Writing Critique Partners: POVs

If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own. ~Henry Ford

An art whose medium is language will always show a high degree of critical creativeness, for speech is itself a critique of life: it names, it characterizes, it passes judgment, in that it creates. ~Thomas Mann

I enjoy writing, but hate editing. I’ll do it, but it is a painful experience. From what I’ve read, a good number of you agree. Recently, I wrote two longer stories for submissions as opposed to the shorter/flash fiction I put up on Tale Spinning. For those tales I knew that if I was to have any chance of success they would have to be edited.

Luckily, I had a number of people I could call on to give my work an editorial eye. What I found enlightening was, through five different POV’s (points of views), that all who responded to my call saw something different. Grammatical changes pretty much were the same, with punctuation styles varying from one to the other.

What changed was how they approached the work: solely as Editor; solely as a reader of the genre; or a combination of the two. This allowed me to take what was offered, evaluate what I wrote through others eyes, and then edit myself to the point I felt I produced the best work possible.

To see the results of this: Nyctophilia (entered for the Figment/HarperCollins YA Defy the Dark contest). If the link does not work for you (and I think it only works in the US): go to Figment and type in the name of the story in the search box. I’d be interested in your comments, as I do think this story is publishable. The other story has been submitted, and only time will tell (both submissions had a September 1, 2012 cut off).

I want to thank the following for their time and effort: Golden Eagle; Allan Douglas; Roy A. Ackerman; Lisa Vooght;and someone who wishes to remain anonymous. The links are to their blogs. They are all well written, all interesting, and all very different POVs. Check them out.

Writers:

• How do you edit your work? 
• Do you hate editing your own work?
• Do you have Beta Readers/Critique Partners?
• Are you part of a writing group?
  
• If you have an editor that you work with consistently, how did you find her/him?

Creative Aging and the Arts (Part 2)

“There is a fountain of youth; it is your mind, your talents,
the creativity you bring to your life and the lives
of the people you love.  When you will learn to tap
this source, you will have truly defeated age.”

~Sophia Loren~

Creative Aging and the Arts (Part One)

 

The creative arts should be, to me, flexible and adaptable. Embracing new concepts, moving along with the social/economic/political spectrum, can allow new discoveries as well as keep things afloat. What good is it if you master your art, stick to that one idea, but the times have left you behind?

Arts administrations need to do the same, as the economic landscape has changed so drastically in the last five+ years. A new, or renewed, interest in Life Long Learners can be key in keeping organizations going well past the base of the school ages that many focus on.

What was inspiring to me was participating, through OPERA America, a section of the Open Opera Conference: Creative Resurgence. Opera companies are looking at involving the older adult population in more ways than just filling seats. A number of opera companies from across the US and Canada attended this day long workshop/program on Creative Aging, with many of them already utilizing interactive, participatory programs.

Storytelling is one of the primary arts disciplines that seems to  be in wide use: delving into true life testimonials, musical works have been formed, from revues to full mini-operas. Being part of the creative process, the participatory input ranged from storytelling and writing to either performing the work or having professional singers enact their life stories. The librettos ranged from true life to fictionalized non-fiction.

In Creative Aging and the Arts (Part 1), I spoke about our morning session with Ms. Susan Perlstein, an advocate for the creative aging movement, and is the Founder Emeritus for the National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA).  In the afternoon two groups shared with the assemblage two recent projects that had just been completed: the pilot project I did with my musical collaborator Zach Redler for OPERA America, and Opera North’s latest operatic collaboration with an elder population.

Presentation: Transitions: Sung Stories

Opera North, Inc. worked with NewCourtland (a service for older adults) to produce Transitions: Sung Stories. Gathering oral history from Philadelphia, PA elders, Jules Tasca (Librettist) and Leslie Savoy Burrs (Composer and Executive Director of Opera North, Inc.) created a moving story that stemmed from the real life interviews.

