Veteran Artist Night Is Tonight

“Storytelling is the essential human activity. The harder the situation, the more essential it is…But this too is true: stories can save us.” -Tim O’Brien, Vietnam veteran and author of The Things They Carried

In honor of Veterans Day, we’re doing a special night of readings on Zoom. It is tonight, Tuesday, at 7p Pacific Time (“Cocktails” at 6:30p). Many of you receive the Vs. Tuesday Night email. But if you don’t and would like to attend, please drop me an email (jclark@vstheatre.org) and I will send you the Zoom link and passcode.

Below is the email I sent out last night…

Dear Friends, Vs. Artists & Allies,

In honor of Veterans Day, please join us tomorrow night on Zoom for our second annual “Veteran Artist Night”.

The first half of our night will be some short pieces from some artists affiliated with the Geffen Playhouse’s Writing & Performance Workshop Series as well as other Veteran artists. As of press time, the lineup is as follows:

  1. Elaine Little
  2. Sarah Carroll
  3. Keith Barber

The second half of the night features short pieces from Propel New Works & Theatre For Veterans. As of press time, the lineup is as follows:

  1. Sharla Stevens
  2. Roque Murray
  3. Jason Murrey

For these three Propel pieces, will be casting on the spot from whomever is at Cocktails at 6:30. If you’re interested in reading a part, please email me to RSVP or just show up as close to 6:30 as possible. We’d love to have you. We did this last year and it worked out great!

Lastly, depending on the night and timing, we may have some room for other pieces. If you’d like to bring in a short piece inspired by Veterans Day, please let me know and I will try to fit it in.

Big thanks to Brian Allman from the Geffen Playhouse and Angeline Larimer from Propel/Theatre For Veterans for coordinating. Big thanks also to all the artists involved. And of course to all the Veterans out there for your service to our country.

The Master Builder

“A grateful heart is the beginning of greatness” -James E. Faust

“For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid.” -1 Corinthians 3:9-11

“Then I should say you ought to go out and open the door to the younger generation.” –The Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen

The Master keeps her mind
always at one with the Tao;
that is what gives her her radiance. –Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (Stephen Mitchell translation)

“Every spring, my wife Edith and I kneel in the dirt of our ten-acre farm in Oregon’s Willamette Valley and do something that looks, to the untrained eye, like nothing much. We plant seeds. Some of them are varieties that Indigenous peoples have been keeping alive for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years—seeds passed from hand to hand across generations, carried through removals and relocations, hidden in pockets during forced marches, saved when everything else was taken. We put them in the ground, we water them, and we wait. It doesn’t look like revolution. It doesn’t look like resistance. It looks like two people with dirt under their fingernails doing small work in a world full of enormous problems. But after decades of this work, I’ve learned sometimes the most radical thing you can do is plant something you’ll never see fully grown.” -Randy Woodley, theologian and co-founder of Eloheh Indigenous Center for Earth Justice

The Master Builder isn’t concerned about being great.

The Master Builder is only concerned about the thing being great.

Open yourself up to whatever will be. Let greatness come through.

Confidence From Work

“I never feared my skills because I put in the work. Work ethic eliminates fear.” -Michael Jordan

“An important key to self-confidence is preparation.” -Arthur Ashe

“Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” -John Wooden

Wanna be more confident?

Work harder at the thing you’re trying to be confident about.

You Already Knew

Speaking of that little voice….

One of the hallmarks of great constructive criticism is that it often confirms something you already knew.

You’ve written something. Created something. But there are a few things that aren’t quite working.

You know it. That little voice in your head has been trying to tell you. But you’re tired. You just want to be done. So you quiet the little voice and move on.

Then someone comes along, looks at your work, and points out some things that align with that little voice. And you think, “Dammit. I knew that!”

That’s great feedback.

Don’t ignore it. Don’t get defensive.

Welcome the feedback. Be grateful for it.

And get back to work.

That Little Voice

“We read to know we’re not alone.” -William Nicholson, play Shadowlands

“In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson, essay Self-Reliance

“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” -Albert Einstein

We all have that little voice in our heads. Those fleeting thoughts, feelings, observations, and questions.

We have them and move on. We’re busy. We’ve got other things to do.

But great artists don’t move on.

They get curious. They stay with the little voice. Turn it over. Interrogate it. Follow it wherever it leads. Eventually, they create something that makes the rest of us say, “Yes! I’ve thought that, too! I’m not alone.”

And we’re not.

Alone.

We all have that little voice.

Perhaps we just need to pay more attention to it.

Back To Fun

“The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.” -Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

“He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing.” -James A. Michener

“Writing is what I do, for me that is where it is—where the vacation is, the fun is, the danger, the excitement.” -Toni Morrison

Just remember that at the end of the day, the process should be fun. For you and your collaborators.

And fun doesn’t mean easy.

Fun means something you really want to do. You’re focused. You flow. You have agency. You work hard to overcome obstacles. You enjoy solving problems. You’re striving for excellence.

All in service of manifesting this thing that’s in your head.

If you’ve lost that fun, that joy, that spark, ask yourself how you can get back to that.

If you can’t, then maybe it’s time to move on.

And find the next fun and worthwhile project.

Completion

“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” -Bruce Lee

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” -Walt Disney

“Find a task you have been putting off or dragging through and not completing and just get it done… The relief and sense of completion is great for the mind.” -Jessica Hische

You don’t need more time.

You don’t need more research.

You don’t need more training.

You don’t need more motivation.

You have everything you need.

Just go complete something. The good energy derived from doing so will inspire you to go complete something else.

And so on and so on and so on…

Good To Great

“Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.” -Jim Collins, book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t

“Spend less time trying to find motivation and more time making good habits the path of least resistance.” -James Clear

“For a man walking a thousand miles it is absolutely necessary to set aside his final goal and to say to himself each morning: ‘Today I will walk twenty-five miles to a resting place and sleep,’ and during each day’s journey reaching that resting place eclipses his ultimate goal and becomes his sole focus.” -Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

To be great, you just need to be pretty good. Every single day. Over and over again. For an inordinately long period of time.

True greatness lies in your ability to just show up no matter what, without fail, especially on the days you don’t feel like it.

Not as easy as it sounds. Yet also easy if you love the thing you’re trying to be great at.

Dreams

“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, then life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.” -Langston Hughes

“Without dreams and goals there is no living, only merely existing, and that is not why we are here.” -Mark Twain

Instead of giving up on your dreams, why not just create new ones? Start fresh. Get excited again! And while you’re at it, make sure you also spend time dreaming about the process.

No dreams. No life.