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maisfeekaI was asked to respond to a discussion topic on "The Arts" and this is what
I came up with. I thought some of you might enjoy reading it.
The arts... It's a topic that is broad and wonderful and dear to my heart. I act. I also sing and write - fiction and poetry. I teach, which I consider an art form - especially with kids who have severe behavioral and emotional issues.
I also read like crazy, love movies and music, and have a number of prints in my house that just make me incredibly happy. Without art, my life would be incredibly empty.
I'm pretty open about the types of books and movies I enjoy, though at the moment I'm far more of a fiction than non-fiction reader. I have about 6000-7000 books in my house and about another 2 thousand or so at school for the kids. Odds are good that if there's a particular genre you'd like to read, I have some sort of example of it in the house. If it makes me laugh or cry or think or it surprises me... I'll probably like it.
I have a lot of Native American artwork in the house - prints by ioyan mani, G.E. Mullan, and Frank Howell. I also have a painting done by my sister, another abstract-ish watercolor by a friend and several others by an incredibly artistic friend of mine (he drums and plays a dozen instruments, composes, paints, carves... he's brilliant!). I even have a portrait another friend did of me years ago.
I write largely because I like the way it feels to put things down. I write if I want to read something and there isn't a good example of it or if something strikes me and I want to put it into words. Sometimes I share it with people and sometimes it's just for me. Sometimes it's prose and sometimes it's poetry. I haven't done much of either in several years because I find that the constant pain just sort of saps the writing muse from me. Which is sad, but it's the way it is right now.
I sing and do theatre because I love the connection with the audience. I sing on my own at home or in the car or in class or wherever because it makes me feel good - or makes me laugh or cry. It just bursts out in the shower or as I'm washing dishes or whatever.
But acting or singing in front of an audience is addictive. I love the hush as I begin a song - a cappella in a dark pub or some such. The house grows quiet, you can hear the patrons shushing others. I can feel the connection between them and me - the quiet, the murmurs, the laughter if it's a silly song, or the tears if it's sad, the silence at the very end before the applause. It's an amazing thing. And to sing with others is even more amazing - that give and take as you become ever so much more than the sum of the parts, the wide-eyed glances between the singers as it just all *works* and turns magical somehow.
And acting, well... there are different kinds of acting. The dinner theatre I did tonight has me right in and among the audience, chatting with them in character, reacting to their comments in a humorous way, redirecting drunks, and yet still following the script through to the end. Anything can happen and often does and there's a wonderful sense of freedom and freefall in that sort of environment. I love being out there with them as someone entirely different from who I am, making them laugh or gasp or whatever.
Scripted plays are a completely different animal. You follow them to the letter - no variation in words or major movement or at least only minimally. The dialogue and timing and movement has to be tight, known like the back of your hand, you can't cover a flub with a crazy aside to the audience. You don't have the same immediate and direct connection to the audience - can't put a hand on their shoulder or pull them up to dance or joke with them. But it's still there. When you're on stage, a mother talking about her own imminent death, and you hear a muffled sob from the audience you know you've got them right in the palm of your hand. When a laugh spreads from one to another after a funny bit or you hear them murmur to one another... It's an incredible feeling to know that you did that - that something you created and put your heart and soul into touched someone.
The interaction with the other actors is amazing as well. You have to trust them, get them to trust you, know who they are, who their characters are, how it all works. And when it works - and somehow, no matter how badly things go it always comes together in the end - it's magic. People talk about post show letdown. It's hard to lose that closeness and intimacy with your fellow actors. It's why 'show relationships' happen so often and usually end so badly. You get so close to one another that you can get caught up in the show magic and it can carry over into "real life", but it's artificial in many ways and when the play is over and you're just plain old whomever again and not whomever *plus* the character you were playing you can realize that you and the other person just don't really *truly* know each other. That said, you can also develop incredible friendships and even other relationships with the other actors - if you're smart about it.
As you can see, I could probably go on for ages, but I shall be kind and give you a reprieve by stopping myself here.
