Coffee with Stanislavsky

Stanislavsky asked (and I paraphrase), 'Why, when the violinist, the artist, the poet and the writer practice their art daily, does the dramatic artist see fit to sit around coffee houses all day and pray for the gift of Apollo in the evening?'

I can reliably report to you that indeed the coffee houses of L.A are  full of actors sitting around drinking coffee. The same can be said of the coffee houses of New York and London too. That's a lot of coffee.  Of course, in between jobs, when they are not drinking the stuff (and you may wonder if actors really need all that extra caffeine) they're serving the stuff. 

Yes, an entire industry would collapse if there were simply more acting work to go round.

Some answer Stanislavsky's question by saying that to practice acting one needs other actors.  Unlike painting a picture or writing a poem, acting cannot be fully realized alone but elements of the actor's work CAN be addressed and should be, such as physical conditioning, vocal warm-ups, cold reading and speech exercises.

Actors will be hanging around coffee houses until the end of time. They are a sociable bunch, bless them and there is real validity in socializing. Artists are notoriously bad at selling themselves so if his/her morning Mocha gives the actor an opportunity to network, then good! Let the execs keep their golf course, the actor has the coffee house.