Relating the details of the process to the group, both Mr. Burrs and Mr. Tasca laid out a professional program that produces positive results. In a video that showcases Mr. Burrs, we got to obverse how he interacted with a group of physically challenged elders. Working with a variety of percussive instruments, the participants helped lead Mr. Burrs, wielding a flute, to compose one of the pieces that became part of their opera.

What was apparent, watching the video, was how involved and engaged everyone was. No one just sat on the side, a spectator. This was a vibrant community coming together for a project that celebrates their lives, and also celebrates the worth they still have in the greater society.

***********************

In Part Three of Creative Aging and the Arts, I’ll be discussing the work that I had the pleasure to experience with our group as well as responses/reactions of the attendees from the full day seminar.

**************************************

ATTENTION:

I am available for consulting on Inter-Generational Program Development

as well as Project Management/Facilitation

I am willing to travel or work over Skype with your organization

Please contact me at:

stuart.nager at gmail dot com

Creative Aging and the Arts (Part 1)

National Center for Creative Aging

Lifetime Arts

OPERA America

Project FIND

Arts For Humanity

What is your first thought when someone mentions a Senior/Elder Center or Nursing Home?

Did you envision the elderly sitting around, doing little, just passing time until…? Did you see them as audience members at a performance, or just sitting around large round tables eating? Were they napping, or just gazing off into the distance,  seemingly not connected to their surroundings?

Hopefully those days will be behind us as a new awareness is sinking in. Actively engaging the growing elder community is key to the growing number of organizations that work with this population. Inter-generational programming (from the 50′s and up, as the baby boomers join the elder sector) is being spoken of across the United States in all areas of the arts.

I was invited to be a Guest Speaker for OPERA America‘s Creative Resurgence conference, speaking to those opera companies (from Canada and the US) whose education departments reach out now to the centers, nursing homes, group homes and special organizations that cater to the older adult. A number of them make partnerships with libraries as well, helping build connections in their communities.

I was asked to attend this conference due to my recently completed pilot project with a senior center in NYC. We had worked on creating a musical experience crafted from the personal stories of our participants. I will talk more about this in the next part of this series.

Ms. Susan Perlstein, an advocate for the creative aging movement, led the day with the credo “Embrace This Moment!” Ms. Perlstein is the Founder Emeritus for the National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA). By the year 2030, it is anticipated that there will be over 70 million people over the age of 65, and that the number of those over 85 will double. There is also the chance that many will have to work, if possible, past what we normally determine as retirement age due to the economic realities we face.

There is evidence based research, as first conducted by The Research Center for Arts and Culture (RCAC) that has shown that interactive, participatory arts programs with the older person promotes a vitality in the aging process, helps to build vibrant communities, and has positive results in both the  physical and emotional states of the participants. Dr. Gene D. Cohen, the primary investigator of the research, stated that “Art is like chocolate to the brain.”

Entering into fairly new territory in the arts is exciting in the different challenges it gives to professional teaching artists and arts organizations. The methodology we’ve used for youth programs has to be modified, and in many cases whole new approaches have to be discovered for successful programs for those participating.  Understanding the various cognitive and physical changes that go on, and embracing the life history and stories that the elders bring with them are only the tip of what needs to be explored.

In Part 2, I will discuss more of my work in the field, and some observations from the conference attendees.

**************************************

ATTENTION:

I am available for consulting on Inter-Generational Program Development

as well as Project Management/Facilitation

I am willing to travel or work over Skype with your organization

Please contact me at:

stuart.nager at gmail dot com

What Is A Drama Teacher?

A Fourth Grade Classroom:

I was asked the question: “What is a Drama Teacher?” when I had announced that I am one.

According to a young lady , who I had the pleasure to work with that day, a Drama Teacher is:

 

“Someone who teaches others to exaggerate emotions so they can be Drama Queens.”

 

I think that pretty much says it all.

Civil Rights/Religion Rights…the (Un)United States

What Is Important?

Washington Post: NC Passes Gay Marriage Ban

Supporters and Critics Wait for What’s Next

Here’s how I see all this:

You can believe in what you want. As long as it’s not hateful or harmful to others, I’ll even listen to your POV if you promise not to try to ram it down my throat, or try to convince me that your belief is the only right way.

