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July 29, 2011 By 46 Comments

Our Town ~ An Actor’s Experience

“The pur­pose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste expe­ri­ence to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and with­out fear for newer and richer expe­ri­ences.” ~ Eleanor Roo­sevelt

Today I have Greg Ryan with us.  I met Greg in June of this year, dur­ing our time together work­ing on the play “Our Town”, which we both per­formed in.  Greg is here, shar­ing what this act­ing expe­ri­ence has meant for him.

Greg and I had a cou­ple of scenes we were in together, and I’m really tempted to keep call­ing him Mr. Webb (his stage name)!

With that…Greg (errr…Mr. Webb), take it away!

An Actor’s Experience

Com­mu­nity The­ater is an odd bird.  Some peo­ple don’t con­sider it “real the­ater” because it’s not per­formed on one of the big-name stages.  The pro­duc­tions are often found in high school audi­to­ri­ums or back-rooms that you could walk right by if you weren’t look­ing for them .  This pro­duc­tion of “Our Town” was at Sum­mer­Stage, an out­door the­ater in the mid­dle of Lapham Peak State Park, about 30 min­utes out­side of the Mil­wau­kee area.  It’s a lovely the­ater, but it’s def­i­nitely in an odd loca­tion off the beaten path.

Even though I’m over 50, I’m still rel­a­tively new to act­ing. So when a direc­tor casts me I expe­ri­ence a flurry of emo­tions.  I’m ini­tially flat­tered since the direc­tor is essen­tially trust­ing me with the pro­duc­tion. In my short tenure, I’ve seen first­hand how one actor can jeop­ar­dize an entire pro­duc­tion. This mem­ory helps the flat­tery to fade and I turn my atten­tions to my next emo­tion: worry.  Can I actu­ally do it?  Can I mem­o­rize my lines?  Can I really BE this other person?

Under­neath all these ques­tions is the real­ity that I’m putting much of the rest of my life on hold dur­ing weeks of rehearsal and, finally, the play’s run.  For the next two months or so, many evenings and
week­ends revolve around the stage.  Actors spend less time with friends and fam­ily; even their careers can get upstaged.  Will this deci­sion affect their long term rela­tion­ships?  My wife wasn’t all that happy when I took this role because she felt that sum­mer is such a long-awaited time in Wis­con­sin and we’d miss out on activ­i­ties we’d nor­mally do together. Luck­ily, after she observed me falling in love
with this play, she became more under­stand­ing and supportive.

Of all the plays I’ve acted in, none have made me think more about being human than Our Town.  It’s rather amaz­ing, con­sid­er­ing that dur­ing the read through I thought it came off as corny and dated.  But
the more I rehearsed and saw my fel­low actors assum­ing their roles, the more I real­ized that the play is time­less.  Sure, some of the words we spoke may have been from the early 1900’s but the thoughts
that they expressed still ring true today.  How do you feel about a new­born baby?  Or when you dis­cover that the per­son you love actu­ally loves you back?  How would you feel if both your chil­dren died before
you did?

Con­nie Gehl, the actress who played my wife in “Our Town,” needed to cry dur­ing the per­for­mance.  Her sor­row was so con­vinc­ing that I, as her hus­band, was com­pelled to com­fort her so she was not alone in her grief.  Her per­for­mance pulled me in and, I believe, helped me truly embody my part as Charles Webb.  It was just one of the won­der­ful aspects of this production.

Mem­o­ries and Emotions

I’d like to share two more won­der­ful mem­o­ries of this show.  I was mov­ing fur­ni­ture from the stage to another build­ing.  One of the younger actresses stopped me and we chat­ted pleas­antly for a moment.  She said that she just loved inter­act­ing with all these cre­ative peo­ple and she obvi­ously was includ­ing me.  Still feel­ing like a new­comer to the the­ater, I was inwardly sur­prised and flat­tered.  Am I actu­ally an actor?  I guess I am.

