After boiling it down to the single element that unites all the various things I am passionate about doing, I get this: I LOVE TO MAKE THINGS—FROM SCRATCH. Whether I'm at the easel, in the kitchen, in the rehearsal space, or at the escape room, the unbridled joy I get from starting with nothing and ending with something is unparalleled. Particularly when it comes to theatre, my interest and struggle is in exploring, changing, refining THE PROCESS OF IT more so than the end result. I've always pondered how there are millions of performance texts in existence and yet, I'd hazard to say, 90% percent of the time, they're rehearsed, performed, and presented with the same formula. I WANT MY WORK TO ALWAYS REST IN THAT OTHER 10%. This is why I can never seem to get away from the devising and performance technique called LIVE-CONSTRUCTION that I helped create with theatre company BARK during my time in London. It is about stripping back the elements of live-creation and allowing them to become part of a performance's material. Have you ever watched a video of a building or a bridge being built in fast forward? If you get as much pleasure out of that as I do, then you'll get live-constructed performance.
When I boil it down to the core of my being, I know without a doubt that MY FAMILY IS ROOTED THERE. Throughout ALL MY WANDERINGS across the pond, THE LOVE AND KINSHIP OF MY PEOPLE ALONGSIDE MY FAITH has been a sustaining force in my life. That sustaining force gives me the fuel to go and do. If I can try a new food, I will do it. If I can hike a trail or see a countryside that is foreign to me, I'll do it. If I can take a moment to read I do it. When I get in the car, I'm straight to my audio book. Given the choice between going out for drinks and going to the art museum, or any museum for that matter, I choose the museum.
Recently my husband looked at me lovingly and with sparkling candor he said, "YOU'RE A CONTRADICTION." I found that statement both apt and succinct—my favorite kind of statement from my favorite person. That contradictory nature is what drives me forward, MAKES ME ASK QUESTIONS AND SEEK ANSWERS AND THEN SEEK NEW ANSWERS, it is what makes me close-knit with my loved ones and a world-wanderer at the same time, it is what DRIVES MY WORK, FEEDS MY AMBITION, and provides me the AUDACITY I NEED to keep asking: "WHY THAT WAY?"
Always,