Democrats and Republicans do many wrong things, for the wrong reasons: there are lobbies/big money that have no concerns for the people of this country, only profits.

The blame game is what is hurting this country. I read a series of posts on FB, an anti-President Obama thread, that were  volatile and negative spewing. The main thrust was, from the person who started the thread, that he feels all Republicans should say NO to anything coming from an opposing POV.

No listening and judge on individual merits; no attempt to compromise; no attempt to work for the betterment of all the people in the country. Just Say NO was his mantra…and then he and others complained that “the liberals” only spout and don’t listen and run away from a fight.

[Side Bar: As to arguments about Bush Bashing...one thing to disagree with the  man, which I do. I have my reasons: my two biggest complaints are: his getting the news of the 9/11 attacks and just sitting dumbfounded in a Kindergarten classroom, not making a move, not directing the country, not showing any action; the second is, when asked about his greatest achievement in office, he talks about a fish he caught. Joke or not, to me, it's not funny. I'm not even going to go into the economic state of the union he left for whoever won the election to pick up after him. Nope. Not going there.]

Before any civil rights acts, inter-racial marriages were forbidden, as were inter-religious ones. They were, for those days, their own “war on marriage” which, yes, I have seen slogans for.

The President spoke his mind and made a stand: he believes in same sex marriage. He did not say any other state of marriage should be nullified, nor did he exclude anyone. He did not say, in any way, that this was a war on marriage.  He did not say we all must believe as he did. Many won’t, and that is their prerogative. He is, if anything, advocating the civil rights of the “rest” of the country for consenting adults in love to get married.

If you don’t want to be married to someone of the same sex, or a different religion, or a different skin color, or a different nationality, then: JUST DON’T. But, don’t impose your own POV on someone else.

Why then, as a straight man, am I so behind repealing an amendment based on hatred and bigotry?

I’m also a JEWISH male, and if anyone wants to talk about history of abuse and hatred against a people, then let’s talk. We got ya beat by thousands of years.

It’s time to let things that are NOT important to the running of a country go, and focus on what we can do POSITIVELY and for the GOOD OF THE PEOPLE.  The civil rights of American Citizens are being crushed under foot by those who say they love this country.

You love this country, then show it. Stop forcing your negative religious beliefs on others and do something positive with all that energy.

Fight poverty

Fight human trafficking

Fight hunger

Fight injustice (and you better believe this is injustice)

Fight for a stronger economy

Fight to bring our schools back to a place of prominence

Fight for a way to bring this country together, instead of continuously tearing it apart

Internet of Babel

http://www.somethingawful.com/

Taking a short hiatus from things can be good, now and then. I’ve wondered what to do with this blog: the guest posts have given me a wonderful respite, allowing me time to get better as well as well lend time to write when I felt like it, as opposed to just churning out something to post.

So…a huge thank you to all who have already guest blogged here, and to the ones that I still have in wait. I’m going to set up that schedule soon.

As to right now, I again find myself questioning directions for the next segment of my life. I am tired of all the negative chatter that surrounds  us; doing something, anything, is preferable than sitting in a corner (to me). I am not sure if this is the proper forum for achieving any goals.

Is blogging just another Tower of Babel?

I took on the mantle of blogging just a wee bit more than a year ago: “get an internet presence!” was what my (then, hopeful) agent said to me, as well as others. In that year time, I am still not sure what greater good this has done for me or anyone else. So…

Now that I have that down, I need to take another step back, post the guest posts I have in hand, and figure out “What Comes Next.”

One thing: I commented on Bonnie Copeland’s (My Rivendell) The Foundations of Character post about what I feel breaks down character. I do think we are lacking in character, overall, and bend to who shouts the loudest. I called it a “non-community of yellers”, the age we’re living in.

Listen—really listen to someone’s POV. Place your own concerns aside for the moments it takes to really click with where someone is coming from. Communicate back: don’t condemn, place judgement (moral or religious or political) and LISTEN. Ask questions “Why?” or ask for clarification.

