How to be a better collaborator
Oh, hi friends!
We have been talking a lot in my musical theater writing workshop about being a good collaborator.
What does that mean?
It means being open to ideas. Not rushing the other person (i.e. not handing them lyrics or music to work on the day before it’s due). Not saying “that idea’s terrible” but maybe, instead, “have you thought of this?” It means not being condescending or thinking the other person knows everything you know.
Combined with another favorite bit of advice—“always assume the other person is trying their best”—these ideas can apply not only to most collaborations, but to most conversations.
I stare at this every day. Some days I write. Some days I do not. But it's always on my mind. (A gift from @whimsyandwild from my friend Charlotte Maiorana last year!)
“Most of the people I find myself in conversation with about this art form share a certain degree of my own skepticism and ambivalence, and also my aspirational wishes.
I think to do what we do you have to be some kind of an idealist, because something is leading you to show up for work every day. And there’s a big 'why' in the room for me. Every time I show up to work. Every time I pick a project. But that 'why' is the essential driving force that brings me there. It’s what galvanizes the work.”
From this smart interview on The Interval.
Lila Neugebauer is one of the youngest women to ever direct on Broadway…oh, shoot, I’m trying less to fetishize the “young person accomplishing great things” trope, because great things can be accomplished by people of all ages, but she really has had an incredible few years, culminating in her most recent play, Waverly Gallery, written by Kenneth Lonergan, and which I loved a whole lot.
Anyway, her thoughts on ambivalence and aspiration were just what I needed to read this week. Because I’m an idealist, too. Are you?
Looking to Get Out of the City?
My ridiculously talented brother Eric is starring in the play Senescence, now in its final weekend at Axial Theatre in Pleasantville, New York.
Three friends living together in Linden, New Jersey are sorting through their lives when a stranger comes to town and says they have the power to change—as they also face a foreboding ecological disaster. Written by Howard Meyer and directed by James Fauvell—I can’t wait to see this one.
I’m going to the matinee on Saturday! Full schedule: Friday evening, Saturday matinee and evening, and Sunday matinee. Tickets are here—it’s a one-hour train ride away, join us!
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Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara