It has been a while since I have posted, but I have had much on my mind as I am sure have you.

We are alone-together truly for the first time in decades and many of us do not know how to handle it. We are a group of individuals and a field of professionals who thrive in a chaotic of too much work in not enough time. We often take on monumental tasks that haven’t been done and find ways to do it. We are the inherent storytellers, dreamers, innovators; the creatives who make things happen. And currently we find ourselves idle, our stages dark, our shops empty, our event spaces hollow, our studios littered with incomplete projects and our hands empty. Our minds and our hearts are far, far from that. We are teaming with new ideas and itching to get back to the grind even as we find a way to grieve for the productions and projects that we have lost or those that we will never see to fruition.

We do not know how to be idle, we are great at being nimble and responsive and we as a whole find ourselves with nothing but time on the horizon. Well what I have seen from the entertainment, event and experiential industries is a great amount of creativity, productivity and resilience. When the call first started coming out that many medical facilities and first responders were running out of appropriate personal protective equipment “PPE” our industry was quick to respond. First in donating what PPE we had access to in our shops and facilities, not to mention personal collections, but were also the among the first to start finding ways to product more equipment. Either in stitching or fabrication. I saw posts on various social media platforms where governors were reaching out to know stitching houses and organization both in theatre and in fashion to stitch masks. Followed by more posts of opera companies, regional theatres, production shops, event companies, equipment companies stepping up to offer support in not just PPE but in communication equipment, coordination, temporary medical shelters, and so many other ways across the US and even globally. Each country and region I have seen amazing responses from people in our greater industries step up to the plate. I am so honored to know that this these are the industries that I am a part. I wish I could be more specific in who was doing what when, but I did not think to make notes or jot down things as I have seen them. Our industries are made up of wonderful and innovative companies that even when down step up simply because that it what we do.

(On a side note, I take no credit for any of the companies but just want to mention that it just makes me unbelievably proud to see).

Looking forward our collective industries are going to be fighting an uphill, no a up shear mountain side battle with no shoes on and no climbing gear, battle when allowed to come back on-line. Sadly, I know many small companies will not weather this storm well or at all, a painful and unwelcome reality. Hopefully the fast majority will have means and method to carry on because that we what we do best, we persevere. I have found new avenues of discussion and discovery occurring in the way that we are continue to do business or teach. Finding ways of creating material, platforms of communication, software and in some cases technology (or re-purposing of existing); I believe we will see a period of innovation and riding on the heels of this lowly pandemic. New scripts and materials, new styles of art and integration in performance technology, even more human connectivity in experiences. I have seen so many offers of professional development both formal and informal, individuals taking time to delve into new skills and creative pursuits that “we never have time for”. How can we not come away with even more drive and desire than we had before. We have even more human-centric stories to share and a greater audience that has had time to connect back with their humanity. We will all be hungry to reach out and experience again, and we will be ready.

Until then the “work waits” (Sweeny Todd) and we dream, create and breathe (but not breathing too close for the time being).

Be Well!