Gift Guide for the Theatre Lover
Choosing a thoughtful gift for your theatre person shouldn’t give you stage fright! With options that celebrate the art form and enhance appreciation for the stage, your gift is sure to get a standing ovation!
Take Courage
Courageousness is built up in the endurance of everyday trials. Small acts of faithfulness add up to a fortified strength. Through courage, we become more alive, more useful, and more human.
Muses, in the Age of Amusement
Our generation is distracted. We default to amusement, unaccustomed to the quiet practice of thinking carefully or thoroughly. This posture of amusement impacts our ability to create and to worship.
Principles & Style
In art, value informs our style. When we are firm in our values it allows for greater freedom of expression. If we emphasize methods over principles, we look for prescriptive style. Without an actionable understanding of principles, artists rely on societal permission over authentic creativity.
Good Medicine
The body is a strange thing. It is both something we have and something we are. In some ways we put it in submission and in others, we work alongside it.
July is Juvenile Arthritis Awareness month. 2024 marks my 25th year since being diagnosed. Here are some reflections on God’s grace.
Books for the Beach
Summer Reading? Earn that personal pan pizza.
Donald Miller, Julia Cameron, Jean Rhys — oh my! Plus plays involving heat as a catalysis.
Survival Jobs
Using transferable skills to provide supplementary income is often the wisest choice in building a sustainable life in the arts.
A review of survival jobs options for artists: barista work, administration, coaching, and more.
Built for the Ensemble
One of these young artists disdainfully observed, “theatre school only prepares you to be a good ensemble member.” Others quickly chimed in with their agreement and I see the room come to this conclusion: theatre school doesn’t teach you to be an artist.
Luck Be a Lady
In the article, Luck and the Entrepreneur: the four kinds of luck, Marc Andreessen discusses the work of Dr. James Austin and how it applies to the business world. Here are some encouraging implications for the artist.
for a SPRING in your step
A handful of recommendations for the coming Spring, expectation of new life. The days keep getting longer, the temperatures more moderate, and soon the earth will “laugh in flowers.”
First Love
Answering, is theatre your first love?
Like the high school sweethearts that end up married, continually pursuing an arts career is met with surprise. It’s not the typical story – all the more fun!
Acting Sensibly
Delighted to announce the near opening of Cedarville University’s production of Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Sense and Sensibility (and my part in directing it!). The show runs from Feb. 1-11th, 2024. It’s a treat living with Austen’s story and working with talented young artists passionate about telling it.
Hibernation Essentials
This time of year can be a bummer. No longer Christmas, the drudgery of early sunsets and frozen toes. It helps to have something to look forward to. I’ve collected some examples of little joys that hopefully inspire a more pleasant hibernation.
Museum Café Lattes
January of 2023, I spent New Year’s Day at the Art Gallery of Ontario wandering at my own pace before walking home in the rain. I had a latte and one of those overpriced pastries at the museum café for lunch, which added to the vibratory energy of the day. A new year!
Letter of Intent
I’m a Christian & work in theatre. Most of what I put here will likely cover that intersection, along with life updates and other notes about what I find enriching for a creative life. Cheers to new endeavors!