 All right, we're live. Hey, I guess I'm starting. All right. Hi, everyone. Hi, super amigos. Love being in this space with you as strange as it is. We're gonna start with, I just have a few thoughts to share, just to activate imagination. And then we're gonna get to writing. A little, what I'm calling three portals, but they're basically prompts. And then we'll get into sharing and Q and A. Sound good? Okay. So I'm gonna start with this roomy quote that I love. Do not be satisfied with the stories that come before you unfold your own myth. And first time I read that, it just struck very deeply in my soul. And a lot of the work that I do centers around engaging with the mythic, activating the mythic, seeking the mythic. And I know nowadays people use the word myth as this is a falsehood. And I reject that definition, falsehood are falsehoods, but the mythic is actually the great truths, right? That's our stories and our myths are about sharing great truths. I believe there are ancestors giving us guidance, warnings, inspiration, trying to understand our world, our existence, giving us pathways for that. And also great wisdom and healing. So that's something I'm really constantly searching both as a writer, an actor, a teacher is getting deep into the mythic, you know? And I believe wherever we come from, we come from great stories. And if we ever needed that now, if we ever needed that guidance, if we ever needed that wisdom, it's in this moment. So I'm gonna bring into the space two deities that I like to open up to. One is Itzamana, my own God of writing and healing. He's often depicted as this old guy who really loves to listen and he has a gourd and Mineh Mosini, who is the Greek goddess of the arts and of memory. And I think it's so important that both of these gods, they're connected to the arts but they're also connected to healing, right? So when we write, we are activating healing through Itzamana, when we are creating, we're also remembering, right? It's our job as artists to remember the things that the culture wants to pour concrete over, wants to forget, right? So I open us up to both Itzamana and Mineh Mosini and I'm gonna offer these three portals for us to write. Let me just copy and put this in the, it's not letting me paste. So the first one, I'll read it out because some people may not be able to access the chat but I put the questions in the chat and just see which one of these stirs your soul. Maybe all of them, right? Or maybe Itzamana and or Mineh Mosini open something up for you and you wanna work from there but you'll just put pen to page and just let yourself, right, and I'll time us. So the first is think of a childhood song or story that captured your imagination has stayed with you. Think of a childhood song or story that captured your imagination has stayed with you. Number two is what people were talked about in your home growing up, who did you hear about over and over again and were curious about? What people were talked about in your home growing up, who did you hear about over and over again and were curious about? And the third is did you have a secret hiding place as a child, a place of refuge where you found comfort, make believe? Did you have a secret hiding place as a child, a place of refuge where you found comfort, make believe? Okay, anybody have any questions? Okay, then we can just start. What is this a 15 minute writing time? Yes, this is a 15 minute writing time. Yes, Rose, you can choose one or whatever your impulse is. Maybe you wanna do a combination or maybe it's a mano or mnemocini, stirred something up and you follow whatever that impulse is. Okay, so we can start to finish up and maybe come together. I prefer a gallery view. So you're able to see hands or if someone wants to, okay. Yeah, absolutely. For ease today, you can unmute yourself if I don't get to you quickly enough, but I think if everybody can raise your hand if you'd like to share or ask a question, that'll keep us organized. Does anybody wanna share or ask a question about this or have a thought about this exercise? I have a thought. This is Rose, can you guys hear me? Yes, I can hear you. Okay, so Rose from Seattle. I had a thought that my mind was always wrestling. I mean, this is something maybe particular to me. What do I choose, right? Oh, what do I choose? Where do I start? Once I pick an idea, I have to go down that pathway. What if I change? And so my mind starts struggling for a structure. And so the structure, I was remembering a lot of songs from that my mom used to sing to us and I've used them before in other plays, but I was thinking how present they are. So I started just jotting down. I thought I can't spend the whole time writing down lyrics to songs because that's not the exercise. And then I put lines and then I started writing in what seemed to jog my memory from that song just as a way of a fake structure even, just something to be a container. So between verses of different songs, I just started plopping in little bits of memory. So that's, I think my brain needs some kind of a structure, even just to play around. So that was something I noticed. Oh, great. Yeah, and it's interesting how what you needed, you gave