Pandemic Pause tossed us all up in the air and landed us in one of two worlds -- the world of the family marooned in their home stuck with each other all day all night and the world of the single person stuck with the nightly question: do I face East, North, South or West as I eat my dinner? While one could say I've spent these past several months working hard to provide online venues for the work of beloved writers who are not me, although I've loved the work and getting it on its feet and hearing it come to life, I have a confession to make. And perhaps it won't surprise many of you.
Much of my focus has been and remains squarely on the audience. And on my participation in the formation of audience. Pandemic isolation has given me new reverence for that mysterious alchemy by which many become one. We bear witness together and somehow without really even noting the shift we coalesce around something profound.
And when human beings bear witness, we make noise. To cut off or MUTE the spontaneous exhalation, giggle or gasp is to rob the dramatic event of its meaning. I am in dialogue with my audience. And these past 12 months or so, it's been an honor, a pleasure and a miracle finding myself a key player in the ancient essential act of taking it all in and freely responding.
Here are a few videos from this year of romancing the monologue. Each speaks, I think, to something essential in this handshake. They come into the room, the lights dim and we shake on it. They'll sit quiet enough to hear and to be moved and we'll spin something for them that ultimately involves them because it reflects a part of them.
I can't wait to see you at our next Some1Speaking, Wednesday Gathering or at the Labor Day Awards Ceremony for this year's Hear Me Out New American Monologue Competition. Do us all a favor. Bring your headphones or earbuds. When you do, you're then free to UNMUTE. And when you unmute, you share a part of what we all share that makes us human.
