Trying to turn off the valve

Jeff Swearingen as Ellson, the kid who can't stand still in RASPBERRY FIZZ.

I am roughly a month out from my nuptials to the delightful Ms. Engel. I have had to curtail my theatre activities lately and I have found this difficult.

Difficult for two reasons... 1.) I didn't think I was really doing too much anyway and 2.) I have a bizarre need to say yes to opportunities.

As far as reason one went, I thought I was keeping below the radar (as evidenced in a recent article from the local theatre blog TheaterJones.com that highlighted the activity of local playwrights. An article I was not in). But when stepping back to look at things from a clearer perspective, I have been humming along with plenty of projects. I acted in, directed and facilitated a radio theatre project that recently saw fruition. My play RUDNICK THE CANDLE-HEADED BOY played in New York at a "best of..." holiday revue in December. I wrote an original spoken word poem about my first bike ride and performed with the excellent Rhianna Mack for some 5th graders last week. A one-shot spoken word performance that demanded memorization and four rehearsals. I also performed improv twice in December and once last weekend. I taught a solo improv workshop last week. I applied for a residency. I updated the Audacity website. I contacted solo performers around the country with some questions in order to put together a blog post for TheSoloPerformer.com. I did slight rewrites on RASPBERRY FIZZ as well as tracked down Swearingen to snag a quick PR pic and attended the tech meeting about the festival this play will be in (Andy, the director had a fever). Add to this acting in a short film lately and various commercial auditions, I'm knee-deep in theatre and performance activity.

As far as the second reason goes, I am coming to terms with a general itchiness to "do things." This is not necessarily bad, just ill-timed (remember that wedding). As funny as it is that I think I'm practically removed from all arts activities lately I am far from really ramped up on my theatre activities. I was reading Todd Henry's book The Accidental Creative lately and he guidelines that optimum sustainable creative output comes from being healthy, prolific and brilliant. I'm really restless to tackle the prolific part (actually, the healthy part is what I need to do the most, but is outside the realms of this blog post). I feel the need to "do" a lot.

In this vein, I have a hard time turning down any and all opportunities that come my way. I have gotten slightly more discerning over the years, but I still have that urge to go for everything that the universe shoves in my direction. This would normally be a good thing.

Right now, it is something making it hard for me to pare down one aspect of my life to make room for another aspect.