Jenntertainment’s Weblog

So today’s sermon at church was about Acts 10, which is when an angel of the Lord appears to Cornelius (a new character), tells him that he has attracted God’s attention and instructs him to go to Joppa to visit a man named Simon Peter. They get together and through Simon Peter’s ministry thousands upon thousands of lives are affected, leading to a relationship between Jews and Gentiles and developing new pools of Christ-followers throughout the Mediterranean, ultimately sowing the seeds of the beginning of Roman Catholicism. In other words, this was no small event. But it would not have occurred without two strangers from opposite worlds coming together to share and accept foreign ideals and new ways of thinking.

One of the main points was that God will often place new people in your life that are chosen specifically to progress your life or the lives of others. I’d never thought about it like this before, but I suppose your life can never change or grow without new ways of thinking, which are most often introduced by people that are new in our lives.

So why am I sharing the talking points of this sermon? Because I think it greatly applies to my previous post, as well as some current roadblocks in my/our path. New people are a blessing, whether in the form of new friends, new bosses, new employees or new clients. Every time that a new person is placed in your path, you are in a position to affect their lives, or  vice versa. What a powerful thing!

Though Bonnie is moving away, I know that she will always be there for me, and I for her. However, since January, I have met two amazing women my age from completely different backgrounds and viewpoints who are quickly becoming great friends. Alternatively, SCT is in need of new staff and they are being given to us. We are finally hiring outside the comfort zone of people that we already know, which I think is fantastic. More importantly, all of us have the powerful ability to share new ideas and new ways of thinking with the each other.

I have heard more than one influential person in our community refer to this building project as ‘Kelie’s pipedream.’ At first I was angry and I wanted to ask them how they had the audacity to say such a thing while standing in the theatre that she and I and several others helped to create – a space that was considered a ‘pipedream’ by some of these same people only four years ago. Now, hearing those words fuels me with enough adrenaline to make sure that this dream does become a reality; a tangible, beautiful, successful reality that no child or family in this region can ignore!

Let me clarify one point. We should not approach that kind of small-minded thinking negatively just because someone doesn’t  understand our viewpoint. Our goal should never be to prove them wrong. Our goal should be to expose them to a greater vision and a greater hope for this area. There is a mindset that Savannah cannot sustain a large venue that thrives on local support instead of tourism, but the numbers and community response to our programs shout differently. There is more than a possibility for new growth – there is an absolute need for it.

So the next time someone presents to you an idea or a ’pipedream’ that you find absurd, do your best to keep that information to yourself. Instead of dismissing them, join them in conversation. Ask questions and listen to what they have to say. They just might open you up to a brighter new way of thinking.

P.S. I realize that my recent posts have been reading rather like an after-school special, but that’s because I’m feeling very passionately about this right now. My schedule is not currently as busy as it usually is, which leaves me more time to think and plot about how the joy, poignancy and diversity of theatre can change the world. Oh yeah, its that big. Rest assured that when my full schedule resumes, I will return with more stories about children wearing dalmation costumes, adults in green tights flying around overhead and, most relevantly, my adventures with online Turbo Tax. I shall not wax poetic forever.

Did everyone remember to turn out their lights for Earth Hour? Google did!

That’s a quote I wrote down from this year’s SETC President Elect, which I find to be quite applicable to our theatre situation. On the good side, all of our classes (except for dance) are at capacity and all of our shows are currently selling out. On the bad side, this means that we cannot market or reach out to new people because we have no place to put them. This, in turn, puts us in limbo. The solution?

Go on a diet or buy a new dress.

Essentially, we either need to cut back our scope of services a little (which to me means stagnating…boo!) or we need put out some real money upfront for marketing, hiring additional staff and creating new programs that allow for at least two years’ worth of new growth. In other words, a new dress is in order. A big, plus-sized mumu kind of dress.

We are gaining two new staff members in June to ’replace’ Bonnie & Brian, so that will help a little. We all knew that the workload this year would be difficult, but this is just irrational. We’ve all gotten pretty snarky towards each other lately, all for simple lack of rest. And now that the entire staff is women, we all menstruate at the same time – which, I might add, is completely uneccessary – and you basically have a looney bin of people who sit in the office eating chocolate and singing The Tree Song from Go, Dog, Go out loud without even realizing it.

