The Vs. Studio Blog

In addition to recapping my end of year favorites (films, plays, books, albums, etc.) I thought for 2025, I’d share each month. Without further adieu and in no particular order, here are March faves…

FILMS:

The China Syndrome directed by James Bridges – I’ve watched this one multiple times now and each time I appreciate it more and find something new. Besides the gripping plot, it features dynamite performances across the board including Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon and Michael Douglas. Lemmon gives a clinic in behavior and vulnerability.

Three Films by Joan Micklin Silver – Thank you Criterion Channel for curating her work. Silver was a trailblazer, one of only a handful of women to direct a film for a major Hollywood studio in the 1970s, and the three films below are fantastic and beautifully showcase her range and talent. You can read more about Silver and her work in this Criterion essay.

Chilly Scenes Of Winter – John Heard gives an incredible performance.

Between The Lines – Very early Jeff Goldbum performance. He and the entire ensemble are great.

Crossing Delancey – The look on Amy Irving’s face when she sees the Pickle Man at his work (played by Peter Riegert) is worth the watch alone.

PLAYS (Live, In Person):

The Unraveling conceived and directed by Katherine Noon – A phenomenal World Premiere from Ghost Road Company. The entire ensemble was incredible and fiercely committed throughout. No moment was taken for granted. And the production design had so many great and memorable takeaway moments. Thrilled to have done a Vs. Theatre Club outing for this one.

Unreconciled written and performed by Jay Sefton – Another Vs. Theatre Club outing, featuring a one person tour de force from Jay Sefton. His character work was so specific and spot on. You felt as if you were in the same room with all these people. Jay boldly tells his truth, and in doing so, it’s not just cathartic for him, but also for all of us, who are privileged to witness.

Barrymore written by William Luce – Another Vs. Theatre Club outing and another tour de force performance from Vito D’Ambrosio. Don’t miss its return engagement at the Whitefire Theatre in May.

ALBUMS:

The Clash – “Combat Rock”

Purple Mountains – “Purple Mountains” – The lyrics are haunting–especially when you read about the struggles and what happened to David Berman shortly after releasing the album–but the melodies are surprisingly upbeat and uplifting. This dynamic contrast makes this album a masterpiece and a must listen and re-listen. (H/t to my friend Ron for turning me on to this one.)

“And this is the main thing I learned was that I’m writing music for an orchestra. I’m like, “I don’t even know what I’m doing. Why is that coming out?” I don’t feel like I’m doing it. I feel like I picked up the pen. I feel like I had the idea to do the cards, but then when everything just starts coming out so quickly, like that’s how fast I wrote that movie. I go, I really feel like something else has taken over. So this is what my belief is, because I hear it in different realms. You ask Keith Richards, “How do you come up with these riffs?” He goes, “I don’t. I don’t. They’re floating around the sky and I pull them out first.” You ask asked Jimmie Vaughan, “How do you play guitar, those solos?” He goes, “It’s like a radio. Once you get a tune just right, you can’t even believe what’s coming through.

So I believe, I call it the creative spirit. There’s a spirit assigned to all of us that’s creative, that doesn’t have hands. It needs you to pick up the pen, pull out the cards, and then when you start getting in the flow and you’re like, “Whoa,” it’s writing. That’s that. And if you can have that mindset, you take your ego out of it and go, “All I need to do is be a good conduit for this thing. Be a good pipe and it’s going to come through.” So you don’t ever have to get hung up on that question you had. Well, what happens when you can’t come up… It wasn’t me to begin with. If it’s not coming out, it’s because I’m blocking it and if I were to do this and I’m flowing, and if I were to say, “Wow, I just wrote 10 cards. I don’t know if I can write more. How did I do that?” You just shut the pipe because your ego got in the way. You just clogged it because it gets pissed off that you think it’s you. It’s not you. It’s like, “Dude, just open up. Let me through, pick up the fucking pen.” -Robert Rodriguez, excerpt from his podcast interview with Lex Fridman

Give your ego a break.

YOU didn’t make it.

Instead you got out of the way and let it happen.

That’s the secret. (Put you do have to sit down at the desk and pick up the pen.)

Listen to this phenomenal podcast interview with Robert Rodriguez. It’s quite possibly the most inspiring and greatest lesson on creativity you will ever hear in your life. (H/t to my friend Ron for bringing it to my attention.)

“How you do anything is how you do everything.” -Zen Buddhist Proverb

“In the morning, when you brush your teeth, brush them in such a way that happiness is possible during the whole time of brushing – which may last only one or two minutes. That is something I do every morning and after each meal: I brush my teeth in such a way that happiness is real during the time of brushing. I don’t say ‘let us brush it quickly in order to do this and that’. Brushing your teeth is a practice and you can be in the Pure Land during a time of tooth brushing…Do everything in your daily life in that kind of spirit and the Kingdom of God becomes available to you right away.” -Thich Nhat Hanh

“Most failure isn’t due to a lack of effort, but to a lack of focused effort. We take on more and more, but accomplish less and less. We run faster and faster, but find we are getting nowhere.

