This week we spread the love for The Art of Rejection by Christian Kiley. Filmed live on location at the 2010 Texas Educational Theatre Association (TETA) conference in Dallas, Texas.

Click here if you can’t see the video above.

Transcript

Welcome to this week’s Spread the Love. This week we are in Dallas, Texas at TETA – The Texas Educational Theatre Association conference. Phew! And we are talking about The Art of Rejection by Christian Kiley. Which is actually two plays: The Art of Rejection, where the main character R is alone in a sea of numbers, and Chaired where sometimes the hardest thing to do is stand up. Craig, what do you love about The Art of Rejection?

I think we can all identify with the central characters in both plays. The Art of Rejection shines a spotlight on that part of us that always feels like we’re being rejected, always feels like we’re being put down. And Chaired looks at that eternal struggle we face between having to go with the flow, or standing up and asserting our independence. Lindsay what do you love about The Art of Rejection?

Christian Kiley is a master at combing abstract and realism. The characters in the plays are very realistic and very relatable. Love that! But the situations that the characters are in are extremely abstract. That combination I think is awesome for students to experience. That’s why you should read these plays. That’s it for Spread the Love.

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London, Ontario based Resource Stage has some great free printable resources on all things audio.

The articles that seemed most helpful for schools are:

• Evaluating And Comparing Speakers
• Your Simple Audio System Cheat Sheet
• Glossary of Audio Terms
• Portable Sound Systems

The only problem is that they’re a bit tricky to find. You want to click on the icon in the top right corner that looks like a folder. I’ve circled the icon you’re looking for in red on the graphic above.

Tip of the hat to the CODE (Council of Ontario Drama and Dance Educators) blog.

It’s road trip time here at Theatrefolk! Today starts a two week journey down to FLA. We’ll be in St. Cloud, Deerfield Beach, Coral Springs, Plantation, St. Pete’s Beach, Bradenton and St. Petersburg. Why, you may ask, does Theatrefolk spend so much time in Florida? You may not ask. Maybe you’re just passing through on this blog. Maybe you’re not even reading this. Am I typing in a void? If no one hears the laptop keys, do they make a sound? Ticka ticka tap?

Sorry. I’m a wee bit giddy. I love going to Florida. Not only will we watch the Superbowl (Well, on tv. In Orlando. Close enough), visit Disney, and spend a couple of days on the beach in St. Pete’s with friends…..

Photo by Skirsner on Flickr

We’ll also be landing at the Florida State Junior Thespian Festival, teaching workshops, seeing two premiers, and generally connecting with teachers and students we adore.

And that’s why we go to Florida. Not for the weather, or the mouse, or the beach. Ok, that’s a plus. Big plus. Huge. But we really go because we love the folks, love working with the students, and love that they welcome us into their schools.  Sometimes it feels we’re more welcome there than on our home turf. Sometimes.

Enough chit chat. I gotta get my sunglasses and get in the car. Orlando or bust!

American Teacher Magazine features arts education on its cover this month. I find the article to be a bit milquetoasty. It doesn’t make much of a compelling argument for arts education, mainly relying on anecdotal evidence. It also lacks a resource list for anyone looking to increase the amount of arts activity and funding at their school. However, it’s nice to see the arts put front and centre on the agenda.

You can download the magazine here.

For a much stronger set of resources, check out The Dana Foundation and the Keep Arts in Schools website.

Tip of the hat to Richard Kessler’s Dewey21C blog.

Taken by Laffy4k Flikr

So, apparently artists aren’t supposed to make money.  Making money is bad. This mind-boggling concept, to me at least, has recently caught my eye as I roam the internets. Caught my eye and hit me over the head with a sledge hammer. Apparently, you can’t be both a entrepreneur and an artist. You can’t pay a mortgage and be an artist. If you make money, you’re not an artist. You’re bad people. The money thing and the art thing are two separate things and never the twain shall meet.

This is a bunch of horse hooey.

I love, love, love, being able to make a living at what I do. Being a working artist. I love paying the mortgage by writing plays. Love it. I am proud of what I do. Proud of what I write. As far as I’m concerned the business aspects and the creative aspects of being an artist walk hand in hand. They need each other. They don’t do well on their own. They certainly don’t use the same part of my brain, and I can’t do them at the same time. But they co-exist. I like having them both around. So why is it wrong? Why would some consider that a sell out?

