Hi,
ampfixer
Depression is a complicated illness. It has a mental component but it can also have some real physical symptoms also. Fatigue, aches and pains are very common. I wish you well in getting it managed. Where there is life, there is hope.
No doubt.
And this is where a director, or helper is important, and can help define a detail and moment that the person can work with and still perform.
However, the best schools of acting, and the most important ones, work to break all/any mental barriers to any performance, and this is the part that is difficult to mention here, because most think that all they have to do is know their guitar part (so to speak!), and that's it, and all of a sudden they are in front of an audience of 5 or 500 or 5000, and they go ... wow ... and freeze.
Performance arts, are not for the weak, and the un-afraid.
Music schools are afraid to work on these sides/parts of the performance techniques, because the majority of things they know is the notes and chords, not the dimension and interpretation of music itself. You can easily see that in the output of musicians, in many schools ... they are all the same technical folks ... with no heart behind it, or that heart is hidden behind the mechanics. You have simply been taught "professional" mechanics.
You have to take your step forward, and slowly break out of it, but the more comfortable of actors and actresses, you will find them in theater, because it is much more than just learning their lines, and they know it. Film is less imposing, unless you consider the camera abusive, which is the case with some directors (won't discuss this here!), but something that can give a band an illusion about themselves, that they do not have on stage, and hurt their over all performance value.
I'm not the expert in this area, but in all my work, I have never had a single issue with this and any actor/actress, and one of the best jobs, EVER, by any of the folks I ever worked with, was done by a girl that had never been on the stage before, and she had the lead and was the point of interest in the whole thing. She not only nailed it, but got herself a great ovation.
I, personally, and I like to help kids develop their little art works, or writing or music, and give them little pointers to help the material not come off so boring, think, in a naive sort of way, that if you are afraid of your material and what you are doing, that you need to step back and look at it better, as this "inner fight", is going to prevent your development in the art form ... that's not to say that Susan or Julibee, or Karyn, should hang up their shoes, but all it tells me is that someone's teacher was so worried about mistakes,
that working on a piece becomes a "job" and not a wonderful day in the life of the music and your heart! And I take issue with those "teachers", because they are killing music, and people's ability to express themselves!
How is it that I can get a kid to finish a picture, and they will be proud of its finish when they show me, and instead for an adult here, the first thing most do is ... is it any good? Do you like it? ... and you miss out on the process itself while "inside of it", which is the BEST, and the ONLY teacher you will ever need! The rest is talk, including what I say, more importantly when you/me/anyone accidentally take it away from the moment that can teach you ... into the area that only confuses you.