Things are full and beautiful this fall. There are new projects taking shape, old ones finding new life, and some wonderful collaborators raising the bar on what feels possible.
Here's what's happening in the studio.
ACT I: Ten Years Later
Ten years ago, I interviewed women about politics, leadership and ambition. Those conversations became She Will Lead, and eventually Good Lazy Woman.
Next Thursday, October 29, we're returning to New Hampshire Theatre Project for She Will Lead: Ten Years Later, a reading of new work and a community conversation.
And I need your voices!
I'm conducting a new round of interviews about women, ambition, leadership and the expectations we place on ourselves and one another. What's changed in ten years? What hasn't?
Would you be willing to have a conversation with me? You don't need to have answers, just thoughts, experiences and questions. And if sitting down for an interview isn't possible, I'm happy to send the questions by email so you can respond in writing.
Then, come and see what happens when we put some of these voices in a room together.
This is an experiment. A reading of material still being made, in conversation with the audience and with words spoken by women who sought the presidency long before 2016.
I'm excited to find out what emerges.
Thursday, October 29 | 7 PM | New Hampshire Theatre Project, Portsmouth
Thanks to seed funding made available to me through the NAS Creative Community Fellows program, and a Creative Process Incubator co-created with Hernan Joubá and Bess Welden, I’m beginning to build this new work through provocative conversations with artists and subject matter experts.
And to inspire myself and ground this project in the principle of putting your money where your mouth is, I've purchased a piece of art from Mike Gauthier. It's now hanging on the studio wall!
Artwork by Mike Gauthier
I'm particularly interested in talking with women about generational wealth, freedom, what we pass on, and how our relationships with money, value and ownership shape our lives.
The hope is to build toward residency time in the new year, Creating space for writing and deeper engagement with the research
There's something deeply satisfying about building a project with seed funding. Enough support to get started, to bring people into the process, and to see where the questions take us.
And because every good creative process needs a soundtrack, here’s the playlist accompanying Face Value, featuring the voices of women in bluegrass and Americana. It’s growing alongside the project, so if you have a song to add, send it my way!
I recently saw Arcadia at Portland Stage, a play I had the pleasure of directing in 2017, and was reminded of just how extraordinary Tom Stoppard is
I've been thinking about how many contemporary plays take a single issue and give each character a different point of view on it. There's a place for that, certainly. But what I love about Stoppard is the contrapuntal nature of his writing. Multiple ideas, stories, times and tensions moving alongside and through one another, creating something greater than any single argument.
Wayne Asbury and Carey Cahoon in my 2017 production of Arcadia.
With my current morning obsession, a new play bringing seven women together in a house museum to contend with audacious and ugly truths about ownership, voice, integrity, complicity, and restorative justice, I'm challenging myself to reach for that same complexity.
I'm raising the bar for myself.
Which feels rather appropriate when I'm spending so much of my time interviewing women about ambition.
I've been wondering whether ambition is less about achieving more and more about what we're willing to put into words about ourselves and how we want to speak that into the world.
What does ambition look like in your life right now? Is there something you're ready to ask more of, or something you're learning to ask less of?
I'd love to hear what you're thinking.
P.S. On Sunday, I'll be spending part of my birthday in the rehearsal room with Matt, continuing work on Good Breeding. After a trip to the New York Sheep & Wool Festival, I'm even more excited about this play. Matt is doing beautiful work, and that's raising the bar for me too. You've got to meet your collaborators where they are, and sometimes that means stretching yourself to make something better together. Thanks buddy!
