Does children's theater deserve less regard than real theater? I think I need to define and get more specific:
~When I say "deserves less regard," I mean less respect or less attention from the audience. Basically, does the audience get to ignore or, perhaps, make fun of performers if it's just a children's show? Is it alright if the audience becomes disruptive - such as yelling out to the performers, talking out loud or even whispering - if it's a children's show?
~When I say "real theater" I'm talking about going to a building that's got a stage and lights and props and costumes and there's an admissions charge.
~Now to get specific about the show:
What if the show is a group of children who are performing in the living room for their family?
What if the show is a group of children performing in a classroom?
What if the show is a group of children performing in front of their whole school and parents?
Does it matter if they're performing on the floor or on a stage? Should it matter?
What if the costumes or the set aren't fancy?
What if it's an adult troupe performing on the gym floor at a school?
What if it's an adult troupe performing on the grass at a park?
What if it's an adult troupe performing a children's show on a stage in a building that seats 500?

Here's what I think: The quality of the shows are definitely going to change but the quality of the audience behavior should not. I have seen the lack of regard by families who are attending a school production. "It's just the kids," they seem to think as they answer or play with cell phones or allow their younger children to run around. I have seen teachers stand in the back of the gym and carry on not-as-quiet-as-they-think conversations during a children's show put on by adults. For some reason, we've gotten the idea that it's okay to act differently if we're watching just a children's play than if we are dressed up and paying for a seat at the the-uh-tah. It's not okay. Audience members: act like you're dressed up; act like you paid a pretty penny to be able to watch a children's play, no matter where it's being performed or by whom.

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I love audiobooks when I'm driving and when I'm cleaning or when my eyes are too tired to read but I'm still awake enough to listen. (I must admit, there have been times when I go to sleep while listening to an audiobook in bed; but then I also find myself asleep when the book I'm reading lands on my face. I have got to start reading books at other times during waking hours.)

I would love to learn the art of being an audiobook reader. There are some great narrators. Jim Dale comes to mind (Harry Potter; Liesl and Po). Man, can he do voices. I've enjoyed David Hyde Pierce (The Phantom Tollbooth) too. There are many others. I guess I'll put "Learn how to audiobook and record a book" on my list of things to do. Time to practice reading out loud. Do I have that kind of patience? That's the big question, for sure.

The whole reason I was spurred on to write this blog post is because an indie author, Megg Jensen, whose books I've been collecting and enjoying is having a giveaway of an audiobook....and I love audiobooks. So if you'd like to try to win her audiobook, just click here. (And may I be so greedy to ask that you not click on that link? I'd like to win. Thank you ever so much.)

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To All the Kids and Adults I Have Ever Directed:
I'm sorry for making you suffer through auditions and then having to get paragraphs and paragraphs of words perfectly memorized!

In February, I decided to audition for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in my own community. It was supposed to be primarily for children to perform in. There were a few openings for adults. I figured I could be a grandparent that shows up in the first scene or maybe a parent that shows up at Wonka's factory until my kid gets sucked up a pipe or blows up like a blueberry. What a surprise to be cast as Willie (the female version of Willy) Wonka! How delightful! But...that character never stops talking! There are thousands and thousands of gallons of words to memorize. I. Am. Feeling. The. Pain! My head hurts from memorizing; my throat hurts from projecting.

BUT THE SHOW MUST GO ON!

So, I am sorry for being a demanding director--and I thank you for all your hard work--but I'm afraid I'm not changing. I still must insist you memorize lines, get your blocking right, and act well your part. At least you know I've suffered as you have.

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Right when I catch the pattern, things change. I used to think change was no problem, but even as I type this, I can feel my pulse start to go faster. Excuse me a moment while I deep breathe...still breathing...okay, tension in my head is easing. About the C word: in the middle of Dec, my daughter and I traded roles. Not like in the movie Freaky Friday; as in, we have a Christmas play we perform every year and I've been playing the silly elf Tinsel and she's been playing Evergreen, the uptight, busy one that has lists for everything and just does everything her-elf instead of getting help. Hm. Which one sounds more like me? The only reason I've been Tinsel for so long is because that's the character who gets most of the help from the audience throughout the show. When my daughter started performing with me, she was a little young for being in charge of an audience. We switched roles this year. It was a great show, better than it has been! She was so enthusiastic and playful as Tinsel, and I had a blast as Evergreen, adding some uptight physical comedy that made the audience laugh. It brought new energy to an old show. So - Face the change! Shake it up! Try something different and the pulse be darned! 
To paraphrase John Stuart Mill: The person who never tries what he cannot do, never discovers what he can.
(Actual quote: "The pupil who is never required to do what he cannot do, never does what he can do." John Stuart Mill.)

