The fateful time has arrived when I am finished with the play, finished with the presentation in Chicago, and now I am in limbo. But first a few words of triumph for the activities just finished. The play was a huge success; my lines were delivered accurately and in character. I was the arrogant, rock star, Voltaire with just enough conviviality to keep from turning the audience against me. And the presentation/ performance/ talk in Chicago was likewise a huge success. My fellows honored me with handshakes, pats on the back, and kudos during the coffee break all of which told me that they enjoyed my performance. The whole scene was well produced and performed by yours truly.
It is now time to move on to something else. I will turn to my Performance Evolution file in a few minutes but first I want to allow myself to do a little free style thinking. The successes of last week are fine, they add to the store of successful experiences I’ve had. I suppose the first thing to do is to look at them and see if there is anything that could be considered a foundation upon which to build with further adventures along those lines. The quick answer is no. I don’t have a future in French language except as an intellectual pursuit and my future in the diplomatic world ends at the end of the year. With some imagination I could conjure up some ties to the future but they would be contrived.
If my future is in performance, then I can easily say that I have made some progress. The performances of last week deserve some review. First the play; it was in the French language which I have been studying and my part required further study and research to understand the meaning of the combinations of words that he put down. “Et cet alors que…” and “vous vennez de la voir” have meanings that aren’t readily apparent to the beginning student of French. The play itself was a study in various meanings of phrases and sentences; so the fact that it was in French was a stretch. Then it was I who designed and assembled the costume, wig, buckles, and cane; that did the make-up; who got to the place on time and ready to perform, and then perform according to script and direction.
Then the Chicago Talk; it was titled on the agenda as “The Fortunes and Misfortunes of an Honorary French Consul in Kentucky” and I put together a series of anecdotes that represented what I have been doing for the past 15 years. There were 17 items that I put on memory pegs and they were the basis for my talk; they were my talk. I appeared in costume, business suit, starched blue oxford cloth button down shirt, red tie, French-American flag lapel pin, the corner of a white handkerchief sticking out of my coat pocket, shined shoes, and a well groomed appearance all around. I took charge of the house by asking permission to talk from the front of the room, a departure from the ordinary protocol, and then thanked the German Consul General, in German, and the FCG in French. I started my talk and went point by point to the end with the spontaneity that can only come from having earned the right to talk about each of them. The whole thing lasted 20 minutes, the prescribed time, and there was a fluency that only comes from having spent so much time in front of groups/audiences.
The next thing that I must do is find another opportunity to perform, what is so difficult to see? Oddly when I started this writing it wasn’t that apparent but it is as a large billboard along the highway, you can look at it without even seeing it. One of my Dailies is to “dream extravagantly, rehearse rigorously, and perform spontaneously,” and one of my Endeavors-What is “find, audition, learn lines, rehearse, and perform.” Easy to say but the proof is in the pudding. So far this year there have been three significant performance events: Uncle Tom's Cabin, Zadig, and The Chicago Talk and there’s an LTM in the wings but probably not this year. I know the thing to do is to let it happen. It isn’t false hope for me to say this, I know it will. When s.t. is right, you know it. This is where patience comes in to play; patience is s.t. of which I do not have tons but have learned my lessons from reflecting on past experiences. Just as UTC was a bolt out of the blue, just as the French class was not foreseen to be what it turned out to be, just as the Chicago Talk was in response to an overture from Sidy Dialo, so too will be the next opportunity to perform.
Then somewhere down the line I will be in the flow of the performance stream and appropriate roles will come along without me making extraordinary efforts to get them. This has been the way it has been all of my life. Just like riding; after a hiatus of 4 years I have started back and am now riding twice a week at reputable farm and that took one stop at the place and a short conversation with Carol Rudlof, who “just happened to be there when I came out.” Just like pool, without a clue I stopped at the BCofL and asked about it; bang I was on a team the next Wednesday night and have been since. Not only a team but with top notch players from whom I learn extraordinary techniques.
When I made efforts to buck the flow, things didn’t work out; when I went with the flow, they did. My dad even observed once that if something is supposed to happen, things will fall into place to let it. It was when we were discussing the possibility of me coming back to StL and running his business and things just didn’t seem to be falling into place. This observation has been proven to be reliable over and over again. So, we shall see.
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