Category Archives: get out of the way of the play

Posts about Theatre in all its forms pertaining to SerahRose.

Mindful Theatre…coming soon to a conference near you

The Boston Theatre Conference is this February…it’s all about applying the Slow Food Movement to Theatre.  In a grande advance social media undertaking, StageSource has been posting guest blog posts for a couple of months which will continue through the conference.

Mine’s up:

It took a child to make me slow down and choose a mindful life: notice the flavors of my meals, the bumps under my feet, the tightening around the eyes as my friend launches herself into a daunting scene, the inhale through the nose of a playwright before she pitches her story.  As it turns out, I like living slowly and mindfully: seeing people and life as valuable, essential, beautiful and whole beings.

Those of us wrapped up in theatre (or, really, any non-profit sector) can forget the value of approaching each other mindfully.  We are so wrapped up in interpreting and improving the world that we lose sight of the very community in which we create.  Tech week happens at top speed with people losing sleep and eating too much pizza.  Actors miss family holidays for auditions.  Artistic Directors skip their breaks in favor of mini-meetings.  Administrators eat lunch staring at a computer screen.  Our love becomes our work, our work becomes our life, and suddenly we are losing sight of life.

You can read the whole thing at the Boston Theatre Conference Blog.

Fire Up. Delay. Breath. Respond.

In the past year of GAN-e-meed, of producing multiple projects, balancing spinning plates and juggling people and connections, this has been my most important lesson:

If the message via email or phone makes me angry.

Wait.

Wait.

Breath.

Write the angry response.

Wait.

Wait.

Breath.

Re-write the angry response.

Wait.

Wait.

Breath.

Re-write the angry response as a conservative “thank you for the information but here’s where you suck.”

Wait.

Wait.

Breath.

Re-write the conservative thank you as a polite “thank you for helping me see this new option or opportunity; I’ll do better next time.”

Send.

It places no one at blame.  It acknowledges that an exchange of information has occurred.  It keeps me from ruminating for the next three days.

And it’s kinder.

Damn Proud of our Silence

Silence garnered another review today,

The play balances comedy with rumination, and outrageous episodes (magic mushrooms for dinner, anyone?) with a formality of construction that makes for solid theater.

GAN-e-meed, working with a shoestring, pulls off a production that is rich with imagination and talent.

This production successfully realizes the comic and dramatic aspects of Silence, delivering a neatly told tale right along with the lingering questions we’re supposed to take home with us.

This is all stuff I’ve believed all along.  But it feels pretty damn good to see someone else put it in print.

Read the full review at EDGE Boston.

and then reserve your seats. You only have three more chances!

Silence Reviewed

I was just happy about getting to sleep a full night again and having time to cook a hot meal.

This review rounding out my opening weekend is the cherry on top: GAN-e-meed’s Silence is Golden

In a sense, the highest compliment to her is that you don’t notice her work; the play just seems to happen  spontaneously, surprisingly.

Plus, we got called “urban Stage-Warriors.”  Nice.

Read the whole review here on ArtsFuse.