What shall I write?

Something simmering.

Ever since I wrote my play and it had its first reading, people have been asking me what else I have, telling me I should be working on something new, and wondering if I am a one-trick pony.

I have wondered that myself.

The thing is, there was a lot of work to do to get the play to a production. Every playwright is his or her own first producer, and if you’ve got a play in which you have faith, you owe it to the play to try to be a good one.

In my case, that meant a steep learning curve since I had never approached the theatre from that angle. In addition, I had some early luck with casting that seemed to make it imperative that I do the very best I could to insure the play got every opportunity possible.

It took longer than anyone could have possibly imagined. Anyone, that is, except another playwright.

And I don’t know that I did everything, or even anything, right.

But the play is going to have a production—(Yay!)—and I am saved from being the Emily Dickinson of playwrights. Whatever happens now, I will not end up with a drawer full of unproduced plays. I might end up with a drawer full of unproduced plays and one that made it onto a stage, but it seems like whatever was paralyzing my impulse to write may have lifted.

In the last couple of days, I have been wondering what’s next.

And, at the moment, I am wondering if I could write a farce.

There’s a part of me that highly doubts it.

Farce is the form most violently dependent upon plot. Plot is not something at which I excel. It always seems to me that I am interested in character. Dialogue flows somewhat rapidly from my pen (or keyboard), but, often, I am casting about for a believable situation imbued with enough conflict to get these characters I have conjured through a play or a story or, heaven forfend, a novel!

I went to see a production of Moon Over Buffalo recently, however. And I remember, with great fondness, seeing Noises Off on Broadway in the weeks following 9/11. At a time when we thought we could never laugh again, more than a thousand people a night were rolling in the aisles.

That production was profoundly important—a gift of incalculable value to a grieving city—and cured me forever from any tendency I might have had to look down on farce.

So, what I’m wondering now is—could I write a farce?

Maybe we’ll see.

A whack

On the side of the head.

That’s what today’s Friday Find is all about.

In fact, that’s the name of it. A Whack on the Side of the Head is a book by Roger von Oech. It’s probably his most well-known book, and the reason I’m bringing it to your attention today is its subtitle:

“How You Can Be More Creative”

I don’t know about you—well, actually, I do know about you. There isn’t a person alive who wouldn’t like to be more creative. In my particular circle, it’s a mortal lock.

Actors, writers, directors, painters, programmers, parents. Everybody can benefit from an increase in creativity.

This book can help.

It’s an easy read. Large type, plenty of illustrations, lots of white space.

And, the content is good.

It’s a whack on the side of the head. New ways to think about things. Exercises to shake things up, questions to ask.

Advice, like give yourself permission to be foolish or reverse your perspective.

Stuff many of us have heard before, since and in other places, but it’s never a bad thing to be reminded of it in different ways and in different words.

It’s a book I keep on my shelves and ought to re-read more often!

Singing horses

Could there be anything sillier?

Honestly.

This is one of those internet sillinesses that has been around for a while. It’s always fun, however.

So, check it out. Or revisit it.

Turn your sound on.

Click a horse or four.

And have fun.

Singing Horses — who’d have thought?

Research has shown

The silliest age

Could be the Age of Reason.

No. Strike that. I’m just being silly.

After all, it is Silly Saturday.

The question is, really, how does one learn to be silly? Is it a natural talent, or a learned behavior?

Today, we find some enlightenment from Guy Browning at The Guardian.

We’ll let him speak for himself in his aptly titled article:

How to Be Silly

I do think he’s got a point, though—if not several.

Don’t you?

October Project

Mythic music.

I found October Project in one of those weird episodes of synchronicity that happen in every life.

Once upon a time, I was an early-career director in NYC. I got asked to direct a lot of readiings. It’s a great way to gain experience in some, although not all, aspects of the directors’ craft.

Anyway, I landed a gig directing a reading of a short piece called A Play on Words by Eileen Weiss. Eileen’s play was funny and quirky and full of marvelous writing. We gathered actors and set to work.

One of the actors we gathered was a young woman named Julie Flanders. Julie and her husband Emil Adler had just started a band.

October Project.

And Julie gave me a CD of their self-titled debut album.

So, of course, I listened to it.

And wow!

Intricate vocal harmonies. Clear crystalline voices. Haunting melodies. And beautiful, evocative, even mythic words.

So, here is a link to a music video of October Project’s Return to Me from that album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm9kQdIFObY

And another, Ariel, which I love because of the connection to Shakespeare’s The Tempest. (Flapdoodle!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ga53vmcb2s

And you can find Julie, Emil and Marina here.

Oh, the reading?

We did it at Barnes & Noble. It went great!

Fleas

At the market, that is

I love flea markets.

Now, let’s be clear. I mean real flea markets, the garage sales on steroids, not what sometimes passes for a flea market these days, the ones where they are mostly selling the fake fleas. You know what I mean. Tube socks in their plastic packaging, rows and rows of nail polish and clippers, sheet sets and maybe even tires.

Those are dollar stores without a roof.

A real flea market may have some of that, but it will be hard to find among the booths selling used books and mismatched crockery, three matching bar stools, assorted Christmas ornaments and a music box with the castle’s flag pole broken off.

