 Pinter Beckett and Proust, and that's how I got away with writing about Pinter without having Martin be my advisor, but I Will say when I when I Looked through this book again and looked at at Esslin's essay in this book. I was Pretty Happy and surprised to learn how much I agreed with what he was saying, which is basically, you know the dramaturg as we know is a German construct and in the German theater He says it is a it's a very top level position someone who's supposed to know every level like who goes to the other theaters and scouts actors and is reading the plays and is And he said that in the university system. No one even does plays if you're training to be a dramaturg You're like studying the form and and he said you know in America The dramaturg has another even more important function probably which is to Uplift the form in a way in a culture that does not embrace it He said in Germany, you know There's a joke that if you get if you're a bureaucrat and you get demoted they say he was demoted to a town That doesn't even have a theater In the same way we would say demoted to a town that doesn't even have a baseball team Anyway, I I really agree with that. I feel that That is something I always believed in as in my job that you know, there's there we are split in two as a field aren't we we are Aiming for the loftiest ideas and we are part of the nitty-gritty and we and we also Often go into our little rooms and shut the door and in ours, you know our bemused Follow staff members say oh, yes, Tim's in there reading a play And there's something ivory tower about it, but really It falls on us to make the case for what we do and why it's vital and important I was gonna press this stopwatch and know how long I was talking. It's probably four minutes already. Oh, well, well, well anyway, I Gonna look at my page The last time I was in this room, which is a very difficult room for speech was the Pulitzer luncheon for any baker and I'm Say that not to like wave my flag although it is running and you should see it because it's a great production although I haven't seen the lease the This version yet. I haven't had time, but you know Annie was doing a talk back with me and she's After the flick and she said, you know the theater. I love the theater because it's the art form that is best for dealing with ambivalence and ambiguity and And I agree completely with that and I just referred to the kind of split focus of dramaturgs And I think you know if we're honest with ourselves that that Dicotomous dynamism is part of every production really When I was training I Took a little break from from academia like one year off like to try to figure out how to write this heady Dissertation I was gonna do and I took acting classes with Michael shirtliff who's a was a casting director and Great teacher really and he wrote a book that if you're have friends or actors. They should read it It's called how to audition And I really liked the way he framed this I what I was just referring to The split focus because he said every You know the the idea of the actors objective He boiled down to what do I want if you're an actor and then he said okay when you figure that out enough here What's the opposite? What's the opposite of what I want because you want that too and then that person is dealing with another person and That same kind of Dynamism that sort of hegelian Dynamic of thesis antithesis synthesis happens on Our stages the other thing I think it's unique about because it's the only art form that really Uses as its instrument and palette the human being the other truth about that when I studied Proust and Pinter Beckett What goes along with that is studying Bergson and Bergson's not really That fashionable But his view of time is that is very valuable for we in the theater because his view of time is Not the time is linear. We're all against linearity in the theater. Aren't we or in our art? He said time is volumetric It's durational that time doesn't you know End and go away. It fills us up and I think we know that about time and we know that's how we Discover the truth of what we're looking for what it's our obligation to uncover and And we see actors who all of them are playing characters and they have They have that sense of duration, you know, they have a history the other one of the other Guide posts that short live said was what's your what is your history? What's your past history and that's you know, our best actors are so adept at Doing exhaustive research and then making it organic and not making it Sort of a heady choice Wow, you know when I when I was doing this prep for this I Quote I wrote I brought look at this All these things I wanted to read they're like things that really inspire me And I might just feel like I can't you know this this here's Barakson's definition of duration The piling up of the past upon the past goes on without relaxation in reality The past is preserved by itself automatically in its entirety probably it follows us at every instant All that we have felt thought and willed from our earliest infancy is there Leaning over the present which is about to join it pressing against the portals of consciousness that would feign leave it outside I love that quote Because really theater all art is It's it's urging us to open our eyes and to Discover something at the TCG conference that was just a week ago Lisa Cron was a keynote speaker and she she gave an extemporaneous sort of Both Description of her journey, but also what she discovered about the truth of theater from her point of view in storytelling and she made the point which I'm gonna repeat here that Theater is about not a truth that is a priori given that we Are are trying to show It's it's the truth that the characters discover and that that recognition that that result of choices is also unique to the theater and It's something that inspires me You know, it's it's it's the danger in the arts is to fetishize what you're doing to To see it as important in and of itself And that's why you know, I look to you to be spokesman spokespeople spokeswomen for our field because It's a very crowded. There are a lot of worthy causes. It's a very crowded Market square and we we need to Voice our our our passionate belief in the indispensable ability of what we do and that Our our playwrights are by the way, I love the t-shirt and at first I thought well That's kind of a Ptolemaic view of the universe Isn't it to put the the dramaturg at the center isn't a playwright at the center working in a writer's theater? Of course, I feel that but then I decided maybe it's it's Einsteinian Maybe it's relativistic and that it's about the sort of cross intersectionality of all these fields So I forgive you our t-shirt. Maybe I'll try to get one What else did I write down here? Oh The other thing The other thing Sherlock would say is that every scene is a love scene Every scene is a love scene And that seems like what the love is you know, what he said make life or death choices and and Having needing love and especially if you're not getting it Leads to a lot of violence. So even in the violence scene there's probably love in there somewhere to understand it and one of the this is Immanuel Levina's who's a Philosopher I liked a lot the first content of expression is the expression itself to approach the other in conversation Is to welcome his expression in which at each instant he overflows the idea a thought would carry away from it It is therefore to receive from the other beyond the capacity of the eye Which means exactly to have the idea of infinity But this also means to be taught the relation with the other or conversation is a non-allergic relation an ethical relation He's getting at why in philosophical terms in Solarity is is The enemy in some ways, you know, Levinas was in conversation with Heidegger But I will my next thought is related to that which is with the artist And so how did I become? Literary manager the theater that specializes in new American plays when my my field of expertise was Proust Pinter Beckett Jean a Strinberg It's because here's a quote from Proust and it aligns perfectly with the mission statement of playwrights horizons Style for the writer no less than color for the painter is a question not of technique But a vision it is the revelation of the qualitative difference the Uniqueness of the fashion in which the world appears to each one of us. Thanks to art Instead of seeing one world only our own We see that world multiply itself and we have at our disposal as many worlds as there are original artists That's like kept me young that that that philosophy So every play I enter there's no program. There's no cookie cutter. There's no way to do it. The way to do it is imminent within that writer and it is our responsibility to Find that conversation, you know used to be I hope it's different, you know many of the quotes in in the in the dramaturgy book like there was a round table with With Eric Overmire and Connie Congden and there was a lot of dramaturg bashing in that like don't talk to the My advice is how to talk to a playwright. Don't talk to the director. That's Eric Overmire's perspective and you know, and I think more and more I I am so inspired by the staff who does the literary work Which I just keep growing because I feel that just like the truth of playwriting that we are in a golden age That there are so many incredible writers writing that it's really hard to choose. I also find that Starting from the beginning we have a wonderful resident fellowship program. That's how I got started at playwrights risings. I was a Intern then I Just feel I was lost compared to these incredibly intelligent sophisticated Well-trained knowledgeable Devotees of the theater who come in and fill the staff and then get jobs and But you know, it's also I Would also say it's reciprocal relationship and make sure you Make sure you respect your elders That's a good Trans-global Ethical stance I think and I think that would Also, I'm gonna get like there's parts of this that are Advice To you in the field I would say, you know the part We're trying to be ambitious and humble, right? That's what that's what it's our calling is and and and the ambition is to love how high That playwright is reaching and to and to communicate as you woo that playwright as you would pitch your woo to the love of your life The goal is to convince that writer that you love the play better than they themselves do and that And that you but that at the same time you need some humility About the fact that you're not the playwright And that's important. I also believe in candor and that You know, I don't believe in giving notes So we we receive a thousand plus plays and do six and maybe do 20 readings and develop things and maybe give Six or seven commissions. So what is the trick of keeping love alive with the other? 