Anna Deavere Smith’s process is rigorous. She believes in discipline of the body and mind and spirit. As I was writing an essay about her this weekend, I was particularly aware of the powers of procrastination… (I launched myself in a SCARF-reorganization project to postpone writing…among other things. And I have a lot of scarves.)  In her Letters to a Young Artist, she says: “I am in awe of the power of procrastination. I am so in awe of it that if I have something I have to do, I try to program myself to do it so quickly that procrastination cannot possibly set in. At one point I was afraid of not fulfilling my commitment to swim every day that I slept in my bathing suit! I would sleep in my suit, through on a swim parka at five a.m., and, without thinking about it, head to my car and off to the pool.” And that was at 5 a.m.! Every morning … Hem.

another thought is the old question about “how to get the best out of people” or at least “theatre people”… i’m finding out with these opportunities that are offered to our staff (like 365, or DISCOVERY DAY, or the PLAY READING CLUB on Mondays) that it’s the creative soul that needs to be fed every once in a while. And feeding that –even in small ways– makes the detail work we’re all struggling with every day more worthwhile. Another way is trusting people … trusting that they can get the job done. letting everybody experience a sense of accomplishment and task completed. And finally, fostering the belief that in the end –and especially in theatre– it’s all about collaboration. Viewing collaboration as a richness, not as competition.

in my leave of absense from the blog, i did have a couple of thoughts
i knew were meant for this: one is my final entry about what i know
nothing about: baseball. I read it some weeks ago in The New Yorker
(see also p.s.).  It’s about how “you can’t understand America unless
you get baseball” –Maybe this explains some of my confusions about
this country??

p.s. There’s a line in COLLECTED STORIES by Donald Margulies “life is
too short for The New Yorker” –said by this professor and writer. I
kind of agree if I look at the two-month old stack of which i’ve read
two and a half articles. tops. O, and that’s why I can’t find the
reference any more!

wondering why i haven’t been able to find a little time for little
blog entries,
then realized that the title of my blog, POSTCARDS FROM A CROWDED
DESK, explains it all.
i’ve been submerged by virtual and material documents and ideas and
texts and organizational/philsophical big and small details in the
last few weeks. i’ve emerged. for a little bit anyway.

Went to a baseball game on Monday (Mets vs. Atlanta Braves) and loved the hot-dogs but thought that, at least for me, baseball is a little like peanut butter. To fully appreciate it, you need to have grown up with it from infancy.

Re-read RIP VAN WINKLE last night after Chinese food of all sorts.

Eric and I are going to adapt RIP for the second stage –- an April kids’ show at the Long Wharf.

RIP’s devoted companion and powerful silent observer is this dog… and Louis de Rougemont (of SHIPWRECKED!– another kid-friendly show in the season) also has a dog, devoted and powerful but not always silent companion.

A dog motif in the season, ooo.

i brought to work the equivalent of a supermarket of food.

maybe because of the lack of people today?

eric said my previous entry was too long. deeksha is okay with it.

they watch over me.

i have 7 paper-hearts fixed on the brown wall in front of me. i had nothing to do with them. the artistic team decided to tease me last season. (hem). they plastered hearts and pictures of my boyfriend marco all over my office (and i mean ALL OVER), the day he was leaving for the west coast on a job. that was last season and it was funny, and most of those bits of paper have made their way through the recycling bin, but the hearts in front of me have become part of my daily surroundings and i couldn’t take them away without feeling like i’m losing some history…so they stay.

my office is really about paper. mainly.

there are occasional mice passing by and little spiders and some things made of colorful plastic. but really, it’s the paper- in all its configurations and heights and shapes.

bea

p.s. i still don’t have any special thoughts on the “how to get the best out of people” question as of today.

but i have thought about it.

how do we get the best out of people, including ourselves?

this is the question in my mind today coming from different meetings and lunches and all.

i have no answers. yet. but if i find examples or a glimpse of something in days to come, i will jot them down here.