I am disturbed by the sheer amount of waste in the theater. I don’t mean wasted wood or fabric – although there is a helluva lot of that, too – I mean the waste of talent of all kinds. The reality is that almost 60% of Actor’s Equity members didn’t get to use their talents […]
Seth Lepore and Ruthless Reciprocity
I’d like to draw my readers’ attention to another project run by Seth Lepore entitled Ruthless Reciprocity Transforming the Performing Arts Community. Seth and I both share similar concerns about the state of the theater ecosystem. While ultimately I think we go in different directions, I actually think that Seth’s future book would be a complementary volume […]
Seeking a Blue Ocean
Once you have freed yourself from being chained to a place, and granted yourself permission to see what you want to do as not only important to you but also important to others as well, you are ready to begin your journey. For those seeking to live an independent creative life, it is important to […]
The Whole World Is Awash in Art
Once you have successfully freed yourself from the Sinatra Imperative, you have taken the first major step toward artistic independence. Suddenly, all the world is available for your creativity, and all the world’s people as well. When you have stopped believing that certain people are more important than others, then you can begin to believe that […]
The Sinatra Imperative
Of all of the things I will write here, this is the idea that is most important. It is central to one of the pillars of creative independence: attitudes. And one of those attitudes involves hierarchical thinking according to which doing your art is certain places is considered more important that doing the same art […]
The Three Pillars of Artistic Independence
In my opinion, there are three pillars to artistic independence: Life choices Attitudes Business LIFE CHOICES are about the choices you make about how you want to live that have an impact on your work: Where you want to live? If you live in Manhattan, it is different than living in Des Mines and it impacts your […]
In Search of a Better Way
Welcome to Creative Insubordination! I decided to start writing this blog because I got tired and angry. For over seven years, I wrote the Theatre Ideas blog and wrote post after post trying to convince people working in the professional theatre that the current system wasn’t serving artists, audiences, or the art itself. I wrote about the woeful employment […]