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Last month my 17 yo daughter auditioned and got a major role because her Irish accent was so good. Of course she does because we watch movies such as Darby O`Gill and the Little People, Waking Ned Devine, and The Magical Legend of the Leprechaun. Then we go around the house speaking in Irish accents to each other. Doesn't everyone?

Yesterday, she took some period shoes into rehearsal. The directors were impressed and wondered where/how did she come across those shoes. Well,  we have costumes at home. Doesn't everyone?

Sometimes we don't realize our individual and familial uniqueness, and we should. What's yours?

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During the summer, I teach/direct a mime troupe of kids, ages 10-12. When the kids are creating group skits, I often have to help them so they don't have split focus. You know, where one kid is playing something up big, but so are kids 2 and 3. I'm so busy watching the two on the right, I miss what the kid on the left is doing. Split Focus. I have the kids practice downplaying some actions or even freezing so the audience will be looking at the performer whose movements are required for the story to move along.

So here I am, looking at the last date I posted and it's been six (6) months! Why? Split Focus. I get it even when I'm not on stage. I've been working hard on my writing projects and keeping my author website updated (including the blog there); then there's my business website; and life (laundry, cleaning, fixing, books to read, movies to watch, FB to post to).

And yet when I pulled it together to focus hard, I managed to get another book edited and uploaded! The Other Art: Theater Skills to Help Every Child (Home Edition) got uploaded to Smashwords two days ago and tonight I finished formatting it for Kindle and I uploaded the book to Amazon as well. Wow! I may have to focus more often.

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Well, I suppose he can't since he's no longer living.
I'm in the midst of directing his comedy Twelfth Night. 
Wait. I must start further back...
In high school, I read Much Ado About Nothing and didn't really follow. Then I SAW it performed! The physical action made it understandable and hilarious.
Back to the present...
Directing 12th Night. I cut it. A lot. I kept all the parts I thought I could make physically funny as well as verbally funny and keep the storyline intact. But I still cut a lot. I did keep one part though that I suppose I could have cut or reduce. It's that of the Priest who enters to tell the group that he just performed the marriage ceremony of Sebastian and the Countess Olivia. Does he enter and say, "I just married them a couple of hours ago"? No, he says:


Priest A contract of eternal bond of love,
Confirm'd by mutual joinder of your hands,
Attested by the holy close of lips,
Strengthen'd by interchangement of your rings;
And all the ceremony of this compact
Seal'd in my function, by my testimony:
Since when, my watch hath told me, toward my grave
I have travell'd but two hours.

I couldn't cut it down or out. You know why? Because all I could envision was the Princess Bride movie and the Priest who performs the wedding ceremony--"Mawidge. Mawidge is what bwings us hewe today...Wuv, twoo Wuv..." hahahahahaha! (I love that movie.) So my young actor is playing up the Priest. I forbade him to copy the lisp or attributes of the priest on Princess Bride but he does a fine job of slowly dropping these pearls of wisdom and creating movements with all those words just to say, "Yeah, I married them."

If you'd like to come see the show, the group of homeschooled teens are performing on May 9, in Corvallis. Let me know if you want more details! (I'm still laughing over the movie and my cast member!)

Disclaimer: I'm no Shakespeare expert. And I do mime.

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I'm finishing up another eight weeks of teaching in after-school programs. Talk about a love/hate relationship.

Here are the top 3 things I hate about it:

1. The kids don't necessarily like theater. My class tends to be a curiosity or a lesser of several choices of evil classes.
2. It's the afternoon and there's been no down-time for the kids. You try going to work and being around 600 people all day, and listening to an obnoxiously loud bell every hour and even more obnoxiously loud announcements blasted through the intercom, then at the end of the day having a 5 minute snack with 50 people ready to bust out of the monotony but wait! It's not really the end of the day; it's time for more work--it might be fun work but it still saps the strength. Once you're done with that, you get to go home and do more work given to you to do specifically at home. Those poor kids-they need naps. I need a nap by that time!
3. For some kids there's not a lot of commitment to come. So it means I can never really teach anything beyond a few basics, before I'm back to simple improv games. There's so little continuity. Many of the kids finish up the class thinking that theater is nothing more than what I was able to teach them.

