EXTRA CRITICUM

A Pep Talk for Artists

I don’t know if you ever sat in a high school locker room at halftime when a coach hurled chalk into the wall, kicked over chairs, and exposed his doubting troops to a vocabulary far removed from English class.  Once witnessed, never forgotten.  Besides being immensely entertaining and frightening, this ritual of American culture could also be effective.  Returning to the arena, the players usually did concentrate better, play harder, and have more confidence.

Once we’re out of school and facing the grind of daily life, pep talks are rare to nonexistent.  Which is not to say they wouldn’t come in handy when attempting something where the end is unknown and failure looms.  Artists and entrepreneurs come immediately to mind.

Legends of Batvia - Friday March 2nd

New Yorkers! Tickets are going fast for Legends of Batvia, the musical I've been collaborating on with Katherine Burger. Here's a taste of one of the songs, sung here by the wonderful Merle Perkins. The show is very silly, lots of fun and features a gorgeous cast including: Ryan Andes, Tina Stafford, Gordon Stanley and Lawrence Rush. Mark Hartman is our brilliant music director. We present this 90 min. romp for the first time in its current form Friday night, March 2nd at 9PM as part of Emerging Artists Theatre's Notes from a Page festival.

This little audio clip is from the song, "Show Me the Spell" in which Anthea first confronts the Book of Spells and does an incantation to try and find the right spell to undo the 500-yr. curse she and her brother Gunther have been living under. It's very serious stuff. ;)

 

BTV_SpellSong_Demo

 

It's official: the movie theatre as we know it is an endangered species

If there was any doubt at all that the exhibition business is in serious trouble, look no further than this email promo that just hit my INBox. I have to admit, I admire the can-do attitude of the Clearview folks. They've continued to work overtime to come up with creative gimmicks to get target niche audiences into their theatres. In this case, they're using the death of Whitney Houston to appeal to their gay market.

 More info on the theatre's special programming can be found on their website.

A Question of Focus

So, my Dad's been in and out of the hospital. And it's been stressful, to say the least. On Saturday, even before the latest mini crisis unfolded, I was trying to put some finishing touches on BATVIA, the musical I've been collaborating on with Katherine Burger for, well... a long time. And as I sat in front of my keyboard, I found it incredibly difficult to stay focused.

This may seem really basic, but, I'd like to put a question to my fellow creative types.

Musicals Suggest Models for Teamwork

What are the optimum conditions for creative output, particularly as regards working solo or in a group? (David Licata in a recent post praises artist residencies for the fertile conditions they can provide.) An article by Jonah Lehrer in the Jan. 30 issue of The New Yorker introduced me to the research of Brian Uzzi, a sociology professor at Northwestern, who is much interested in creative work. Uzzi uses social network analysis and complexity theory (whatever those are) to study teamwork, leadership, creativity and productivity.

It just so happens that Broadway musicals, viewed in toto as an industry, make excellent fodder for research on teamwork and creativity. It helps when the researcher loves musicals. Uzzi told Lehrer that he saw his first musical, Hair, at age nine: “I remember absolutely nothing about the music, but I do remember the nude scene. That just about blew my mind. I’ve been a fan of Broadway ever since.”

Top 100 Sitcom Episodes update, or how TV is forcing me to write every day

I've never been disciplined enough to set aside some time for writing every day. It's too easy to decide that I've done enough other work, and that no one will even notice if I don't post anything on my blog for a day (or a week). But I think I've tricked myself into a daily writing habit, thanks to my reckless commencement of a project that requires at least 100 little essays.

The Soul Hungers for Beauty

I have a friend. It doesn’t matter what her name is. Let’s call her “Erma Duricko.”

Erma likes quotes. Lots and lots of quotes. She has quotes tagging the end of her emails. She posts them every day on Facebook. These quotes are usually of an inspirational nature. They are usually on the subject of how beauty and art and love conquer all.

Get Thee to an Artist Residency!

I’m an artist residency whore. My friends know this and I am not ashamed. I hope to continue my whoring ways until the day I die, that’s how fond of the residency experience I am.

Residencies come in all shapes and sizes. Some limit whom they accept (Hedgebrook is for women writers, for example) but most welcome all artists, at all stages of their careers, and several are open to academics and scientists as well. Some are more like vacation spots and require that you pay to attend, others politely suggest you make a nominal contribution, many are a free ride and some may grant you a travel or hardship stipend. Some residencies are designed so that you’re roughing it in the great outdoors and some pamper you to no end. Most are somewhere in between. At some places you have to cook and shop for yourself, at others you have a master chef making every meal for you and staff serving it to you. And again, some places are somewhere in between.