Intermission
a creative coffee break from writing the play

January: Art Pays
February: Art Questions
March: The Urge to Create
April: Prayer of Gratitude
May: Creative Stream
June: We’re Always Creating
July: On Not Taking Credit
August: Art Is
September: Keep the Change
October: An Act of Joy
November: A Trio of Voices
December: It Starts With A Joke

Closing Thoughts

December 21 marked our last meditation in our little one-minute focusing experiment. A year ago, confronted by the sorrowful downward trend in the economy, I wanted to find a way to move through 2009 with as much uplift in my Spirit as possible. I approached a couple of playwright pals about creating a meditation series—not a spiritual inner seeking kind of Zen or transcendental meditation—but the old-fashioned kind in the form of mini discourses on art, on what inspires us, nurtures and feeds us as artists.

Closing Thoughts: listen here

We agreed upon a monthly teleconference and that we would rotate through as primary “meditaters.” No meditation would be pre-approved by me or by anyone. If we failed or succeeded each month it came out of a trust and love for each other.

It was an opportunity for us to work in a simple and remote fashion and to be part of a small collective effort.

In 2009 we saw theatres struggling to stay alive, some cutting back programs, some closing their doors, and playwrights not receiving promised productions or prize money.

Whether or not you have enjoyed, been baffled or provoked or even uplifted at all by any of our twelve meditations, we feel at least for ourselves we have succeeded in providing a line and an anchor to keep us moored during these rough economic seas. We showed up for each other and ourselves, and personally I feel very honored and pleased my pals made this commitment for the last 12 months. We will not be repeating this meditation series for 2010, but we hope everyone will carry the spirit of it forward. We ask that of ourselves and invite you to keep only the highest thoughts for your own art and entertainment.

We challenge all of us to embrace this idea: Artists must learn to thrive.

As someone has said “the significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.” (This quote continually gets attributed to Einstein yet I cannot find a source for it.)

During a recent discussion about the economy an artist said to me, “What’s so different about this downward cycle for theatre people? We have always had little money to work with and we have always been able to find a way to do our work. My response to that is, yes we know almost too well how to survive and to get by. Instead, I believe, we must learn to do more than that. We must let go of the starving artist, the idea that no one can make a living, the scrambling over the crumb of opportunities thrown our way. We must stop letting others tell us who can play and who cannot. We must not be frightened. We must stand up for our work and create the forms anew and transform the stages for it.

We must learn to instead thrive.

The world does not ask us to be artists.

The world does not owe its artists anything.

The world may not even want us.

But we know,

We know

The world needs us.

We must transform ourselves into an independent tribe that thrives.

Look it up in the dictionary if you don’t know what the word means.

And then embrace it.

Learn it.

And then thrive.

Thank you.

Happy New Year.

My tiny band of playwright friends & I

wish you as we always do…

An extraordinarily creative life.

Happy New Year!

The 12th and final in our One-Minute Creative Coffee Break Meditation series for 2009:

Listen to the Dec 21 OMCCB Meditation: It Starts with a Joke

We wish you an extraordinarily creative day!

P.S. My closing remarks will be uploaded and posted later this week.

In the Spirit of the coming abundant Thanksgiving holiday we opted to provide three meditations instead of one. The file is larger than normal and may take longer to load.

Listen to the November 9 meditation: Harvesting: A Trio of Different Voices

Want to know more about our OMCCB meditation? Read here.

Keep on creating your Art and Entertainment!

The 10th in our series of meditations for 2009:

Listen to the October 12 meditation: An Act of Joy

Want to know more about our OMCCB meditation? Read here.

Keep on creating your Art and Entertainment!

The 9th in our series of meditations for 2009:

Listen to the Sept 14 OMCCB meditation: Keep the Change

Only three meditations left! We invite you to signup for the remaining meditations. It’s free, easy and fun.

Want to know more about our OMCCB meditation? Read here.

Keep on creating your Art and Entertainment!

Here’s the 8th installment of our meditation on Art & Entertainment for 2009:

Listen to the August 10, 2009 Meditation: Art Is

We hope you will join us next month on September 14th! Please sign-up for the teleconference instructions.

The 7th in our series of meditations for 2009:

Listen to the July 13 OMCCB meditation: On Not Taking Credit

We invite you to signup for the five remaining meditations. It’s free, anonymous and it’s fun.

Keep on creating your Art and Entertainment!

Wow, we are half way through our One-Minute Meditation series!

Listen to the June 8th OMCCB Meditation: We’re Always Creating

If you’d like to join the live broadcast, we invite you to signup for the remaining meditations. It’s free, anonymous and it’s fun.

We continue to appreciate your listening and holding a positive thought for your art and entertainment. Keep on!

This month’s meditation is a bit over the one-minute mark.

Listen to the 5th OMCCB Meditation: Creative Stream

The meditation is hosted on a rotating basis. We don’t know in advance what the other will present. Each meditation is new and a surprise to us all.

If you’d like to join the live broadcast, we invite you to signup for the remaining meditations. It’s free and it’s fun!

We appreciate your listening and holding a positive thought for your art and entertainment!

For those of you joining us on the teleconference: You uplift us with your presence, and we thank you for participating!

Listen to the April 13th OMCCB Meditation: Gratitude Prayer

The meditation is hosted on a rotating basis. We don’t know in advance what the other will present. Each meditation is new and a surprise to us all.

If you’d like to join the live broadcast, we invite you to signup for the remaining meditations. It’s free and it’s fun!

For those of you joining us on the teleconference: You uplift us with your presence, and we thank you for participating!

Listen to the 3rd OMCCB Meditation: The Urge to Create

The meditation is hosted on a rotating basis. We don’t know in advance what the other will present. Each meditation is new and a surprise to us all.

If you’d like to join the live broadcast, we invite you to signup for the remaining meditations.