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November 15, 2006

artist's way: week 10

by gl. at 8:09 pm

this was the last time the whole group will be together until the last night (which we are rapidly approaching in three weeks!). so i reshuffled some events to do the playback theatre exercise, because the more, the merrier!

i forgot to do warm ups ("yes and/yes but" and "find your mother like a baby penguin), but it was still a terrific night. this group was very dubious about this activity, but by the end we were laughing so hard we were crying. unlike when i do this activity as a stand-alone option, in a group that's been together for several weeks, the stories tend to be more emotional and the players are invested in the characters they are portraying. afterwards they said it was "cathartic" and fun and less painful and more engaging than they had imagined it would be. which is very gratifying, since my goal is to convince them that all art is less painful and more engaging than they imagine once they begin!

one of the things i'm still working on as a facilitator is about feeling inadequate and dumb whenever i feel resistance from a group. whenever i begin to feel someone in the group is set against the activity, i immediately think, "oh, no. it's going to fail! oh no! they'll know i'm a terrible facilitator!" i do this no matter how many times the activity has been sucessful before, no matter how much i know they'll like it at the end. it takes all my will not to buckle and apologize, not to give up before it's even begun.

center (compassion): i loved these bowls when i first saw and immediately imagined candles inside them. i like how this reminds me of the diagrams of how white light is created.

music: pink martini's hang on little tomato. a classic! i actually referenced this song in the weekly email i send out to creative cluster participants, and it the whole album has a very theatrical feel to it.

posted by gl. | November 15, 2006 8:09 PM | categories: artist's way