4 posts tagged “favorite”

And life is a road that I wanna keep going
Love is a river, I wanna keep flowing
Life is a road, now and forever, wonderful journey
I'll be there when the world stops turning
I'll be there when the storm is through
In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you.

No, there isn't a specific "you" to speak of, but whilst in Philly this weekend I was reminded of how much I love my friends. We're all traveling through this strange, windy, topsy-turvy world together. Most of the time we're lost, and as we each realize who we are and perhaps who we may become, our enthusiasm, darkness, and courage guides, envelopes, and inspires one another. By sharing our experiences, often over cocktails somewhat animatedly, our discoveries and pain allow one another to feel solace and community on what can often seem to be an individual and lonely journey.

I recently read Anna Deavere Smith's Letters to a Young Artist, and she talks frequently about the importance of finding an artistic soulmate. Your artistic soulmate  is someone with whom you can discuss ideas and dreams, and frequently this relationship starts as as a single all-night conversation that lasts far longer than you'd expected. This was one of the defining characteristics of my collge experience, and it seemed one of the reasons that people venture off to university: to find other like-minded people who could share your dreams, successes, visions, and hopes. My recent trip to Philly reminded me of how important it is to continue to have these conversations with my friends when we are able to see each other, which sadly is with decreasing frequency.

I've predicted that 24 & 2007 are going to offer a lot of changes and opportunities. It seems that this is a sentiment a lot of my friends share. I'm excited to continue to make discoveries, learn about who I am, and to figure out where I might be heading in the future.  

What are five books that changed your life? 
Inspired by Ms. Genevieve.

Most recently, The Alchemist. It's a book about passion, determination, personal destiny, and always striving for that which you love. Santiago, a shephard who dreams of treasure in a distant land, learns that he is able to discover the soul of the world when he works towards attaining his personal destiny. It's a book about how one can become synchronized with the world and other people through the pursuit of a dream. Ultimately it echoes Marianne Williamson's quote*, often cited from Nelson Mandela's speech, which argues that as we achieve, we unconsciously give other people permission to achieve great things and that as we are liberated from our own fears, our presence liberates others. I find something new every time I read it, and since it's a short read I'm thinking about picking it up once a month or every other month. It's incredibly refreshing and encouraging.

 

 I discovered this book the summer before my junior year of college, around the same time that I heard of Bogart's unique theatre technique, Viewpoints. I actually intended to purchase a book about Viewpoints, but was unable to find one and picked up this instead. What a lucky mistake! A Director Prepares gave me new ideas on what it means to create art & theater, as well as a vocabulary to utilize to express myself. I felt like I had found a mentor, someone who knew and understood the position I was in as I stood on the precipice, months away from directing my first University production. Incidentally, both Ms. Bogart and I directed The Bald Soprano very early in our careers.

 

 I've directed The Bald Soprano twice, during my junior year in high school and my junior year of college. I've been enamored with Soprano since I first discovered it at the age of 15. The play was my first introduction to absurdist theater and the social and political implications of theater & art. I directed it the first time for a student one act play competition, and won Best Director. I felt like I was falling in love, and by the end of the project was absolutely certain that I wanted to be a theater director for the rest of my life. When I reapproached the play in college, I was enamored with the idea of post-war societies and the utter inadequacy of language to describe the cultural shifts that occur. I was able to utilize some magnificent designers to create a really wonderful piece of which I am still insanely proud. I still have the VHS tape of the production, and every now and then watch it to remind myself that I am capable, competent, & artistic, and that I do indeed have vision.

I don't remember which Wayne Weible book I read first, Medjugorje: The Message or Medjugorje: The Mission, but I read both within months of each other. A very Christian friend of my Mother's realized that I was in a bit of a spiritual conundrum and passed these books on to me. Very early in life, my brother and I decided that we were atheists, and I have to admit that my main motivating factor was my brother's disbelief. When he pointedly asked if I really believed that a magical father sat in the clouds and looked down on us, I had to admit that it sounded outlandish. So we stopped attending Church and I felt generally good about our decision until middle school when I felt like I was missing something, mainly community, and recognized that people who attended Church or were religious didn't seem to have the same void. I find the books fascinating, but don't know if I truly believe. I think the greatest gift the books gave me was a shift from atheism to agnosticism. I am completely unsure of who or what exists, but believe there must be some sort of universal and spiritual connection between people, and the world. I don't believe in organized religion, but do believe (in something I've yet to define).

 

It's going to take me a little while to come up with a fifth book.

 

*"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?  You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Like most people involved in entertainment, I'll admit that I've daydreamed about receiving some magnificent award and what I should say in my acceptance speech. As a theatre person, I usually limit myself to fantasizing about the Tony awards. In light of the Golden Globes last night, I began to think of who I might want to thank should my career take an unexpected turn from theatre into film.  Mid-ceremony I realized that I should thank HBO (Films) for creating movies that have kept me engaged and inspired as long as I can remember: thank you HBO for Iron Jawed Angels, Angels in America, Wit,  Tuskegee Airmen, Something the Lord Made, And the Band Played On, Real Women Have Curves, If These Walls Could Talk, & Rebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault.

I just finished (literally 10 minutes ago) reading Jesus Land, and I loved it. I'm always drawn to memoirs that feature race, and/or dysfunctional families, but Jesus Land has the added bonus of discussing religion.

From Booklist: In the name of religion, Scheeres and her adopted black brother, David, suffer cruel abuse, first in their Calvinist home in Indiana in the 1970s and then when their surgeon father and missionary-minded mother send the teens to a fundamentalist Dominican Republic reform school that is run like boot camp. The self-righteous sermonizing would be hilarious if it were not the justification for vicious punishment. The racism is open, from the other kids and from authority. Scheeres tries to find comfort in drink and in sex with a classmate ("His heat and his desire they comfort me. I shall not want"). What is unforgettable is the tenderness between sister and brother, as uplifting as any sermon. Their relationship is never sentimentalized: She is ashamed of the times she turns her back on him, tired of being called "nigger-lover . . . the black boy's sister," but they help each other through the worst with horseplay, humor, and courage. The writing is Dickensian in its blend of the tender, the brutal, and the absurd. Hazel Rochman

The one great thing about my commute is that I am able to read quite a bit in a short amount of time. Next up: I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.