Science backs this up: The concept of attention residue says that there is a cognitive switching cost to shifting your attention from one task to another. You think you’ve moved on—but part of your brain is still stuck on the last thing. You’re one foot in, one foot out…on everything you do.”

Energy is more important than time. 5 minutes of present energy is worth more than an hour of scattered energy. Remember that. -Sahil Bloom

“What you are doing on stage is the most important thing in the world at the present moment.”-Lee Strasberg

“Talent is nothing but a prolonged period of attention and a shortened period of mental assimilation.” -Konstantin Stanislavski

“Age Quod Agis” is a Latin phrase that translates to “Do what you are doing” or “Concentrate on the task at hand.” It’s attributed to Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit Order.

It’s a wonderful reminder to simply be present and not take any single task for granted. If you’re brushing your teeth, brush your teeth. If you’re washing the dishes, wash the dishes. If you’re writing the email, write the email. If you’re acting on stage, concentrate fully on your single action or single behavior.

We’re all human. We’re all busy. We all get distracted. Even professional athletes drop the ball because they’re thinking ahead to the next play.

It’s okay. Just pause. Bring your attention back on what you’re doing. If need be, think or say to yourself outloud “What am I actually doing right now?”

Then repeat as a mantra:

“Age Quod Agis.”

Strive to have your day be filled up with as many concentrated tasks as possible.

You’ll be a lot more effective and whole lot happier in the process.

Failure is an opportunity.
If you blame someone else,
there is no end to the blame.

Therefore the Master
fulfills her own obligations
and corrects her own mistakes.
She does what she needs to do
and demands nothing of others. -“Tao Te Ching” by Lao-Tzu, Verse 79, (Stephen Mitchell Translation)

“If you’re not failing, you’re not learning. If you’re not learning, you’re not growing. If you’re not growing, you’re not living…We can be truly successful only at something we’re willing to fail at. If we’re unwilling to fail, then we’re unwilling to succeed…The most useful trait you can train within yourself: To stop seeing failure as a bad thing. -Mark Manson

“In the archer there is a resemblance to the mature person. When he misses the mark, he turns and seeks the reason for his failure in himself.” -Confucius

“Put the thought of hitting right out of your mind! You can be a Master even if every shot does not hit. The hits on the target is only an outward proof and confirmation of your purposelessness at its highest, of your egolessness, your self-abandonment, or whatever you like to call this state. There are different grades of mastery, and only when you have made the last grade will you be sure of not missing the goal.” -Eugen Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery

More failure = More opportunity (to learn, to grow, to improve, to accept responsibility) = More success and fulfillment.

Fail more.

“If you have to ask somebody how to become a film director, you’ll probably never do it…The film industry is all about saying ‘no’ to people, so inherently you cannot take ‘no’ for an answer…If [my reply] pisses you off, and then you go out and say, ‘I’m going to show that Jim Cameron; I am going to be a director’—that gives you the kind of true grit you need to have in order to go through with it.” -James Cameron

“We were told, explicitly, ‘don’t do it,’…Ben’s mom told me, ‘Don’t do it,’ you know what I mean?” “So I do think if you’re really meant to do it, it doesn’t matter what anybody says.” -Matt Damon

Question: “Should I do it?”

Answer: “If you can be talked out of it, then you shouldn’t do it.”

“We don’t get our wants. We don’t get our shoulds. We get our musts. When it becomes a must, it happens.” -Shaan Puri

“Action is the antidote to despair.” -Joan Baez

The joy you feel from accomplishing something is the same whether you had to do it or wanted to do it.

So, wanna feel good today?

Stop hesitating. Just complete something. Anything. Go get some sh-t done.

“Art is never finished, only abandoned.” -Leonardo da Vinci

If you’re working with a master whose aim is a masterpiece, then you have to constantly remind yourself that in terms of completion, “it takes what it takes.”

Read this post from George Bothamley and his always excellent Art Every Day Substack about Ludovico Sforza (The Duke of Milan) commissioning Leonardo for this now famous fresco painting.

From the post…

Sometimes, he would paint non stop, for hours on end – perhaps even turning up in the middle of the night to “correct” some minor detail in a work that was still not even fully sketched out.

Other times, he was known to go missing for days or weeks at a time – with no word of when he would return to the painting.

And then, when he was finally on site again, the brothers would often spy on him just standing in front of the work . . . lost in a world of his own, until eventually he might deign to lay a single brushstroke, before leaving again.

If you were tasked with producing this work, how would you handle Leonardo? And would you have the patience to see it through to completion?

“If you should ever turn your will to things outside your control in order to impress someone, be sure that you have wrecked your whole purpose in life. Be content, then, to be a philosopher in all that you do, and if you wish also to be seen as one, show yourself first that you are and you will succeed.” -Epictetus, Enchiridion

“If you find yourself acting to impress others, or avoiding action out of fear of what they might think, you have left the path.” -Epictetus, The Manual: A Philosopher’s Guide to Life

“We buy things we don’t need, to impress people we don’t like.” -Tyler Durden, Fight Club

The people you are trying to impress…why exactly are you trying to impress them again? And what would it feel like to not care about impressing anyone, ever again?

Awareness is the key.

Carry on.

Roberta: Here it is, a message from Jim.
[Reading the Personal Ads]
Roberta: “Desperately Seeking Susan. Keep the faith. Tuesday. 10AM. Battery Park. Gangway 1. Love, Jim”
Leslie: Who’s Jim?
Roberta: Oh, God. Tuesday, that’s tomorrow.
Leslie: Who’s Susan? You know these people?
Roberta: No. You see, Jim follows Susan all over the country. Last January she was in Mexico City, then Seattle. They send messages back and forth. That’s how they hook up. And now they’re in New York. Desperate. I love that word. It’s so romantic.
Leslie: Everybody I know is desperate, except you.
Roberta: I’m desperate.
Leslie: You?
[laughs]
Roberta: Sort of. -from the script, Desperately Seeking Susan written by Leora Barish

For the actor…

Deep down, everyone desperately wants something.

Few have clarity over what that is.

And, setting opportunity aside, even fewer have the courage and discipline to go after it.

But on stage (or screen), we want to watch people–heroes and villains alike–who know what they want and pursue it at all costs.

(Even Hamlet desperately wants something. He just keeps changing his mind about what exactly that is.)

Besides knowing your lines forwards and backwards/exactly as written, you must know what you desperately want in each beat, each scene, the whole play. An early acting teacher framed it this way: “What do you want to badly that you will die if you don’t get it?”

Use your private time at home to figure out what that want might be.

Use your rehearsal time, along with input from your director, to try out all kinds of different wants. Figure out what’s the strongest want and the one that leaves you the most vulnerable to the other person.

When it’s performance time, step out on that stage desperately wanting and pursuing something. As a result, you will be fully alive and riveting to watch.

“Everybody has some choice, mother. The poorest girl alive may not be able to choose between being Queen of England or Principal of Newnham; but she can choose between ragpicking and flowerselling, according to her taste. People are always blaming circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.” -Vivie responding to her mother, Mrs. Warren , in the play Mrs. Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” -Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

““A podium and a prison is each a place, one high and the other low, but in either place your freedom of choice can be maintained if you so wish.” -Epictetus, Discourses

Speaking of Marie Curie, Billy Oppenheimer wrote this about her in his excellent weekly newsletter…

When she was a teenager, Marie Curie began thinking about pursuing a career as a scientist. But from a poor family in Russia-controlled Poland, the necessary education was beyond her parents’ financial means. So she got up and looked for ways to make the circumstances she wanted. After considering her limited options, Marie struck a deal with her older sister Bronya: Marie would get a job as a governess, using her wages to help Bronya pay for medical school in Paris, on the condition that once Bronya became a doctor, she would in turn help pay for Marie’s education. Beginning in January 1886, Marie worked for a wealthy family in the rural countryside, sixty miles north of her home in Warsaw. She looked after and tutored the family’s children during the day, and in the evenings, she prepared for entrance exams to the Sorbonne, the prestigious university she dreamed of attending. At a time when women were largely excluded from higher education and faced systemic barriers to gaining admission to institutions like the Sorbonne, the challenge was getting to a place where her application was undeniable. “It was indeed an all-powerful instinct,” Marie’s daughter Eve Curie writes in Madame Curie: A Biography, “that made her sit every night at her desk, reading volumes of sociology and physics borrowed from the library, or perfecting her knowledge of mathematics by correspondence with her father…All alone in that country house, she was without direction or advice. She felt her way, almost by sheer chance, through the mazes of the knowledge she wanted to acquire.” After five long, lonely years working as a governess, true to their pact, Bronya became a doctor in Paris and was at last able to fund Marie’s travel, exams, and the next steps toward the circumstances she wanted. “By small imperceptible stages,” Eve writes, “the tragic immobility of the young girl’s existence was beginning to stir.” Despite studying independently without formal instruction, in 1891, Marie received a letter from the admissions offices: “Faculty of Sciences—First Quarter Courses will begin at the Sorbonne on November 3, 1891.” “From that moment,” Eve writes, “Marie’s fortune, starting from zero, began to increase.” She would be one of a small number of women to earn a degree from the Sorbonne, graduating at the top of her class in physics and mathematics, before becoming the first woman in France to earn a PhD in physics—and later, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.

Don’t be defined by circumstance.

Rather, defy circumstance at every turn.

P.S. – We recently did a Vs. Tuesday Night Zoom Reading of the play Pierre And Marie by Ron Clark. It’s a fun and intelligent comedy about the personal and professional lives of Pierre and Marie Curie. You can order the script here.