Keep your drama on the page or the stage.

Supreme moment today was when one of my six grade students came up to me and said "I have something for you!"

She unfolded a post-it note with a drawing of me with the caption--Ms Lindsay--Drama Queen. "'Cause you like drama so much.  Look, it's you with your braids." (I have a trademark multi-braid hairstyle that I wore yesterday.)

Ahhhh...they like me, they really, really like me.

Just wrapped my second five-week, after school drama class for middle schoolers. Wow! What fun!
The secret, it seems,  is to teach them to channel their hormonal insanity into dramatic and emotional characters, or as I like to say "Keep your drama on the page or the stage."

Middle schoolers are the biggest divas in the world (both the boys and the girls). They got so much "I" in them, their narcissism is so thick. But, that's what they gotta have right? The whole idea of their age is to begin to separate THEIR self from those other selves around them.  A strong "I" is required to do such a thing.

Grown ups need to understand this better.  One of the parents who came to our performance today, a Russian immigrant with a very strong accent, started talking to me about how his daughter wants to be an actress. (She's pretty good. She just might do it--if she can lose her beautiful accent.)

He thanked me for working with her and said "I tell Marianna last night that your job is so much more important. You're the producer. You make things happen." He held up his hand demonstrating a puppeteer.

I tried not to laugh, I guess this is one place where my puppet-master tendencies are well placed. But, I wanted to tell him that telling his daughter what she "should" do at this age is an exercise in futility. You gotta find some way to get their friends to tell them they should do it.

For example, today some kids were assigned to play drama with me in reading class. Two boys immediately went into resister mode. One of them, Joe, went ballistic and started saying "It's not fair. This is stupid."

When I calmly asked him what was stupid, he said "This! I hate doing this. I hate reader's theater. It's stupid." Of course that's his usual response to anything, the poor kid is a motherless, homeless couch surfer (couch-surfing sounds like it might be fun--big waves, no responsibilities, no parents--but for a little fifth grader--it sucks!)

I said, "Why don't you go and take a little time out and well talk later."

So, once i got my other kids settled, I went back to talk to him, "Hey, I'm not going to make you do this. If you don't want to do the plays, you can pick your own book and read that."

"I'm just gonna sit here."
 I said, "Okay." And walked away to my other students.

Then, I gave the play to the other resister and said, "Hey, try reading this. You might like it. I picked this one because the characters would be great for Joe. 'Cause that character jumps and spins and makes cool noises just like Joe."

The resister started reading it. "Can we do this one?"
I said, "Yeah, but I'll have to pull one of the kids from the other groups, since Joe doesn't want to do it."
"Can I see if Joe wants to?"
"Sure. Hey Joe, Bob wants to talk to you."
Sure enough, Joe signed onto the script. And he's gonna rock at it. Just because his friend wanted him too."

And that, my friends, is today's report from middle school drama land.

1. 2011 Year End Wrap-up: My Year in Improv: Lessons learned and gratitude to the ones who learned me them.

1.  If it looks like a control freak and acts like a control freak, it is a control freak (Thanks Shes-who-should-not-be-named).
2. Art Class reunions are never as much fun as art school, even if you bring your own head on a pike. (Thanks NADA)
3. You're true worth is reflected in the clear blue eyes of those you value as real friends (Thanks Astara, Caroline, Cara, Brittney, Mika)
4. Pack light, it's a short flight. (Thanks Birthday Suit Girl)
5. Empty nests are awesome nests. (Thanks Ali)
6. You are already exactly who you think you want to be. (Thanks Lila Tribe & Madrona Mind Body)
7.  You never know how funny people can be until you jump in and play (thanks Brody)
8. Last dances are best done in familiar dumps while dressed in recycled rags. (thanks Sharon)
9. True love comes easily to those who do not plan on it. (Thanks Denise & Oliver & the troupe)
10. A creative rEvolution is never late, nor is it early, it arrives precisely when it means to. (Thanks AdBusters & the Occupiers)
11. Somewhere between the fearful, egotistical mountains of being-clever and being-right , lies the happy and hilarious land of being-honest.--(Thanks Nicholas)
12. The best audiences are the ones who invite you back to their home-stage to play with them again and again. (Thanks Janell)

Creative rEvolution Radio?
Hmmm....could it be, that after years of foreplay, me and my man could finally be ready to dive into creative intercourse--on internet radio?
Stay tuned and you'll soon find out.