Does it take time? Sure, a bit more. But…we’d all be better off if we agreed to really hear what someone else has to say, really try to care why they feel that way.

Thanks for all of your support. It DOES mean a lot.

Bartering Creative Arts (The Creativity Series)

Lincoln Art Exchange

Bartering For Skills with Ourgoods

Barter Theater

Bartering:

To trade goods or services without the exchange of money.

A tagline to a newspaper article caught my eye: “Uninsured Can Exchange Talents for Care.” Lincoln Hospital, in The Bronx, is offering artists in that borough of NYC a chance to get health care; they get credits for each hour worked that can be used towards a variety of medical treatments & prescriptions. Their program, Lincoln Arts Exchange, is modeled after the Artist Access program at Brooklyn’s Woodhull Medical Center.

Bartering is nothing new. It is used in markets across the world, trading goods. Services may have taken a back seat, but the idea works for me.  I have no “goods” to barter, but I do have a “service,” and that is my art, whether it’s a performance (Storytelling or Interactive Theater), workshop, or Editing/Copy writing service. With money tight, if I can exchange some of my time and energy to get something I need…bartering is a great idea.

When I ran my theater company (The Brothers Grinn: 1994-2006), I rarely paid for rehearsal space (until the need for an abundance of NYC members of the company).  I bartered with a few places (Two churches and a couple of other locations), offering them either free group performances or solo workshops for weekly rehearsal space. This was a huge savings for a company that was young and toured an average of 120 performances a year. We had no “home” space to perform/work out of but the spaces I found worked for us on many levels; the money I saved that way was put into many things the company needed (costumes; sound equipment; insurance; etc).

What Creative Service Do You Have To Barter?

Health Care, rehearsal space, food…what can you add to the list? I’ve only just started a very small section of what could be possible if more would open their minds to the idea: Artists have something to offer.

Process and Practice in Education

Kid Politics: This American Life

Spending a Day with the Roma

Process Drama and Multiple Literacies

What hard choices have you had to make?

Do you:  Go with your gut reaction? Weigh the pros & cons, and come to a decision you can back up and justify? Do you follow what your friends/family/confidants say &/or do, without question?  Do you go against what you believe due to outside pressure?

On my way home from a great Interactive Theater workshop in NYC, I turned on the local NPR station (WNYC 93.9 FM). The program This American Life was on, and just in time: I had been hearing the teasers for the program and was hoping to catch it. A group of 5th graders (ten/eleven years old) were undergoing an amazing Process Drama:

“What if, say, the U.S.-led invasion of Grenada in 1983 had been decided, not by Ronald Reagan, but by a bunch of middle-schoolers?”

The students were led on an amazingly detailed program. Three rooms were set up for them: a press room, a command center, and the President’s office/war room. Split into three groups, the students were in role, being asked to make the hard decisions that adults with “experience” in these matters had struggled with almost thirty years ago.

I don’t want to spoil it for you. I included the link above (first one) so you can listen to the program (there are two other “acts”: one with a 14 year old discussing Global Climate changes and a school in Brooklyn that is governed by…the students). I hope after you listen you’ll come back here and leave some comments.

The second link is from the blog Woman Wielding Words about an amazing experience with practicing drama with kids from a very different culture.

The third link: really, the nuts and bolts of what I love to do with students: have them make personal discoveries and to think for themselves. Weigh it all out, find out what they feel is right or wrong, and then also look at how someone else see’s the same situation; How it is sometimes hard to make a decision at all.

There are applications for Arts in Education in all core curricula, as there is in Art in all aspects of life. That is part of what creativity comes into play.

“The Artist”: Movie Making Creativity

I don’t usually write movie reviews, although I do love  movies and film. I enjoy personally critiquing them with friends and family (sometimes to their annoyance). I often find I do not always concur with the professional critics. A movie they might slobber over I will hate (“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” is an example: while I really like Gary Oldman, this movie bored me to tears), and one that is ravaged…well, it all depends. I’ve enjoyed films that got mediocre to bad reviews. Some stupid fun movies are just that: stupid fun movies.

