Net Cotton Content

A [new] Christmas Carol

When, Where, How
I hope you will join us:

Thursday, December 10th, 8 p.m.
Friday, December 11th, 8 p.m.
Saturday, December 12th, 8 p.m.
Sunday, December 13th, 2 p.m., matinee

The Van Fleet Theater (190 seats)
Columbus Performing Arts Center
549 Franklin Avenue, downtown Columbus
map: http://tinyurl.com/CPACtheaters

Tickets are available online here where the show is nicknamed "XMAS."

Want to know more? Here you go...

We are in rehearsal.
That's good news. It's high time we rehearse.

The writing phase has been productive and — as a co-writer — I'm thrilled that the other two writers have brought experience and insight to the process. (I brought quiet apprehension.)

Is the script truly ready? I don't know. But, enough fussing. ("Great poetry is never finished. It is simply abandoned," said the poet Richard Hugo to those of us in Daily Themes.)

In any case, as an actor, I'm glad to see the writing phase yield to the rehearsal phase. This show opens in three weeks and we must block scenes, learn lines, and ready ourselves for the opening. For you.

So, What's The Show?
Here's the title:

Consolidated Amalgamated's
Annual XMAS Spectacular
featuring Winford Doke, CPA Artie Isaac

Huh? That's not very helpful. Except that it appears we have offed the lead character before the play has opened. Ominous! Ooooooo.

So, What's It About?
Here's what it's about.

I have always loved Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It's a perfectly told tale, whether read or performed.

I've heard Jonathan Winters' radio portrayal on NPR many times. I saw Patrick Stewart's one-man show on Broadway. Jim Carrey is out with a coldly animated version. And the folks from Nebraska Theatre Caravan will be back in the Palace Theater again this year with their staged version.

It is simply a magnificent story — and one that brought true social change to England. The original language and structure are so wonderful.

It's Time For A New Look
Wicked taught us that there are a lot of people who already know The Wizard of Oz and are ready for a new look at the story. They don't need to be retold the original. They want a new way of celebrating their love for the great story.

The same, I believe, is true of A Christmas Carol. You already know it. Now let's look at it differently.

So, I went to Matt Slaybaugh of Available Light [Theatre] and suggested that we produce a version of A Christmas Carol as Spalding Gray might have told it. The immediate concept: a contemporary telling of the story — using today's often dreadful audio-visual technology. At first we called it:

A PowerPoint Christmas Carol
(Watch Artie squeeze the Dickens out of his Mac.)

That was enough to win the collaboration of Sean Christopher Lewis. And so Matt, Sean and I set to writing.

As we wrote, I paused to imagine looking across the stage. And who did I see?

Jo Anne O'Carroll, the celebrated local actress who enamored audiences with her piercingly honest portrayal of Mrs. Soames in Our Town.

So we recruited Jo Anne, which didn't take much work. She hopped right on board.

This is a two-person show. I'm the other person.

What We Seek To Achieve
Here are our goals as I see them:

• Return relevance to A Christmas Carol. Every production of A Christmas Carol is — properly — a celebration of the brilliance of Charles Dickens and the gloom of 19th Century England. But how can we make it relevant to today? This might sound too Jewish for you, but the Passover Seder does that every year: Exodus isn't primarily about our ancestors; it's about us, here, now. (It's no wonder Jews do so well in Hollywood.) We want to do that with A Christmas Carol: tell the story so that it is about us, here, now.
• Remind us of the true message. It really isn't about money. Scrooge's more egregious miserliness isn't with currency; it's his denial of engagement and relationship. He is stingy with his affection and connection. Let's not focus on the money. Watch the heart.
• Draw audience to theatre. We long to bring back folks who enjoyed our recent productions of The Odd Couple and Our Town. And, wouldn't it be great if we also attracted folks who don't go to theatre that often but might come because my shamelessly public mid-life crisis has been held over for an extended run? 
• Raise money for Available Light. All year long, Available Light offers professional theatre — homegrown! organic! — for the strange price of pay what you want. Why? Because theatre is too important to be the exclusive possession of the economically fortunate. So, for this show, we'll charge $15 per seat — more for the beloved patrons (like you?) — to amass a surplus, and help fund the year-round mission of this wonderful theatre company.
• Achieve a magic moment as performers. Jo Anne and I — with Matt as director, and all the talented folks of Available Light — just want to do it again: create genuine, true-to-our-souls flow on stage. We seek — and we will find — the optimal experience.

And you can be a part of that. Here, again, are the details.

