Being prepared

AMAHL Principals,

To follow up on our little chat yesterday, here are some thoughts:

-If you can't speak the text in or out of rhythm, without tripping, you don't really know it.

-If you can't sing it perfectly (notes and rhythms absolutely correct) while looking at it, you really don't know it.

-If you only get it right sporadically, you don't know it. It MUST be automatic before you can make music, make art, make drama.

After the play and the choir concert, refocus your efforts if necessary. Take this weekend, if you need, to tend to these things. Drill it daily if you must.

I finished yesterday's talk with the thought, "Keep the drama on the stage." Steven Pressfield says it quite well in his book, The War of Art:

The working artist will not tolerate trouble in her life because she knows trouble prevents her from doing her work. The working artist banishes from her world all sources of trouble. She harnesses the urge for trouble and transforms it in her work.

Once you get the grunt work done, then we can truly bask in the joy of making art. But not before.