Re: RAT Which Idea Now?

[Trey Nichols <treynichols@movingarts.org>]

>Dear Rats-
>
>       So how about some informal input from the list?
>
>       So here you, the artist, are at one of those points that comes up
>every so often when you wonder NOW WHAT DO I DO NEXT?  you know you want
>to create something and there are many options before you, books you have
>read that might be adaptable, that idea you had last summer, the
>conversations you overheard on the the bus, and so on.  But which might
>you do next?
>

I generally plunge into the project that has the greatest likelihood of
full completion (i.e., an entity has already expressed interest in
production or publication), though occasionally I'll push forward on a spec
project spontaneously in a burst of inspired madness.  I try not to be too
methodical in my choices, but sometimes I need the backbone that that kind
of structure  provides to avoid sloth.  The spec stuff stays on the back
burner til the other stuff is done--in fact, my life sometimes feels like a
stoveful of back burners.  Sort of a perpetual nagging source of warmth.
I'm generally  excited about all the back burner stuff, though; I mean, the
fact that it's even on the back burner is exciting in some way in and of
itself, so I could pick up any one of those projects with an equal degree
of fervor.

My current project is a performance text called BODY FOUND, based on the
Black Dahlia murder case, to be presented Nov. 11 at the Los Angeles
Theatre Center as part of the Edge of the World Theater Festival's LA
History Project.  This became my "next project" because:

the LA History Project sounded neat;
it had a definite performance date (i.e., deadline) and venue;
once I started digging into the material, I got hooked. (gotta be hooked!);

Hope this helps.


Trey Nichols
Moving Arts

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