The other moment occurred dur­ing the wed­ding scene.  I play the father of Emily, the hes­i­tant bride.  At the begin­ning of the scene, she’s scared and looks to her father for reas­sur­ance.  After a lit­tle
father-daughter chat, I kiss her fore­head, drape her veil over her head and walk her down the aisle.   Well, I walked my own daugh­ter down the wed­ding aisle about three years ago.  This is a priv­i­lege
that fathers of girls have enjoyed for cen­turies and it may be the only time I ever do that in real life.  But because of this play, I was able to relive the expe­ri­ence dur­ing every per­for­mance.   And my
“real” daugh­ter saw the show, too.

When a show ends, I expe­ri­ence more emo­tions.  Sor­row that the pro­duc­tion is fin­ished.  Per­haps, relief too.   I com­muted about 40 min­utes to the venue, but the major­ity of the actors live out in the
Delafield area so I may never work with or even see many of them again.  I’m wist­ful when I real­ize that these peo­ple have passed through a brief part of my life.

Although I do feel sor­row,  grat­i­tude is the emo­tion that over rides all the oth­ers.  I’m grate­ful that Diane Pow­ell cast me in this play.  I’m grate­ful that I was able to work with Ethan, Mason, Amanda,
Con­nie and Lance as well as the rest of the cast and crew.  I’m grate­ful that we had good weather for all of our pro­duc­tion dates. I’m grate­ful to the audi­ence who usu­ally laughed at the right times. I’m grate­ful to my body and brain for hang­ing in there and allow­ing me to phys­i­cally and men­tally han­dle the part.  I’m grate­ful to my wife, Brooke, for sup­port­ing me in a very per­sonal endeavor.  I’m grate­ful to Face­book because it allows me to know some new friends even if they turn out to be temporary.

Well, on to the next audi­tion.  I’ve just been cast in a new one act play, but I’m con­fi­dent that this pro­duc­tion of “Our Town” will stay with me until I play in my own real life funeral scene.

You can keep up with Greg at his per­sonal web­site — Our Next Thing, and on Face­book.

Filed Under: Guest Posts, Life Tagged With: ,
July 24, 2011 By 68 Comments

Our Town…Our Life…

“For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the sad­dest are these: ‘It might have been!’” ~ John Green­leaf Whit­tier

Do you ever have those things that float around in your heart…things that make you say “what if…”…

What if...I joined this new group I’ve heard about?

What if…I went on that trip, all by myself?

What if...I tried a new sport?

What if...I ven­tured out in my own business?

What if...I lis­tened to my heart?

…the courage to be yourself…

Do thoughts like this bounce through your head (and more impor­tantly — through your heart)?  And does that bounc­ing go any­where?  Or does it stay locked within the recesses of your heart and mind?

What If

What if, instead of just think­ing these thoughts, we did some­thing about it. 

What if we didn’t know what that next step looked like, and took it anyway.

Life is awful funny, that way.  Call it serendip­ity, the Uni­verse act­ing on our behalf, God answer­ing our prayers, …

Our thoughts, along with some sort of action in their gen­eral direction…well, pretty amaz­ing things begin to happen.

Our Town

For a cou­ple of years, the idea has bounced around in my head (and heart).  What if…I tried my hand at acting?

Of course, this thought with­out action..it’s like a seed with­out soil.  The pos­si­bil­ity, the poten­tial of that seed is great.  Although, with­out the action of plac­ing that seed in some soil, and pro­vid­ing some nour­ish­ment — noth­ing happens.

{have you ever had thoughts that lie dormant?}

Fast for­ward to early June of this year.  {and recall…this idea of thoughts cou­pled with action}  For some rea­son (I don’t recall at all any­more), I land upon the web­site of a local book­store.  That book­store web­site has a link on its site to a small out­door the­atre at a state park near our house — Sum­mer­Stage.  I nor­mally would just move on, except for some rea­son, on this day, I’m com­pelled to click that link.

Our Town, by Thorn­ton Wilder, will be per­formed at Sum­mer­Stage this sum­mer — and there is still a need for actors.

{the easy answer is to say — I’ve not done any­thing like this in forever}

{the easy answer is to say — rehearsals have already started, it’s too late}

{the easy answer is to say — I have lots of other “things” to do}

{the easy answer is to say — noth­ing…} {the easy answer…is to do noth­ing}

The easy answer, though, is it really the easy answer?  Is it, when that answer pulls you away from some­thing that tugs at your heart?  Per­haps that easy answer is an answer that’s become the default too many times? 

Per­haps that easy answer is really the dif­fi­cult answer — every time, tak­ing you one step fur­ther from your dreams, your desires, you bliss. 

So, I choose this (dif­fi­cult) easy answer…the easy answer that speaks from my heart, the easy answer that might feel dif­fi­cult and yet — it’s the answer whis­per­ing from my soul…

And So It Begins

A week later, I find myself show­ing up for rehearsals — and with a role to play.

Life is awful funny that way…

Between that time in mid-June and now — my evenings have been with this group of actors, cre­at­ing our per­for­mance of Our Town.  A group of peo­ple from all dif­fer­ent walks — together cre­at­ing mem­o­ries, ful­fill­ing dreams, mak­ing a few mis­takes (I speak per­son­ally on this one…), hav­ing fun…

{how are you choos­ing to answer?}

The Cul­mi­na­tion

We have just fin­ished up our per­for­mances.   It’s a bit strange to think I won’t be spend­ing my evenings with this amaz­ing group of peo­ple — some­thing we’ve done for the last sev­eral weeks. 

…and the jour­ney con­tin­ues for each of us…

As I reflect back, I’m reminded of a line near the end of this play ~

“…Oh, Earth, you’re too won­der­ful for any­one to real­ize you.  Do any human beings ever real­ize life while they live it — every, every minute?“

We are here on this earth for a finite amount of time.  What tomor­row holds, we know not.  And yet, it is so easy to live our lives as if tomor­row will always come.

Your Call to Action

Choose to lis­ten to that voice which speaks from your heart.  And if the thoughts that voice brings up, if they are ones that maybe scare you just a lit­tle bit — choose to act. 

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stum­bles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them bet­ter. The credit belongs to the man who is actu­ally in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort with­out error and short­com­ings; but who does actu­ally strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthu­si­asm, the great devo­tion, who spends him­self in a wor­thy cause, who at the best knows in the end the tri­umph of high achieve­ment and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while dar­ing greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know nei­ther vic­tory nor defeat.” ~ Theodore Roo­sevelt

Dare to dream. 

Dare to be uniquely you.

Dare to step out of any boxes you’ve cre­ated for yourself.

Dare to live…really and fully, live…

Filed Under: Inspiration, Life Tagged With: ,
July 16, 2011 By

Music For The Soul: Firework

Note:  If you hav­ing trou­ble view­ing this, please click here.

Katy Perry: Fire­work

~ Com­ments Closed ~

Filed Under: Music For The Soul Tagged With:
July 10, 2011 By

Life Coaching: What’s It All About, Anyway?

Coruscation
Creative Commons License photo credit: Jason A. Samfield

“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks out­side, dreams. Who looks inside awak­ens.” ~ Carl Gus­tav Jung

Life coach­ing.  What is it, any­way?  And what’s the value in hav­ing a coach?

In the spring of 2010, I began work­ing with life coach Laura Neff. 

Laura recently asked me some ques­tions about our time together — ques­tions that really touched upon my expe­ri­ence in hav­ing Laura as a coach, and in the real and tan­gi­ble ben­e­fits of hav­ing a life coach.

