Creating: Conceiving and developing new artistic ideas and work

“What are you trying to heal in yourself and what are you trying to heal in the world?” This question was posed to me by my dear friend and artistic collaborator Ali Kennedy Scott as we were developing a new play leading up to, and in the wake of, the 2016 US presidential election. As I reflected on Ali’s statement, I began to understand that making a work of art is about undoing what has harmed us. By doing the work of healing ourselves through creation and by sharing it with an audience we are creating change –– however small at first. To share a story is to give a gift of love (or hate depending on one’s intentions), which ripples out into the world. The ripple can be a lesson which teaches the world how to love you and how to love themselves. Creating can and should be a way of manifesting the reality that we want to experience and that we deserve. For me that is about creating caring and safe communities, and that means that my work is also about collaboration.

“The way to create art is to burn and destroy ordinary concepts and to substitute them with new truths that run down from the top of the head out of the heart.” Charles Bukowski, American Poet

The Nobel Prize winning physicist, Dennis Gabor, remarked in his 1963 book Inventing the Future that “The future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented…It was man’s ability to invent which has made human society what it is.” I endeavor to live in the present, but my work as an artist and educator is about inventing a better future.

The artifacts below are from three of my favorite projects which demonstrate my abilities as a creator: a production of Elfriede Jelinek’s play Jackie, a production of Madeleine George’s one-act The Most Massive Woman Wins, and the development and production of my first full-length play Perhaps the World Ends Here. These three pieces demonstrate my commitment to healing things in myself and healing things in the world through my artistry. These productions connect directly to my culminating project, which seeks to undo the erasure of queer history through the creation of a TYA play about the Stonewall Uprising and the creation of pedagogical resources for teachers working in grades 6-12. It demonstrates my abilities as a producer, director, and playwright.

Jackie

By Elfriede Jelinek

This example demonstrates my ability to generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work as articulated by Colleti & Yolen (2017) in section Cr 1. of the New York State Learning Standards for the Arts.

I conceived, produced, and co-directed an adaptation of Elfriede Jelinek’s one-woman-play Jackie (about Jackie Kennedy) in December of 2015 for a theatre I founded called The Marshall Experimental Company. The concept for this production, which departs from the original one-woman-nature of the show, was a bit of exegesis on my part. The adaptation featured three actresses playing different facets of Jackie’s fractured psyche and it explored the idea of the public, curated self which we present to the world. This concept stems from my interpretation that Jackie is speaking this monologue in purgatory as a way to cleanse herself and move on to the next phase of the afterlife. She must do this work now because, in life, she hid her true feelings and nature and performed a creation of what she thought the world needed/wanted to see. The piece integrated movement & acrobatics, filmed and audio media, found text, the script, and original sound compositions by Ben Harrell. The show was co-directed by Katherine Wilkinson who also played one of the personalities of Jackie. I asked Katherine to serve in this capacity to help me with potential blind spots and biases.

The following samples are offered as evidence of this work:

The Most Massive Woman Wins

by Madeleine George

This example demonstrates my ability to organize and develop artistic ideas and work as articulated by Colletti & Yolen (2017) in section Cr 2. of the New York State Learning Standards for the Arts.

In the fall of 2017, I directed a production of the play The Most Massive Woman Wins at the school where I was teaching in Oklahoma City, Putnam City High School. The show was our entry for the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association’s (OSSAA) One Act Play Contest. Anyone who has participated in a one-act-play contest would likely tell you that traveling and/or competing with a play is a masterclass in organizing and producing. The rules of the competition stipulated that the edges of the stage must be taped or chalked with a timeline that could not be crossed until time began. Each school was given 45 minutes in which to get their set on stage, perform their play, and get their set off the stage. This was preceded by a 1-hour load-in/tech rehearsal the day prior. Our production took first place at Regionals and sixth at State.

The following samples are offered es evidence of this work:

Preparation for “One Acts” began at the end of the previous school year when I assembled my incoming drama club officers to serve as a play-reading committee. The students selected their top two or three shows which were then submitted to the principal for approval. For 2017, the students had selected Jean Anouilh’s adaptation of Antigone as their first choice, but the administration was uncomfortable with the fact that there is a suicide in the play. The principal then, to my surprise, suggested The Most Massive Woman Wins. He was greatly moved by the play despite the adult themes found in the text. He knew that I am very community focused in my work and wanted to create a school-wide body positivity campaign to accompany the show as the play weaves together the monologues of four women sitting in the lobby of a liposuction clinic discussing the childhood traumas and bad relationships that have contributed to their body dysmorphia. So, we proceeded with that plan.

After the show had been selected, I began the task of acquiring rights, building a budget, and creating a production timeline as school typically began at the end of August and regionals was usually held the first week of October. Auditions were held the first week of school and rehearsals began the second week. Design work was done by students in the advanced stage craft course that I taught. In the design process, I would quickly take students through the logistics of the contest, including the need for our designs to transport easily, and how to go about creating and articulating the visual and sonic world of the play. The overall tone for this production was inspired by an episode of the television show Black Mirror titled “Nosedive.”

In addition to putting up our show, PCHS served as a host sight for one of the many regional contests across the state. This meant that I also served as a contest coordinator.

Documents Demonstrating Organizational Skills

Perhaps the World Ends Here

A New Play By Daniel Leeman Smith

This example demonstrates my ability to refine and complete artistic work as articulated by Colletti & Yolen (2017) in section Cr 3. of the New York State Learning Standards for the Arts.

Perhaps the World Ends Here is a new digital play that I wrote, directed, and edited for Local Classic Repertory in Pittsburgh, PA. It ultimately became a Zoom movie which premiered on the Mighty Networks platform in September of 2020. The first five scenes of the play were written as an assignment for a Beginning Playwrighting course that I took with Emmy Award winner Judy Tate at NYU. The play was completed on a commission by Local Classic Repertory and was created in the format of a new play development workshop. The cast was comprised entirely of actors who were indigenous and/or queer.

The following samples are offered as evidence of this work: