The Annual Navel Gaze: 2013

by Phil RickabywordsPosted on No Comments

This is the time of year when people make lists and get reflective about the year that’s gone by and start to make resolutions for the coming year. I’ve never been one for resolutions. Resolutions start out great, but often get forgotten, leaving the person who made the resolution feeling disappointed in themselves. I prefer to make some goals for myself. The difference might be semantic, but I see the goals I set as less things I need to accomplish, but rather as setting a direction for the year ahead. So, even if I don’t accomplish the goal itself, it did set a direction for me for the year. Perhaps I didn’t accomplish the goals I set for myself during last year’s navel gaze, but those goals set me down the road I did end up following.

And now, the highlights of my year:

  • Meeting my girlfriend Sarah (who is awesome). I haven’t talked too much about her here, but if you follow me on the facebooks, you’ll have seen a lot about her.
  • This year, I stumbled a little creatively near the beginning of the year. It got a little hard to write and be creative while job hunting. But later on in the year, about the mid-way point, I rediscovered my love of writing, and have been going strong since.
  • I participated in the Red Sandcastle Theatre‘s first annual 1000 Monkeys 24 hour playwriting event, which resulted in the creation of my play The Parliamentarians. I loved participating in this event. A group of playwrights, hunkering down in the Red Sandcastle for 24 hours, each given  three words to inspire them. It was pretty awesome writing in that room, with almost no one talking, everyone concentrating on the play they were working on.
  • I changed the name of my podcast, and was able to interview some great people, including one of my theatre heroes.
  • With Keystone Theatre, created a new show, called Gold Fever and presented it for three performances at the Toronto Clown Festival.
  • Finding out that Keystone Theatre would also be bringing our Fringe Festival hit, the Last Man on Earth to Toronto’s Berkeley Street Theatre in April (and you can totally buy tickets now). Opening night is my birthday, so you should totally come.
  • In November, also finding out that Keystone would be bringing Gold Fever to the Toronto Fringe Festival in July.
  • Being asked by the Red Sandcastle to present my play The Parliamentarians in May.

And my goals for the coming year:

  • Keep writing plays. I’ve got some plays that I started, but didn’t finish, and some ideas that I’ve been kicking around. Last year, I didn’t finish either of the plays I’d mentioned, so I’m not going to list specific plays. I just want to keep writing them.
  • I also want to stretch my writing creativity. I want to write in some formats that i’m less comfortable in, like short stories and novels, so I’ll give that a go as well.
  • I also want to figure out what to do with the podcast. Since I’ve been working two jobs, its been difficult for me to find the time to seek out interviews and go and do them. I’d like to relaunch the podcast and make it into something I can do given the limited time I have. I just don’t quite know that is yet.

And that’s it. The year that was, and the year ahead. Let’s do this again next year.

This persistent idea

by Phil Rickabywork, WritingPosted on No Comments

I have this idea that gets stuck in my head and won’t go away. I think its a good idea, but I’m not sure how to make it work just yet.

The idea is this: a coworking space for writers. Now, I know that these sorts of things already exist, but we make this more of a co-op. Everyone buys in and shares the cost of the space. Since people are creative at different times, the space is available to its members whenever they need it. If they are more creative during the day, they can come and use the space then, or if they write best at night, they can do that. This appeals to me because I have, in the past, done my best writing (or at least my most prolific writing) in a room with other creative people.

The idea goes a little further. So we all have access to the space when we need it, but it would be possible to book the space for a special event. Having a book launch? Having a play reading? Book the space for a night, charge an entry fee and kick a small percentage back to the space. These would help cover incidental costs that might come up, like repairs or internet or coffee. Occasionally, we might have a party in the space, charge a cover and use that cover to go into a fund for the space.

These are just ideas I’ve been batting around in my brain. None of them are even a little doable at the moment, because getting something like this set up takes money and at the moment that’s something I just don’t have. But I feel like writing this down is a good way to help solidify the idea in my head so that sometime in the future I can make it happen.

The secret of writing

by Phil RickabyWritingPosted on One Comment

So, for a long time, I’ve called myself a writer. I prefer the writing of plays over all other forms, so we’ll call me a playwright. But, the truth is that for a very long time, I haven’t done a whole lot of writing. I would have ideas. And I might write some down, but I would often get stuck and abandon the project. Because writing is hard.

And so, I read books. I picked up books about writing. About play writing. About story creation. About anything to do with writing. And I read them. And I was disappointed. Because what I was looking for was the secret. I was trying to find the shortcut. The secret formula or knowledge that would make the writing easy. Because I didn’t want it to be hard. Because I thought that if I loved doing something, it should be easy for me. And I did like writing, but not when it was hard. So I kept reading books on writing. And searching for the secret.

Over the last year, I’ve been writing more. I’ve been writing a lot in fact. And in working at it, I finally learned the secret that I’d been looking for. The secret of writing.

