 They only give us two bars, just in case they get long with me. But look, they rent those people left. No! I can't lose. Hi, it's everybody just behind me. This is going to prove interesting to me, right? I see a lot of the back of my head. Hi, this is Watch My Work. If you didn't know what it is, it's Watch My Work. This is a free writing class, a meta theatrical free writing class. And I didn't know what that word meant until one of my students at NYU told me. And it's also a play, and we're going to do the play by first doing the action of the play, which is that we will work for 45 minutes. And those of you online watching us can join us and work for 45 minutes. You can work on anything you want. It doesn't have to be writing, right? It doesn't have to be writing. It could be, I don't know, if you're one of those cool people outside painting the lines on the street. That might be what you're doing right now. So 45 minutes, and then we will create the dialogue by talking about our work. And it will be you asking me questions about your creative process and your work. So Watch My Work is actually about you. And you, and you, and you, and you, and all of you, and you guys, okay? So if you are in the interwebs and have a question that you want to tweet us, Dale is going to, did I say your name right? Is that a space? I was like, I was like, who are you? Dale's going to tell us the address or whatever. It's Watch My Work SLP, and you can hashtag it, new play. It's so much better than me trying to remember it. Watch My Work SLP, hashtag new play. So then, and if you tweet us your questions, we will get them here and we'll answer them. Also if you are watching this in the future, assuming that the future will happen, tweet us your questions and we will answer them in the future. So we're going to keep time, this is only for show because it broke, but we're going to keep time on our phones. We're going to wait for 45 minutes and then we're going to talk. Oh, now I see who's doing it. The Apple woman. Hey. Oh, a plug, a family plug. My son turns two on Monday. He's going to have a really big cake. Oh, I'm all excited. Thank you. Okay. Never saw it showing. Just to run back to any questions you have about your work, your creative process, any love, activity, the dialogue, I used to plug. I didn't plug them, so I can't remember. It's time for, here's a book that I really like. It's called The War of Art. You all have heard probably of the art of war. You're the famous, famous, famous, famous ancient class of the art of war. This book is called The War of Art, and it's by, I'll call him a gentleman, named Stephen Presfell. And it's, I bought it years ago, and I write the dates usually in my books. In 2005, I bought it, and I read it then, and then I was unpacking some boxes and a storage space for Labor Day, and I found it. I was like, oh, I really like that book. I didn't even put it up. It's really, really great. It's all about resistance. Where are your bagpipes? You can walk through. Look, Jay's the prop master, and he's going to walk through. You can walk through. Sorry, I... See, he's working. He's the prop master. He's working. I'm fine. He also plays the bagpipes. I do. You really does. You really do. You put me into the bagpipe. You almost hit JB with that poop. What's your bag? You could, if you ever want to parade through Thursdays at 5, with your bagpipes. Yeah, my after. If you, you know, this is a cool, it is a beautiful bag. You? You're a beautiful bag. We'll see you later. Have a good one, guys. He's working. He's working. He's like, I know, but he's cool because he can make, like, anything. And he plays the bagpipes just, like, on the side. Or not, maybe not, it's not on the side. Which is a great thing just to plug also. So if you have an amazing, superior talent, it doesn't mean that you're not allowed to have another one. Because JB is the prop master and he plays the bagpipes. So we should all be so inspired. Anyway, get back to this great book, great book, great book. And it's in short little bits, you know, so it's not long, you know, there's a lot of white space on the page. So you can, like, read a little bit of it. Resistance and procrastination. There's a little chapter on that. Oh, here, I start this. The best and only thing one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration. Steven Pressfeld, he wrote among other, P-R-E-S-S-F-I-E-L-D, made Pressfield in the study. He wrote among other things the novel, the legend of bagpipes and might have also been a screenplay. Probably did, probably did. So for, like, a Hollywood dude, he's like, this... I had a lot of resistance to this on my calendar. So I don't know where it fell like three weeks ago. And I'm like, oh, that was really interesting. I had to be in the 69 anyway and I had it on my calendar and then at four o'clock I was like, yeah, yeah, they're breaking weird. What is it going to be? What are they going to be doing? So even just, I think it's going to a performance or any play. Like, I'll see a play in a magazine or a performance that's really cool and then you just take it easy to get to some point. Which isn't even making art. It's actually appreciating how other people are. I even have resistance to that. If you are really, somebody you don't really want to see and then, or you pick up a New Yorker and you see something you didn't see, then you want to see that you just couldn't make the effort to go see. So it goes, you know, it even applies to reading a book or, you know, more to going out and going out to a live show. Right. We're going in. Right. What's your name? Elizabeth. Elizabeth. Elizabeth is talking about the resistance to going out to see a show coming here to maybe folks on the web who turn on your computer and watching or even tweeting a question or asking a question. The resistance to going out to see something you really wanted to see or the resistance to going in to see something you really want to see. And in both cases, I think you're going towards something that you love deeply. Right. Right. Of what do you think? I just didn't know what this was going to be at all. So it's just a period. That would just appear to be unknown. Like I just didn't know what, I saw the picture on, I just, it's kind of a unique idea. And I think the other part is just making the space work. Like going out to see something here at