The Company You Keep
Yesterday, I had my friend Jean Enticknap speak to our Kiwanis club. She is the Artistic Director for Thistle Theatre. Not quite five years ago, after my first two acting classes at Bellevue Community College, a classmate forwarded me an audition call. It was a call for an actor to work as a puppeteer. No puppeteering experience needed, with the biggest requirement being for somebody who was strong. I called up, spoke with Jean and we set up a time to meet. It was an interview to see if we got on and if I was interested. I signed on as actor/puppeteer/truck driver.
We worked on a show named Sheherazade, in which we told the stories of 1001 Arabian Nights in conjunction with Rimsky-Korsakov's music. It was great fun, I was very stiff as a performer, though I improved. It was my first time on stage, and the first four performances averaged over 1000 people in the audience. The energy... I was hooked at that point, and haven't stopped working on theatre and training since.
Jean is one of my favorite people in the world. She is a heavyset woman, but it doesn't slow her down, and it is hard for the rest of the world to keep up with her. She had broken her ankle(s) slipping on the ice the year before I met her, and if that slowed her down at all I'm almost glad I didn't meet her before. I wouldn't have had the energy. I had her speak to the club last year as well, and I actually got an award for arranging for the best speaker of the year. The topic was more on the development of shows this year, and people enjoyed the presentation just as much.
For the month of August I shared the duty for getting speakers with Bill, and my first speaker was two weeks ago yesterday. Another friend and Artistic Director, Gary Schwartz. He founded the Spolin Players, a very good improv group in this area, with the first troupe he founded in Los Angeles still going as well. I have run lights for the Seattle troupe many, many times, and been to two of his improv workshops. (I was on my way to one of the sessions for the first one when I had my motorcycle crash.) Gary worked with Viola Spolin for over twenty years, and is a big advocate of her teachings. People enjoyed his presentation tremendously as well. In the last few years I have had a few other artists speak and I have wowed the club. Even though we are a small club, we have a reputation for bringing in especially good speakers.
It's nice to impress people with an accomplishment, even if it is someone else's presentation. What matters to me is that I have quite a number of friends and acquaintances like Jean and Gary, talented, interesting and great human beings. I feel like every day I should give thanks for becoming associated with all these wonderful people. Kind of disconcerting in a way, that I may actually be one of them. People say you are defined by the company you keep, which could give me a pretty inflated ego.
I was asked by the folks scheduling the September meetings, and I'll be speaking to the group on the 30th, describing the process of creating a new play, from conception to putting it up at the Seattle Fringe Festival. I need to get more details from Robert and Paula. I know the basics of what the writer and director did before I came on board the project in my many and varied capacities. My goal is to do half as good a job as Gary and Jean did.
We worked on a show named Sheherazade, in which we told the stories of 1001 Arabian Nights in conjunction with Rimsky-Korsakov's music. It was great fun, I was very stiff as a performer, though I improved. It was my first time on stage, and the first four performances averaged over 1000 people in the audience. The energy... I was hooked at that point, and haven't stopped working on theatre and training since.
Jean is one of my favorite people in the world. She is a heavyset woman, but it doesn't slow her down, and it is hard for the rest of the world to keep up with her. She had broken her ankle(s) slipping on the ice the year before I met her, and if that slowed her down at all I'm almost glad I didn't meet her before. I wouldn't have had the energy. I had her speak to the club last year as well, and I actually got an award for arranging for the best speaker of the year. The topic was more on the development of shows this year, and people enjoyed the presentation just as much.
For the month of August I shared the duty for getting speakers with Bill, and my first speaker was two weeks ago yesterday. Another friend and Artistic Director, Gary Schwartz. He founded the Spolin Players, a very good improv group in this area, with the first troupe he founded in Los Angeles still going as well. I have run lights for the Seattle troupe many, many times, and been to two of his improv workshops. (I was on my way to one of the sessions for the first one when I had my motorcycle crash.) Gary worked with Viola Spolin for over twenty years, and is a big advocate of her teachings. People enjoyed his presentation tremendously as well. In the last few years I have had a few other artists speak and I have wowed the club. Even though we are a small club, we have a reputation for bringing in especially good speakers.
It's nice to impress people with an accomplishment, even if it is someone else's presentation. What matters to me is that I have quite a number of friends and acquaintances like Jean and Gary, talented, interesting and great human beings. I feel like every day I should give thanks for becoming associated with all these wonderful people. Kind of disconcerting in a way, that I may actually be one of them. People say you are defined by the company you keep, which could give me a pretty inflated ego.
I was asked by the folks scheduling the September meetings, and I'll be speaking to the group on the 30th, describing the process of creating a new play, from conception to putting it up at the Seattle Fringe Festival. I need to get more details from Robert and Paula. I know the basics of what the writer and director did before I came on board the project in my many and varied capacities. My goal is to do half as good a job as Gary and Jean did.
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