Perpetually Curious

I love any piece of writing that covers "creatives" and "artists." Even more, I love it when business magazines like Fast Company, Inc, and Harvard Business Review write articles about us arts folks. In one of the latest at Fast Co, author Jeff Goins tackles the idea of why you'll never do your best work alone . I want to riff on his three takeaways for the small theater and performing arts communities. Find a "Master" Goins uses the idea of Renaissance artists but this idea is also one used by Austin Kleon in his book Steal Like An Artist . However, this task may feel impossible for those of us living in smaller communities that may not have an established performing arts scene. Where are we to locate these masters? This may mean turning to online communities, diving into Youtube, or doing a lot of interlibrary loan exchanges to read what's been written by or about your chosen artists. Emulate your mentor's work. As most of my readers

Once in a while, start with zero, not with what might be the standard right now. -- Seth Godin [ original post here ] We have a lot of calcification in the performing arts. Instead of doing what everyone else does, what if you did the exact opposite? 1. Selling tickets individually rather than in bulk form. 2 tickets, 4 tickets. Packs of 8 for half price. Actually selling one group an entire performance. 2. Size scale of performances. What would an individual/site specific performance look like for you? What about the opposite: how could you achieve a massive scale of people or space? 3. Stages. Platforms. Removing the set. Sometimes this is done because of economic reasons. What if you perform in the audience seating area and put the audience on the stage instead? 4. Engaging the audience during the performance. Not as stopping the action for an aside, or fake engagement, but as part of the action. There's a great early episode of the Dick Van Dyke show where he forgets