the theater that I really want to see. You could look at the, I could look at the schedule and see that play and that play and that play. Right. And then I just go on and do something else and I buy the tickets and I just don't breathe the space like for it in my life. Right. Have you ever experienced fear or resistance towards something like you know what it's going to, it's a known quantity, it's a known entity? Like those of you who have been here before in some weeks you just don't want to come or not because it's kind of personal. But for example, I'll give you an example. I do this music jam where I go out and meet new musicians and we play music and I love it. And it's fun and I love them and they all like me and we all get along and play old-time music. And every time before I go I experience dread, fear and terror. Now I know the people. I know where it is. I know how to get there. I've seen others coming towards something you love. Maybe we don't need to ask like what, we don't need to spend time going, what is it? Because if you encounter like the dragon, the great dragon in your life, you don't need to talk to him or her. So tell me, where'd you come from? You don't interview the dragon. You just know that it's there. Know that you have to know how to battle with it or make friends with it. So just know that it's there and that's what's breathing on you these times. It's very interesting. So when you want to go in, when you want to write or work or do whatever is your work, your love, you know, you experience this. It's as if sometimes a hand is pushing you or my experience. A hand is pushing me back, slot, space, place. Stay where it's safe. Yet you hear the call of your joy, your love, your soul. And I say follow the call. Just take a step. Just a tiny step. You know, when I play music with my friends, I just have to put my guitar in the gig bag and just walk out the door. When the babysitter comes and blah blah blah, I still have to like it. And they want to say, okay, okay, okay. I go to the subway. It's cool, you know. I just have to keep moving and not worry and not worry and just go, no, it's not pretty. There's something about theater in this book, but I'd rather listen to you than read it. Oh, okay. You still have a question? So easy. He's talking about during his times when he was failing and when he was falling down. Does anybody think it's enough time to understand, to learn from it? Right? Is it enough time or is it enough time to act if you have to do it? There's always a source of great, great stuff. Whether he's failing, is it my call or succeeding? Take time. Walk through this a lot. I'm going to skip this. It's like a million words here. Okay. Resistance feeds on fear. We experience resistance as fear, but fear of what? Resistance, that pushing thing you feel, or I fact know, feeds on fear and we experience resistance as fear of fear of what? And then you think of a million things. Fear of consequences of falling in your heart, fear of bankruptcies, fear of poverty, fear of insolvency, fear of groveling and trying to make it on your own. Fear of having to crawl back to where you came from, having failed, fear of being selfish, fear of being a rotten wife or a disloyal husband, fear of failing to support our families, fear of betraying our race, our hood, our homies, fear of failing, or fear of being ridiculous, fear of throwing away our education and on and on and on, fear of insanity, fear of death, those are serious, but what's the worst fear or the biggest fear he says is the fear that we will succeed? We all say, well, I'm not afraid of success. I'm not afraid of success. But then he goes on to say that success is the most terrifying prospect because it will eject you from the tribal inclusion that your psyche has wired you for for the last 50 million years. You will become estranged from all you know. Then he goes on to say that you will, of course, be in the company of other like estranged people, but he is absolutely right. Success will thrust you out of the tribe and you will no longer have, you won't be in the same boat as everybody else and that is terrifying because we are hardwired to stand the boat because we're trying, we're able to try, you know? And he's absolutely right. And so he says at the bottom of all your fears is the fear that you will be able to. And that's what happens when you accomplish something that, you know, maybe your friends just talk about, you finish that plane, you write that novel, you get published, you get a show, you get a part in a plane, you get into graduate school or you graduate from graduate school or you get that job your other friends are just like, you know? Stephanie, yeah, when you make, Stephanie says when she makes the decision to make the change so many people have crab now gone away. They don't get it. We're like crabs in a bucket. You've heard about that, crabs in a bucket. You see crabs in a bucket, one crab tries to crawl out of the bucket and the other crabs pull down. They want you back in the bucket and maybe thinking of it as a tribal thing is not a bad thing. It's just the way we are wired to prove. This Carol is also a painter so she published a book and she's also painting with friends and her friends and you paint two and Jay, the prop master plays the bagpipes too. You're only allowed one thing, right, we'll allow you one thing but don't do anything else. We'll let you be a writer, a painter, a performer, a artist. But don't tell us that you're we'll let you play the piano but don't tell us you're learning the violin. The tribe is asking you to come back, come back. We're sick. We know you. It's weird, it's like all of a sudden it's really spooky. It's not even spooky but it's essential and we do it to each other and we're all members of the tribe and we don't want to be out there alone but it's a real feeling and you will be alone and there are specific questions about the writer. Yes, what are you working on? Oh, actually the question is what are you working on? Because it's about your work. See all the questions are like I was going to notes, okay? I was, while we were sitting here I was reading this book. So that's what I was doing and I wanted to finish the book and I thought, darn, did I sit there and read? You know, I'm supposed to be working but it was my work, part of my work today that I chose to do. Is that