Allright folks.
Here's the level.
I am a Democrat.
My life as one of the boys in The American Tenors was all about playing the middle. Don't piss off the right with any of that liberal speak, you'll loose half your audience.
Well, I thank God for Barack Obama, for now I feel there is a general loosening of our red and blue state mentality. Regardless of what YOU may think about the guy, I think he is a good man, who has an open mind, but not so open as a conservative thinker may believe.
I believe that this guy, who has had to grow up in both worlds as a black man in a white man's world and as a white man in a black man's world (pardon the coloquialism...and the spelling) has given him something most people do not see. And this is perspective.
Perspective grants a person power. Allowing someone to see both sides of an argument and make an informed decision that can help both sides is great wealth.
Being a mediator dosn't mean one has to be a follower and always in the middle, it just means that you can empathize more easily. And in many respects, isn't that what people want? Just to be heard?
I've always been a democrat, as has my family for generations. For me it is simple. We have to help other people.
I am a closet Christian with a huge rebel streak. I think Jesus' words give us a lot of leeway to be humane to other people in a million different ways.
I don't believe in Dogma. I don't believe fighting solves anything, but I'll be damned if I don't stick up say, for my girl.
I am the last person to get into a fight...they used to call me Buddha in college, which was my associates way of saying I was the peacemaker.
But, as I have aged, my pacifisit, peacenik hippie attitude has basically left me. I am a big believer in giving a shit and if not dead, I'll keep on scrapping. And if it really is a fight, I cheat and I bite. Loco, mayng. Loco.
Right, so what's with the Christian bragging about fighting??
Well... when we get to that point, I'm protecting my life or my girl's. And it's just more animal than a rational thinking man's boxing match. A cornered animal on the defensive.
This gets to how to be effective on the stage.
What?
Sure.
Check it out. It's the ccombination of humility, humanity and animal that makes for stage credibility.
This goes far beyond just learning your words, music, rhythm, language. Keep in mind, a huge amount of preparation must go into combining these aspects of characterization so that when the time comes to lean into the maelstrom, you have an informed choice of going into it, you are living the piece and, most importantly, you can get back, at any time completeing any technical aspects of a role. as well as being completely embarrased by your actions at the end.
...especially when your travel agent reviews you as being "adequately mad".
One must think of it as controlled falling. And it must be so. Especially when you are doing scene-work with more than yourself on the stage. Having the grace and humility to work with your castmates and to come up with solutions to problems and different viewpoints is crucial to longevity.
A friend asked me recently as we were planning writing and producing a series of pieces, you have been seen a lot as yourself on the stage (in other words Starring). Do you feel comfortable as a different character, a person other than yourself?
I took this question in a lot of different ways.
The ultimate answer was yes, I do feel comfortable as a character other than my persona on stage as Nathan Granner.
But let me address this.
You know, there aren't many people who write about this, much less have the experience.
If you are a headliner and get cast above the show title, you don't have to feel bad. Just know, a title is a crazy thing. When you step out on that stage you are what you are. Some people are going to say one thing, like, "I just don't like stars being themselves in show". or another, such as, "You know, I really lost them in the role, amazing".
This could be on the same night.
You cannot control what people think of you. Regardless of how much preparation you did, or did not do, this will happen. Even in the smallest of audiences, not headlining, we are sbject to the whims of an audience who either does or does not get it.
To ameliorate this ambiguousness I just dig in. Sometimes I let my character become informed by not just the text, but also the context of where they are coming from.
You can prepare, prepare, prepare, read and study the habits of people. For instance, "Midieval Culture and Society", by David Herlily is one of my texts I can go to to find out why so and so is so upset by someone's insensitive statement, and why it warrants a fight to the death.
But at the end of it all. It isn't David up there on that stage, it is you. And more than likely, your and Ceasar's duty smells oddly, similarly shitty.
This is why classicl pieces from antiquity, as well as new classics from Kansas City can stand the test of time.
After all. Were we not all human once?
Don't answer that.
Till next time.
I am off to barbeque some poultry.
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