I tell wonder-filled stories about hope and healing
We had our tech rehearsal for Sing After Storms last week and for the first time got to see our amazing cast with lights, sound, and in costume on the set. Here are a selection photos a la the amazing Marita La Monica!
Feeling overwhelmed? Here’s an idea that might help: whenever life is grinding me down, I remind myself that a diamond is made brilliant in the same way. Your moment to shine is on the way.
The opportunities we have are not the works of others. They are born from our hearts. We create the opportunity we need and then build an answer to it. It’s the only way I know to make a dream come true.
Perfection isn’t the goal. The goal is to be the very best version of who you are.
Tonight we’re taking another giant leap forward with Sing After Storms, perhaps the biggest one yet. We go into tech and move into the theater that will house our production. We’re setting and locking sound and light cues, prepping costumes, and for the first time, actors will run the show in real-time with all of the tech elements. This is where the rubber meets the road and it’s so flippin’ exciting. We open exactly one week from today. May the theater tech gods be smiling down on us for a smooth process—goodness knows this team has earned it!
There is a lot of prep work that goes into any creative endeavor. In theater, there are the acts of writing, casting, and rehearsal. In the kitchen, there are the steps of deciding what to prepare, gathering all of the ingredients, and measuring each component. Then the magic happens—we put it all together and see what we’ve got. That’s where we are with Sing After Storms as we began our final week of rehearsals yesterday. We’re all working our tails off, holding hands, and taking the leap. Together.
While the stakes of every project are different, the emotional process is the same. We lavish so much love and attention on each small piece and then we have to jump off the cliff and see what we’ve got. It can be equal parts nerve-wracking and exhilarating. For me, every creative act is always both. It keeps me on my toes while my heart flutters. I just keep breathing, and working, and somehow that’s always enough. We have to trust, ourselves, our collaborators, and the spirit that moves us to ever create anything. In the end, that trust, our hands, eyes, ears, and heart, are all all we’ve got. And they’re more than enough. Always.
Yesterday we went to Washington Heights to see Cabrini Repertory Theater, the space that will house the first production of Sing After Storms. It’s a bit surreal to think that a year ago, not a word of this script had been committed to paper and now we are talking about details like the prop table, lighting plot, and transition music. We open in 10 days, June 18th at 8:45pm and then have 2 more performances on Saturday, June 21st at 9:00pm, and Sunday, June 22nd at 9:30pm. Tickets are $10 in advance at this link, $20 cash at the door. It was a thrill just to be in the space. I can’t even imagine how it will feel to see the show fill the eyes, ears, and hopefully hearts, of the audience.
“What hope there is for us lies in our nascent arts, for if we are to be remembered as more than a mass of people who lived and fought wars and died, it is for our arts that we will be remembered. The captains and the kinds depart; the great fortunes wither, leaving no trace; inherited morals dissipate as rapidly as inherited wealth; the multitudes blow away like locusts; the record and barriers go down. The rulers, too, are forgotten unless they have had the forethought to surround themselves with singers and makers, poets and artificers in things of the mind.” ~ Maxwell Anderson, “Whatever Hope We Have” from Michael Eisner’s book Work in Progress
I finally saw the movie The Monuments Men, the story of 7 brave men who recovered 5 million works of priceless art that were stolen by the Nazis during World War II. The movie passionately and astutely raises the questions, “Does art matter, and if so, why? And is it worth dying for?” At one point an answer is clearly articulated: if we lose our art, then we lose our culture and history; and if we lose that then it’s as if we never existed. As someone who started a career in the arts, had a career in business, and now is determined to combine the two, I couldn’t agree more. Art matters because it holds our essence, the very seed of who are and what we care about. It is us. Creating art is the only thing we can do that lets us connect across the generations, long after we’re gone. It’s the only mark we can truly leave with the world.
We’re moving right along with ticket sales for the play Sing After Storms. Our Saturday night show on June 21st at 9:00pm is nearly sold out. We have a few more tickets left for Saturday night, as well as seats available for Wednesday night, June 18th at 8:45pm and Sunday night, June 22nd at 9:30pm. Grab tickets for $10 with our special friends, family, and fans discount: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/sing-after-storms-friends-family-and-fans-discount-tickets-11129220799
So so proud of the Sing After Storms team! We did our first complete end-to-end run last night and I am continually amazed by their commitment, dedication, and passion for this work. Art saves us. Every time. In every way. We are lucky to have it, to feel its power in our bones.