what you're writing and inspiring? Yeah, what are we doing? Well, did I see her show? I did. Maria Abramovic and my partner, the artist is present. There were a couple things her show more recently till this time, till I was sleeping and then there were a couple of other things which I've been doing and fascinated by for years. One is a strong yoga practice which is silent and communal at the same time and regular and the other thing is the intergame of tennis and that probably is the scene of this show which is basically Do you know the intergame? Well, the whole idea is we learn by watching, right? We learn by watching and I thought to myself how do writers learn what being a writer looks like? Oh, I know. I'll sit there and just write and the people can watch and go oh, that's what it looks like. I'm just going to do that too. I'm just going to type or I'm just going to read or I'm just going to do this and that's actually kind of all it is. It's funny because I actually, I was thinking my son was just like a yoga class I was like, it's like, you're just going to go there and you're just going to do that and I never remember for any other yoga class. Well, it's really not that different. It's a process. I didn't think the strong is specifically good because I'm a concrete life. No, you have a nice show on your t-shirt. Yes. I'm going to manage the removal of obstacles. I have them on my t-shirt. I mean, I just wanted to separate it and just justify it myself. If I went to a yoga class, I'm going to have to justify this and what's the deal though? I think it's supposed to be where I used to be. I don't know why you need it. I need an excuse or some kind of rationalization to come do this whereas going to yoga is exercising there's no, I don't need an excuse. I understand. You might be mindful. She's working. It's just rather hard. It's just cool. Just let it all in and it all works out. But yeah, you just continue to be mindful about that. Where we have to stop ourselves. Where we stop ourselves. Where the resistance comes. Because a lot of people feel resistance going to yoga class. A lot of folks, you know, buy that gym membership and they never go. That kind of thing. So Jamie's back and he's written, he's pretty much finished, got to a certain level of finish with his class. And now you're wondering if you've had some friends read it and you've got some feedback. So now you're wondering if you want it to be sort of the mounting bodies of other actors and how best to get that ball rolling. Should you send it out to people? Should you do that kind of thing? Should you do it yourself? I think choose two of those things maybe. Submitted to places. I know the public does new work now and also the emerging writers group they do. Which does have workshop components in it. Both of them are amazing and great programs. I think probably every theater in town of this size has a program like that. So you could kind of maybe go online and find out that kind of information. I know what happens in the public, but maybe signature might have something. Playwrights Risen's an ensemble in New York Theater Workshop has their gang and folk. If Lee has people doing stuff Soho Rep probably has a group of fabulous people. So you name it, they're out there. And I would say gather together your posse and have a reading. Have you done that? Have you done that? You've done that? You've done that? Okay. Okay. Right. So if you've already had your posse gather around and read it, you've already done that. So I would say start sending it out to places. So then you do two things at once in another direction. You send it out to places like the public theater, Soho Rep or whatever. And hopefully you know these places and what kinds of work they do. And if you play fields like it might find a home at one of those places or several of those places, submit it to several places. And start the next thing. Start writing your next thing whether it's a play, a novel, a song or whatever. Start writing now. So you're not just sitting there writing by the phone or by the olden days, you know the mailbox. If you're not doing that you know, you know that's not your life. You're out writing. You're not waiting for the phone to ring. You're not waiting for the phone to ring. Now he's doing a show and he's had shows done before and this time he really wants to work as a writer sort of work on his colliders as well as successful production of the show. So where are the boundaries? I would say, you know, if it feels weird you're probably crossing the boundary to feel good. Right? And that's, you know, if it feels like whoa, I don't like what he said you cross the line. Okay? And then you work on that with your collaborator by having some kind of helpful conversation. Okay, is that is that it? Yeah. Well the reason why I answered it in that way is because you've had successful experiences where you've done most of the work which tells me that you're comfortable being in control and maybe when you let go of some control you're going to be inviting people in and you might wonder uh oh, there's people in my shit and you know what I'm saying, so that's something for you to know and it feels weird they've crossed the line and when you feel like, you know like do you do yoga or do you run colliders? Okay, so do you know when you're efforting in collades? Efforting, the difference between like I'm not going to do that but the difference between like you know, you're stretching you're stretching, okay? That's efforting. Right? When you do that to somebody you really want to make sure that they get your point you crossed the line. Okay, so you have to find a way to feel them, you know, that phrase you feel me, we say that all the time you know, go gently stand up for yourself you know you don't have to be a door mat okay, but you also don't have to pound your point of home with anybody and know what's great about a show is you get to do it again so if it doesn't work out brilliantly this time you can do it again, you know I mean go to the mat with it, give it your all leave nothing on the, you know put everything on the field, you know look out perfectly you can do it again, and as George will say walk through your supposed failures, but it's going to be a success we're not worried, anybody else? we're just stretching, oh we're going we're done, D.B. says we're done we're done