Creative rEvolution--Year 11,  day 100

Winter hibernation day 10--

Waking to another cold and drizzly day here on Muse Mountain, I'm following the lead of my cats and just staying abed. A cold's wrapped it's nasty tendrils around my throat, so I'm feeling a little under- ground is a good idea.

Indeed, my creative side is screaming for rest and relaxation and that makes my productive side a bit uncomfortable and edgy. I really SHOULD be doing something, many somethings--perhaps madly shopping until I'm dropping. But that's not my winter wonderland, thank you very much. I really do believe a part of me is bear and would rather just stay in bed for the whole month of December. And, gratefully, my creative life-style has arranged my life to support just that.

Despite what they may tell you, that you must perpetually be creating to be an artist, creativity requires a good deal of retreat and recharge to keep it sustainable for a lifetime. And, though perhaps I could deliberate on that for a bit and share my thoughts about it, I don't really want to. So,  instead I'm going to listen to my sleepy muse and retire for a rest--

See you on a future random moment in time.

Creative rEvolution--year 11, day 73

Dreamt I was at the beach with my friend-family of women folk and the coast had been industrialized by the oil companies. No one except me noticed. So I said, "we need to find some waves." So we went driving into the coast range. We stopped at a coffee shop to use the bathroom but got involved in some kind of intellectual debate with a bunch of men folk.

A small girl with us was getting energetic...ally overwelmed, so I tore her away from my auntie and took her outside to decontaminate her with Reike. The woman shop owner saw what I was doing and asked me if I would come teach a class about what I had just done. I knew I didn't have the "credentials" to teach such a class but I also realized that these intellectuals could never really grasp spirit work. So I said, "thank you, but I don't do things like that".

Then I turned to the my women folk and said, "Let's go find some waves." And we did.

 

Creative rEvolution day 72:

This morning's Creative rEvolution writing prompt comes from General G on the midwest home front. I've known and loved GG since about 1980 when we were creative partners in high school:

GG: "was wanting more info of what went on during the Portland Occupation....since you were actually there...I believe you, not the news..."
...
ME: Yup, I'm an Occupier, been down to oPDX encampment quite a bit--not young enough, physically tough enough, or untethered enough to live down there. I am friends with a some of the tough ones who live, eat and breathe oPDX. My friend K was one of the first ones arrested when they tried to keep Main Street as part of the encampment. (Main runs between the two parks, also known as Alpha & Beta camp).

Me, I'm more of a home occupier and one of thousands of creative organizers (CO) of this rEvolution. So, I know a lot about it and am constantly living more occupied every day. Living Occupied, from this CO, means letting go of ego and it's need to control, living fully in the moment, and planning/playing forward into a small world perspective (aka creative sustainability).

I was one of the COs in the massive email loop with the planners of OWS and have been getting "tactical briefings" every week for about six months now. It's originators are a international group of culture jammers who publish the magazine AdBusters which me and the hub have been reading since it's inception. Then once the moement got started other culture jammers joined the band wagon and now it's an all out creative rEvolution.

A lot of us have been really surprised at the response and the longevity of this "encampment" idea. It was just one tactic, not the whole movement. But I guess so many people are fed up with business as usual that it's become the forefront of this creative rEvolution.

Unfortunately, it's also become the scapegoat issue for the cops, consumers, and fear-mongers. Very scary to see the cops beating people up in America. Thought maybe that went out with the 70's and Kent State. But, the brutality just went underground.

And now that there are cameras everywhere, brutality is getting flashed all over the media--mass and alternative. Which is good, because it's awakening some people, but bad because it scares people and then they hide more.

So...wow...guess I have a lot to say about that..so what specifically did you want to know about oPDX?

Creative Emergency Broadcast System!

BEEEEP! This is a test of the Creative Emergency Broadcast System! This is only a test----Wait... THIS JUST IN
BLEEPITY, BLEEP, BLEEP, BLEEP--This is NOT a test of the Creative Broadcast System. This is an actual creative emergency. Creative Revolutionaries are occupying the public streets and parks of over 130 cities around the globe where they are creating open communities to embrace the ideal o...f a planet of the PAP(people, animals, plants), by the PAP and for the PAP". In response, you are expected to put down your mountain dew, turn off your virtual world screen, and have a face to face conversation with the person sitting next to you. Share your current reality. Share your dreams. Stop being preoccupied with the producer/consumer world and occupy the real world. See you there!