Improv-ing your life
Oh, hi friends!
I took an improv class this week (for an upcoming story, eek!), but something I learned that stuck with me was how, during improv, you can't rely on projection.
If you project what your scene partner or the group will do next, you're lost.
Instead, you have to respond to the reality and what's really going on. What is their energy? What did they just say? You have to be an active listener.
And you can apply this to how you approach the day, right?
There's your projection: Today is going to be chaotic, or structureless, or stressful, or empty.
And there's your reality: OK, there's a lot to do, but if I look at what's actually on my plate...this will take an hour...this will take 15 minutes. I can put that off 'til next week...etc.
Suddenly, you're able to respond to the truth — not what you think is happening. You're actively listening to your life.
And congratulations, now you're the next Amy Poehler!
One advantage he had was that he wrote easily and quickly, and deleted and rewrote just as quickly. “Writing is like feces,” he told me. “You’re going to make it one way or another. There’s more where that came from. For me, it’s more about, like, the shaping of the stuff.”
LOLOL. This New Yorker profile of the playwright Lucas Hnath is full of interesting factoids, but this is what really got me. In all the books on writing and creative process I've read, no one's ever quite said, "Writing is like feces..." (h/t Delia Cai)
More tidbits:
He rewrites line after line until opening night.
He watches his own plays in previews several times as if he's never heard them before — each performance is a data point in figuring out how it works.
To write "A Doll's House, Part 2" he typed out the entire Ibsen play and then asked himself, "What's left unsaid?"
Laurie Metcalf says he's the most open to collaboration playwright she's ever met.
And before he got "famous" around five years ago, he had a day job for a decade and wrote after work in his windowless office until 2 a.m.
Honestly, who needs Game of Thrones when you can watch...Falcon Cam!
Two peregrine falcons live at the giant corporate building 55 Water Street in downtown Manhattan. Their names are Adele and Frank. There is a 24/7 webcam of their nest. Right now, there are *four* eggs in the nest, and they're due to hatch any day now.
Baby.
Falcons.
!!!!!
When you get the impulse to scroll Facebook or Twitter or dip into your email today, might I suggest you check in on the falcons instead? That's where I'll be. (h/t Dingo)
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Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara