The following is an exchange from the movie City Slickers…

Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is? (holds up one finger).  This.
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that…

Finding that “one thing” is the trick of life.  I knew from a young age I loved to pretend.  Whether it was acting in school productions, writing plays or filming super 8 films, I was always pretending.

Recently, I returned to my old high school to see a production of Les Misérables.  It was very strange sitting in the very auditorium I had spent many, many hours during my teens and performing countless plays.  As I watched the play, it became very clear to me how this “one thing” I have pursued most of my life has driven me to be the person I am today.  I love an audience.  I love sitting in a room listening to actors reading a script of mine.  The energy that is exchanged between the artist and whoever he/she is sharing the work with is what keeps me going back to the page, back to the stage, back to the screen.

It’s been said about life that you should have a back-up plan in case the path you actually care about doesn’t work out.  I always thought this was an odd way to live your life.   You either do something with 100% certainty or you don’t.  And if you don’t, then you have to ask yourself why; which is the most difficult of questions.  There really is no middle ground (okay maybe there is, but I prefer not to put doubt in your minds – there’s enough there already).  If you do something with a half heart, how do you expect to succeed?  And what is success?  I can only tell you what it’s not – money (but that never hurts).  Success is doing that “one thing” and somehow making it work for you.  I’m still trying to figure that part out…the “making it work” part.  I probably will never really figure it out.  The only real thing I know is that “one thing”.   And I’m going to keep doing it.

I’m going to keep working on my screenplay Twig as I am almost done the 3^rd draft and I am excited to see where it is taking me.  I’m going to keep sending Blue out as I have sent it to a dozen different theatre companies this past month and whole heartedly believe it deserves to live on.  I’m going to keep Circus on the radar as it is a play about mental illness that needs re-working and needs to find a life on the stage.    I’m just going to keep going, despite the doubts that haunt me…all because of that “one thing”.