do both has empowered her in an extraordinary way. In the span of the past five years, she has been able to help hundreds of women find their place as an artist in this dog-eat-dog world and “that empowers me even more.”
If you are a struggling artist or just an artist looking to break into the world of film, theatre and television, MJ advises that you employ an element of business to your craft whether it be with a website or by just making use of social media websites like Facebook and Twitter to promote yourself.
MJ, in conjunction with Seventh Stage Productions, is hosting the Canadian Premiere of 9 Parts of Desire at The Theatre Centre from May 19-23. For more information call the Box Office at 416.538.0988 or visit TOTix.
Women's Post is a proud media sponsor of 9 Parts of Desire.
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