time slipping away

I have been running since Monday and haven't stopped yet. I intended to write 2-3 times a week on this blog but with weeks like this suddenly its late Friday night and the last time I posted was 4-5 days ago.


In the creative process, for me, it is usually best to brainstorm all the possibilities and then let them simmer for a little. It reminds me a pot of water on the stove. Ideas start small like tiny bubbles appearing at the bottom of the pot. Slowly they build until they bubble up to the surface and then reform. Lots of energy dissipates as the options reach the surface. When I was younger, as all the ideas and thoughts reached the "surface of the pot" I would easily turn that energy into action. But lately it seems the pot has to simmer longer in order to find the right answers.

I once had an artistic director tell an entire company that we were only putting on plays. We weren't curing cancer. People didn't die if we made mistakes. I thought that was a good way of looking at things. Unfortunately 2 weeks later that same Artistic Director fired the entire company instead of admitting his mistakes in budgeting and expenses for a show.

I have found that my best decisions are made when I let that "pot" simmer for a while before trying to make a decision. This isn't easy because lots of people are pushing me to make that decision and the clock is ticking with every moment. A former TD used to tell me that there were two ways of building sets. The fast way which is very expensive or the slow way which is much more cost effective but has to have the time to work out alternate solutions to the expensive problems.

Every time I rush into a decision I miss something else and then have to work twice as hard and spend twice as much to fix the problem.

I've rubbed my head so many times trying to work through a problem that it is now a signature gesture I make when problems arise and solutions have to arrived at in a short time frame. Those who know me as soon as they see me rub my head say "Michael is stressed". This week I've rubbed what little hair I had left on my head off.