yourself. Right. Like, oh, I need this. And then something responded. I love that. I love the way in which, again, it's like the body leads us to what we need. I can't wait to see it. I also, there is something about, it's so hard. I find this happens with me all the time. Like I resist the ability to just generate and generate and not worry about structure, right? Just to allow whatever's working inside me to be released. And then later on, I can take a look at that and see what I wanna pull from that or where a section may lead me to. But there's something, it just has to do with how practical our culture is, right? That actually take time for something that is impractical. Like, I know I feel it all the time. Like I can't do that. Like I have to, you know, I have to come up with something. And we don't, we don't. We can find circular ways. You know, it doesn't have to just be a direct line. We can find circular ways to our truth, you know, to whatever is really needing to speak with us or to us right now. Thank you, Rose. You're welcome. And I'm happy to share if no one else wants to share, but I don't wanna take up too much time. Why do you go for it? It looks like, it looks like people are still wrapping up a little bit. Okay. Let's see. So I started. Tengo una muñeca de vestido azul con zapatos blancos y velo de tul. La llevé a la plaza se me costipó. La llevé al médico me receto. Una pastillita de aceite castor y la tengo en cama con un gran dolor. My tío Fernando, my dad's older brother, he owned a record renting business with my Aulito Mariano and my dad, renting 78s and 33 LPs and a record player. They called a pickup. The business was called Music Hall. They were the first DJs of the Americas. My tío Fernando loved the parties, the music, the dancing. He came to the US, but was sent back. He was not well. He was taken away in a white straight jacket as we watched from the window. He went back to Peru. My dad said, from pure boredom one day, he slid his own throat. Una chica de mi barrio que Rosita se llamaba. Muy alegre siempre estaba. Caminaba muy formal. Con sus libros bajo el brazo. My mom talked about her grandma, Aulita Magdalena, who lived in Arequipa. She had my mom, Rosa, with an aristocratic gentleman and an Italiano named Toranso. She sent Rosa to live with him for a better education. Mom says, my Aulita Rosa always resented her mom for giving her away. Los ojos moros de mi morena. Y una tarde yo la vi caminando por la noche, lo coló, colaseguí. My mom said that when she first met my dad, he used to call her Señorita Bolivar because of her big sideburns. I have big sideburns too, which I always hated, even now when they want, even now when they want to turn gray and wild. They met going to the wine festival in Surco, La Bendimia, when Lima still had vineyards in the city. A la cata, cata, que parió la gata, cuatro morronguitos y una garrapata. Aulita told me that the seven big scars on her chest were from her husband that used to hit her hard. I'm glad he wasn't my grandpa. Ernestina, Tina, she came to our house when I was five. I knew she came to Seattle this day. I knew she was Armando's sister, but not the same mother. That was always the case. It seemed in my big extended family, there was a different mother or father, de parte de mamá or de parte de papa, but there was never half. We never said half. That's the end. Oh my God, Rose. That's so powerful. Monika shared something that is so true, that tension between the innocence of the songs and the life accounts. Oh, thank you, Monika. That's very true. Thank you very much. Very powerful. It's very interesting how often, because I work with, I realize I didn't introduce myself, but one of the things I've done is a solo show that has traveled around a lot for many years, and when I work with artists on solo performance, and especially that first song, that first question, grandparent, either a grandmother, more often than not a grandmother or grandfather, and then they become the pathway for the whole piece. Grandmother, grandfather. You know, again, it's like, it's just, it is mythic. Thank you, Rose. Thank you. Giselle, I see your hand is up. Do you want to share next? Yeah. I'm excited and also nervous to share because it means that I'm being transparent with my messiness. But here we go. Okay. Yeah. Sleep, little one, or the cuckoo will come for you. Mommy is at the farm and daddy is at work. What a crazy song to sing to a small child to get them to go to sleep. If you don't sleep, a creature will come for you. Your mom and dad are not home. You are alone. You have no protection. Get your ass to sleep. Scare your child to sleep because it's the most effective, the most efficient. Sleep is sacred. We shouldn't be scared into it. It's a place and time of rest and recuperation. Your body takes this time to process and rebuild and reinvigorate. Don't start this process from place of fear. In sleep, you can have a personal and private dialogue with yourself. In my own sleep, I see David often, which is a note from myself telling me it is safe to let go of him and the anger I feel towards him. He is a weed in my dreamscape that I can pull out. There are flowers burgeoning anyway. And one of them is named Lucas. Another named Writing. Another, my mother, my father, my best friend. All my family and friends in the Bay Area in LA and Brazil, in North Carolina and in New York. During my sleeping hours, I am shown this person I no longer need to hold in my present. He is of the past. I release the pain and anger. I keep the lessons and the love. In sleep, I get stories. I get content to write with. Here's something I received the other night. Africa, West Africa during the slave trade of 400 years. Not sure what century, but it's a long time ago. I know it's a while ago, but the characters feel contemporary. They're not vintage. Their struggles are our own struggles today, unfortunately. Her name is Sayada. Her name means goodness, shadow, beauty of nature. It also means car in Arabic, which feels important and deliciously anachronistic. Thank you, Giselle. Thank you so much. Thank you. God for you, beautiful. Both you and Rose, Herbert said something really important. I want to acknowledge how natural and beautiful Roscano's bilingualism is, yours too, Giselle. The way in which we use languages. I know it came up on Friday with Diana, with her super amigo playwriting event. And I was thinking about something that Juno Diaz wrote, which is like people in Lord of the Rings, they talk elven throughout and nobody has a problem with that. But somehow when we put Spanish or Portuguese or our indigenous languages, it's very threatening for some reason, right? But put it in, share it, let this open up. That's gorgeous. Who else? We have Alex Hernandez. Hi, everyone. So I did the first prompt of a person I've heard about my whole life, especially when I was younger. So that person was my paternal great-grandmother. Actually, I couldn't remember her name. I have to ask my dad, but I do know that she was kidnapped during the revolution, the Mexican Revolution. She had a family and she had kids, and that still didn't stop the revolutionaries from kidnapping her. So for two years, she was missing and her mother didn't know where she was. And somehow her mother was able to locate her and manage to sneak her out of the camp dressed as a man. I've never met her, but I've always been curious about what her life was like in the revolution. How that affected her as a person. Did she have other señoras that she felt guilty about leaving? Did she find anything about the revolution that she did like compared to her home life? What was her re-entry life? What was it like to come back into a normal life after two years of being a nomad? Is there anything that she left behind that she missed? Oh, that's so great. You have a piece there, Alex. Follow. You said great-grandmother? Yes. Follow that great-grandmother. She has things to share. I mean, she really does. She showed up and she wants to take you somewhere. Yeah. Thank you. Kingmas, who else? Francine Torres. Hey there. When I was about five or so, we were driving around Golden Gate Park in my dad's cherry red Buick Skylark. The interior was black leather. It was hot and it smelled like cow, but he loved that thing. My dad worked in a factory and was a classic Chicano macho provider, but he also had a sensitive side too. He took me and my sisters up to Hippie Hill and Golden Gate Park to watch protests or Hare Krishna's or listen to music. I think that he was thrust into responsibility too soon and indulging his secrets, screw the man attitude on his days off. On the radio, war's spill the wine song came on, a long monologue that was sort of spoken word with a seductive, heady riff on top. I listened hard to the lyrics. Usually I didn't, but I was amazed by the way he was singing. He was so compelling was the voice over his tinny 1970s radio. In it, this dude talks about falling asleep in the grass on a summer's day. A jazzy flute overlays as he describes being in a Hollywood movie and brought naked to a mountain top. An assortment of naked women are presented before him, short ones, tall ones, thin ones, brand one. You get the picture. The girl. Then again to spill the aforementioned wine and then take that pearl. In my child's brain, I didn't realize that the pearl refers to kind of lingus, but I knew that something about that song stirred in my body. Places that I never thought about. I thought about the lazy summer day, the grass, how this sort of mythological hippie woman whispering in my ear would have felt like how pleasant her warm breath and lips would feel on my ear. I thought about the naked man, the assortment of women. I knew vaguely that these were things that I didn't know about, but my body inherently did. I thought about my dad's Santana Abraxas album that he kept meticulously displayed in the front of his album file. And how this song made me feel like the large beautiful black woman reclining in that image. There was another naked angel woman who pointed up towards heaven, I thought. Heaven must be a place where wine and nakedness flowed. This was my baptism to sexuality. Man. You have such a specific voice and tone. You really took us there. I love all those details. I want more. All of these. There's something that Rose wrote that I just want to open up and hear anybody's thoughts about it. Let me see if I can find it. About history. Like we're so attracted to history. We're so attracted to history and historical events. Anybody. As, as, as writers as, as artists. Anybody want to reflect on that or share anything on that? I just, yeah, but I wrote the comment. Yeah, we're so attracted to. History and historical events. As writers. And I was responding to the great grandma or grandma being abducted in the Mexican revolution. And I was like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Sam Tam as age of gold, even that's history now. So yeah, I just wanted to, there's something about the nostalgia of history. That I think really. As Latinos, Latinx. Really moves us. Yeah. And also the stories that we don't hear, you know, I'm working on something now that. Came out of. The TV shows and stuff that. Took place in the 60s and there are no people of color in professional jobs. And that's, I grew up then. I, you know, people, there were people. I had friends, you know, my family, you know, they're, they're, there's a whole way in which our stories or these time periods and how important it is for us to share our history, what we remember, what we know, right. Thank you so much, Francine. Anyone else. Yeah, I am. I, I, my name is Sophia. Hi. I wanted to sort of piggyback off of what you said about how our stories, like our history is told without us because I also think that's something that's really powerful about looking at history and telling sometimes fictional or non fictional stories is that often history, the way that it's taught becomes sort of like this bigger thing that is not tied to any individuals. And so the people within the history and the lessons within the history, I feel like gets lost in the generalness and the desire for objectivity because nothing is objective. And whatever history we hear in school is just the winner's perspective, you know, and so I think that being able to tell our stories and trying to see history from a individual perspective from the stories of the people who are actually there as they've been passed down to us, there's so, so much power in that, that just the objectivity of history cannot, I think, provide the same way. So it's very powerful. Absolutely. Thank you, Sophia. Alexis. I worked off of the prompt. People were talked about in your home growing up. Did you hear about Gloria? Gloria. Yes, Gloria. Gloria. Her mother smokes on the porch every night. Her father nowhere to be found. Yes, that Gloria. What about Gloria? She's pregnant. Pregnant. No. Yes. From who? That boy she was always walking around the drug store with. Her mother should have known better than to let her out with that boy. He's no good. You can tell that on site. She lives with her grandma. Mother had no idea. I will goes to show. She would always wear those shirts that were too low. Shorts that were too short. Earrings that were too big makeup. That was too old. Eyeliner too dark for a 16 year old. What about your niece? Did I tell you about my niece? Your niece? Yes, my niece. No, is she okay? What about your niece? She just had her baby. Her baby. Yes, her baby. A healthy baby boy. Of course we were worried with her being so young, but she's working, wants to go back to school. And the baby's dad works two jobs to support them. They're living with me until they can afford a place of their own. Oh, how lovely. I love her. I love her. I love her. I love her. I love her. I really think they're going to be a real family. A real family. He's going to marry her. She picked a good one. My niece won't be an unwed mother. No, no, no. He loves her. He really does. They live with me. So I know. That's great to hear. She sounds happy. She is happy. And that's all that matters. Thank you. Beautiful. I love those characters already. I love them. I love the way they're. I know not everybody can read the. The chat, especially if they're on the phone. But. About history in particular to these are all really important. Sophia and. Diana, if you want to share. I just wanted, I just want to say from my perspective, thing you think is always what you were inculcated in in school and then you have to really make an effort to make the second thing you think the thing that the thing that is the what you want to change about yourself you know it's uh it's really has to be a conscious effort because we are taught a singular vision and a singular um history that has really almost nothing to do with the truth. Yeah absolutely um uh I love uh Walter Benjamin who was a incredible he has a great essay called the um thesis on the philosophy of history and he talks about history being written by the victors you know um I know I I did a piece um there in 2008 when um oh I'm totally blanking on this bill was that the TV he used to be on Fox news you know who I'm talking about I was like blocked him out of my mind but he was after the election he was like saying well it's the end of traditional America right and I remember like having this moment going what's traditional America you know and I'm in yes Bill O'Reilly thank you so much Shandra and Esther and Rose um and uh you know I'm in I'm in Los Angeles and we have this incredible history that we don't know about you know in terms of who were the founding families of the city of Los Angeles you know of the 44 men women and children who founded the city two were white Spaniards and everyone else were people of color and that's not a story that we hear right and not and I wanted to share it we did we did a play about that called the LA founding families so that that thing of um what are these histories that are inside of us that need to be told that we need to hear right is a something I'm encourage us all you know what's missing and and you know from our particular perspective that's right not just the general but really particular perspective even at the perspective of a great grandmother you know anyone else want to share um so I wrote about my I did the prompt the people that you always were talked about and I was kind of along the same lines of what we're kind of talking about about this history these stories that we've passed the elders the ones who came before us the stories are passed from generation to generation never a picture is shown rarely do we see a face we hear a story a song a laugh a cry when their name is said we cook a food and the smell wafts and reminds us of what has been passed a life blood of people passed from mouth to mouth food stories that is our people that is how we live on I never knew what anyone ever looked like I never knew the color of their eyes what clothes they used to wear what shoes they found to be comfortable the color of their skin I knew their name and I knew their stories it's funny how saying a name can change things telling a story brings new life to a person who may be long gone there's a belief in life after death and we do our part by saying their name those we've lost those we've hated those we loved those who always made the best basole those who no matter what showed up with crown royal those who mattered to us we say their name to remember we tell their stories so they're never forgotten the smell of food the virhanita in the corner the blanket that became hers because the eye was always cold or the shows that came on right around 2 p.m because abuela never missed her shows the crown royal bag that sits on the fridge filled with quarters or beans for lotaria because no family gathering was complete without at least one game I wondered what their hair smelled looked like what cigarettes they smoked what the touch of their skin was like how they made their cafe in the morning I always wondered if they would have liked me what songs we'd sing together what dancing would have happened what recipes I could have learned what the smell of their perfume was like what I could have known about their lives the countless theas and primas and primos from other places I might have known and their lives passed down in stories never in pictures we say their names to remember and we tell their stories to know who we are oh my god that's so moving there's so much longing in there so much longing that I really relate to really speaks to me and this thing about saying a name right placing this happened they exist right sharing their stories there's something very interesting you know the in order to be original we have to be connected to the origins right there's a reason origin is in that word original like I we have to like connect to our roots in order to even understand how we're here you know thank you Solana who else anyone else that was mnemosini at work it sounds like right for you Solana maybe yeah that I mean and there is something so terrifying about the idea that things won't be remembered particularly moments in history that tried to be you know like I said earlier concrete poured over it right thank you who else well we have a little bit of time left and if everyone is done sharing any anybody have any questions it can be even to each other Rose is asking what's under the concrete I think something like that that history I think very few people know let's say for example the history of the LA founding families and who actually founded the city and what this part of traditional America is right and of course the indigenous culture that was here long before then right that's what the con that's what's over the underneath the concrete to me any other questions thoughts Marissa Herbert here just as a just as a practical educator to educator I just want to get your take on why you ask those questions what was it just more of a portal for us to write or I just wanted to get your your take on on the on the three questions and why I guess um I to me like there's so much gold in um in getting away from the practical so that means playful and childhood to me you know um it's worked for me personally and I've seen how I've seen when I've worked with students who um and in particular who are working on so low performance pieces how they can get very stuck with well I'm supposed to do this or you know it's supposed to and then I feel like that's a trap so if we can kind of just let ourselves like activate our imaginations really also allow for something to come in that may be not part of the plan and that kind of assembly line thing like okay first you do this then you do that and then and and all those structures are important um but I think especially initially you want to just say what's what's here what's going to show up that maybe I haven't paid attention to right um so that's uh and in terms of solo performance there's um there are often these I mean of several people what a great opening the song was for for several people right um the thing about who was talked about that you're curious often a lot of the students I work with or artists I work with will have um somebody in their background in their family history that they never really asked about and then that becomes the portal for their entire piece you know um and the third one is more about um when in a way it's about connecting to that calling that initial creative calling um what are some of the things that showed up that made yourself so awakened that made you want to perform so that's that's where those three came from um just adding to that um Marissa and Herbert I was thinking that prompt of what stories did you hear most growing up that in itself is a retelling so I think storytelling is re-storytelling and that's where the history part comes in because that's the way it's handed down so what stories or who was most talked about growing up you know we hear these stories that could be from this country or another country but we're already retelling it so you're like you can invoke the character of that storyteller because that story was filtered through their point of view and they're telling a story about someone else there's something like a never-ending mirror back and forth back and forth that I think is the um attractive thing about that prompt it involves retelling and retelling so that maybe for some of us um accessing childhood isn't a necessarily happy thing and so it maybe brings up some interesting feelings that that you can just start writing about you know I think that that's what I really I love these prompts because I I thought some really interesting things came out of them for me because I would I sort of dug into some things that I that I'm reluctant to dig into so um and I think it's okay to be messy with that you know and it's okay to let that be and not share it but live with it a little bit and see what stories that generates for later you know I really like that I'm so glad you said that because I almost left the third one out because it makes me nervous right and in a way that is that's such a big part of our work is our work as human beings especially right now being uncomfortable right um but I also wanted to put there a place of refuge and make believe like we always have no matter how deep the pain or what that evokes that there are places of refuge for us you know um that there are our our nets our stories to help sustain us I honestly believe that's what we do and and why we're needed I'm trying to read I just have a question um I'm an actor that's only starting to write in quarantine I've like I've written poetry for a while but uh playwriting is new to me so I'm just curious to how being an actor has impacted your playwriting and vice versa uh I'm definitely an actor first and I um avoided writing for a long time because it made me nervous and then I I really had a story I mean I really had in particular a great grandmother that wouldn't let me sleep until I started writing my first piece um and uh you know actors naturally understand story and structure and dialogue I mean you you have everything you need to make this piece you have everything you need there's nothing there's no like magic system or you know um somebody I know uh Kalyan um who's incredible um actor and she created a solo performance and you know when I when she was asked recently how how did you how did you do that how did it start she goes well I lit a candle I asked my ancestors for help and then there's the beginning I mean can be very simple but it's amazing how as soon as you open the door and you've probably already felt that he said like that things just start appearing like you're you're gonna you're gonna have like aids help you tell the story and you have everything you need to tell it thank you yeah Diana says how many Latinx writers are actors first I mean oh yeah how many of us a bunch I have a question yes um okay hi hey um yeah just following up on Isis's question I'm so grateful she asked that because I was thinking that but then I was like oh my god I'm the only actor here obviously that's not true um what like I don't know like I have this story that's been tumbling in my head and in my body to the point where like I got a tattoo of something and I'm like I know I know this is like a solo show like I know it is and I guess like what is your advice for someone who like poetry comes out of me when like my body is literally begging me to write and I'm such a physical actor so I'm wondering like what's your advice for like I don't know someone who feels like they literally struggle with like words or like that's not like their first thing but you're saying that you have poetry that you do that poetry comes out of your your movement right yes it's very random though trust the random keep keep writing and keep moving don't stop moving and there are many solo performers I think I might have put my email at the very top of