“The Artist” is not stupid. It is a stylish, brave creative attempt at movie making, IMHO.

There is nothing razzle-dazzle in the movie except for the acting, directing and editing. Yes, the screenplay as well…but, with “The Artist” being a Silent Movie (well, primarily), you are more involved with the two main actors and the whole chutzpah going on. No quick cuts; no explosions; no nudity; nothing, in my mind, gratuitous.

The musical score moves you along, giving the emotional feel to the actor’s facial and body nuances. There is nothing out of line. If you miss some of it, the director masterfully strews  “clues” throughout the film: newspaper headlines and article leads; movie marquee’s and store signs; and I’m sure there were more drops that I missed.

French actors Bérénice Bejo and Jean Dujardin star, and are both enticing. It’s a love story to old Hollywood(land), to movie making, and one between their two characters.

****SEMI SPOILERS AHEAD: Pass this section if you plan to see the movie****

It is also about fame, pride, and self worth. Hitting the years of the silent film heyday through the Wall Street crash and into the sound era of films, we follow the ups and downs of the main characters. While I enjoyed the joie de vivre of the beginning of the film, it took a dark turn that struck home to our current economic predicaments. Loss of jobs, older “seasoned” individuals being replaced by either machines or “new faces” (=cheaper labor), and what to do with your life when you see yourself as a failure/loser, or are just put out to pasture…in all the cinema landscape, the last time I felt this “truth” on film is from Preston Sturgess’s “Sulivan’s Travels” (one of my favorite movies).  The one thing I’m not crazy about: how our “hero” finds his way out of his predicament: it’s not really his finding, but being led by another. That was, to me, a bit unsatisfying.

****End of Spoilers*****

 

So…yes, “The Actor” is worth seeing, and it should be playing in more theaters. I feel if you like great acting, quirky characters from another era, comedy/tragedy, dancing,  innocence (in a way), some brutal truths, and LOVE….then yes, go see it.

If you saw “The Artist,” what did YOU think?

On Writing In A Cafe (The Creativity Series: Guest Post)

I’ve know Rita Bregman for a long time, more as an online presence but we have met, and talked on the phone. A displaced New Yorker living just outside of San Fransisco, Rita is a talent writer and good friend.

On this, the last Bornstoryteller for 2011, Rita offers you a poem from her book: On Amethyst Glass: Two Voices, One Song

On Writing in a Cafe

In the process of reading,

you concentrate on the lines,

and the words filter through you

as though through a fine sieve.

You can see them; you can keep a few,

but you don’t really need them.

But the process of writing takes you over,

drives and tortures you,

lets nothing in to save you –

no noise, no time,

no pain, no hunger.

It’s not a casual pick-up,

not a one-night stand.

No!

It’s a long-term, symbiotic relationship.

You are one with your words,

and they with you,

(although you fight a lot),

and it’s a restless world placing words over words, under words,

turning inside out the world of rhythm and sound, time and space

that lives inside.

And you’re never sure if you’ve found that one right word

that will stand-in for your feelings…

…but you damn well know when it’s wrong!

Sometimes in the oddest places

you will become so excited by the combinations,

and so necessary to you are they,

that you will grab a lipstick pencil and an old, used tissue,

or write all around the borders of a road map,

just to see how the words work together….

because they are gifts to try on,

be amazed by,

and held onto because they are yours.

And then WHAM! You’re jolted!

Because someone across the room has dropped a cup on the tile floor

and shattered your concentration in a million pieces,

and you slowly become conscious that you’ve been writing

with a pen borrowed from the waiter

on a napkin,

over a wilted spinach salad,

in a cafe filled with laughing, young men in shorts,

and young women with no make-up reading novels,

and that you are the fossil

they know they will become some day.

Rita Bregman, © 2011

Happy New Year, Everyone. See you in 2012.