Top Ten Ways to "Think Lark" in 2010
by John Clinton Eisner
Last year in this blog, we focused on what Lark community members had to say about where we’re headed as a society and the tools we’ll need to get there. We invited a guest essayist each month to share a unique perspective on the role of live theater in the twenty-first century and what the field has to offer society as a whole. I want to offer my heartfelt thanks to our brilliant 2009 essayists—May Adrales, Alex Beech, Henry Godinez, Chisa Hutchinson, Rajiv Joseph, Margarett Perry, Theresa Rebeck, Saviana Stanescu, and Andrea Thome—who provoked and prodded our imaginations in a year of political change and economic uncertainty and helped the Lark community stay true to its mission and vision.
Because these blogs have been so fun and productive, we will continue to run them in 2010 starting next month. In the meantime, here is a grain (or ten) of New Year’s inspiration—OUR TOP TEN WAYS TO "THINK LARK" IN 2010:
10. Talk about what excites you, not what doesn’t.
9. Listen carefully and speak your opinion honestly and respectfully when it is genuinely sought.
8. Take a moment to reconsider your position if you don’t get the joke.
7. Take a playwright or a theater artist you admire to lunch.
6. Think big. Set your own goals and define your own success.
5. Don’t beat a dead horse. Don’t rewrite a play to death. Don’t talk a play to death.
4. Go see a play or theater event that you would normally dismiss as “not your thing.”
3. Be prepared.
2. Take five minutes to be a part of the conversation: comment on a blog, respond to a listserve…
And the number one way to “Think Lark” in 2010 is…
1. Travel to new places whenever you can, even in your imagination.
Happy New Year!!
