As art.party enters the infant stage of identifying itself and its mission (”Who’s that baby in the mirror? Me?!”) I started doing some research about other companies to get a sense of how long it takes to get to a place where we will have “made it.”

Answer: A damn long time.

We are bound to toil in the darkness of obscurity for several years, slowly earning street cred with our peers until our breakout production. And though it feels like every production is our breakout production, logistics like funding and free time may force us to climb slowly and not meteorically.

While I see the value of having a vision (cf. Oprah’s The Secret) I think that what will continue to be my driving force as an artist–and art.party’s–will be to make art and have fun doing that. So far, we seem to be following that theme. That seems to be the only way to survive the slow, inevitable climb.

In September, we’ll take on another rung in the ladder as I’ll be the project leader for art.party’s residency with chashama (lower-case? what! what!). It will be hot off the heels of DUCHESS and art.party.outreach will be creating or polishing brave new work. (”O, brave new wor[k]!”) So, let’s have two big objectives: (1) make good art and (2) have fun. If we devote our energy to the creation, I feel it will come back to us. Even if ten years later.

Since I am not patient myself, I’m attaching a sketch I did yesterday for one night of the residency. Now I just need a performer or performers brave enough to do it. Any takers?

Lots of love,

JB