Finding Inspiration

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Contributed by Guest Blogger of the week Stacy Mayer.

As I mentioned in my previous posts, I am looking for inspiration anywhere I can find it.  I signed up for a Palo Alto library card and I ride my bike over there and just see what pops out at me.  Last week, I picked up a DVD about Garrison Keillor, the creator and host of A Prairie Home Companion.

I watched this documentary and I felt inspired.  Not because he defied all odds.  But because he was doing precisely what he loved to do. A Prairie Home Companion is recorded live in a historic theatre in St. Paul, MN and has been playing for 30 years. 

He paved his own path, a small town boy from Minnesota who moved to New York to become a writer and found himself doing his greatest work back home.  Ironically he quotes Robert Frost's The Road Less Traveled.  He said he has no desire to follow the road less traveled but instead wants to be a part of the group.  That’s exactly what he does with his show.  He combines musicians, actors and writers and brings them all onstage in this cacophony of entertainment.

That’s what I was trying to do with Manhattan Comedy Collective.  I would bring stand up, sketch, solo shows, musical acts and put them all onstage for a hilarious evening of theatre hosted by me.  I loved working with groups of different people.  I loved introducing people to each other and making connections.  I loved performing and making people laugh every week.

Garrison suggests that every week he does something that he is hardly qualified to do but because he keeps trying to make it better, it gets there.  It’s that passion that creates great theatre. It’s created with love first.  If you make art with love, success will follow.

In San Francisco, I am starting with what I know from my past experiences.  But I can’t know what will happen in the future until I put myself out there.  I don’t know what I will discover until I do it.  And if I do it from my heart, I can’t fail.  That’s the idea.  It doesn’t mean it will be easy. 

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Living In The Past

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Contributed by Guest Blogger of the week Stacy Mayer.

One of the people I talk about in my one-woman show is a Buddhist meditation instructor.  He’s awesome and when I decided to move to San Francisco, I asked him what I should do to further my meditation practice.  He suggested that I look into the Shambhala Center out here.  So I did!

Last weekend I attended the level one training at the Silicon Valley Shambhala Center.  One of the concepts that our instructor spoke about is how we look at the past as if it’s in front of us and the future is facing our back.  Everything that we have accomplished, experienced, failed at, is all right in front of our face.  It’s that past that is keeping us from moving forward in life.  It’s the basic reason that you felt so free when you were in college but now you feel limited and rigid.

I’m trying to keep an open mind since I have moved here.  I really am but I can’t help but notice that I’m holding back a little from working with people simply based on fear.  If I were fresh out of college, I wouldn’t hesitate to attend the Theatre Bay Area Regional Auditions in February.  But now my thought is, “eh is that really something I want to do?” 

So instead I do…eh?

Even though some parts of my past are holding me back, it’s also what’s keeping me moving forward.  In the short month I’ve lived here I have met with a producer, an artistic director and a Bay Area actor.  All of these meetings were arranged by colleagues I had in New York.  Each meeting has led to more meetings with new people. 

Your past is how you make connections.  And using those connections helps your future.  Heck, many of you reading this could be a connection.  That’s why blogging and comments are so great.  It puts you out there. 

I am completely open.  And it’s that openness that will propel me into my future.  Even if right now, it’s still facing my back. 

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Starting Over

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Contributed by Guest Blogger of the week Stacy Mayer.

Moving to New York is tough.  It takes time when you move to a new city.  Connections don’t happen overnight.  You have to patient.  Blah blah blah.

I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately.  I have to keep reminding myself that when I first moved to New York, eight years ago, it wasn’t easy.  I had already been performing in Chicago and I couldn’t bare the idea of “starting over.”

That’s when I became a producer. I would create art myself.  And I did pretty well.  I founded Manhattan Comedy Collective.  I was an ensemble member at Emerging Artists Theatre and curated their solo play festival. I had connections all over the city and I was always performing.  I was a success.

And then I decided to move…again…to San Francisco. 

The excuse is that I moved out here for love.  But I have a feeling there is something else. I am still a performer, producer, writer.  But where do I start in this new city?

Once again, I don’t feel like I can start over.

So what do I do?  I know what I don’t want.  I don’t want to start another theatre company.  I don’t want to take beginner level acting classes.  I don’t want to audition for theatres where I don’t even know if it will be any good.

So what do I want to do?

I remember taking a job at The Jekyll & Hyde Club on The Avenue of the Americas, like many New Yorkers just to get my Equity card.  I planned on working there for three months tops.  But little did I know, most of my closest friends and collaborators would come from that job.  Over half of the Manhattan Comedy Collective were people I met there.

So I’m keeping an open mind.  Inspiration is where you least expect it, right? Oh that’s a good idea.  Maybe I’ll do that? See what happens.

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