Ah-ha!
So I had a eureka moment tonight, fittingly enough, in the bathtub.
I have been walking around for the past week or so joking that I am going to run my own television station some day. That I am going to be what Lifetime or Oxygen Networks should be, that I am going to put together varied and rich programming that puts women front and center, because that might just be the only way that I can see that kind of programming come from this town.
Tonight, in the bathtub, I realized that I might not be joking.
I need to go back, for my own navel-gazing purposes, and look at the entries I made in this LJ when I made the decision to come out to LA from Chicago. There was a lot in there about how much more effective I could be in reaching people with my mission statement of creating something beautiful and sharing it with the world. With making the world a better place for women - more equal, more safe, more open and free. A place where our voices are heard, in all their variety and pitch, harmony and discord. It's what I felt I was doing by founding and running Babes With Blades. And certainly, I meant at the time: in the capacity of an actor in those productions. But I couldn't have been an actor in those productions, if I hadn't founded the theatre company to produce those productions in the first place!
Nothing in the dramatic arts can be created alone - it is a collaborative process. Which means that if I want my voice to be heard, I need to collaborate with others to create the stage upon which we will stand and speak. A fact that fills me with joy, as I know that I work better in concert with like-minded others, than I do in isolation. Nothing gives me greater joy than bringing together people who make the whole greater than the sum of the parts.
Founding Babes With Blades, and the 10 years I spent with the organization, will be an excellent model and inspiration for me to learn how to make something similar happen with television and film. And this time, with the reach that these mediums have, I'll truly be able to feel like I am letting the voices of women ring out across the globe, hopefully bringing heart to each other.
And then I realized I had to get out of the tub that minute, because my heart practically beating out of my chest was not a sign of the greatness of the moment, but rather that I had made the water too hot, and was boiling myself. I had to lie down in front of an open window to get my body temperature back to normal. Which is another reason I need like-minded women around me - to save me from my own stupidity. :)
I have been walking around for the past week or so joking that I am going to run my own television station some day. That I am going to be what Lifetime or Oxygen Networks should be, that I am going to put together varied and rich programming that puts women front and center, because that might just be the only way that I can see that kind of programming come from this town.
Tonight, in the bathtub, I realized that I might not be joking.
I need to go back, for my own navel-gazing purposes, and look at the entries I made in this LJ when I made the decision to come out to LA from Chicago. There was a lot in there about how much more effective I could be in reaching people with my mission statement of creating something beautiful and sharing it with the world. With making the world a better place for women - more equal, more safe, more open and free. A place where our voices are heard, in all their variety and pitch, harmony and discord. It's what I felt I was doing by founding and running Babes With Blades. And certainly, I meant at the time: in the capacity of an actor in those productions. But I couldn't have been an actor in those productions, if I hadn't founded the theatre company to produce those productions in the first place!
Nothing in the dramatic arts can be created alone - it is a collaborative process. Which means that if I want my voice to be heard, I need to collaborate with others to create the stage upon which we will stand and speak. A fact that fills me with joy, as I know that I work better in concert with like-minded others, than I do in isolation. Nothing gives me greater joy than bringing together people who make the whole greater than the sum of the parts.
Founding Babes With Blades, and the 10 years I spent with the organization, will be an excellent model and inspiration for me to learn how to make something similar happen with television and film. And this time, with the reach that these mediums have, I'll truly be able to feel like I am letting the voices of women ring out across the globe, hopefully bringing heart to each other.
And then I realized I had to get out of the tub that minute, because my heart practically beating out of my chest was not a sign of the greatness of the moment, but rather that I had made the water too hot, and was boiling myself. I had to lie down in front of an open window to get my body temperature back to normal. Which is another reason I need like-minded women around me - to save me from my own stupidity. :)