Wisdom: The Greatest Gift One Generation Can Give to Another (a) film(s) by Andrew Zuckerman
We’re talking about ‘beats’, timing, standing with your weight on both legs, supporting your voice from your diaphragm, characters and the multitude of nuances that come with making an entrance. That’s right! We’re in the scene-work phase (a.k.a. the coaching phase) of rehearsals for Columbia Entertainment Company’s production of Lanford Wilson’s Book of Days. In this phase of the rehearsal process we are repeatedly tearing every scene apart and gluing it back together. Short utterances of, “Okay? Better. Let’s do that again.” echo in the rehearsal space (read: gym). And I mean echo literally
This is beautiful, disturbing, strange and familiar. I posted this on FB, but I wanted to share it here to because it is a very clear example of “doing truthfully in imaginary circumstances”. She is so precise and committed to the action (the doing) that you don’t see the dancer dancing the dance, you see the character living the dance. Look at the precise and clear beats – there is no general overall wash of emotion – no “performer” in the performance. The fact that she is a superb dancer is a given. I am agog at her commitment to and precision with the action from moment to moment and movement to movement. You see only the life. My acting students will understand this question: Do you see the OVARIOS!?!
We’ve been rehearsing since the last week in February. We are currently immersed in the tech/dress process and the play opens tomorrow night. I’m exhausted. The actors, the stage manager, tech director, props mistress and costumer are all ready to set this play free and let it be what it will be. I am curious to see how audiences will react. I’ve grown too close, too myopic, too familiar to be objective at this point. The actors are ready for an audience. Will the audiences laugh? Certainly there is some fun to be had. Deep breath. I am feeling a bit worn out, strung out and very emotional. I’m low on self-care and high (as in flying) on Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Opening night is just slightly more than 24 hours away
Creative audacity is a lifelong journey that begins with our relationship to ourselves. We have to give ourselves permission to create before we can begin. The permission granted can only come from within and the internal gatekeeper is the inner critic. How much easier would creating and performing be if our inner critic became our ally – or just kept her mouth shut for awhile? My inner critic doesn’t have a name yet like some you will meet in the following stories, but whatever her name is – she uses some heavy ammo and she has spot on aim. Some of her best shots focus on my body: You’re fat. You’re too old. You have bad hair
Many of my posts are spontaneous. I think of something I want to write about, I happen to have access to the tools I need and I write. I was planning on writing something else today about my disintegrated organization and priority system and the re-imagining of a new system, but that excitement will have to wait. I’ve written about my body image issues before. Links to those posts are here: Body Image, Eating and Creativity Perfection is Death This is another one of those, but different
We’re working towards something here. We’re perfecting our craft. We’re evolving as our art is evolving. We’re sharing our beauty and our wisdom with those who long for it and…we are allowing ourselves to receive the intangible and tangible rewards that this sharing returns to us. I am the first to admit a failure to value my abilities, but every day I am also opening myself to the possibility that what I have to share is valuable. My goal is to allow myself to be supported by doing what I love and by offering that love to others. This week I was looking for examples of creative people who have taken what they love doing and have found a way to share their love with the world. Creative business owners and entrepreneurs who have allowed themselves to be rewarded spiritually and financially for their contributions to this wild and amazing world
I am still Wonderfully Distracted by Happiness so this post will not be nearly as polished as I want it to be. You know I love art and I love artists because they are brave and soulful and they fill my life with beauty – even when the art isn’t “pretty” they still fill my life with beauty. Since I began blogging and twittering I have connected with some truly talented people and I want to share some of my favorite virtual galleries with you. Just click and browse and breathe in the inspiration. All of the sites will open in another window so you can easily come back here to continue your gallery crawl
I read a horrible story yesterday and the sadness and ickiness and anger it generated is sticking with me for some reason. It was a story about a young woman who I went to college with. She was beautiful, lots of fun and, I thought, a little eccentric – but exciting. She was fun to hang around with. I remember walking downtown with her to get some TCBY and she carried a parasol – not an umbrella – a parasol. Her name was Margaret Trigg and she died in Bellevue in 2004. Here’s her story: The Perfect Margaret Trigg: The performance artist and sitcom actress would do anything to be a star, including making herself her own lethal science project. The story frightens me because is wakes up that part of me that can only be called self-loathing. It brings up a lot of anger about the industry that is “showbiz”. And it reminds me why I gave up on my acting career when I was 29. I couldn’t handle it. The industry took something I loved and turned it into a commodities market in which I felt I had no place
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