MeyerBros

i live at new world arts, though i can occasionally be found working, eating or sleeping at other places.

danny and the deep blue sea opens in two weeks. it clicked the other day and if we weren’t an a three day hiatus from it, we’d be on a roll. (i’m sure we will be when we come back, but it’s hard to take a break right when you hit the real thing). we’re doing some exciting things, and it looks like we may even have the gold mine pickers working with us (still up in the air a bit). very very sweet. i’m riding the wave on that one.

fear/falling has been filling in the cracks at this point. a rehearsal here and there when we can’t be rehearsing for danny/deep. it’s a harder way to work, and i’ll be glad to focus in on it one danny opens.

every show i work on hits an awkward stage around adolecence. struggles with it’s sexuality and trips over itself. it’s voice breaks and we’re all a bit embarassed for it. but it seems to be the same wise and simple piece of advice from Michelle that always helps me find my way through it. it’s a piece of advice she credits her actor training for.

“stop trying. you don’t have to do anything.”

oh yeah. we have this idea as actors and directors that it should be hard work - that we need to do more for it to be good - but often the opposite is true.

i’m looking forward to walking into tomorrow’s fear/falling rehearsal with renewed sense of simplicity. i may also set my backpack page to send me a reminder in mid-january - in the middle of rehearsals for Limonade Tous Les Jours - to stop trying. I know I’ll need to hear it.

i’ve been listening to an mp3 of Simon Sinek from Re:Focus giving a seminar on marketing. He talks about the ‘golden circle’ - with ‘why’ on the inside, then ‘how’ and ‘what’. the claim is most companies never get to that central why in their mission, research or marketing. the terms seem a bit fuzzy at first, but i think i’m picking up on how he uses them for each aspect.

to sumerize:

first - the organization should be defined from the inside out. the ‘why’ is your belief or philosophy. he suggests that for apple it is ‘iconoclasm’ - breaking the rules and being different. for southwest airlines it is ‘the common person’ etc. that leads to the ‘how’ - for apple it means inovative design (it just looks different) and interfaces. for southwest it means low and simple fares, and casual service (nothing elitist about it). then ‘what’ your company does is the last and least important. apple doesn’t even self define as a computer company - they can do anything and they do. small electronics? music stores? movie previews? it all fits their revolutionary image, so who cares what the product is - they do it.

in terms of marketing you go the same direction - but it’s all about your customer. not “we’re iconoclastic” but “join the music revolution”.
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