Yesterday’s interview with Kelsey Chapman, B.F.A. Theatre Arts University of Idaho. Andy Pope asks the questions — including the Big One — on Election Day 2020.
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Tag: theatre arts
Keva’s Song
This morning I’d like to present a one minute audition video recently created by Keva Shull who is playing the female lead Taura in the current workshop of my musical Eden in Babylon. Keva had approached me earlier in the year when I’d offered to tutor Music Theory and Composition and Creative Writing of Fiction over Zoom as the pandemic first put us into quarantine.
It turned out that she had written a musical about the stigma surrounding mental health disorders. I naturally asked her how she chose me of all people, because I have written a musical about mental health conditions myself (my earlier musical, The Burden of Eden.)
Must have been meant to be. I eventually cast Keva in the leading role. As you can see and hear today, I am very happy to have done so.
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Gratitude List 1180
1. Awoke refreshed at 4:40 am, my median wake-up time. Grateful for my sleeping spot in my place of residence, and for the early morning hours. It’s pleasant to see the sky grow light, and to hear the birds chirping outside my open window.
2. Grateful for this close-knit, creative community. I read recently where this town was rated the best place to live in the entire State.
3. 48F degrees and perfect running weather. Jeremiah said he would leave a pair of whole shoes for me at the church. Grateful for the runners I’ve met recently – Jeremiah, Cody, Brandy — and the motivation I’ve received talking with them. I remember if I wanted to run when I lived in Berkeley I had to always ask another homeless guy whom I trusted to watch my back pack and all my stuff while I ran. It’s nice becoming a runner among runners again.
4. Nice cup of Instant that I made here at home.
5. Heard from Lynne Fisher just now. Grateful for our ongoing correspondence and friendship.
6. The cafe here in town where I get most of my work done. It’s not only not problematical, like most cafes where I’ve attempted to hang out in the past, but the people who own and run the place, and the regular customers whom I’ve gotten to know, are genuinely very supportive of me and of each other. I’m really grateful for that cafe, and for the round table where I sit.
7. It’s great to have a new computer that is not interfering with my process or slowing down to a huge degree, like the old one was. It’s also great to have a single computer with everything on it, and not to have to go back home to (say) burn a CD, for example. Thankful for there finally having been a solution to an aggravating computer issue that had hindered me for so long.
8. Everybody is on board my project, and rehearsals are going well. It’s nice to be a worker among workers.
9.My church. Thankful for their letting us use the facilities for rehearsals, before we all move into the Kenworthy Theatre at the end of the summer.
10. God is Good. :)
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A little bit goes a long, long way.
Done with Act One!
As I wrote the words “End of Act One” at the bottom of p.86, I looked at the computer clock. It was 6:45am.
No – I did not stay up all night. True, I got to work on time last night by the skin of my teeth. A phone call to announce I’d been searching for my missing keys seemed appropriate. Granted, the keys were only missing for about five seconds. But at least I didn’t lie about it.
Four hours of work was fine. I concentrated well on the job, when called for. I was unusually silent during dinner hour — and I’m sure you all know why.
As soon as I got home, I grabbed my laptop and headed to the Bagel Shop. There I remained until the first rush of drunken students arrived. I returned to my room, and wrote till midnight. As the clock struck twelve, I gave up. I had been belaboring the end of the Act for so long to no avail, I’m sure all the Muses were snoring in their sleep from boredom. Soon, I was snoring too.
And it’s a good thing. I got up at around 4am, took my thyroid medication, drank some water, did some reading, made some coffee, called a friend, and finally braved the unknown.
Then, what didn’t happen last night happened this morning. It was uncanny. It’s a rare experience, and very difficult to describe. The same experience occurred when I wrote the Siddhartha Monologue, and the lyrics to “Midnight Screams.” The rush of creative fire ripped through my bloodstream. It practically burned through my pores. As I wrote the “oracle” that my protagonist, Winston Greene, is supposed to be “receiving” at the end of the Act, it was as though I myself were receiving it — from somewhere. It couldn’t have happened last night, either. Last night all I did was stare brain-dead at the page. It must have happened when it was meant to happen; for this morning, I was on fire.
Honestly, I got so excited when the final verses of the song came about, I could barely focus to write. Mercifully, I was able to contain myself just long enough to finish the Act. At that, I heard the voice of my Theatre Arts mentor, the late Tom McKenzie, clearly saying what he no doubt would have said to me at that moment – God rest his soul.
“And now, it’s time for you to put it aside for a while.”
This calls for a glass of wine.