964 Writers who are not and I really don't feel blanket sort of form letters is the way to do it I think you've got to develop that knack for both praising and letting down gently and and making it making them understand it's a That you want to see the future work if you do and they are big boys and girls are playwrights. They want to know something not that it's the truth, but it's your truth and I Believe in that kind of candor What else do I have to say And the same way like, you know, it's it's is that my timer is that like the orchestra playing? Yeah, yeah, I forgot to give the salt you didn't give the cell phone speech, did you? I you know the there are things like, you know, I'm a I'm a I want you to Understand the context of what I'm about to say because you know, no one's had a better track record at Gender quality and programming than playwrights horizons But I'm gonna say that was not I don't want you to applaud, but thank you I Will say there's something This has to do with the seniority issue I'm slightly irritated with the kill rise list even though I appreciate that they're the attempt to improve it and widen it because it is looked to as a kind of You know the guide in a way and and I think that Mid-career and older career writers are being ignored in that list And they're like the writers that I've produced that I think are wonderful writers like Marlena Meyer Kathleen tolin, Kea Corthran, Wendy McLeod. I don't see them on that list and I'm not sure why I think Wendy McLeod I think Marlena Meyer is Probably one of our five most unique gifted Incredible writers and and her generation which includes who like Lynn Jenkins and Mack Wellman and you know the men people haven't forgotten but let's not forget Marlena Meyer and and there are men also and That I think are struggling to get paid attention to Christianne Evan Smith Quincy long Neil Bell These are like wonderful writers who happen to be over the age of 50. Most of them, you know, they're good too Other thing I want to just close with Although I'll probably have to read one more quote because I can't help myself You know when we I want to talk about Diversity engagement Equality a little bit. I think it's We need to In the theater we're trying to create a utopia aren't we To have a model of how things should work and we're also like trying to show it like it is Which ain't so great all the time I Think it's really important, you know the the The struggle to organically diversify the work and the productions and the staff It it It's in my mind, it's important to Have a total community that we all fit into and that the the danger is that there can be a Balkanization of communities what you see in the in you know, it's happening all over East Europe And I think you know, let's not grab our feet thems. I Say this is someone who I remember going to rock concerts like festivals and seeing like Pentangle canned heat in the Isley Brothers, you know and that and it was and and I was thinking of singing a little bit of everyday people from flying the family stone for you because I think you know It was a given that The music world was all encompassing and that we were all there together and that we didn't have a black festival and a and a white festival and a rock festival and a jazz festival you look at the film or acts and it was completely eclectic and I felt this very strongly when we did booty candy this year that this is a play for all of us who just like badass theater like hilarious theatrical smart badass theater and so I I Shout out that to you. Let's keep it real. Let's keep it organic and Kind of read one more thing Because it's one of my favorite. I don't know what this is doing here It's it has to do with the reality of time and The reality of love in one of the most, you know bleak plays ever written You know waiting for Godot waiting for Godot is but it's a lot if you don't have the love story and waiting for Godot You you ain't got nothing So Was I sleeping while the others suffered am I sleeping now tomorrow when I awake or think I do What shall I say of today that with estragon my friend at this place until the fall of night? I waited for Godot We have time to grow old the air is full of our cries But habit is a great deadener at me to someone is looking of me to someone is saying he is sleeping He knows nothing let him sleep on I can't go on What have I said? Let's not sleep Thank you Well, I'm a huge fan of playwrights horizons and for many years. It's been a real joy to walk a couple blocks down 42nd Street and get inspired by new plays And and some new writers and some older writers. So thank you for that and for all the work It's an honor to be on this panel with you and Richard and and Michelle and so thanks Beth for Asking me to speak. I am not as good at speaking extemporaneously. So I wrote everything down Bear with me one of the things I cherish most about LMDA is this dynamic network of dramaturgs at all stages of career and life Who generously mentor and although I still very much feel like an ecd? I suppose I'm now approaching what some would call mid-career that vast expanse of time where you're so immersed in doing the work That you don't realize how much time is passing Now taking a moment to look up and look back I can trace every significant professional break. I've had to members of this organization Well, I was pursuing an MA at Catholic University in the 90s Professor Mary Riesing invited Kathy Madison then literary manager of arena stage to her dramaturgy seminar As Kathy spoke about her work in a literary office I lit up and immediately applied for an internship at arena for the following season While there I felt my spine straighten From student to emerging professional as production dramaturg on two main stage shows I Benefited from the incredible openness of directors Doug Wager and Michael Kahn to my tentative then more confident contributions I Attended my first LMDA conference in 1999 at the University of Puget Sound During which I stood in awe at the assembly of icons of our field also warm and accessible and lovely I Also remember an incredibly passionate debate about whether or not to form a union Which I observed with mouth a gate But that's a reminiscence for the conference bar After I finished a theater history degree at the University of Washington Jeff Pearl and John Wilson who are here at this conference and whom I met at that conference Not only gave me my first teaching gigs But also took me under their wings as master dramaturgs and educators Their faith in me has been and continues to be a priceless gift and At this conference in Chicago 12 years ago the inimitable Greg Gunter Tried to convince me to consider applying for a crazy job helping him develop musical theater for Disney on Broadway I was like what? But for reasons still somewhat of a mystery to me I applied for the job landed the job found last-minute replacements for my classes and once again moved my ass across the country What was supposed to be a short detour from my intended academic career? Turned out to connect to deeply held values fulfilling lifelong dreams and blossoming in ways. I couldn't have imagined I've been able to work on projects that have impacted millions of people My colleagues and collaborators are incomparable artists thinkers producers and friends It's amazing what you can do when you are surrounded by good people with a desire to make great things Among other gifts this job is open doors to guest seminars at colleges around the globe freelance gigs at cool places like the Kennedy Center Berkeley Playhouse and New York Theater Workshop and Even opportunities to employ my fellow Terg's Saying yes to a call from left field can be a powerful thing Although I certainly worked my butt off I feel tremendously lucky every single day Speaking of left field as president elective LMDA I'm excited by this chance to give back to the organization and its members who have meant so much to me This does not mean I'm not sweating bullets But I suppose in order to grow you've got to move toward the thing that scares you as we sometimes advise the riders with whom we work Thank God. I've got a year to shadow the indomitable blip beth blickers And I'll have sage counsel of Brian court and the rest of the board to catch me when I inevitably stumble Despite challenges of definition and employment our field has come a long way in these past three decades We're still here and growing. We believe in the work, which we execute in innumerable ways We are not afraid to morph and innovate and We have each other's backs. It's a remarkable thing this community Because there's no good reason to be a dramaturg I mean who in her right mind would put in this much work for other people's glory But I truly believe it's not a choice We're born this way It's a calling or rather a recognition and ultimate acceptance of who we're meant to be How we're meant to move through the world and make art It's a love of craft and process and possibility That transcends any particular project job or career path It's a way of connecting to people and ideas that crosses national linguistic and disciplinary borders I'm profoundly grateful to be in your midst among my tribe once again today I'm a naturally optimistic dude. I Suspect that may be why a day job at Disney has suited me for over a decade I'm also pretty ambitious when it comes to possibility and people I like having a big crazy vision and finding smart allies crazy enough to tackle it with me in practical ways I'd like to see us Stand firmly on the legacy of these past 30 years and challenge ourselves to imagine something new What if the value of a dramaturgy degree? We're in tied to landing a scarce job in a theatrical literary office What if we assertively recruited our counterparts in television film and other mediums of dramatic and creative development to join our fold? There are thousands of executives who work with dramatic writers and have no idea we exist Or that there are other perhaps more productive ways of working and being What if we became a home for like-minded individuals in other fields who have no trade organizations of their own? What if their training and experience in other disciplines helped us break new ground in the theater? What if we took the hemispheric impulse of our name change seriously and pursued Active artistic institutional and organizational relationships with collaborators south of Rio Grande What if what if we went global? What if we dared to unleash the power of our unique intergenerational nexus of institutional academic and freelance workers Beyond that which feels comfortable parochial and safe What if I'm sure you have some answers or at least more and better questions During my president-elect year I plan to do some serious and seriously fun R&D To become aware of some of what I don't know that I don't know And I'll start by hosting a series of what if salons If you're interested in walking toward the thing that scares you for the chance of discovering something remarkable Come find me. I look forward to great things in this gift of an opportunity to serve you. Thanks inspiring I think this 12 minute and 45 second talk speech letter Might actually fit in fairly well with Tim's remarks on love and history Dear Canada I'm on the verge of walking away from our relationship. I confess I Confess that I was going to go until LMDA president Beth Blickers ever the diplomat Told me she was concerned that perhaps I hadn't expressed my feelings properly But I hadn't sorted out our story She suggested that if I wrote my thoughts down in a loving letter to you and then read the letter out loud to my friends at LMDA Then maybe we could find a way to stay together Sometimes I feel we'll never know each other because quite frankly you just don't know yourself This has been bothering me for a while I've suggested therapy, but you keep claiming you can work out these identity issues on your own It hasn't happened yet And I'm beginning to wonder if it ever will Who are you Canada? In a 1967 television interview the Canadian visionary Marshall McLuhan said you're the only country in the world that knows how to live without an identity Echoing his sentiment somewhat the poet Irving Layton said a Canadian is someone who keeps asking the question What is a Canadian? I think he was confusing Canadians with dramaturgs, but anyway you get the idea For as long as I can remember you've divide to find yourself in opposition By