The Sight Unseen show last night was the first time I felt really good about a show in a while. Not to say they have been bad, after you've been doing improv for a while you don't go below a certain degree of proficiency, and I'm lucky to be on teams with incredible talent, but I haven't felt particularly energized or inspired recently.
There was nothing terribly different about tonight's show save maybe that all of us were a bit more patient than usual. The piece had some interesting characters that we let develop, wove them together, and concluded in a satisfying way. For my part I felt a sense of immediacy that had been lacking the past couple weeks. More in the moment. I could see the moves before I made them, anticipate the trajectory of the scenes. Intuitively knew how to play the various emotional beats and execute the internal games. It felt great.
With improv and with creative pursuits in general you are on an increasing trajectory, that is- as long as you continue to work hard. They'll be times of stagnation, times of inspirational sterility. But during those times your ability doesn't dip below a certain level of skill, if you have been diligent your craft will always be there regardless of the level of your artistic energy. I've found that these times of torpidity come less and less frequently and that you cannot forces yourself out of them. Times of creative neutrality are natural and you come out of them simply over the course of time. The trick is to be OK with those times of lethargy, keep going through the motions, one step at a time, until inspiration reveals itself.
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