Split Focus

Reason number eighty billion in the "Why I need to go to grad school" category: split focus.
(Okay, there probably aren't that many reasons but there definitely are reasons and good ones too.I will now outline this reason for you.)

I have had a phenomenal time working on c.1993 (you never step in the same river twice) at Annex Theatre. The reactions have been mixed (view reviews here: The Stranger, Seattlest, The Seattle Weekly) but I'm really proud of the work we have done and how we work together as an ensemble. I've had a place for my creative energy. It finally became so I wasn't living a life that consisted of work, my apartment, eating, drinking, sleeping and doing it all over again. As corny as it is (not even may sound, is), I feel somehow more complete when I have a creative endeavor and especially when I get to present that creative endeavor to the world.

And yet, in all this happy creative fulfillment, I'm not doing one thing: writing. I can not seem to split my focus fully between acting and writing. Now the two are definitely not mutually exclusive; often one goes with the other. However, I have been pouring my creative energy only into the show which is good for the show but bad for all the copious amounts of scripts that need editing, finishing, or starting. This is why I think I need to go to grad school. It's not that I can't split my focus and work on two creative endeavors at one time. It's that I don't yet seem to have the discipline to force myself to sit down and write every single day. I am disciplined in so many areas of my life but the consistency of daily writing is not one of them. I always refer to myself as an "inspiration writer," someone who writes almost exclusively when the lightning strikes. Recently, after participating as a playwright for the Double Shot Theatre Festival in Tacoma, I learned that the label of "inspiration writer" that I had placed on myself could actually be false. I wrote of script in five hours because I had to, not because the lightning struck.

More and more everyday, I am thinking about grad school. It is on the near horizon. I think I can almost see it.

Time to get crackin'.