When, Where, How
I hope you will join us:

Thursday, December 10th, 8 p.m.
Friday, December 11th, 8 p.m.
Saturday, December 12th, 8 p.m.
Sunday, December 13th, 2 p.m., matinee

The Van Fleet Theater (190 seats)
Columbus Performing Arts Center
549 Franklin Avenue, downtown Columbus
map: http://tinyurl.com/CPACtheaters

Tickets are available online here where it's nicknamed "XMAS."

Repeat After You

Within a couple hours of posting Matt Slaybaugh's piercing and inspiring Finally, This Is For You, I heard from loyal and inspiring Net Cotton Content reader, Erin Scott.

Erin was concerned that it might appear that she had plagiarized the idea — featuring the video of Matt — from me.

Of course, she wrote me, she had not lifted the idea from me. Before seeing my post, she had simply come to the same conclusion: this video must be seen by others and she wants to bring it to people.

Here's her post, which includes more kindness toward me than I could ever want. (Thanks, Erin.)

Her private message to me was heartfelt. I reached her by phone — because conflict can never be resolved through email. Even conflict that isn't conflict.

This Is The Opposite of Conflict
This isn't conflict. This is, er, proflict.

I didn't call to accept an apology or verify the originality of Erin's post.

Because rather than apology or validation, we have cause for celebration. And, of course, Erin's post was as original as mine.

What did I tell her?
I told her exactly what I had been told, years ago, when I started teaching creativity. (Is that plagiarism?)

Researching for my first MBA class on creativity and innovation, I found my way to Professor Srikumar Rao at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business, where he had developed a legendary course called Creativity and Personal Mastery. (Alas, the course wasn't offered when I was at Columbia. It would have changed my life.)

I asked him for help in writing my syllabus. He sent me his syllabus, which I strongly encourage you to read. (It's long. It takes a minute to download. But his reading list is well worth the wait!)

I read Professor Rao's syllabus and nearly gave up the idea of teaching creativity. How could I do so without copying most of his brilliant course structure and content?

So I called him and asked, "May I copy large portions of your syllabus, if I attribute your work to you by name?"

"Of course," he readily agreed, not caring so much about the attribution. "Take all you want. Use everything. You see, the more people teaching this, the better."

I've met many academics who protect their content. It was painstaking to develop and it represents their intellectual property. It may sometimes be borrowed (with attribution), but it may not be taken. This is completely understandable.

Dr. Rao wasn't interested in protecting his property. He prefers to change the world. And it's a big world, so he's going to need some help. "The more people teaching this, the better."

And that's what I said to Erin: "The more people teaching this, the better."

Why?
Why must we all  — like Matt — write, direct, perform, and amplify the call for creativity?

Three reasons:

• reach — more of us will reach more people. Erin reaches folks Matt and I haven't met.
• frequency — we need more of us, so each person will hear the call more often.
• frequency — another "frequency," the sound of our voices, is different from person to person. Matt's performance might reach one person, but not be another person's cup of tea. Erin's voice might reach that person more effectively. There's no accounting for taste. 

Join The Prospiracy
We must be a conspiracy of creativity. (Or is that prospiracy?)

Let's deliver a call for creativity. Let's encourage those around us. All of us.

Otherwise, consider the daily news. Most any news vehicle — televised, printed or digital — can be divided into sections, like the sections of the daily newspaper:

• today's mayhem
• miserable probabilities come true
• another fall of man
• the distraction of sports

Many's the day that I put down the morning paper and wonder, "Should I just go back to bed." (No, I should not. The newspaper also inspires. There is much work to be done — and now.)

I still can't understand why we study, with such passion, Tiger Woods, rather than Frank Lloyd Wright. Why is there a Sports Section but no Creativity Section in the daily newspaper.

Why? Because we prefer to dream the glory of unrecoverable youth — than to study the realization of our true potential.

So What Is Creativity?
Einstein — a fairly creative fellow, wouldn't you say? — defined creativity thus:

Concealing
Your Sources.

What? Say it ain't so, Alfred! Creativity is, at best, repackaging and, at worst, plagiarism?

Egad. 

But fair enough. Einstein teaches us that there might be nothing new under the sun — except each person's unique ability to see and explain the sunlight.

And, as Matt teaches, "it begins as a lump in the throat."

Let's all get lumpy.

Finally, this is for you

Imagine my good fortune. I sat yesterday in a coffee shop for three hours, writing a play with a favorite teacher.

Here, he speaks:

Find your mentor. Mentor up.

(The play we're writing opens in three weeks. More on that soon.)

God and Man Online

There are more believers than ever before.

Not perhaps in the Judaic God of history. I don't know about any gains in popularity There.

