Tea with McNair

• i see dragons

My home for the last five weeks has been Belhaven University. They have posted an online banner for the play I've been directing here, Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Like, LINK. Based on the wonderful children's book of the same title it is a fable from ancient Chine with a lesson for all times and all ages. We are incorporating elements and elements from street theatre, Chinese theatre, puppetry, and all performed at Belhaven's mamoth Entergy Pavillion. (See photo)

Curiously, this space has never been used for a cultural event though it sets in the center of campus. I snapped a photo of the cast (below) with my iPhone after lest nights (Sat. 29 Oct.) technical rehearsal. We ran the show twice with props, sound, sets (all manipulated by the cast). Costume will be added Monday and tuesday nights for dress rehearsals.

Show details (8 performances in 4days, opening this Wed. 2 NOv. at 6:3o pm.) online HERE. The performance is suitable for kindergarten children through ... and it is silly enough for grown ups. The play is approximately 1:10 and there is a preshow and "Stretch break" (no formal intermission.) come early and join us at the stone table to draw a dragon. Admission is FREE for all ages, all performances. (No tickets of reservations, just show up.) Tell your friends in the south to come by. Feel free to link this post to you blog, Facebook, Twitter account ... I will be at every preformance.

• think different(ly) ... still

 

If Thomas Edison had been born first, he might be called the "new Steve Jobs." Our lives are better, different, because of both of these men.

I knew it wouldn't be enough merely to position these two great thinker-innovators side-by-side, so ... I fused them, below.

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently.

They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward.

While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

[ That is the text from the now-legendary "Think Different" commercial that launched Steve Jobs' recapturing the reins of Apple, Inc. We all saw and heard the original version of this TV ad. a lot. It was narrated by actor Richard Dreyfuss (Jaws, Mr. Holland's Opus, Close Encounters ...). But there was another version we never saw, until now. It had all the same images and editing, but narrated Steve Jobs. Watch it below.]

And thanks, Steve, for pushing us all to think, listen, create, communicate, and imagine different ...ly.  Funny, though, it seems that the more we "think different" the more each of us becomes our own, authentic selves. Imagine you can change the world, then ... go do it.

• disneyland flashback

As a kid, one of my favorite attractions at Disneyland was the Mine Train in Frontierland. In a few moments you were TRAINsported to another world: the wilderness of Southwest America. It closed in 1977 to make way for the less evocative Big Thunder Mountian. Thanks to former Disney Imagineering colleague, Mark Eades, we ride again! In the video another co-worker (and Disney Legend, Bab Gurr). All abooooard!

 Be sure to click the expand button to watch video in full screen. (There's a short add, then video.)

• the process of life and art

 

“Art resides in the quality of doing,

process is not magic.”

Charles Eames   

(American designer)

Charles Eames (eemz) and his wife Ray are revolutionary furniture designers and architects. Their work was very modern fifty years ago and today's designers still aspire to be compared with Eames' work. Everyone has seen, sat in, owned or wanted an "Eames" ... anything.

Come over and sit in my Eames, anytime.

[Click on postage stamp block to enlarge and see images of Charles & Ray Eames and their work.]

As I am at Belhaven University—Jackson, MS—this month (through 7 Nov.) directing a play, I am in the heart of the artistic process. Tonight's rehearsal was part read, read, read (I do ALL read-throughs standing up, moving around) and part experimenting with physical relationships on stage ("blocking"). We are finding the magic through the process. They don't call it doing a "play" for nothing.

If you live in the are, come see Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Like, Nov. 2-5 with multiple performances some days. Check the Belhaven arts calendar HERE for details and updates. Admission in FREE to all performances and the play is based on the wonderful children's book of the same name by Jay Williams. With stunning illustrations by the remarkable Mercer Meyer.