It’s a cliché, but it is still true: Dream and Dream Big. If you could be anywhere in the world or do anything right this minute, or be paid for anything, what would it be? I think on the dreams I’ve both achieved and the ones that I still strive for as we take a look back over 2023.
I was 5 or 6 years old, and maybe it was my birthday, and my mom called me over and put an LP on the record player… and the magic of a guided symphony vaulted my understanding of what music and storytelling could be.. My inaugural listen was Peter and the Wolf with Stirling Holloway and it both enabled me to enter into the music and enriched the very piece itself. So imagine my surprise and joy when I was asked to return to act as a narrator for Symphoria in 2024 for, you guessed it, Peter and the Wolf. It’s an almost literal dream come true!
Now as many of the Symphorians could tell you, my live narration is very physically dynamic, even though it’s mostly voice acting. I call myself an Engagerator, and this work blooms from the intersection of my long history of working with children, narration, live performance, and the gentle art of clowning. My heart is filled with gratitude that I have a second year to work with this brilliant symphony, specifically with some of their concerts for children, and to return the gift that was given to me.
Coming back to this project has given me time to reflect, especially as I take a minute to consider the year as a whole, both what I want to take with me and what I intend to leave behind.
Repurposing
The saying goes “Out with the Old, in with the New”, but sometimes we don’t need to actually get rid of something, we just need to repurpose it.
I look to my manila-folder masks that take something you’d likely just throw away and make it into something incredible. I also compost, scrapbook, and reuse old props and costumes for new shows. There’s plenty you can do in your life to reinvigorate something that’s collecting dust.
Letting Go
I hate to say this, and I say it as someone who is constantly learning this lesson, but our lives and minutes and focus and stressors are VALUABLE RESOURCES. Use them wisely. Although there are many ways to spend these resources and many people, projects, and organizations clamoring for them, these, like all other resources, are LIMITED. Spend them where you personally will be at your joyful best — wasting them on things where you are NOT is disrespectful to your resources, to the project, and to the other idea where your favoritest bestest shiniest lovingest happiest self belongs instead. Be strict in your evaluation of the expenditure of these resources! If you need some guidelines, I suggested some in an earlier blog, “Biz and Art.”
And Now for Something Completely Different
I know I need new horizons or I feel caged and unhappy. And I’ve learned that it’s best if these new experiences don’t come with the burden of being good or marketable or perfect. But they take TIME, a resource that I have in short supply.
News Flash: it’s worth it, and it’s awesome. Sometimes, what I learn or give time to just makes me happy, and that isn’t just “enough,” it’s absolutely critical in a life where so much is end-product oriented. Like playing my ukulele or learning something in the gaming world. I don’t need to go pro to learn stuff and have a good time. And that investment in new horizons to do something that is simply unfettered fun sometimes lays groundwork for a future project or collaboration… like narrating Peter and the Wolf.
