Keeping Communication Fresh
Have you ever given a talk, told a story, or had the same conversation one too many times? Although I will always push people to do Extreme Preparation, there are certainly situations when the content is so old it might become stale. In these moments, we can easily disconnect from our audience or partner or team and just, “phone it in” as we say in the theater. Meaning, we turn on the inner tape recorder and get back into bed mentally.
I remember doing a read-through of a new play in a playwright’s apartment on the Upper West Side. At some point a grizzled and bearded man appeared from a bedroom wearing ill-fitting underpants. He sleepily stepped over and around us, weaving his way through the living room, making it, barely, to the coffee machine where he stood, eyes half-open, watching the slow drip into the pot. After tossing down a cup of black coffee, he headed for the shower. When he came out, brushed and shiny, he announced, “Today is my 3,000th performance of Cats.” And off he went to give that matinee audience its two hundred dollars’ worth. I knew, as any performer would know, that this pro would find a way to keep his performance absolutely fresh and alive.
What are the skills we practice to keep communication alive? We trick ourselves into being present by changing things up, adding an element of abandon and play, welcoming disaster, moving to a new place physically, using a new intention, and, as always, reveling in the unknown that every person and audience brings.
Here are my favorite examples of keeping it fresh!
Change things up!
My friend, the wonderful British actor, Scott Handy, toured world-wide with the extraordinary theater company, Cheek by Jowl. Declan Donnellan, the director, would show up at random, in various countries, and change things up. Scott says that Declan loves the liminal space between safety and chaos to keep a healthy creative imbalance.
After the performance of Shakespeare’s As You Like It at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Scott shared a few of the shifts Declan played with over the course of the months-long tour:
1) Cutting the Arden forest set pieces and instead, asking the actors to use their bodies to become the trees and forest.
2) Tossing Orlando (played by Scott), a book to read as he sits under one of those trees.
3) Deciding that, although Rosalind orchestrates the weddings (8 people get married in the last scene!), it is really Audrey’s day! So asks the actor playing Audrey to re-block the scene by placing the actors where she would like them for the finale.
PLAY together!
NPR did a story about Miles Davis and the way his quartet played together. PLAY being the key word.
“These five musicians came up with all sorts of simple or elaborate ways to tweak the music on the fly, and cover for each other if things went haywire. Their interpretations of the band's core tunes varied widely from night to night. Bassist Ron Carter or pianist Herbie Hancock might radically rewrite a tune's chords or structure in the middle of a performance, knowing the others would follow. Drummer Tony Williams set and readjusted the tempos, and created dramatic waves of loud and quiet, raising and lowering the temperature…You get a real sense of fun, as these five play their musical games.”
Welcome disaster!
In her breathtaking book, 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write on Umbrellas and Swordfights, Parades and Dogs, Fire Alarms, Children, and Theater, the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Sarah Ruhl tells the story that might be a nightmare if theater people were not involved. Theater people LOVE it when things go wrong. It is a gift, keeps us awake.
A fire alarm went off during the 3rd Act of a performance. The audience, crew, and cast were evacuated and stood on the steps of the church. One of the actors just sang her song, continuing the play. Other actors joined in with “no blocking, no props, no nothing, in silent agreement…when boat puppets were called for and a wind machine, actors pretended to be boats and made the sound of the wind.”
Move to a new space.
Yes! Physically move the conversation, presentation, or talk, to a new place! As in the above example, changing your surroundings can keep you on your toes. Instead of giving your direct-report feedback in your office, take a walk. Instead of re-hashing the budget with your partner at the dining table, go to a cafe, instead of doing your talk behind the podium, walk into the audience.
My father once moved a panel of Nobel Laureates off of the stage and into the audience. He was moderating the panel in a tent at Arcosanti and looked out at a hot, sweaty, tired group of conference attendees. To change the dynamic of us/them, speaker/audience, active participant/passive participant, he stopped the show, moved the speakers off of the stage and into a circle of chairs, joining the audience. What happened? Everyone participated. What was a performance became a conversation.
Boomie Pedersen directed a production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters with a new adaptation by Doug Grissom that changed throughout the rehearsal process and right through to closing night! Doug had me change the line from, “I’m bored,” to “I’m…” in the last performance! The play moved from theaters to houses, to a senior living community dining room! Once, we performed in a house with a dog who would curl up by the fire, playing his part beautifully. We incorporated him into the play, as one of the cast.
Boomie built in freshness by making sure we were always innovating, never comfortable, constantly surprised, just by changing the space!
Choose a new intention.
In other posts I’ve talked about having a clear, positive, active intention that involves the other, the audience. Actors do the same play, say the same lines, move the same routes on stage, many, many times. How do they keep it fresh? How did that actor perform his 3,000th show and keep it immediate and alive and worth the ticket price? I don’t know for sure. But I can tell you what many of us do: We consciously choose a new intention to play.
Here are a few intentions I have used in the past.
TALKS
To give them every tool I have.
To invite silliness.
To enliven the room.
To engage the person in the way, way, back.
TRAININGS
To pull out the best.
To create a space for adventure and experimentation.
To lead the way and invite others to follow.
CONVERSATIONS
To move away from the dance.
To break the pattern.
To take a risk.
To share the truth.
To invite the truth.
PLAYS
To make him stay with me.
To get them to believe me.
To get her to confess.
To get them to take care of me.
To make them take me seriously.
To cajole.
To repel.
To seduce.
To save.
This week, keep communication fresh by inviting in the unknown!