talking about what you aren't rather than what you are and at the top of the list of the things you claim you're not is American Maybe you knew yourself back in the beginning back in the early 1600s when you were one of the four colonies of New France and the Terms Canada and New France were interchangeable But after the French ceded you to Britain in 1763 at the end of the French and Indian Wars when New France became a part of the British Empire Your self of scent your sense of self began to slide When the United States was successful in their revolutionary bid to eliminate British rule from the 13 colonies The form the areas of the former New France that stayed a part of Great Britain were given the names of upper and Lower Canada Now I'm not a psychiatrist, but that sounds like the beginnings of dissociative identity disorder to me It might have seemed like it was all going to work out when the English passed the British North America Act in 1867 It was Canada's Confederation You're quite the talker then convincing the home country to let you go without firing a shot You seem to be reborn as an independent nation Although parts of the BNA Act allowed the governor general the Queen's representative in Canada The power to strike down laws enacted by the Canadian Parliament within three years of their passing American identity stories are so clean Maybe that's why you're so eager to adopt them Take the Puritans and the Mayflower for example that story was so well packaged that you've introduced Puritan symbols into your own Thanksgiving celebrations even though the Puritans had nothing to do with Canada Well, the Protestant Puritans were arriving on the shores of New England You dear Canada were welcoming the Catholic Jesuits to New France Truth be told I've always preferred the French Canadian voyagers to those stuffy tight-ass Puritans anyway The voyagers sang they partied they dressed in flamboyant clothing It's like comparing the people of the Upper East side to the people of Williamsburg I Also love the fact that the fun-loving fur trading French Canadian voyagers didn't see themselves as kings of the wild frontier Their worldview was more in line with the native peoples with whom they worked They saw themselves as part of nature not as the rulers of it I think that's an important part of who you are and maybe it's true I mean it certainly was for those guys who started Greenpeace in Vancouver back in 1971 I Love your images of Jacques pottling down the St. Lawrence River singing French songs stopping just long enough to get married I Love that you called the offspring of these French and First Nations people the matey. It's got a nice ring to it Okay, so you may have identity issues and a little anxiety, but at least you're a good planner You remember back in the 1870s when the US was randomly blasting its way through the Wild West Your biggest railway company was planning its own incursions by drawing towns on maps Spacing them seven miles apart along the railway line and naming them in alphabetical order Fenwood, Goodeve, Hubbard, Ituna, Keller, Lestock, Punishie, Raymore, Siemens, Tate Now that's dramaturgy Back in those days your law enforcement was well-planned too even so I can't help but envied those great chaotic stories from the American West where men were hard and their whiskey was harder Where federal marshals stood their ground in front of the setting sun to dollop out big helpings of frontier justice to those Stupid enough to take a seat at the wrong side of the law In contrast, you dear Canada created a police force Trained them in the east and then sent them westward to control the American whiskey smugglers in the towns that were still waiting to be built You remember when you thought you'd spooked the Americans into thinking there was an arms build-up happening on the border if you called the force the Northwest mounted rifles like you planned So you called them the Northwest mounted police That was very polite of you A hundred years later in 1994 the Disney Corporation was given a five-year contract to handle the marketing and licensing of RCMP iconography Control of the trademarks have been given over to Disney when the RCMP hired the company to promote their invention protect them from being abused in the commercial marketplace Let me get this straight Canada Your federal police force went to Disney for protection. I Just can't see J. Edgar Hoover in bed with Mickey Mouse That's a I have trouble picturing J. Edgar Hoover in a dress. Anyway, the whole thing makes me nervous Markle outward once said that if the national mental illness of the United States is megalomania that of Canada is paranoid schizophrenia Most people in Canada probably think that if the United States has a mental illness, we should have one, too Luckily, it's possible to treat both paranoid schizophrenia and megalomania with drugs. By the way, Canada Did you know you're the second largest per capita consumer of pharmaceutical drugs in the world? But guess who's first? Canada you really have to try harder Pia Trudeau one of your most flamboyant and storied prime ministers a guy who sometimes channeled the voyagers in his photo ops and the man who repatriated our constitution in 1982 Said Americans should never underestimate the constant pressure on Canada, which the mere presence of the United States has produced We're different people from you and we're different people because of you Living next door to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant no matter how friendly and even tempered the beast One is affected by every twitch and grunt He also famously said after he decriminalized homosexuality in 1969 There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation Still if you're seeing elephants in your bed dear Canada, I suggest you try Sarac will John Ralston saw one