A real flea market is a place of adventure. Of possibility. A place where you can save money and acquire stuff you didn’t even know you needed. A place where creative ideas abound. (Hey! I could put those wheels on that box and make a cart. Or, a little glue and a little paint, turn that shutter upside down and hang it on the wall, and I could have a nifty thing to hold mail. Or, there are a couple of chairs for $10 bucks apiece—they’ll work until I find what I really want.) A place to get what you need to try something you aren’t sure will work. A $5 phone isn’t much to risk if you want to see if that phone jack on the dock is good for anything but frightening the herons. (When one of them answers the phone, I’ll be frightened.)

One of the places where Florida has it all over New York is in flea markets. As far as I could tell, in NYC, what passes for a flea market is the outdoor dollar store concept. Even a street fair tended to have more seconds and stuff that fell off the back of a truck than anything else. But down here in my new location, we’ve got flea markets!

Always good for a Saturday outing, full of potential and possibility and projects to be.

What could be better?

Another way

Can you find one?

Sometimes, you win a race, because you are the only one who won’t quit. (Does The Tortoise and the Hare ring any bells?) Sheer dogged persistence can get you there, and the further you slog along, the less competition remains.

On the other hand, there is that famous Einstein quote in which insanity is defined as “doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.”

The tip for the day is keep going, but keep evaluating. Always ask yourself can you find another way?

If someone in your life is not giving you what you need, can you find another way to ask for it?

If you aren’t achieving your objective, can you find another way to go about pursuing it?

If I’m writing a computer program and it doesn’t work, I have to find another way or give up on whatever achievement it’s designed to accomplish.

Inevitably, there are times when I just don’t know enough. My latest javascript project comes to mind. I would really like to give it up. Just quit. But, I remember what Thomas Edison said while searching for the proper material to make a filament for a light bulb: I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.

When the 10,000th way doesn’t work, it is really easy to become discouraged and frustrated. It’s very easy to fear another 10,000 unsuccessful attempts. But, Edison also said, Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

Thomas Edison is the fourth most prolific inventor in recorded history. And, yes, he is famous for never giving up. It may be more important, however, to realize that he didn’t just keep trying the same thing over and over. He tried different things.

So, yes, of course, keep going—and as you’re going, remember to ask yourself—Could there another way?

Symmetry

The key to beauty?

Our next guest, Jaclyn Smith, has frequently been named to various list of the most beautiful people of all time. “All time,” in this context, surely refers to “within the recorded history of photography.”

I read somewhere that it’s because she has a very symmetrical face. Most people’s faces show distinct differences between the left and right sides. Jaclyn Smith’s has very few—as does Denzel Washington’s. Hence, according to this thing I read somewhere, the “most beautiful” tag. Human beings perceive this symmetry as beauty.

I’m sure that’s not all of it. You could have a completely symmetrical countenance that was otherwise abhorrent to the human eye in some way. Nonetheless, Jaclyn Smith carries that title with all the baggage, good and bad, that goes with it.

She is most known as Kelly Garrett on Charlie’s Angels. That show, jiggle-factor aside, was important to women of my generation. I know it was controversial in the feminist realm because of the jiggle factor (they did seem to end up in bathing suits more often than most private detectives do) and because, at the end of the day, they still had a male boss, but it did give us images of women pushing the boundaries of traditionally female roles.

After her time as an Angel, Ms. Smith became a fixture on TV throughout the 80’s; during the 80’s and 90’s, she grew several successful businesses, pioneering the concept of celebrity-developed brands with her clothing line for Kmart. Now, in this decade, she has been seen on TV quite often in guest spots, as host of Shear Genius and a recurring role on The District.

I have a lot of respect for people who can take a role in a phenomenon and build on it. I respect the loyalty that kept her with the show throughout its entire run. I respect the ability to diversify, to take the opportunities that have been afforded and build businesses outside of show biz. And, let’s face it, a lot of us just have a soft spot for Kelly Garrett. She was the most thoroughly nice Angel, after all.

A challenge

No names, no pack-drill

This is a challenge without consequences. No prizes, either. But it’s Silly Saturday, so…..

Take a look at this Monty Python sketch

The challenge, of course, is to develop your own silly walk. Start small. Try not to trip over your own feet or fall downstairs or pull a muscle or anything. I also suggest that, unless you live in a houseful of kids, you work on this project in the privacy of your own room—and, unless you are feeling very brave and devil-may-care—that you leave the results there.

But silliness and the exaggeration that comes with it carries in it somewhere the seed of creativity. And it’s probably only when we are willing to be silly in public that we, as artists, begin to succeed.

But it’s okay to start small. And only fair. After all, you don’t think I’m going to show you my silly walk, do you?

Think differently

An ongoing demonstration of creativity.

Far be it from me to advocate spending any more time on FaceBook than you currently do, but have you seen this page.

Different Solutions is the page that stops me every time I try to go cold turkey on FB. Similar to Clutter Clearer which I previously mentioned, Different Solutions posts fabulous ideas for just about everything. Today’s haul includes pictures of hair braided into letters of the alphabet, some shabby chic bangle bracelets made out of the seam of an old pair of jeans, bird houses made of cowboy boots, all kinds of fascinating uses for wooden pallets and tires and—many, many things.

There are few captions and some of them are in languages other than English. I could wish, too, that the things that look like actual products rather than crafts would have a link to a vendor. But, over all, the page is a whack on the side of the head, prompting you to think more creatively about pretty much everything around you.

Not everything posted is something I would want or something I am capable of making, but enough of it is that I will not be able to leave Facebook entirely unless and until Different Solutions gets a web page of its own. (Meantime, I’m going to be forced to look into those FB-blocking apps, I think, because it is time to get back to work!)

Elaine Smith Writes

Anything She Wants

Category Archives: Creativity