You can read it here ~ The Jun­gle of Lance (a peek into the coach­ing journey)

~ Com­ments Closed ~

Filed Under: Interviews, Life Tagged With: ,
July 4, 2011 By 46 Comments

Love Care Donate

Fields of Gold
Creative Commons License photo credit: Werner Kunz

“Become a pos­si­bil­i­tar­ian.  No mat­ter how dark things seem to be or actu­ally are, raise your sights and see pos­si­bil­i­ties – always see them, for they’re always there.” ~ Nor­man Vin­cent Peale

May 22nd, 2011

A tor­nado tears through the city of Joplin, Mis­souri – one of the dead­liest tor­na­does on record. Over 100 peo­ple lose their lives, many more are injured, and phys­i­cal destruc­tion is evi­dent every­where.

Can you imag­ine how dif­fi­cult that must be? And with so much dev­as­ta­tion, how do you even begin to recover?

Today

The peo­ple of Joplin have begun this process of heal­ing and rebuild­ing — with renewed strength in what is possible. These cit­i­zens and all the vol­un­teers help­ing out are true exam­ples of the power of the human spirit in action.

There is still much to do – the destruc­tion that hap­pened in mere min­utes will take months and pos­si­bly years to fully restore.

Today, you have the oppor­tu­nity to help sup­port this heal­ing and rebuild­ing that is hap­pen­ing in Joplin.

Together with friend and col­league Tess Mar­shall, we have teamed up to cre­ate an e-book. 

Love Care Donate

This is no ordi­nary e-book.  This is the col­lec­tive effort of over 60 writ­ers from through­out the world.  Writ­ers unit­ing together and bring­ing hope to Joplin. 

Every one of these writ­ers has con­tributed a favorite arti­cle to this e-book, cre­at­ing a won­der­ful col­lec­tion of sto­ries.  Sto­ries of inspi­ra­tion, humor, growth, and love. 

Today, Tess and I are ask­ing for your help. 

Please visit the Love Care Donate, a dona­tion page we have cre­ated to raise funds to sup­port the Heart of Mis­souri United Way in their mis­sion to bring car­ing funds to the good peo­ple of Joplin.  In addi­tion, you’ll find infor­ma­tion on how to receive this Love Care Donate e-book, our gift to you. 

There is much hope in a future filled with pos­si­bil­ity.  Together, we all can make a difference!

With deep grat­i­tude,
Lance and Tess

 

To all our con­trib­u­tors, thank you!

Jen Louden ~ Jen­nifer Louden
Neil Pas­richa ~ 1000 Awe­some Things
Raam Dev ~ Raam Dev
Stu­art Mills ~ Unlock The Door
Farnoosh Brock ~ Pro­lific Liv­ing
Patri­cia Hamil­tion ~ Patricia’s Wis­dom
Cathy Taugh­in­baugh ~ Treat­ment Talk
Holly Latty-Mann ~ The Lead­er­ship Trust®
Court­ney Carver ~ Be More With Less
Evan Had­kins ~ Liv­ing Authen­ti­cally
Justin Mazza ~ Maz­za­stick
J.D. Meier ~ Sources of Insight
Peggy Nolan ~ Serendip­ity Smiles
Esther van der Wal ~ Iden­ti­tales
Angela Artemis ~ Pow­ered by Intu­ition
Jeanie Wit­craft ~ Embrac­ing Change
Manal Gho­sain ~ One With Now
Karen C.L. Ander­son ~ Before & After: A Real Life Story
Sue Cham­bers ~ Sage Wit
Melody Fletcher ~ Delib­er­ate Receiv­ing
Brenda Hoff­man ~ Life Tapes­try Cre­ations
Jo Bill­heimer ~ Jo’s Cre­ative Cor­ner
Alex Black­well ~ The Bridge­maker
Suzie Cheel ~ Suzie Cheel
Joe Wilner ~ Shake off the Grind
Chris­t­ian Hollingsworth ~ Smart Boy Designs
Michael Bun­gay Stanier ~ Box of Crayons
Gail Bren­ner ~ A Flour­ish­ing Life
Robin Eas­ton ~ Naked In Eden
Gina John­son ~ goodthingz
Tess Mar­shall ~ The Bold Life
David Stevens ~ Personalpower4me
Leah McClel­lan ~ Peace­ful Planet
Vitaly Ten­nant ~ My Time Mat­ters Blog
Mar­lee Ward ~ Meta­mor­pho­self
Bar­bara Swan­son Sher­man ~ Bar­bara Swan­son Sher­man
Dave Row­ley ~ Cre­ative Chai
Adri­enne Jurado ~ Expe­ri­ence Life Fully
Stacy Reck ~ Dessert First
Melissa Fer­nan­dez ~ Spir­it­God­dess
Srini­vas Rao ~ The Skool of Life
Char­lie Gilkey ~ Pro­duc­tive Flour­ish­ing
Cheryl Craigie ~ The Man­age­able Life
Lance Ekum ~ Jun­gle of Life
Danielle LaPorte ~ White­hot Truth
Kather­ine Nuyens ~ Empow­er­ing Change in You
Deb­o­rah Kin­ney ~ ReVive
Har­riet Cabelly ~ Rebuild Your Life Coach
Steven Aitchi­son ~ Change Your Thoughts
Gilbert Ross ~ Soul Hiker
Jana Miller ~ Home­school Jun­gle
Nature Walker ~ For­ever Young & Happy
Jan­nie Fun­ster ~ Jan­nie Fun­ster
Michelle Manning-Kogler ~ Quan­tum Soul Clear­ing
 