of your brightest public intellectuals claims all routes of accommodation came through close working contact with the Aboriginals and the development of Metis culture He believes that the often ignored role of the natives as full partners in the military civil and commercial affairs of the Canada For the first 250 years of their existence is a huge problem when it comes to trying to articulate a national identity Sol's premise is that unlike the US whose foundation of statehood came out of the European Enlightenment Canada's foundational culture is more aboriginal embracing values of negotiation tolerance inclusivity and accommodation What Saul sees as a matey view of living could be perceived as socialist I'll be reading this letter to my American friends, and I don't think I can use the word socialist in the United States Well, maybe in New York City Seeing the word socialist over the phone at least could put me on the Department of Homeland Security's watch list Socialism is so depraved that the word the very word is almost unspeakable in the United States Better to talk in terms of the 99% or income equality or the wealth gap I Grew up in the provinces that was the birthplace of social democracy in Canada, and I'm proud of it I wonder if I'll be taking the bus back to Vancouver when my flying privileges are revoked Tommy Douglas and the co-operative Commonwealth Federation later named the new Democratic Party was elected on June 15th 1944 they formed the first socialist government in North America as a Baptist minister and the leader of the CCF in Saskatchewan Tommy Douglas brought his province North America's first Arts Council Regional library system an increase in the minimum wage a work week capped at 44 hours I wonder what happened to that a guarantee of two weeks paid vacation for all workers in an increased education budget The list goes on including free health care for pensioners free psychiatric hospital treatment for the mentally ill and a balanced budget in the First four years of his mandate Eventually his work resulted in a cat in Canada wide guarantee of universal Medicare In Douglas his own words I felt that no boy should have to depend either for his leg or for his life Upon the ability of his parents to raise enough money to bring a first-class surgeon to his bedside And the people should be able to get whatever health services they require irrespective of their individual capacity to pay He also said a nation's greatness lies not in the quantity of its goods, but in the quality of its life If it's one thing that holds us together Canada, it's the idea that the tax base works to support the health of everybody in your family There's something fundamental in that proposition Today for the first time in history the NDP is your official opposition party in the federal parliament Though and the party that just won the recent provincial in election in Alberta Alberta The province that sends the United States more oil than anywhere else in the world Alberta is a jurisdiction that up until two months ago had the same conservative party in power longer than the former ruling party in Egypt Which held power there for 49 years until the Arab Spring brought it down Voting NDP in Alberta is like voting for Ralph Nader in Texas You really made me laugh with that one So why should I love you? for your humor Your interminable almost paranoid insecurity Your lack of an articulated identity and your basic decency and for the fact that I still believe you're trying hard to be a fair country Well, maybe it's because you are no one and you are everyone The famous architect Canadian architect Arthur Erickson argues that Canada's lack of a national identity will prove to be the country's strength in the 21st century as the world moves towards what he calls a humanity wide consciousness He goes on to say that by having no history or of cultural or political hegemony We are more open to curious about and perceptive of other cultures It's this open curiosity and respect that will continue to make you Canada one of the great 21st century social experiments Right now your foreign-born population is 22 percent compared with 13 percent in the US It's one of the highest in the world and yet things are still running pretty well all things considered Your social dramaturgs are still on task John Ralston Saul also said Canada is either an idea or it does not exist It is either an intellectual undertaking or it is little more than a resource rich vacuum lying in the buffer zone just north of a great empire So how will your story end? Will you be succumbed by the United States or will you shine on as a fully realized nation? I have no idea But for the moment I think you characterize the notion of how people on a very small and very crowded planet Might be able to live together side-by-side Uncertain of what to call the association but reasonably comfortable with it nonetheless and for that Canada I love you. Thank you. He has a date with Lucinda Williams I'm gonna go see listen to Williams. Can you hear me? Yeah Without okay. Good evening when Blickers asked me to give one of these Musings for this year's LMDA conference. She said two things Be reckless and be brief. I hope I'm at least one of them These are my musings Oh Okay, I have and I suspect that we all have been thinking a lot about community and what that means really deeply and truly What it means to me? I Teach at Washington College a small residential liberal arts college Community is a word that we bandy around a great deal there It became quite meaningful in Moments and becomes quite meaningful in moments that I'll talk about in a minute. I also live in Philadelphia a city whose very name city of brotherly love Implies the relationship of one to the other As part of my city, there is also a theater community like many other theater