To top it all off, my best friend is moving and leaving me with all of these crazy people. Fine, I say. Go on. Move away from a city where everyone loves you, drinks wine with you, buys shoes with you and plays Battleship with you (okay, not everyone, but you get my gist) and move to a place where nobody knows your name and you aren’t always glad you came. Pack up your fiancee and cats and leave me surrounded by rooms full of children with no hope of rescue. No one else can find me in a crowd. No one else is taller than 5′4″.

Okay, I do admit to some joy that she escapes to the presumed happiness and poverty of NYC, but that is mostly because I will get to visit the city and not have to pay for a hotel room. Also, I will no doubt be treated to free springrolls from their upstairs neighbors, who we think run a Chinese restaurant. But I am happy that she will get to spread her metaphorical creative wings, soaring into uncharted artistic territory, directing new works and being a brave artiste. For that, I and the children applaud you.

So while Bonnie goes on a significant diet, downsizing from her three-room apartment to just one room with free springrolls, SCT is working on a new dress. We just received the first draft of plans for a performing arts center that we hope to complete within about five years. The capitol campaign is supposed to launch at the opening of Peter Pan and before you ask, yes, it makes me so excited that I feel like peeing my pants. So now we’re all very ‘but how can we possibly…’ and ‘do we honestly think we can…’ or sometimes ‘Elvis on a piece of toast, can this really be happening?’

Of course, the answer is not about whether we can or cannot.  The answer is that ‘we must.’

Vann has this thing about saying what you want. He calls it ‘putting it out there.’ Example: If I have a fleeting thought that I would like to have Indian food for dinner and I let it pass, life may resume as normal. If I say to someone ’I want Indian food for dinner’ then I have ‘put it out there.’ The situation can no longer be ignored; it must be addressed.

We put it out there. We need a bigger space. But that isn’t the whole story, is it? The children deserve a better space. They deserve everything that we can possibly give them! They need proper space, proper tools and proper exposure to all that theatre can be. They deserve a place to discover their creativity and to learn the importance of arts programs when they grow to adulthood. The responsibility of the future to support the arts is not one that we take lightly, and if we get this new dress, the kids won’t shrug off that responsibility either.

If people continue to remove arts and performance programs from schools, then soon there won’t be any arts left for youth to appreciate, other than movies or video games. ‘No Child Left Behind’ shouldn’t refer to a new grading standard for students and teachers, but rather to the principle of making sure that every kid has a welcoming place to go after school and that every child is allowed to freely express themselves in a safe and fun environment. But if we can rally support, raise funds, heighten community awareness and create the wonderful performing arts center of our minds, then we can ensure out-of-the-box conflict/resolution, constructive thinking and artistic progression for our future! Just think of the impact.

I get really passionate and worked up about these things. My hope is that some of you do too.

Fortunately, for as many negatives as there are to our current workplace situation, if you squint a little there are just as many positives. I am blessed to work in an atmosphere where passion, humor and starting sentences with ‘guys, I had this dream last night and I think it would make a good play’ is not frowned upon, but encouraged! I also have great friends instead of coworkers and together we get to take these wonderful ideas - only words and notes on paper - then turn them into something beautiful to see and hear. That’s a pretty amazing gift.

Bonnie, we hope that you have a fantastic journey. Vann and I love you so very, very much. And if you don’t come back for the groundbreaking ceremony (whenever that is) we will never make you spaghetti again.

Bad Thing 1) Apparently, while I was out of town, we lost power at the house at precisely 9pm on Wednesday, exactly when my DVR was supposed to be recording the season finale of Project Runway!

Good Thing 1) They re-ran the show this past Wednesday and it recorded automatically! I finally got to see the last episode, and yes, it was everything that I hoped it would be. My guy won!

Bad Thing 2) I had to send off one piece of mail yesterday – just one – but since we rarely send mail, our stamps were the outdated 38-cent ones instead of the current 41-cents. So I went to the post office and, most inconveniently, they have removed the single stamp vending machines. Now the only way that you can purchase one stamp is to stand in line…which is currently snaking through the lobby, almost to the entrance.