Here are the top 5 things I LOVE about it:

1. The KIDS! They can actually be very fun--sometimes a little unfocused but energetic and fun.
2. When I do get a core group of committed kids, we get to do things like perform. It's magic even when the kids haven't had a lot of theater experience.
3. Watching a kid who is an outsider enjoy himself or herself. I love to see their faces when they're taking a curtain call...or maybe just when they did a great job in an improv game and they know they've done a great job. That's cool!
4. LAUGHTER: Mine and theirs.
5. When the parents are glad their children participated. 

Have you had experience teaching in after-school programs? What tricks do you use to help your students enjoy what you're teaching?

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I finally finished writing 10 short scripts for 2-3 children to perform. The ones that I like the most and I think came out funnier than the others are the ones in which I had DEADLINES. None of the deadlines were imposed by a publisher or editor (too bad, eh?), but by the calendar. For instance, I got one done right before my writer's critique group. I had to have something to take to the meeting, right? I couldn't live with the shame of showing up empty-handed. But I was busy and at the last minute (or hour or so) I
plopped down and quickly typed up a script. One of the writer's group members couldn't stop laughing. Goal achieved.

It may not just be a deadline but sheer exhaustion and a real - dare I say - hatred for sitting down and writing! There, I said it. There have been times I've written scripts through the night because I had to get the dang thing completed but I was so tired by the time 2 am hit that I was getting silly and rather sarcastic and "punny." For example, I'm sure it was around 2 am when I was writing our kids show Princess on a Pea and I wrote this:

[the princess was kept up very late so she would be tired.]

PRINCESS: (enters bedroom) What a wonderful time I've had. I'm so tired I could sleep for 100 years. But I won't because that's a different story.

It must have been around that 2 am mark when I was nearing the end of adapting Jack and the Beanstalk. Jack had returned for the third time and the Giant's wife hears her husband coming. The wife could smell the now hidden Jack and knew her husband would too. But she's had it this time...

GIANT: FeFiFoFum. I smell the blood of an Englishman.
GIANT'S WIFE: You do not!
GIANT: Then I smell the blood of an American!
GIANT'S WIFE: Your nose is playing tricks on you!
GIANT: I tell you, I smell human boy! And be he alive or be he dead, I'll crush his bones to make my bread.
GIANT'S WIFE: You will not! You don't even know how to make bread!

Perhaps Creativity takes two main things: Starting and an End time...and Practice...and maybe a touch of exhaustion thrown in...and a warped sense of humor...a few late nights...Yeah, that.

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I think I've been trapped by the Terrible Trivium! I'm always busy but some of the really important things I want to accomplish never quite get done; and some of the really important people in my life don't get visited! If you've read The Phantom Tollbooth, you know what a demon the Terrible Trivium can be. If you haven't read the classic by Norton Juster, then let me share this part from the book so you know what I'm talking about:


     "All I meant was that perhaps it isn't too important," Milo repeated, trying not to be impolite.
     "Of course it's not important," he snarled angrily. "I wouldn't have asked you to do it if I thought it was important." And now, as he turned to face them, he didn't seem quite so pleasant.
     "Then why bother?" asked Tock, whose alarm suddenly began to ring.
     "Because, my young friends," he muttered sourly, "what could be more important than doing unimportant things? If you stop to do enough of them, you'll never get to where you're going." He punctuated his last remark with a villainous laugh.
     "Then you must----" gasped Milo.
     "Quite correct!" he shrieked triumphantly. "I am the Terrible Trivium, demon of petty tasks and worthless jobs, ogre of wasted effort, and monster of habit."

Time to run away from the Terrible Trivium and find joy in the things I love to do and the people I love. (That book again--my all time favorite--is The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. And don't watch the movie that was made years ago; it ruins the book.)

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Ack! So I've been extremely busy with teaching theatre, directing plays, writing scripts, memorizing scripts, and my son's wedding plans. We were supposed to be on vacation starting in a couple of days. Oh, well. I've thought about how much I need to post something. It didn't get much further than that.

Now there's an opportunity to get a free edit from a person who has been an editor at Harcourt for 10 years and is now an author and I figured I'd share it here (gives me an extra entry, plus it lets you know--good deal all around!)

Go here to enter: http://deareditor.com/2012/08/23/newsflash-a-deareditor-com-free-edit-giveaway/

Good luck!

