Summertime as a Teaching Artist/All the Time as an Artist

I think I might’ve written the last post because living with less is on my mind because now begins the desert times for Teaching Artists.  Unless you’re extraordinarily lucky and gotten one of the few city TA gigs or are flying off to Alaska or New Hampshire or Vermont to work at a camp, you are here, trying to figure out how to piece together a living in the summer.

I feel lucky to have gotten a job working at the Public Theater for part of the summer.  Working with young people around Shakespeare with the wonderful Michael Wiggins.  Awesome.

But, until then and after that, it’s playing the survival game.  Temping, where I’ve often turned for summer work in years past is slower than usual due to the economic downturn.  And I will figure something out.  I always do.  But it occurs to me that these are the things we often don’t talk about as artists.  How do we make it all work.  So, I’m taking a poll in order to share resources.  I’m currently reading Microtrends by Mark Penn to research a new play and he says that gleaning information from polls can help determine the trends of tomorrow (and of course establish where we are).

So help me out and answer the poll.  And we’ll try and find some answers together.

The Joy of Less

My friend Dustin posted this article by Pico Iyer on what it is to live with less.

Having spent a bit of time in Kyoto, there is a part of me that is envious of the life he has chosen, or rather, where he has chosen to have this austere life.

As artists and teaching artists here in NYC, auterity isn’t so much a choice, especially these days.  But, the way that we embrace it, frame it and enjoy what we do have is within our control.

Poetry, Found Text and Birthdays in America

I promised I would try to start getting to things before they close so that I could tell people about them.  I missed it this time, and I’m sad about that, but you can still check out Jenny Holzer’s Protect Protect, if virtually.  She has always wowed me with her truths and aphorisms, but now she is working with found text, heavily redacted, declassified documents she found at the National Security Archive.

I also saw the lovely Pious Poetic Pie from Fluid Motion last week and it was good to see poetry onstage again.  Beautifully directed by Denyse Owens and beautifully rendered  remake of Medea by poet Yubelky Rodriguez.  And, this guy’s post-show performance was also a revelation.  Makes me wanna write in verse again.  His band, the Mighty Third Rail, violinist, bassist and voice, was mighty fine.

And I hear some people are keeping their birthdays quiet.  Happy Birthday, Ed Lin.  Keep taking down the man.

Oh, and speaking of birthdays, you’ve got one more week to see American Hwangap, Lloyd Suh’s newest directed by Trip Cullman at the Wild Project.  A touching, heartbreaking, very funny play about what happens when a Korean American man comes home after deserting his family 15 years before.  And it’s his birthday.  But don’t trust me.  Variety, Theatermania, the NY Times, Time Out, they all friggin’ love it.