Indy Theatre Habit

The more performance art I experience, the more I realize how personal that experience is.  I love that it is personal.  I love that it is ephemeral, too.  It is impossible to sustain or even to reproduce exactly, because it is live.  The only way to truly experience a live theatre piece is to be present for [...]

When I drove to the Indiana History Center in downtown Indianapolis on Saturday night to enjoy a storytelling performance by Minton Sparks (review coming soon!) I didn’t see Storytelling Arts of Indiana executive director Ellen Munds. It is very unusual not to see Ellen at a Storytelling Arts event, so after the storytelling was over, [...]

This morning I went to the fourth in a four-part series of workshops on Mindfulness and Meditation at the Fairbanks addictions recovery center on the northeast side of Indianapolis.  The facilitator was Jo Holt, PhD. I had never been to Fairbanks before this series; I learned about the series from a friend after it had [...]

I have a love-hate relationship with “best of the year” lists.  I think Americans (and probably many other people) are obsessed to the point of disease over making comparisons. The added problem with a “best of the year” theatre list is that, unlike with a list of books or movies, you usually can not go [...]

Yesterday I made two little videos while hanging out between shows at the 2010 Indianapolis Fringe Theatre Festival.  In the video above, “The Last Straight Man in Theatre,” Kurt Fitzpatrick, talks with me about his multi-media solo show (which I hope to see next weekend) and shares advice about how to succeed as a performer [...]

My angel card for this weekend is Surrender.  I think this means that I am supposed to just follow my heart around the 2010 Indy Fringe Theatre Festival this year, not necessarily follow my carefully-plotted out viewing plan.  It was fun to make that plan, but I’ll see what I am meant to see. This is [...]

A week ago Friday night I ignored tornado threats and drove downtown to the Mass. Ave. theatre district of Indianapolis to see productions of two of the five winning scripts in the year-round Indy Fringe Festival’s first annual DivaFest weekend.  According to the IndyFringe website, DivaFest is “a celebration of women playwrights.”  Its purpose is “to [...]

The rest of Indianapolis has moved on from the Colts’ attempt to win another Super Bowl on Sunday, February 6, 2010.  However, I had an artistic gestalt that night and now that I think I may have my home computer working again, I would like to record a few more thoughts about my “discovery” of [...]

I was sick the opening weekend of “Bus Stop” at the Indianapolis Civic Theatre so I reluctantly cancelled my media passes and stayed home.  However, a friend had turned me on to William Inge’s work a couple years ago so I very much wanted to see a live production of this William Inge play.  I [...]

On Tuesday night, I drove to the Indy Fringe building in downtown Indianapolis to hear local, leading journalists tell their stories about writers’ block at the first “Jabberwocky” event.  It was sponsored by Indy Fringe and Storytelling Arts of Indiana.   Last weekend when I was interviewing Bill Harley, he told me that this is part [...]