Future Oscar Winners.

Please enjoy the work of my friends who will undoubtedly be blushing and stammering grateful speeches on Oscar nights in the future.

ABIGAIL, the Web Series

Teachers

Bethany (episode, Caliente!)

Even MORE meta

So, I have a website and that website links to this blog.  So if you visit my website, you can just click on the Blog tab and get back to this blog!  And then read this entry and go to my website!  It's the circle of life!

Meta

I'm using this blog to promote my friend's blog.  My friend Patrick is writing a blog.  Why I want to share this blog with you is because I have never in my life had so much fun in a room full of people as when Patrick and I were standing in the corner, swilling wine and being bitchy.  His first entry is a bit of dramatic writing that I particularly enjoy.  I hope you will, too.

PATRICK'S BLOG

A Nine Year Old's Advice on Being Awesome

My friend's 9 year old daughter made an entire PowerPoint presentation on Being Awesome.  This is my favorite slide from the presentation:

French Toast Alert System

Boston's French Toast Alert System

What drives you?

So, I was having a conversation yesterday with a friend who has particularly vivid and well-articulated ideas of what drives his artistic life.  I asked him how he came to his conclusions with such certainty, how he was able to definitively name the force that motivates him.  He replied by saying that someone once asked Michael Jordan what motivated him about the game of basketball.  Michael Jordan replied that he was motivated by the spirit of competition and flirting with the idea of failure.  That's great and all, but how did Michael Jordan arrive at that conclusion?  Basically, he was asked to imagine a world in which basketball did not exist.  What, in such a world, would be the driving force in Jordan's life if the medium in which he excelled was not a factor?  Competition.  Flirting with the idea of failure.  That's universal.

So, I thought for a minute...  If theatre and improv didn't exist, what is my underlying motivating spirit? It took me a very long time to answer the question because my rational brain kept interrupting, saying "Theatre and improv DO exist.  They never would have NOT existed because it's a very human need to tell a story and share it with other people."  After a long while (and lots of NyQuil, to be brutally honest), it came to me...  I like puzzles.  I like to figure out solutions from seemingly insoluble situations.  In improv, you have no script, so there is a fantastically broad set of variables from which a solution (the scene) must be made.  I like Shakespeare because an actor must understand the way he used the English language in overt and covert manners.  Not only are there words to decode and unpack in Shakespeare, one must consider his use of metaphor and alliteration.  And scripted comedy is a math problem, when it is at its purest and best.  A plus B equals laughter.  SO MANY PUZZLES!

As a teacher, the people in any given class are also a puzzle.  How can I effectively teach an entire group of people with different skill sets and backgrounds?  How can I address the needs of the group while effectively ministering to the needs of the individual?  And, maybe more importantly, how can I continue to be there for the students after the class has ended?

It was an enlightening conversation, and one that I desperately needed.