The Art of Dramatic Living

Rehearsals have started in earnest for George F. Walker’s Adult Entertainment at Theatre NXS. Last night was the first rehearsal with the entire cast and tonight will be our first run-thru. The first run-thru is also known as a stumble-thru. There’s no telling what will or won’t happen tonight.

But I forgot a little piece of news. While I was in Texas, I got a call from the director, LR Hults, asking me to play a different role. I was playing Pam – a newly single mother who is still tangled up with her ex-husband, Donny, who is a drunken loser of a cop. Now I’m playing Jayne – a public defender whose given up on herself and her clients.

Some of my favorite people have been very busy creating courses and teleclasses and all sorts of goodies so let me tell you all about what I found this week.

Alyson B. Stanfield, the Art Biz Coach will begin a course called Cultivate Your Collectors on July 8. This looks like a content rich power house for artists who are ready to promote themselves and create returning customers and loyal business relationships. Even though her coaching site and her blog are focused on supporting the visual artist, I have learned a lot from the articles and materials she has available. I recommended her to an artist friend of mine who is ready for his own show – even if he doesn’t know it yet (hint, hint).

Warning! This post is long because I’m on valium. Read on to find out why.

I want to share some things about this amazing journey of creativity and right-livelihood. I’m going to tell you a story about my first ever just launched acting class in my first ever just rented studio space. The first class was on Saturday, June 20. But I need to travel back in time a bit – all the way back to Thursday, June 18.

Thursday afternoon around 2:40 PM, I was in my office at the day-job and I was talking to our student assistant about this or that. I looked away from him and turned back to my computer and the room began to spin. Spin as in rotate around me in a circular motion! I thought it was a blood sugar issue since I’m not so good about eating when I’m busy. Fine. No biggie.

Since the acting class is launching this weekend, I’ve thought a lot about right livelihood for artists and creatives.

I love teaching and sharing with other people when I feel I have something to offer. In spite of this, the class isn’t full. I’m barely gonna scrape by to recover my studio expenses which means I need to craft a bigger vision.

So the sites I searched this week have to do with business and marketing and independent living. They have to do with creating a living by doing the work you love. And some of them are focused on the transition from being an employee to owning your own business.

I am in Abilene Texas today enjoying the air conditioning, wearing SPF 50 sunblock and visiting with lots of folks I haven’t seen in a long long time. This post will be short, but I want to share with you some of the things I have been thinking about this week and some of the resources I found while on the road.

I was searching around for info about myths as metaphors for the creative process. The internet – being basically a literal beast – found this for me: Myths About Creativity on CreatingMinds.org. The first sub-heading caught my eye, “Creativity is Stupid”. I’ve never heard it said quite that blatantly, but I’ve confronted this belief more than once in my lifetime. I’ve come across many people who perceive creative people as unrealistic airy-fairy idealists who can’t cope with responsibility.

Hello. I am off on vacation starting tomorrow. I’ll be heading to West Texas to visit my dad and my sister and attend my 25th high school reunion.Twenty five years!

The Friday Post will (if all things go as planned) be posted on Friday, but I’m not likely to get much up between now and then.

Reminder: Acting Classes begin June 20th and will meet Saturday mornings from 10:00 – 12:00. If you are interested or have some questions about the class send me an email. You can reach me through the contact page on this site or find me on Twitter or Facebook.

Rehearsals will start in earnest for Adult Entertainment when I get back so I’ll be carrying my script with me wherever I go. Our instructions from the director are to read through the script every day. Read, read, read and let the words sink into your pores. Then I’ll be able to post on the rehearsal process as we move along.

Since I spend a large portion of my week hunting and gathering and reading, I’ve decided to roll out The Friday Post. Each Friday I’ll share my favorite sites, articles, books and other resources found during my weekly web and bookstore prowls.

I went to Hugh MacLeod’s gapingvoid.com and I got stuck. (See the sidebar for a fun glance at the gapingvoid widget.) At one point – reading, reading, reading – my brain clicked and I “got it”, “grocked” it – then it went away. The ideas here are new to me and thinking in a new way is harder than giving up cigarettes or losing a pound.

It’s this kind of creativity – the kind that changes our lives by the doing and the sharing of it – that I am inspired to find within myself and share with you here.

I got some good news this weekend. I’ve been cast in another play with Theatre NXS – the same company that produced Problem Child. This play is another piece from George F. Walker’s Suburban Motel Series called, Adult Entertainment. No. It isn’t about the “adult entertainment” industry.

It’s about some very mixed up adults – a washed-up public defender, two cops who long ago stopped caring about the greater good, and an ex-wife who is still trying to understand why her cop-hubbie has crossed over to the dark side. The four of them together and separately have created a state of continual crisis in their lives and the audience gets to watch them try to escape the consequences by making almost every bad choice known to man and woman.Meaty stuff – with some bizarre humor thrown into the mix to spice it up.