Moved by a myriad of characters, fine acting and resonant stories, a week at the Oregon Shakespeare sends hearts and minds to places which can be hard to frequent in our day to day. Hungry for comprehension of how these worlds of wonder come about, the post play actor talk-back opens doors to enhanced understanding.

Every actor from every play, whether authored by the Marx Brothers or by Shakespeare, begins the discussion explaining the director’s and the design team’s emphasis on “how to tell the story”. It’s the story that matters. It connects the audience to the playwright, to the artists, to history, to other cultures and to each other.

We need stories. They have power. They open us in ways we may not understand or even notice right away but we feel it. And they change us.

Storytelling is done with dance, music and with painting, as well as with words. We all long to tell a story that means something to us–that shares our values and beliefs and our visions. Their creation is self-reflection. Their acceptance is validation.

Part of the painting process is about our search for a story that can be told visually and the means by which to tell it—color, shape, line, brush technique, etc. I believe that the best of this comes at an unconscious level, by following urges and instincts. Awareness of reaction plays a part.

Paying attention to how shape and color and the quality of a line support the message will assist. A terrific book, Picture This by Molly Bang tells “how pictures work”—how shapes, color and composition make us feel the way things look. “Why does a triangle make us feel stable, while diagonal lines give a sense of tension?” CHECK IT OUT: http://www.nhsdesigns.com/pdfs/graphic_ss_picture-this.pdf .

With this info in the back of your mind and the concept of notan that was discussed in the last blog/class, address works in progress or start something knew. We’ll bat around ideas as needed.