Across the Great Divide, (excerpt from book in progress)

Bridging the gap between Artist and Manager.

To begin, we all arrived from what ever single or collective connection to“the story“, we experienced, at a point in life where we were receptive to the idea we wanted to make telling “the story” part of our lives.

Most likely we were invited, compelled or shamed  onto the stage, either in front or behind the grand rag, and found a level of engagement and camaraderie much like that of the athlete on the field of competition.

We realized that in our own sheltered existence there was a reality that was both interesting and exciting, and while we approached with a level of trepidation we took the step, onto stage lines firmly in our memory as are the places we are supposed to stand and deliver.

Then, it dawns on us, we are saying something that someone is listening to, not in a class, not on field, court or track but on a stage a place uniquely unlike anything else, or is it? Well, we are in some ways very familiar with this place, we have in someways been aware of it all of our lives in so many ways, as kids “putting on a show” for parents and relatives. Watching TV or the movies, it is all a stage, all a show, as well as the athletic s we have participated in since T-ball.

For me the idea of making the art of theater came as a relief from the dry humorless reality of corporate law. Not that I got to deep into law, just enough to know I was not going to sit behind a desk and read countless pages of endless expose relating to…what! I had spent 2 semesters stumbling through the text books with endless corporate briefs and decided I had had enough. Ok, no corporate law for me, now what, well how about criminal law? I really don’t like to talk in front of people that much so I guess if I want to do this I need to learn to do that. I decided signing up for a speech class was necessary and off I went. All that is well and good but what was not said was if you signed up for speech you also signed up for being cast in a play.

And so it goes.

I imagine as I did we move through a series of experiences in an effort to find a path that works for us, or speaks to us in some fashion. I searched alone for years doing a job I thought I understood not really appreciating it’s importance or significance, handling the day to day tasks and in general feeling pretty good about it all.

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