Weekly Dispatch 10.12.25
I hope this homing pigeon finds you
The leaves are gold, the air is bracing, the chrysanthemums are showing off on every front porch: it’s a good time for a walk through the neighborhood.
A Thing
I released a new song this week. It’s called October. It sounds like warm hug from a besweatered friend. It’s about putting down the manic dreams of summer and just taking a deep breath. It’s about other things, too. The tune already has almost a thousand streams 🤯 May I choose to be grateful a thousand times for every person who chose to listen.
A Thought
Places for making matter. Where I sit (or stand) to conjure up a new idea or rewrite and old one can make all the difference. For me, it’s about a place to pay attention; it’s a secret place where no one needs to be entertained; it’s a place worth being even if I do nothing “productive” or “useful”; a place I am willing to linger and try whether inspiration comes or not. I make work in so many spaces: at home, on a walk, in an office, in a park, in a windowless theatre, a cramped dingy studio. But wherever I am, the places where I do creative work have a few things in common:
Limits on distraction: the phone off or elsewhere; a prop or cue or phrase or sound to bring me back to the work at hand.
Beauty: visual or auditory; a plant on my dressing room table; the sunlight across the floor; yesterday in rehearsal it was my favorite handmade coffee cup.
Permission: to make or not make; to be all in or half in; to get up and walk around; to do only what I can do this time, knowing I’ll come back and try again.
A Thorough List of Everything Else
Havruah by Margo Connolly opens October 23rd and runs through November 2nd. I’m directing.
Recent Tragic Events by Craig Wright opens November 5th and runs through November 23rd. I’m acting.
I’ll be a featured soloist with this year’s Portland Singing Christmas Tree. It’s schmaltzy, it schticky, it’s Christmas!
And because I’m sure you’re dying to know, yes, I have officially started my annual binge of Christmas-themed murder mystery novels. I’m easing in with snow-centric novels, instead of strictly Christmas. Two novels so far, both by Agatha Christie: Midwinter Murder and The Sittaford Mystery. Many more to come between now and December 25th.