New Works Festival - Post One: Guest Artists

There are definitely going to be several posts for this year's New Works Festival. We're on Day Five of six days of theater and performance OVERLOAD here at UT -- a once-every-two-year explosion of student-initiated performance projects that take over half of campus.

I'm going to need another post to talk about the productions. This one's on the Guest Artists, folks they bring in to lead workshops and respond to our work. So far, the folks we've seen include:

Bruce Ostler, Literary Agent
Wendy Goldberg, Artistic Director of the O'Neill
Meghan Monaghan, Artistic Program Director at The Lark
Ruben Polendo, Artistic Director of Theater Mitu
Mac Wellman, Playwright Extraordinaire
Sherry Kramer, Fantastic Playwright and one of my favorite people
Sarah Benson, Artistic Director at Soho Rep

If your jaw hasn't dropped yet, then you have some googling to do. The wattage of the luminaries in the room is blinding.

I haven't had a chance to interact with all the guest artists (and this is nowhere near a full list), but I've gotten some quality time with Wendy, Bruce, Meghan, and Ruben. Sherry taught here last year and was instrumental in one of my plays, one of the finest teachers and finest human beings I've ever encountered.

A couple of thoughts.
(1) I think that Daniel Alexander Jones was right when he said that our best calling card is our work. I've had some great conversations with these folks this week, but the reason I've been able to do so is that I've had work to show them, to give us something to talk about. They could take my measure, at least a little bit, by what I had to show them...and I could learn something substantive about them by what they had to say. The work gave us an opportunity to cut through the cocktail conversation to something with a little bit more substance.
(2) These guest artists couldn't be more different, in terms of personality, in terms of taste, in terms of their vantage point on the business and art and craft of what we do. They're all incredibly successful, but by different measures. It reminded me that success isn't QUANTIFIABLE so much as it is QUALIFIABLE. How do you define the parameters of success? What are your goals? Then how do you achieve those goals?
(3) These are all fine folks, but it was also clear to me that there are some here who I "click" with, and others who, while lovely, aren't people I connect with. The fact that we're meeting so many at once reminds me that that's okay -- someone can be totally successful and really nice, and if that person doesn't get me jazzed, it's okay. Someone else will. Neither do I have to please all of these luminaries. There are a lot of paths toward success as I define it.