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How often did you hear your mother say, "Put on your seatbelt" or "Wash your hands" or a thousand other little reminders to help you turn into a responsible adult? (How many times have I said those things as a mom?) My mother also said, "Lock your door," right after "Put on your seatbelt." Funny, one day I turned to do what she had asked and the door was already locked. I had done it automatically. Nowadays, I don't tell my family to put on their seatbelts because they do it automatically.

A week ago I was thinking that, as a director, maybe I concentrated on projection too much. Maybe I should ease up and concentrate more on the acting as well. No, duh, right? The acting is pretty dang important. Except
that I got yet another email from a friend who shared an enthusiastic report from someone who had attended the production we just finished. The report? The woman could hear everyone in the cast even though she was sitting 3/4 of the way back! And remember, that's an enthusiastic report, which tells me projection is becoming a thing of the past, even though people in the present still love it.

Bottom line: No, I will absolutely NOT ease up on telling my casts to project. It needs to be as constant a reminder as my mom's "Lock the door." So project, my actors, project! I will not stop hounding you on that until your voice reaches the person in the back row with hearing aids!

Then I'll pick something new to harp on.

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We took a group of teen writers to Powell's Bookstore to attend a young writers event called Book Fan Friday. One of the parents of the teens gave us enough coupons for all of us to get a Krispy Kreme Doughnut! We headed for our treat stop right after the workshop (the workshop was lead by authors Ruth Tenzer Feldman and Michelle R. McCann). I did not know you could watch them making the doughnuts. And I did not know that it could be so intense.


As we were eating our freebies and watching the machinery pump out perfect doughnuts, we saw that imperfect doughnuts were soon caught and trashed. That's the way life is when you're a Krispy Kreme. But there was a doughnut that escaped worker number one.

It was actually a double doughnut; one gooey, perfectly circular ball of dough overlapped another by an inch and a half. The Double Doughnut went through the hot oil and eased along the tank until it was turned over by another machine. But still it remained intact. When it got out of the oil and onto the conveyor belt, heading for the glaze, we thought for sure worker number one was going to catch it at any second. 

The double doughnut made it! It went right through the glaze that flowed down like an opaque white curtain. We looked ahead. What was in store for our struggling main character? It was worker number two. Worker number two was putting the fresh doughnuts on the trays in pairs. What was our hero? A pair or an imperfection?

The conveyor belt is agonizingly slow. It curved around heading for the oven. We were certain our dear DD was safe from worker number one who was now concentrating on cleaning out the machine getting ready for different doughnuts. The angle was such that DD only looked like a single doughnut. It made it into the oven. We knew it would survive for at least a minute more as it went through the enclosure.

Worker number two was replaced by worker number three and she was placing the exiting doughnuts on the trays in pairs, just like worker number two. What was she going to do with our Double Doughnut friend who was not like any of the other doughnuts. We made guesses but all too soon, the moment of truth arrived. Worker number three picked up the five perfect doughnuts in front of our doughnut. Without thought, without knowing the seven faces pressed against the glass were anxiously awaiting the fate of this new doughnut, worker number three picked up DD and put it back on the conveyor belt just beyond her. 

There was only a couple of feet left of conveyor belt. It seemed our imperfect doughnut was at the end of its young life. As the conveyor took the doughnut to the edge where the DD would drop into the garbage pail lined with a white plastic sack, we hummed taps. But then the miracle!

The doughnut would not drop off! Part of it dangled over the edge. The other part clung to a metal bar that the conveyor belt dropped below. Even at the end, our dear Double Doughnut refused to give up. We looked for worker number one. He was standing next to the dangling doughnut, but his back was to it. Would he turn around at any moment and slap our doughnut into the garbage? Worke

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My world is tough. It's full of critics, the toughest being the one in my head. 
As a writer, I'm in a critique group. The members of the group are supposed to tell me what's wrong with my writing so I can improve the story. When I attend writer conferences, I usually pay to have someone else critique my work. I'm actually paying for someone else to criticize me!
As a performer, the angst is whether the audience is going to like my acting.
As a mime...
well, we all know jokes about mimes.
Then there are evaluations.
I have  to evaluate what I can change in my story. Perhaps the main character is too young or too old.
I have to evaluate the performance. Was it the audience or was it me? And it's a triple threat because I write the scripts so: was it a bad script?
When I teach theatre, there are more evaluations in which the students get to say whether or not they liked anything I did.
ACK! Do I love the torture of being constantly critiqued or evaluated? NO!!!
But I love what I do so I'm not stopping. (And, honestly, I do know that the critiques and evaluations are for me to improve.)
Yesterday, I happened across a YouTube movie, 16 min., that I must share. I wasn't going to watch the whole thing when I stumbled upon it, but I was smiling within the first minute and I was delighted with the whole movie. So for all of you with critics within and without, here it is:
Validation

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Hel-lo. If you bring a flashlight into a dark room--no matter how small the flashlight--it is noticeable. If you start texting on your cell phone, it's like a little flashlight in a dark room; it's DISTRACTING. If you are so addicted to texting you can't put your cell phone away during a 1.5 - 2 hour movie, DO NOT come to the movie theatre. Wait until the movie comes out on DVD and watch it at home. And don't even think that you'll just leave the theatre if you have to text or take a call. Seeing you come and go is distracting as well.