Design by Sue Alexan­der ~ Inspired Type

Filed Under: Inspiration, Life Tagged With: ,
July 1, 2011 By 40 Comments

Body Image Issues and Healing Amidst It All

Note:  Today we have guest writer Zeenat Merchant-Syal, of Pos­i­tive Provo­ca­tions, shar­ing a very heart­felt and mean­ing­ful piece on body image.


That Weird Dead Feeling
Creative Commons License photo credit: Kendra Infin­ity

“Do not wish to be any­thing but what you are, and try to be that per­fectly.”~ St. Fran­cis De Sales

On a recent trip to my cousin’s place, who I met after many years, we talked and gig­gles like we were kids. Nei­ther of us felt any older than those days we used to play in the rain and cre­ate havoc dur­ing sum­mer break. All of us lived in dif­fer­ent states/countries but would come together to Mumbai,India for the sum­mer. Its still essen­tially the same sit­u­a­tion, except now we have our own lit­tle ones roam­ing the rooms.

Bat­tling Body Image Issues

In most of these trips and even in my reg­u­lar life then, I was con­stantly bat­tling body Image issues. You see, I have always always been on the plump side. I don’t ever remem­ber being thin. That in itself had never been the prob­lem. The prob­lem was when I would be given free flow­ing, no hooks barred advice at every nook and cor­ner about how I should lose weight. Liv­ing in a home, where each par­ent had com­pletely dif­fer­ent approaches to the way things are sup­posed to be, didn’t make it any eas­ier. One would con­stantly keep vigil of my intake, while the other couldn’t bare the thought of his child being so wor­ried about what she ate.

This tug of war cul­mi­nated into such a mas­sive prob­lem for me espe­cially as I entered my teens. Sud­denly every­thing and every­one was about look­ing “per­fectly media good”. Walk like some­one, look like some­one, talk like some­one other than your­self and you could be the IN teenager. I became that. Although I was still bat­tling the way I saw myself, I put up a brave front and laughed. I was the life of every party, and yeah had the hand­somest guys ask me out. Was all this mak­ing me feel bet­ter? NO! It was actu­ally deep­en­ing the prob­lem I had with myself and push­ing it deeper into my soul…until I was so so deeply scarred. Scarred enough to make hor­rid deci­sions I still regret. I keep think­ing now…”how could I have been so stupid?”

I still remem­ber how I would cry to sleep every night, because I didn’t like who I had become, but felt it was the Only choice I had to be accepted.

