Takeaways

“But after I got them to leave and shut the door and turned off the light it wasn’t any good. It was like saying good-bye to a statue. After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.” -Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Think of a great film or play or book or any piece of art.

What do you love about it? What really sticks with you?

If you were to tell someone why you loved it, chances are you would only focus on a few things. A few takeaways. It might be a scene, a couple of sentences, a line of dialogue, a silent moment, a simple gesture, maybe just a feeling the art evoked in you.

Here’s three takeaways that come to mind for me…

-John Malkovich pointing at Gary Sinise in True West (the PBS video) and saying “Ha, Ha!…Ha, Ha!”

-A production of Jitney at the Lillian Theatre in Hollywood where Booster breaks down in agony upon hearing his father’s death, then walks over to answer the phone with a simple, “Car service”, and then an immediate black out. (I was stunned and wrecked.)

-The eerie squeak amidst the silence of the Old Man’s rocking chair in a production of Fool For Love at Stage Left Theatre in Chicago.

These takeaway moments stay with people forever. They can literally change lives. They hold enormous power.

While you can’t predict if your art will have these takeaways, they’re always a possibility. That chance, that possibility alone, is a reason to go make your art.