And I’m going to share it with you now.

Are you ready? Because here it is:
Writing is hard. There’s no shortcut. No easy fix. Sometimes the words come easily, and sometimes they don’t. And when they don’t, you keep writing. Because that’s what writers do. You get writer’s block, and you keep writing. Maybe you switch to something else, and then come back to it. But you keep writing.

And that’s the truth of it. You can read every book on writing that there is. But until you start writing, you aren’t a writer. And those books won’t give you any shortcuts. Or formulas. Because they don’t exist. You just have to write. Every day.

Once I learned this truth, I have been pretty prolific. I’ve been writing plays, and finishing them. Because I push past when its hard, to when it becomes easy again. Sometimes it gets easy, and sometimes it doesn’t. But I keep writing.

I think that I had read that somewhere, but I wasn’t ready to hear it. Because I was still operating under the delusion that it should be easy for me. But I was wrong.

Because if writing was easy, everyone would do it. It matters, because it’s hard. And its worthwhile because it’s hard.

And that’s the secret.

You’re welcome.

We still need to talk about email

by Phil RickabyMarketing, TheatrePosted on One Comment

A while back, I wrote this article about how many theatre companies are using email. Unfortunately, there are still companies that are using email poorly, and as such are hurting their reputations.

I recently received an email from a company that I purchased theatre tickets from. This company did not put any notification about email subscription in their purchasing process. After purchasing tickets, I noticed that I had begun receiving regular emails from them. I asked to be removed from their mailing list. They complied at the time.

Almost two years later, however, I received an email from them, and it is a plea for financial assistance. I understand the need to reach as wide an audience as possible with your email campaigns, especially for your fundraising. But your need does not change the best practices of email marketing. Your need does not make the fact that I never subscribed to your mailing list any less annoying.

Here’s the thing: your campaign loses value if you contact people who didn’t ask to hear from you. Because the reaction from these people (like me), is not just to delete your email, but annoyance. This does not make us likely to give you money, or go to your show. In fact, I’m more likely NOT to do those things.

One of the most important lessons of marketing by email is don’t annoy your customer base. If you, as someone who is thinking of sending email, has ever thought something along the lines of “Of course they want to hear from us, they are our customer”, you must stop and not hit send on that email. Being your customer is not reason enough for you to send an email to someone. They must have given you permission to do so. And if they haven’t, do not send them your newsletter. And absolutely, do not send them an email asking for money.

You can do better. And you need to do better. If you’re going to use email as a marketing or fundraising tool. Do it smartly. Or lose customers.

So you’ve decided to go to the theatre

by Phil RickabyTheatrePosted on 2 Comments

Welcome to the theatre. We are certainly glad to have you. It’s possible that you haven’t been to the theatre before, or maybe it’s been a long time since you’ve been to a play. Either way, there are a few things you should know about how to behave during a live theatrical production.

1. Turn off your cellphone: I know people tell you to do this all the time, say in movie theatres and the like, and it just as important here. In fact it may be more so. The glow of your cellphone is distracting to the people around you, and it can be seen from far away. Most everyone in the theatre can see that glow when you look at your phone. And worse, the actors can see you, and it’s distracting. No matter how concentrated an actor might be on the scene, the ethereal glow of the cellphone draws attention immediately. Which can be dangerous if the actor has to do something like sword fight. It’s also disrespectful. These actors are here, right now, putting their hearts and souls into the play you are, watching. Show them the respect they deserve and turn off your phone and pay attention.

2. No texting. This goes hand in hand with turning off your cellphone, but I have seen a lot of this lately, so it needs a separate entry. There is no excuse for texting in the theatre. Period. Not only is it distracting, to the people around you, but, as above, it’s disrespectful. So, turn off your phone.

3. No pictures. Put the camera away. That includes the one on your cellphone (which, should be off). I know that you are excited to be here, and that sharing or excitement by posting pictures of what we are doing or seeing is part of the digital culture, but its not appropriate here. There are a couple of reasons for this: a) copyright; the production you are seeing is copyrighted, and the set and costumes and images are all a part of that. b) It’s rude. The glow of the camera is just as distracting to the people around you as your phone. And if you left your flash on, then it’s even more so. It doesn’t matter if you turned off the flash, and the brightness of the screen, it can still be seen.

4. Stop talking. Sound carries in a theatre. What you think is a quiet whisper is actually carrying across the theatre. And to the stage. If you want to discuss something, wait till intermission. During the play is not the time to discuss how funny that line was or ask about something you might have missed.

5. Stay for the bows. The actors have spent the last two hours working hard to bring you the show you just saw. Thank them for their hard work. Don’t get up and leave before the bows start, stay in your seat and applaud. It’s not your chance to beat the rush to the parking lot while everyone else is distracted. It’s your chance to thank the actors for the show you just watched. Stay till its over.

Do you have any other suggestions for behaviour in the theatre? Share them in the comments.