And another thing: Don't cross in front of me--even if I am in the back--to get to the other side of the theater, especially when the theater has TWO ENTRANCES. Take yourself out the one door and come through the other. Duh. And don't use your cell as a flashlight; wait by the door until your eyes adjust. It's not as dark as a cave.


And one more little rant: If you come when the movie has started, and I don't care if it is just the previews, find a seat and SIT DOWN QUICKLY. I do not want to be watching your butt as you figure out where to sit.


I'm tired of politely watching or ignoring such rude behavior. I now commit to politely saying something to those who insist on pretending ignorance to such courtesies.

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Since November, we have been performing our play "Paul Bunyan" regularly in the schools, thanks to the Assistance League of Salem and their program Operation Art Adventures. They contracted with us May 2011 to do about 30 performances in the Salem area elementary schools and we'll be finishing up those performances next week on the 29th.

One AL member asked me today if I'll be going into withdrawals next week. I said that I'd be
dancing around the house because I'll have more time. Now I'm thinking she was so RIGHT. Tears are starting to form at the corners of my eyes just writing this post!

And why is that? Because of the kids! Through the months we've performed we've had teachers and counselors tell us:
"It was so great you picked that child to play the part; they needed the boost."
"Great job! The kids really loved it."
"They've never been so attentive in an assembly."

 And the kids have commented:
"That was a great movie you did." (Okay so they don't get to see many live plays. We'll worry about the vocabulary another day.)
"Can you come next week?"
"Thank you for letting me be Babe the Blue Ox."
"You did good!"
"Thank you."


What a delight. Thank you, Assistance League, for allowing us this wonderful school year. Thank you, kids, for being great audiences...and remember the secret code is 398.2

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I got a Kindle Touch in November for my birthday...And that's my excuse for any blogging not getting done.

I love reading. Here's a sample of what I've been reading, not necessarily in this order:
*How to Make, Market and Sell Ebooks - All for Free, by Jason Matthews
*How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months, by John Locke
*Smashwords Style Guide, by Mark Coker
(You can tell what that's all about, right?)

*The Complete Idiot's Guide to Year-Round Gardening, by Delilah Smittle and Sheri Ann Richerson (I started reading the kindle book through my library's lending program but I ran out of time so I ended up buying the paperback because it was cheaper than the Kindle version. I'm happy with it either way. Did you know you can compost your shredded paper?! I digress)
*101 Self-Sufficiency Gardening Tips, by Sheri Ann Richerson (On Kindle loan through Amazon. Too bad my Amazon Prime trial runs out next week).
*Running Wide Open, by Lisa Nowak (ah, finally, a fiction novel for relaxation--Lisa is an indie author and part of the Indelibles team--an impressive group of writers.)
*My Man Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse (reading this with the hubby; shared humor is funnier)


Between Smashwords and Amazon, my Kindle is loaded!


You may ask: "That's a lot of reading but you said something about 'writing' excitement?" Well, yes. The whole point in reading the How-to manuals in regards to ebooks is because I'm getting ready to publish that way. AND GETTING READY TAKES SO LONG--I'm about to faint from brain overload. Right when I think it's time to format and upload, there's a book I have to read about it, so I'm totally ready. I need to stop doing that and forget about being totally ready; maybe almost ready is close enough.


And here's what's coming soon from me:
White Fire: Delsina watches her house burn around her parents as she flees with her oldest brother, Talem. When she realizes escape preparations were made years before Sethrum, Man of Fire, entered her home and burned up her family, she thinks it's because Sethrum is after Talem. But that's not so; Sethrum is after Delsina for a special talent she doesn't know she has.

I'm also helping a friend out. His first book is:
As the Mind Wanders: People, Teenagers and Other Wildlife: Non-fiction observations 0 Comments on Reading and Writing and More Reading Excitement as of 1/1/1900