Adaptations:
You Might As Well Live
Poetry and short stories of Dorothy Parker
Co-adapter
Brush Up Your Shakespeare
Scenes, monlogues and sonnets of Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet: A Silent Comedy
Romeo and Juliet in the style of a silent film comedy
No Sense Saying Goodnight
Short Stories of Dorothy Parker
Solo Pieces:
The Stories I Know
The Songs I Know
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Columbia College Community Arts Project Newsletter
I just read your most recent newsletter. I had been
pondering some of the issues and components of what I do as a community
artist, so I was compelled to write you. I believe that every
person, in their search for meaning and peace in life, has a right and
is entitled to create "bad' art. While as a person and artist a
part of me does not believe in the possibility of producing bad art
when the creator is sincere, I know there are standards and biases
created in each of us for what is good and bad in everything.
Community arts, however, cannot, generally speaking, fail at creating
art, producing something that expresses a particular, thought, feeling
or moment for that artist or group of artists.
I have to believe that people seek out informal or community arts
for sincere and deeply felt reasons. No on creates something for
display, or stands in front of an audience risking embarrassment and
criticism, without wanting to say or gain something in return.
They are either trying to reach out to say something or reach in to
discover something about themselves. How can that be judged as
bad? Could it be ugly, could it be unpleasant to watch or read or
hear? Sure, but does that mean the person has no right totry?
Do I believe my community theatre involvement helps people in the
journey that is their life? OF course. Could I find the
patience to work through a script with someone obviously ill suited to
acting, if I did not fully believe that it was making a difference to
them? I am no saint, I'm not even noted for my tolerance of
others' ineptitudes, but in a community theatre setting I would never
treat someone attempting to act with contempt or hostility. I
find that place in myself that is afraid of failing and remind myself
that this person has entrusted me with one f the most vulnerable parts
of themselves.
I believe the best parts of art and the best parts of ourselves,
for that matter, emerge from our mistakes, our imperfections. You
don't have to be Picasso to discover something in painting, you don't
have to be Virginia Woolf to write something that makes your life
clearer to you, and you don't have to be Meryl Streep or Mandy Patinkin
to feel the freedom and power of performing on a stage.
I do what I do not to serve Art. I do what I do to help art continue to serve people.
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