I do know that many claim atheism. And atheism might be a religion unto itself, as James Wood defends the "Supreme Being from the new atheists." Woods argues that today's "resurgent atheism [is] marked by its own kind of Biblical literalism." (See the review of books: "God In The Quad," The New Yorker, August 31, 2009.)

But frankly...

I'd rather not debate
atheism vs. monotheism.
It's so tiresome.

I do discuss religion with anyone, but only under these ground rules:

#1. There must be a time limit to the debate. Because the debate never dies of natural causes.

#2. We must first find one thing on which to agree. Because that's nice.

#3. Neither party can seek to change the other party's belief or lack thereof. Because it's a conversation, not a competition. And frankly, the Mind of God is big enough that maybe none of us really knows The Truth and — get this — perhaps all of us are right at the same time.

There is no Rule #4 in my rulebook — "#4. If either of us must burn in hell, it's you." — because I don't fear hell. Frankly, if either of us has to burn in hell for our beliefs then, well, I'll see you in hell.

Why don't I believe in hell?
From what I know of my own tradition, there isn't much description of hell. Hey, there isn't even much about heaven. What gives?

Here's what gives: maybe this life is heaven. Forget the afterlife; enjoy this one. After all, what did you expect of heaven? Isn't this it: fresh breezes, broadband and steaming lattes?

Look around. This is heaven. I hope you like it. I hope you're happy.

Yet, if we must debate religion,
we can start with this.
Did God create humans, or did humans create God? It's an old debate. (Franz Rosenzwieg covered it pretty well in The Star of Redemption.)

Let me know which side you want. I'm ready to argue the other side.

Then, when we are all sweaty and covered by each other's spittle, we can trade positions.

But, I already told you,
This is not about that kind of debate.
This is about a new appearance of a very God-like force.

It's Facebook.

Yes, Facebook.

Here's why.

What Is God?
That's a complex question.

But we all know this: The Fear of A Real and Living God (work address: Eden) was supposed to keep us from mischief. Hashem knows when you've been naughty. Hashem knows when you've been nice.

It works pretty well — not perfectly, to be sure — for those with The Fear, but doesn't have any effect on the rest of us. Especially on a No Fear Day. Carpe Diem, rather than Carpe Deus.

So, What Me Worry?
Now along comes Facebook and people have The Fear Of A New God.

If you are under a certain age — say 30 — and you are not on Facebook, you are odd. Your peers will surmise either:

• You are so focused on solving cold fusion that you simply don't have time for social networking. Frankly, you have chosen to make yourself irrelevant to everyone except the Nobel committee.
• You have done something so obnoxious, unethical, abusive, or untrustworthy that you daren't show your face online. Because others will, at best, not befriend you or, at worst, scourge you on your Wall.

A free pass is given to the endearing nerds in the first group. Both of them.

But the second group have a taste of God's punishment: excommunication, the mark of Cain, the curse of Amalek. (And, recently in the news, a taste of God's pardon.)

It's Easy To Believe
Unlike trying hard to believe in an abstract divinity, we can all plug into our computers and believe in Facebook.

For those who spurned "organized religion," welcome back.

Like much prayer, there is the question: am I being functional or am I simply feeling functional? There is a difference.

Where's Artie?

This is for anyone who actually — go figure — might want to know what I'm up to.

1. Sipping wine. If you like wine — or hate cancer  — or both — this Thursday in Hilliard, starting at 5:30 p.m. For details about the good cause, click to this page at Haven of Hope Cancer Foundation.

2. Going to a play. Come see Available Light's next original production, "[How to] Stay Human." Opens this week for only two weeks. Details here.

3. Preparing to act in another play. Save Thursday-Saturday, December 10-12 at 8 p.m. or Sunday, December 13 at 2 p.m. for a play that I'm co-writing (with experts) and performing in. It's a new version of A Christmas Carol, for people who already know the Dickens masterpiece and would rather (for a change) see a new take on it. If you want ticket information, send Mr. Winford Doke a message. 

4. Eating salmon. Come to the Columbus Metropolitan Club on Wednesday, December 2nd, when I speak on "The Demise of Polite Conversation: Is Communication on the Brink?" For details about the salmon, click here.

5. Speaking up. During its first year, SpeakerSite has become the world's largest social network of public speakers with 4,000+ folks speaking on every topic, in every language, on every continent, at every price. Let an audience find you by listing your passion, product or profession at SpeakerSite.com.

6. Working on creative projects. If you want to put me to work on a creative project, let me know. Especially starting in January 2010. I have room for one more client.™ (Note to self: put that on my tombstone.)

Here's hoping you avoid the swine, in all their many forms.