The Creative State
I'm in some pretty intensive prep for the summer season right now. My workload could be a lot lighter if I just focused on finding talent and getting jobs crossed off my list, but as important as those things are I'm also forcing myself to spend more time in the creative state.
The creative state is the time when I'm not worring about the minutiae of production challenges (and there are always a lot of those). In the creative state I stop worrying and I start thinking not of what I still need but rather what can I do with what I have. I read plays, I think about them, and I see them coming to life in my mind's eye. I hear their soundtracks, I see the set, the props, the costumes. I light the stage, and I put actors upon it and see what they do.
I ask questions, to myself, to the world's greatest wife, to the cats, to the chickens, to anyone who will listen, and then I ask questions to myself once again. Sometimes I need an answer, sometimes I get a different answer than I'm expecting, and sometimes I find that the answer isn't going to be easy to come by, if not downright impossible to determine.
In the creative state I get ready to direct my plays, and to help my associate directors direct theirs. It's not always a wonderful place, but it can be and one day it will be. I didn't spend as much time in the creative state last year as I wanted to or should have - life got in the way, and the economy distracted me. This year things are going to be a lot different.
The next time you're tempted to veg out in front of the TV or try to make it the next level on World of Warcraft take some time to go to your creative state, and see what happens. I think you'll find, like me, that it's not a bad place to be.
The creative state is the time when I'm not worring about the minutiae of production challenges (and there are always a lot of those). In the creative state I stop worrying and I start thinking not of what I still need but rather what can I do with what I have. I read plays, I think about them, and I see them coming to life in my mind's eye. I hear their soundtracks, I see the set, the props, the costumes. I light the stage, and I put actors upon it and see what they do.
I ask questions, to myself, to the world's greatest wife, to the cats, to the chickens, to anyone who will listen, and then I ask questions to myself once again. Sometimes I need an answer, sometimes I get a different answer than I'm expecting, and sometimes I find that the answer isn't going to be easy to come by, if not downright impossible to determine.
In the creative state I get ready to direct my plays, and to help my associate directors direct theirs. It's not always a wonderful place, but it can be and one day it will be. I didn't spend as much time in the creative state last year as I wanted to or should have - life got in the way, and the economy distracted me. This year things are going to be a lot different.
The next time you're tempted to veg out in front of the TV or try to make it the next level on World of Warcraft take some time to go to your creative state, and see what happens. I think you'll find, like me, that it's not a bad place to be.
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