communities this one is strong and nurturing and rigorous and on a more personal note one that saved my life this year and If I'm honest with myself pay attention to that word honest That salvation didn't have anything to do with a play If my high school Latin is correct the word community itself is comprised of three elements calm Latin prefix meaning with or together munis the changes or exchanges that link and Tatas a Latin suffix Suggesting diminutive small intimate or local So a small strong link. I like that But where do we see that? What are the examples that resonate in our own lives? As I said Washington College uses the word a lot However, I don't think that my students really got what that meant Until last spring when one of their own took his life in his dorm room Our community was rattled and rocked We adopted the hashtag shorman strong to help express our need for one another in My department one that was impacted pretty deeply by this death our own adage Hashtag we are family became our calling card one for each other Why am I hugging you right now? We are family. I Watched the killer ways announcement last week and was delighted to see so many of my friends and colleagues Cheering and celebrating one another and the work itself Watching gobbins. I hope she's out there somewhere Work her magic make me appreciate my own community of Chicago theater Which also has had its own share of grief and pain in the past year There's also the amazing effort of the hardest working man in show business sound designer Lindsay Jones Who found a stellar way of celebrating the design and by extension the writing and directing Communities through what he called the collaborator party an event that coincided with the Tony Awards Should I talk about the Tony Awards? Probably not I mean, I'm very happy that the people who won won. I'm seeing fun home tomorrow night and gosh I love Jeanine to sorry, and I love Lisa Crone. Some of my best friends have won Tony Awards, but it did get me thinking and Here's the question that I will pose to you Are we talking to ourselves? Both about the work and then the work The play itself are our celebrations of our work, which don't get me wrong I don't think that's the issue actually serving a community besides ourselves And if so, do we have a responsibility to say so? Who is listening? Who is watching? Who is responding? Or are we chasing our own tails? Are we really and truly? Experiencing all facets of the communities in which we live We spend a lot of time talking about how we are serving our community Foundations donors and other gatekeepers give a lot of money to hear us talk about how we are exploring our communities Where we live, but let's be honest Are we really? Is the work that we are making Really impacting the greater world outside the walls real or imagined walls of our theaters Is the answer to bring theater to the community or is it to the bring the community to the theater? Or is there something completely different and if so who's doing it? Why aren't we? There's also something else what is the role of art in a community whose primary function is an art But is simply survival or a roof over your head or a meal or health care Who cares about the work that we do other than us? And if we're doing it for ourselves whoever we are Let's be honest about it My partner in playpen the very grumpy Paul machedian Sorry Paul Noted visual artists are unabashed narcissists about their work They make it for themselves. They don't care what you think Huh? Is this us? Do we care? Do we actually care not just about our audiences who are let's be honest a very rarefied community and our articulated mission-based communities But what about the people with whom we share air on a daily basis who have no idea what a play is or a dramaturg and don't really care My students told me something very compelling this summer this semester They told me that the only time that they actually turn off their phones is when they come into the theater I'm kind of certain that it's because that they're afraid of me and how batshit crazy I might go if I find it on But I think that there's something else something related to community something much more basic There is a deep need in us as humans to connect with each other to sit in stillness and listen to each other breathe How often do we do this? Think about it Do you make eye contact with people you don't know? Do you smile at the person that gets online behind you? Do you listen? Really listen when someone tells you their pain If I acknowledge someone even through eye contact, is that an invitation to engage or is it just an acknowledgement of humanity and Isn't that really the first step towards feeling a sense of community? Be honest. I think that diversity and gender parity and all our panel discussions about them are good and important and Necessary, but what happens beyond that? How many different ways can we say it to each other? Here's the challenge that I put before you Please Let us emerge from this conference with some honest statements. They don't have to be shared About how we define our community. I'm not talking about friends What are the biggest concerns in our communities? What can we do to help on a concrete level? Dramaturgs can be not just the center of the theatrical universe but instead agents of empathy and Compassion and honesty in a world that wants it needs it yearns for it Maybe it's not about a play Maybe it's about just Breathing the same air Just for a minute Thank you. Thank you to all of our keynote speakers Quickly remember to put questions in the Tiffany bag for the ECD panel in the morning Which will be hosted by Coriana Moffitt and Laurel Green in the faculty room. Everybody is welcome They'll explain the rules of the game. We will be back here and start at 9 45 a.m. Have fun tonight