Becom­ing The Real Me

There came a point, when the self anni­hi­la­tion had started, that I couldn’t look myself in the mir­ror. In those days, I came face to face with ques­tions of pur­pose. In my most low states I could hear a voice inside me ask me, “Is this what you want to BE? Who are You REALLY? ”

It was only when I met my spir­i­tual teacher, at the age of 16(almost 17), I real­ized how awe­some it could be to be Me. The Real Me. There was this woman, right across the room at a social gath­er­ing, who I couldn’t stop look­ing at. She was sim­ple, neat, smil­ing and extremely lov­ing. She wore sim­ple clothes, no frills, no makeup, no pre­ten­tious­ness what­so­ever. I was so drawn to this woman. She some­how looked like she glowed. I still think she does. She intro­duced me to my soul. And for that I remain eter­nally indebted to her. She guided me, taught me lessons from reli­gious scrip­tures. Showed me the light, so to speak.

As I dwelled into reli­gion, spir­i­tu­al­ity and all things Divine..my mind, my body, my heart all came to a cer­tain calm. I real­ized that I am meant to be a cer­tain way. It felt right. That is my unique gift. The phys­i­cal body issues began to heal. As the issues healed, a warm more lov­ing me emerged. A Me even I am some­times flab­ber­gasted by. I stopped cry­ing to sleep, I stopped hurt­ing myself, I stopped being some­one I was not.

The relief of let­ting those masks go, was like tak­ing off a huge moun­tain from my shoul­ders. I never felt lighter, freer than I did in that moment.

Yes, not all peo­ple in my life were fully happy with this trans­for­ma­tion, but they came to accept a hap­pier me.

TODAY

Today, I’m still plump. But hap­pily so. I love myself and things about this self. Dim­ples, warts, moles, crooked teeth, the not so per­fect figure.…I love it all. It keeps me real. I live a very sim­ple but con­tent life today.I am healthy. I walk, do yoga, exer­cise, eat right, smile, help oth­ers heal, help souls become whole and happy. So I’m plump. Big Deal!(smile)…More of me to love More of every other soul in this Uni­verse with :)

I do hope I can instil the same sim­plic­ity, love and calm in my lit­tle girl. As she grows up, I keep think­ing, she will go through some of the anx­i­ety of peer pres­sure, soci­ety pres­sure to look or be a cer­tain way. But I know I will be with her every step of the way, telling her just how Beau­ti­ful she is just as she is. She need never be any­one else!

May we all Hap­pily embrace our awe­some and very real selves. Its one of the most imper­a­tive steps in under­stand­ing and liv­ing in con­stant hap­pi­ness. Know­ing and trust­ing the Divine Plan and liv­ing in the flow of it makes liv­ing bliss­ful. Noth­ing and I mean noth­ing can get you down then.

Today(literally) as I met my cousin, she said, “We were such goof­balls in our teens na. You are still a goof­ball, naughty as ever, but you seem gen­uinely Hap­pier now. What did you have an epiphany or some­thing?” I kinda did and I com­pletely agreed with her, while I baked and we ate home made veg­gie pizza with all our kids.

A pos­i­tive affir­ma­tion I use when I feel a whiff of old imagery com­ing along.… “I am Awe­some. I am Beau­ti­ful. I am a divine cre­ation full of amaz­ing mas­tery.” Heart *Smile*

Zeenat is the founder and writer of the blog ~Pos­i­tive Provo­ca­tions~ Heal­ing You Com­pletely with Pos­i­tiv­ity, Love & Hap­pi­ness!. A Prac­tic­ing Coun­sel­ing Psychologist/Spiritual Counselor/Motivational Speaker/Naturopath by pro­fes­sion (since the past 10 years) and Spir­i­tual Trav­eler & Writer by pas­sion.
Zeenat is also an eter­nal stu­dent and researcher of the school of life and all its real­i­ties. A con­stant learner in the fields of Meta­physics and New age Thinking. 

Filed Under: Guest Posts, Inspiration Tagged With: ,