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24 hours. A few months ago My friend Lulu invited me to be one of the writers for a Theater experiment. A 24 hour play….The idea … At 9 pm on a friday night everyone gathers to be briefed. The actors and directors go home and The writers stay up all night and each write independent 1 act plays, in the morning the directors take the newly written hot off the presses play and the actors begin to rehearse. 11 hours later the shows are performed for an audience.
The days leading up to the 24 hour play were just, wow. I am on a new kick of replacing the word fear with the word excite. So I was ensconced in sheer excitement. What if I have nothing creative to say. I felt a lot of pressure because I bill myself as creative, but the truth is, I only share the best stuff, the 3% that isn’t snooze worthy. I don’t share all of the flops and drivel. What if what I write is soulless and bland, will people be disappointed? embarrassed? There are 5 other writers staying up all night embracing the task at hand, How very brave they are to me. In fact I am blown away by the bravery of everyone involved..I keep thinking of the Oriah Mountain Dreamer poem “The Invitation” the line…
Last night we all RISKED looking like fools….for the adventure of being alive. And to me it felt like magic.
I did not write an award winning, life changing, masterpiece. But, I did fill up ten pages with words…and a few of the words strung together were funny and for that I am so proud…The real magic happened at 6:30am when the director and coincidentally one of my favorite people in the world got a hold of the script..in fact the entire cast was comprised of my closest friends…I wondered if that was a good idea, would it be better if they were strangers…or “Real Actors” The cast of my friends included an interior designer, an exterior designer, a jeweler and a lawyer…had I known that in advance I would have written a play about them..I mean that basically writes itself.
The cast was Glorious. Brilliant. Inspired. I can’t believe I know these brave, beautiful, talented people that I get to eat lunch with them and that they let me into their lives. I know them well, but somehow I missed that they all went to acting school? How did I miss that they are all actors, seriously wonderful actors….It was exhilarating to watch and humbling to be a part of.
This was so much more then just a theater experiment, it was an exercise in getting stuff done. The entire show night had every element, the sweet and the savory and it taught me how much can be accomplished with clear cut goals, tight deadlines and teamwork…because the idea seemed so preposterous and impossible, to write and produce a play in one day, we let go of the need for perfection, we let go of questioning is this right or wrong, we went with our gut, because we just had to do it, had to make something happen, and that looseness translated into a form of perfection of its own.
I have no idea where our plays came from, where the actors pulled their talents from..But I have drawn the conclusion that when you are open to an experience the experience will fill every gap with itself.
30 minute tech rehearsal for “The Metaphysical Inverse Mirror On Sale Act Now”
It was about a charming but cocky Home Shopping Empire host, his british producer, and the nerdy inventor trying to sell her lifes work, a product called the Metaphysical Inversion Mirror that allows you to see yourself as your opposite gender.
