I've been participating in a weekend intensive with Shakespeare & Company with 10 other actors, the workshop leader named Andrew, and his two assistants, Kirstin and Lucinda.
The class included several wonderful friends and a handful of new faces and souls, all of whom have shared themselves and their focus with stunning honesty and commitment.
For me, when I am working with Shakespeare's text, particularly his verse, the buzzing in my brain is akin to an outdoor grill primed with coals and a fresh dash of lighter fluid, and the process of that text discovery serves as the match.
Songs by Steve Earle and John Hiatt invaded my waking reveries this morning. Would not call dreams as they were extensions, perhaps conclusions, and most certainly reactions.
Two phrases from Steve Earles' "Ft. Worth Blues"
You used to say the highway was your home
But we both know that ain't true
It's just the only place a man can go
Where he don't know where's he traveling to.
And they say Texas weather always changin'
And one thing change'll bring is something new.
John Hiatt released the spectacular album SLOW TURNING in 1988. It was the follow-up to his break through, critically acclaimed BRING THE FAMILY, and both records dealt with Hiatt's alcohol and drug addiction, which is a cliche that in his case was a bad tattoo that he struggled to shed.
The chorus of the title song is particularly apt in regard to transition:
It's been a slow turnin'
From the inside out
A slow turnin'
But you come about
Slow learnin'
But you learn to sway
A slow turnin' baby
Not fade away.
In "Icy Blue Heart" from the same album, Hiatt addresses the risk/reward that fuels transformation:
She came on to him like a slow movin' cold front.
His beer was warmer than the look in her eyes
She sat on a stool, he said, "What do you want?"
She said, "Give me a love that don't freeze up inside."
He said, "I have melted some hearts in my time dear
But to sit next to you, Lord, I shiver and shake
And if I knew love, well, I don't think I'd be here
Asking myself if I've got what it takes."
To melt your icy blue heart
Should I start?
To turn what's been frozen for years
Into a river of tears.
The question is seemingly rhetorical. And each eventual answer a personal choice.
My advice?
Go for it.