the chat um I can put it again but I can also direct you to there are many solo performers who focus on the physical and they are incredible uh creators of solo performance right it your your solo performance doesn't show doesn't have to follow any anybody else's model yeah very physical with poetry right and the important thing is to just keep keep yourself open to where your body your body is clearly leading you wants to take you keep generating the work writing the poems listen to your body you can trust your body thank you very welcome Alex I see you have your hand hang in um I wanted to kind of revisit writing about um relatives or like ancestors and one of the things so I also write poetry but one of the things that I'm always hesitant about writing especially like with living family is um writing about family you know it's really hard and especially I think specifically with this with this you know this relative like we have the facts and here is the timeline um and I guess I worry about embellishing like my questions are about like feeling and like what were you feeling like what did you miss did you enjoy it I mean I'm sure there are aspects of it that are traumatic so like what is a way to I guess respectfully do that yeah thank you so much for that question that is very important and I know exactly I I had very similar feelings when I started working on my solo show like especially when it came to interviewing my father about a some very very painful stuff and what you will find is that more often than not people want to share their story and particularly if it's painful and that it is very healing for them um so the you may be at first a little nervous about approaching but if you approach with an open heart right and really say I really want to I want to write about this and um I think you may be surprised how willing people are to share their stories that's happened to me over and over again as a writer whether it's a my solo play or other plays that I've written where I've had to interview people and their stories were in the play um that they want to share their stories in in this form maybe more than sharing it with a therapist or anything like that there's something about what we have to offer right in terms of a kind of alchemy that is that people respond to and you know um a lot of people you know you can also email me because there are a lot of people that have written different um ways of addressing those interviews um and I have a solo performance chapter in a book I've I've just written called Mythic Imagination and the Actor and I have a couple of like guided guidelines and I can just send that to you if you like but um I just want to assure you I understand that that it's scary but there's actually you may be welcomed right it may be welcomed and and more important needed yeah thank you you if I could add on that Alex that's such a great question and I'm always worried about writing about family because I love them and they're so beautiful and I I want to share those stories because I think that they're what make me who I am and also as an artist I asked one of my teachers and they've always taught me that there's a truth and there's what you can embellish in favor of good drama and a good story and one of the things that I think make characters so interesting are their flaws and what makes us root for them the most are their flaws but I don't want to write my family's flaws so it's like having stories that are and characters that are inspired by real people and that's what makes them honest and rooted and then also finding places to embellish for the purpose of a story a theme a message that I'm trying to to get across so I think that that ultimately depends on on how you feel as an artist and your intention with story because I know my grandma my grandma's very very private there are things that she doesn't like shared and then there's my mom who wants me to write a character like her in all of my works so it just depends on how how you develop and think is important and necessary to your story as a writer that's fantastic there's also for things that are very difficult there's a metaphor you know you can you can find ways of telling the painful story and moving away from the factual into a metaphorical kind of tale I mean one of my favorite films is get out and it's totally a metaphor right so um I put my email if anybody has any questions they want to send me because we're we're at time and I I so appreciate your wisdom and your beautiful words and your energy and feel very fortunate to be part of this Komuni that thank you all and anybody wants to be in touch with me uh again mgbasek call arts oh dot edu I forgot to put thank you Marissa great thank you thank you so much bye everyone we wonder who hi everyone we'll see you on Friday sometimes in place and I'll be sure to save the chat who was it right in case anybody needs it oh who is it I should know this off the top of my head but I will get it all of the uh live streams are saved and recorded and announced on howl around and on Friday we will have some second page of our coming stuff uh Brian Kehada all right I'm gonna go ahead and save the chat and we'll see you all next week