Selling out, is when you are actively engage in crap, you know it’s crap, but the money is worth more than the stigma of crap.  I’ve written for money twice. Both twice turned out to be disasters of such huge portions, I still get the shakes when I think about them. There’s a difference between selling out and making a living.

But then again, I’ve never been one of those artsy-fartsy, quirky, off with the fairies, living in my own world kind of writers.  There’s no ‘whoo whoo wicka’ in me. I’m practical. And it makes practical sense to me that if writing plays, that I’m proud of, pays the mortgage, then I should pay the mortgage writing plays.

I’m gonna go do that, m’kay?

Raise your hand if you’ve read, seen, or been in a production of Our Town.

If you’re a lover of theatre then I’m guessing your hand is up. No, I’m not a psychic.

Our Town has just passed its 72nd birthday and continues to be one of the most popular plays in the US. 4,000 prouductions  in the last decade alone. Why?

Theatre is supposed to be about the extraordinary; nobody wants to see a play about people going about their ordinary lives. We want to see plays about people in pivotal moments of their lives, at a crossroads, on the precipice.

So why does this simple little play about an unremarkable place filled with unremarkable people continue to resonate? I think it’s because Wilder makes the ordinary look extraordinary and asks us to see how wonderful day-to-day life can be. Boring can be exciting.

Mo Rocca reported for CBS Sunday Morning about the continuing popularity of the play. There are excerpts from the current Barrow Street Theatre production. It looks like an incredible production.

Click here to see the video.

I’ve never been to Arkansas before. I was invited to teach playwriting workshops and judge at the Arkansas State Thespian Festival this past weekend, which worked out smashingly well because I got to see a production of our musical Shout!

So, let’s be frank here. Like most people, I was a little leery about going to a place I’d never been too, but had heard many stereotypical stories. I have an active, sometimes overactive, imagination. Now, I’m certainly not going to damn a place before I’ve been there and had my own experiences. But let’s be frank. I had my game face on and my teeth a little gritted.

Here are some first impressions and observations.

• There are a lot of buffets. Buffet City, China Buffet, Hunan  buffet, the hundred foot buffet.
• At the Garden Centre there’s a side for Lawn/Garden and a side for Farm/ranch.
• There are a lot of gun stores.
• There are a lot of church enclaves. Not just the church building, but a church and a school and out buildings.
• Church is big. Church of the burning heart. I saw an auto dealership with a bible verse above the door. In the airport all the book stores featured their religious and inspirational books right at the front.
• As someone who loves words, the names of places just leap out at you. Texarkana. Arkadelphia.
• Don’t say R-kansas.
• People are extremely friendly, and it seems like they are genuine in their friendliness, which I don’t always encounter in the south. Sure there were individuals who weren’t genuine, but that happens in every single corner of the world.
• People are extremely polite. And again, it comes across as sincere. This was one of the only conferences I’ve been to where competitors thanked the judges for judging and thanked the time keeper.
• People are nosey too. But in their friendly way, it just seems like they want to talk to you. Sincerely.
• Everyone says  ‘yes ma’am’ like it’s a period at the end of a sentence. I’m sure ‘yes sir’ is the same. But I’m a ma’am, so that’s what I heard. As a writer, it had a lovely rhythm to it.

So, what exactly was I gritting my teeth over? Absolutely nothing. I love that. I have no issue with being proven wrong in these kinds of situations. I had a great time at the conference.

My favourite sterotype smashing story happened time and time again in my playwriting workshops. A student would come in with an accent thicker than mud and in my mind I’d think ‘oh boy here’s a stupid hick.’ And they never were. They were bright, and they ‘got’ the exercises and they always tried. Even if they had been thrust into the workshop on the behest of a teacher, they tried. They were a joy to teach and I couldn’t ask for anything more.

And at the end of the day? Arkansas drama kids are exactly the same as California drama kids and New York drama kids and Florida drama kids. The accents may change but the kids are basically the same. They all love theatre. They know they’re a little dorky and they love they have a place to go to be themselves. They talk too much during the shows, when they know they shouldn’t. They celebrate with their friends when they do well. They commiserate when they don’t. They sing together, they cheer together, they hug, they laugh, they have a great time.

Nice to meet you Arkansas.