Tea with McNair

• now more than ever: brainstorm!

One of the most frequent comments about most of our favorite companies, organizations, and ministries is, "They are SO creative." You can be too. During a challenging (uncertain) economy, there's no better way to move ahead and stay ahead than to release imaginations and make those ideas real.

I love the exuberance of individuals and teams when they discover they have a creative spirit (factory installed) and can recapture their risk-taking, assumption-challenging, curiosity now and put it to use...everyday.

Move from arguing about three pretty good ideas to HATCHing 300 WILD ideas (or more.) Show my new video to the boss (the person with ther combination to the lockbox with the "Yes" card in it.)

In the next few weeks I'll be taking the Curiosity Tour to work (and play) with college students and their professors in the South, childrens workers in Canada, a multi-campus church in Chicagoland, and authors from across the country at a boutique writers residency. No matter how full my calendar gets, there is ALWAYS room in the not-too-distant future (next month) to add more stops.

Best time to contact me is...NOW.

[ You'll find my direct email under my photo, above left column. Or tell me about your current project in the Comment section below and I'll get an automatic alert that you checked in ...and get back to you soon-ish. If "everything's going pretty good" in your world (and work), time to grab the next rung (or three) up the ladder. I'd love to assist in maximizing your team's passions, abilities, and experience. Curious? Call! ]

• putting it together

". . . step by step." Making art is work. Or, as I often say (and there's a sign in my studio) :: It's supposed to be hard, it's ART! ::

I started writing my new play last Summer (July and August) and turned in the first draft in early September. Our first read-through of the entire script was a week later (before any roles had been cast. (I may steal that idea from my new friend, Sanne McCarthy, director of I,WITNESS.)

Casting moved along steadily—a couple of roles were just cast last week. [ Photo, right, Jesus and seven of the disciples] There are more than 65 actors in the cast (!) ranging from age five to some terrific character actors in their sixties. They all lend a broad, lively, and visually interesting texture to "the BEST story ever told."

This past Tuesday (22 March) evening we had our first "top-to-bottom" run through of the entire show. We also had our largest cast turn out—having contended with our four Magi being involoved basketball playoffs, several cast members currently on band tour (this week is Colorado Christian Universities Spring break) and the usual "I forgot" stuff.

Even so, the run through was thrilling: highly productive and informative for cast and artistic team. We have another run through tonight (3.24.11) and we all expect it to be much improved because of the good work on Tuesday.

And we—the director and I—are still tweaking the script. I am blessed with a very experienced theatrical director who is herself an accomplished playwright.

There are some surprises in this production—besides the enormous cast—we will have a giant stage (32' x 40' x 10' high.) being built in the University Event Center. But even the cast was surprised and delighted at the amount of humor in the script. As I told attendees at  "Writing For the Soul" (national conference of Christian Writers Guild) during my keynote (What's So Funny About God), "Notice that it is not a question." I said, "If you have people in your novel or story and they talk to each other, and it's real...there will be humor." Hence the story of a Jewish boy named "Levi" becoming a successful tax collector in the employ of the Roman Empire...there's funny in there some where. Plus the assembling of Jesus followers (he begins several dozens) includes some unlikely choices: religious zealots, fishermen, Roman tax collectors. Another unexpected development will be our use of photographic elements to focus our audience's attention on key dramatic moments during the fianl days of the story.

My long time friend, MaxPaul Franklin, stepped up to photograph these critical scenes (that will appear with live dialogue during every performance.) MaxPaul is an award winning cinemotagrapher and the founder of IMS Productions. He is a magician behind the lens. We shot these elements last Saturday...here's a preview:

   

If you live close to Denver (anywhere in the "Front Range" area of Colorado, or Wyoming, New Mexico, Istanbul, Rangoon, San Pedro, Juno)...I hope you will attend. I will be at all performances (and in them.) There will be a Q&A with director, cast members, Jerry B. Jenkins (author of the novel that inspired the whole project) and me at the three daytime preformances. Running time is under 90 min.

All performances are on the campus of Colorado Christian University, Lakewood, CO. 7-10 April 2011. Tickets available online on the I,WITNESS website. (More info on poster, above, click to enlarge.) I am told that tickets sales are moving along briskly. Seating is "open"(no reserved seats) so plan to arrive early to get a good seat. Don't miss this. Also, on the I,WITNESS website you can view a promo video of Jerry Jenkins and I discussing the project as well as get downloadable posters and handbills.

See you in two weeks. TWO WEEKS ?...I gotta go!

• what color is your weekend?

Here's a little color to jump start your creative weekend. Creativity comes in so many sizes, shapes, activities, and colors. You don't need to be in a good mood to create. You can create when your sick, mad, frustrated, in a hospital bed, wearing a cast, sitting in the back seat on the way to someplace you don't want to be going....do we have to? MOM!!!

I am never more than a few inches from colorful pens, markers, even crayons. There's a box of Crayola Crayons* in my downstairs "powder room"—a.k.a. the Wayne Thiebaud Gumball Museum.

(See un-retouched, iPhone snapshot, above. Click to enlarge. All the art is Wayne Thiebaud "studies" in various mediums as preparation for an oil painting. The large gumball machine, seen in mirror, is a reproduction of a watercolor. Calendar: Thiebaud bananas. This not a set up for a blog photo. And, YES, there are two actual gumball machines in this room. the one on the counter contains old hotel keys with their plastic fobs. The one on the "commode" contains colored push pins. There is a third gumball machine in the kitchen, next to a small wine rack, filled with colorful, rubber wine "corks.")

Here's Mr. Rogers visiting the Crayola Crayon factory in Easton, PA. I was surprised to see how many steps were done by hand...

More than a dozen steps by hand. That was a few years ago, several steps are now automated, but there are still several steps done by hand. Creativity is work.

This weekend I will be working hard on creative projects :: several hours on Saturday and Sunday, rehearsing my new play— I,WITNESS. Besides playing a role, the director, Sanne McCarthy (like Donna with an "s"), has asked me to assist her in directing a few scenes to get another perspective. Most directors will bring in a fellow director to get their take on characterizations, blocking, pace, etc. I'm delighted she trusts me. We've developed a great friendship and working relationship. It will still be her show. She has directed this in ways that I would not have seen.

My weekend (including today) will also include more sorting, purging, rearranging my "stuff." More "treasure hunting!" I always discover great old "friends" in almost every box. And..inevitably, more art supplies. :: If you have not yet red the previous post on creative purging and sorting (for garages, storage units, and stuffed closests and "guest rooms") have a look--immediately below this Tea post: purging: good for the soul (and productivity)

  * Crayons by the Numbers :: "Crayola" makes 12 million crayons a day, 3 billion each year—enough to circle the globe SIX TIMES.  The company was founded by cousins Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith in New York City in 1885 as Binney & Smith.  The "Crayola" name was coined by Alice Binney, wife of founder Edwin and a former school teacher. It comes from "craie," the French word for "chalk," and "ola," for "oleaginous," or "oily." 

In 1990 they discontinued nine unpopular, least used, colors including Maze (orange-ish yellow) and Raw Umber (dark, earthy, brown--great for tree trunk detailing over lighter brown base.) Fans of these two colors banned together to protest their beloved colors being exiled. The group was called Raw Umber & Maze Preservation Society (or "RUMPS"). Binney & Smith Crayola Crayons have double wrapped labels to make them stronger to hold up in the grip of passionate artists—children.

Binney & Smith also manufacture "Silly Putty."

Creativity is work. It can also be fun, inspiring, restorative, sacred, playful, nourishing, silly, intense . . . Get to it. Have a colorful weekend!  Dig out your crayons and  "hide" them in plain sight— kitchen counter, family room coffee table... (No crayons. GO! Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Target, Walgreens, Walmart... they're everywhere.)

 

{ Let me know what you've created and purged! I'll post "before & afta" photos if you send them.}

• purging: good for the soul (and productivity)

(Almost) Spring Cleaning :: I am spending the next few days reorganizing my studio (home office) and cleaning out files in my Mac--including purging a LOT of "stuff" in my email files. FEELS GREAT to toss, purge, delete, trash, and clarify.

Hope to find an hour or two each week (from now on) to keep things tiddy-ish. I already do a bit of that: start the day trashing all the junk in my eMail IN-BOX and double check and clear out Junk Mail file. All this purging rarely feels "productive" (as in, "look what I made or DID"), but it supports productivity enormously.

TRY IT :: Stay after work, one night next week, and PURGE! Make it active, pLaYfULL, and NOISY (loud music and karate sounds each time you toss something in the "real" trash. HAH!)

NEXT :: RE-DECORATE. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO. Come on! You've been staring at the same STUFF for (how long?)

Send me a before and "afta" photo and I'll post the best ones and send you one my books.

I may even post a shot or three of my "Studio"—work cave. For now, here's my view from my handmade-in-Africa desk (Thanks Susan!) And if I turn my head to the left and look out of the window next to* my desk, I can see Pikes Peak. [It's the pointy little pile of snow, just below the clouds, directly above my desk lamp. It ain't the Bay Bridge, but..at 14,115 ft., it'll do.]

* I italicized next to when mentioning the relationship of my desk to the window. I am huge believer in being able to look out of any window while seated at your desk, workstation. DO NOT sit with your back to the window. It's not a crime, but...it is a sin. I once got five out of seven vice presidents, in a row of offices with huge windows to the out of doors, to rearrange their desks to NOT be sitting—as they had for YEARS ("as long as I can remeber we've all done this")—so they could look out doors, easily.

But today is opening season on (Almost) Spring Cleaning.

One trick I use: get an empty box (medium siz, "book box.") Open two boxes of stuff, or a drawer or file cabinet. You have FIVE minutes to fill the empty box with what you will save from the the two stuff boxes. Extra sprinkles on your ice cream or cup cake for doing it in 3 minutes. If you have—as I do in the garage  (I'm sure I'm the only one)—more boxes of collected (hoarded) treasures, repeat until your entire life's treasures** fits in ONE box.

** "Life's Treasures" are anything we keep in a box, old suitcase, large trash bag - - in the garage or a storage unit (in another zip code.) This does not include actually "garage stuff" like bikes, tools, lawn and snow removal equipment. However, too many boxes of Family photos and other keepsakes, records/tapes/CD/VHS/DVD, old magazines, books (especially textbooks), old clothes (not seasonal items in the vacuum bags), and any old (we never use it) sporting equipment. THROW or GIVE IT AWAY: This week.

Too cold in the garage or storage unit? Bring two boxes into the family room, throw an old movie on the BLU-VD-HS machine. Place an empty box between them and PURGE. Ask youself:

- Will I ever need this again?

- Is it replaceable or is the info (in a book or old files) available online?

- Do I love having this around because it is my ____________ (high school yearbook, really?, or . . .)

CLUE :: If the only time you ever see or touch this stuff is every time you move, well, Sparky, TIME TO MOVE IT OUT OF YOUR LIFE.

Next week...closets! Start with your clothing. You know you have stuff you have not touched sine the last time you pushed it out of the way. AND...how many empty, wire clothes hangers does one closet need?! Not as many as you have. The DOD (Dept. of Defense) has asked me to donate my empty wire hangers for a special project—a new aircraft carrier they're building. I get to name it. When you see the USS Bullwinkle J. Moose, think of me and my clean closet!

Now take off and get purging!

 

• checking in - check this out

New Las Vegas hotel shatters all design preconceptions for the "arrival experience" with an ever-changing, interactive, "infinity" lobby. Video is fascinating, but one suspects the real thing is for more. For now, a video visit.

What "arrival experiences" are you creating, providing, improving...? Even a tiny lobby or "simple" waiting room for an office can become a welcoming and inspiring experience. Your turn.

Any mints, candy, fruit on the reception desk....(for a hotel it's expected, but at your realestate office, ministry, school...)

Exmaples: My dentist brews upscale coffee and teas (!) and bakes great cookies (just incase you arrive cavity free.) And a publisher/client I consult with has a small library of most of their books in the lobby to read-while-you-wait. When your appointmnet is ready and they notice you reading one of their books they say, "Please keep it."

Please share what "arrival experiences" you've created to inspire others in the comment section belwow.