I came up with. I thought some of you might enjoy reading it.
The arts... It's a topic that is broad and wonderful and dear to my heart. I act. I also sing and write - fiction and poetry. I teach, which I consider an art form - especially with kids who have severe behavioral and emotional issues.
I also read like crazy, love movies and music, and have a number of prints in my house that just make me incredibly happy. Without art, my life would be incredibly empty.
I'm pretty open about the types of books and movies I enjoy, though at the moment I'm far more of a fiction than non-fiction reader. I have about 6000-7000 books in my house and about another 2 thousand or so at school for the kids. Odds are good that if there's a particular genre you'd like to read, I have some sort of example of it in the house. If it makes me laugh or cry or think or it surprises me... I'll probably like it.
I have a lot of Native American artwork in the house - prints by ioyan mani, G.E. Mullan, and Frank Howell. I also have a painting done by my sister, another abstract-ish watercolor by a friend and several others by an incredibly artistic friend of mine (he drums and plays a dozen instruments, composes, paints, carves... he's brilliant!). I even have a portrait another friend did of me years ago.
I write largely because I like the way it feels to put things down. I write if I want to read something and there isn't a good example of it or if something strikes me and I want to put it into words. Sometimes I share it with people and sometimes it's just for me. Sometimes it's prose and sometimes it's poetry. I haven't done much of either in several years because I find that the constant pain just sort of saps the writing muse from me. Which is sad, but it's the way it is right now.
I sing and do theatre because I love the connection with the audience. I sing on my own at home or in the car or in class or wherever because it makes me feel good - or makes me laugh or cry. It just bursts out in the shower or as I'm washing dishes or whatever.
But acting or singing in front of an audience is addictive. I love the hush as I begin a song - a cappella in a dark pub or some such. The house grows quiet, you can hear the patrons shushing others. I can feel the connection between them and me - the quiet, the murmurs, the laughter if it's a silly song, or the tears if it's sad, the silence at the very end before the applause. It's an amazing thing. And to sing with others is even more amazing - that give and take as you become ever so much more than the sum of the parts, the wide-eyed glances between the singers as it just all *works* and turns magical somehow.
And acting, well... there are different kinds of acting. The dinner theatre I did tonight has me right in and among the audience, chatting with them in character, reacting to their comments in a humorous way, redirecting drunks, and yet still following the script through to the end. Anything can happen and often does and there's a wonderful sense of freedom and freefall in that sort of environment. I love being out there with them as someone entirely different from who I am, making them laugh or gasp or whatever.
Scripted plays are a completely different animal. You follow them to the letter - no variation in words or major movement or at least only minimally. The dialogue and timing and movement has to be tight, known like the back of your hand, you can't cover a flub with a crazy aside to the audience. You don't have the same immediate and direct connection to the audience - can't put a hand on their shoulder or pull them up to dance or joke with them. But it's still there. When you're on stage, a mother talking about her own imminent death, and you hear a muffled sob from the audience you know you've got them right in the palm of your hand. When a laugh spreads from one to another after a funny bit or you hear them murmur to one another... It's an incredible feeling to know that you did that - that something you created and put your heart and soul into touched someone.
The interaction with the other actors is amazing as well. You have to trust them, get them to trust you, know who they are, who their characters are, how it all works. And when it works - and somehow, no matter how badly things go it always comes together in the end - it's magic. People talk about post show letdown. It's hard to lose that closeness and intimacy with your fellow actors. It's why 'show relationships' happen so often and usually end so badly. You get so close to one another that you can get caught up in the show magic and it can carry over into "real life", but it's artificial in many ways and when the play is over and you're just plain old whomever again and not whomever *plus* the character you were playing you can realize that you and the other person just don't really *truly* know each other. That said, you can also develop incredible friendships and even other relationships with the other actors - if you're smart about it.
As you can see, I could probably go on for ages, but I shall be kind and give you a reprieve by stopping myself here.