Good Thing 2) While I was waiting in this never-ending line for my one 41-cent stamp, an enormous man in a postal worker uniform came over and asked me to step out of line. More than a little irked and confused, I walked out of my place and followed him into the hallway where he presented me with one 41-cent stamp. “I just didn’t want you to have to wait all that time for one little stamp,” he said. “Take this one.” I must have asked him if he was serious about five or six times before he stuck the stamp on my envelope himself, saying “now put it in the box and have a nice day!” So now I have to pay it forward.

Bad Thing 3) I had no water left at the end of my dance classes this morning and all of the ones at the theatre were too cold. (As a rule, dancers or other athletes shouldn’t drink really cold beverages after their activity. The temperature of the drink gives you a false sense of being more hydrated, when all you really are is less hot.)

Good Thing 3) So I’m pulling out of the parking lot, wondering if I should duck into CVS or something to get a bottle for the drive home, when I see a sign at the corner of Victory & Skidaway that says FREE WATER, NO JOKE. No joke, someone in a Vineyard Church t-shirt walked up to my car window and offered me a free bottle of water and a ‘God bless.’ Awesome!

 So that’s three sour turned sweet things that have happened to me in the past three days. With the crazy stress that I’ve had with work and finances this past week, I’m doing my best to focus on the positive. Isn’t it amazing how we allow tiny inconveniences – like running out of toilet paper or pulling into the gas station as the attendant is changing the price from $3.19 to $3.25  - to completely ruin our day? Why not spend more time enjoying the small stuff  – like how my azaleas bloomed when I thought they wouldn’t or coming home to find all of the laundry already finished and folded. Work is hard. Life is hard. But why make it harder by being in a bad mood? 

No, this is not a novel idea. No, I am not the first person to say these things. I just needed a little affirmation for myself to ‘keep on the sunny side’ and thought that I maybe I could encourage some others to do the same. Have a great day!

Ah, S.E.T.C. Ah, life. Ah, art.

I say this every year, but this time I really mean it; this year was the best. Firstly, it snowed, which gives the 2008 convention at least 500 cool points. There were so many people from south Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Louisiana, etc, who  ‘don’t believe in snow’ that seeing little flurries in the morning made everyone really excitable! The convention center is nothing but floor-to-ceiling windows in both the north and south lobbies, so the whole place was covered with southerners who had their noses pressed to the glass in expressions of awe, abject horror, or both. I actually got to go outside in it for a little while, but that was quite by accident and is another story in and of itself, involving myself and three other ladies trying to use the stairs instead of the elevators, getting locked in the stairwell on the 3rd floor and accidentally setting off the fire alarm when we opened the Emergency Exit Only door.

Other reasons why Chattanooga’s SETC wins cool points include the free downtown shuttle that gave us access to many yummy restaurants and various life-sized sculptures made out of brick (i.e., brick rowboat and brick sofa), Grab’n'Go breakfast and lunch stations throughout the center, this year’s theme of Celebrating Diversity in the Arts, amazing keynote speakers and presenters and an aerial silk class.

Oh yeah, that’s right. I got to take an aerial silk class. I totally learned how to do this:

 I took a ton of dance workshops, as could be expected, and while I can’t say that I really learned anything new, I do feel quite validated. Probably 9 out of every 10 exercises they did are currently in my curriculum and nearly everything that I tell my students to do or not to do, the presenters also said. Again, I can’t say that I’ve grown more as a dancer or choreographer, but I received encouragement that I am teaching my students a strong, correct technique and I had a ton of fun. It was a real treat to dance someone else’s choreography other than my own for a change.

I have a lot to write about the non-physical workshops that I attended, but that will be another evening. Every year I come back rejuvenated and full of new things that I’d like to try. I am indebted to SCT for giving me so many unsuspecting guinea pigs (piglets?) on which to experiment! 

And as for the title of this entry: Upon my return, I had 87 emails, 41 facebook requests and 15 voice messages. None of them were important.

Today we leave for SETC, so most phone calls and emails and knocks on my front door will go unanswered…at least by me. Ciao!