Audition Call in Chicago

July 7 addendum: According to this week's Time Magazine, a new poll suggests we are at another "malaise moment," with more Americans pessimistic about our country's decline and their own future. I happen to think we have our best bet of getting out of our malaise the more we engage creatively with our own lives.

So we're taking the next step with Malaise County Fair, an interactive musical that breaks the wall between performer and audience in new ways, and are having auditions next week here in Chicago. Please spread the word to actor-singer-improvisers or other local creative friends who might want to be part of an exciting new project:

CALL FOR AUDITIONS…
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Malaise County Fair
An Interactive Musical Experience
about relationships, choices and getting out of our malaise
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Audition Dates: July 13 and July 16

Overview: Unlike any theater show you have been part of, the Malaise County Fair is a love story, musical and community experience that breaks down the wall between performer and spectator, offering numerous opportunities for audience members to participate. Elements and exercises from Malaise have been successfully featured in teambuilding and innovation sessions by the Kreativity Network (www.kreativity.net) and “Creativity Jams” hosted by founder Adam Shames at Old Town School of Music and elsewhere. Our current goal is to workshop this original musical with a performance team over the next few months, leading to public performance(s) in late September. While the script is already written, roles will be tailored to individual performers, and we embrace a collaborative process to improve the show.

Roles: We’re looking for 4-5 male and female performers of different ages—particularly actor-singer-improvisers who are also comfortable as facilitators helping audience-participants get involved. We love those who play a musical instrument (percussion included) or have a special talent (we can integrate).

Auditions: Come meet us, learn more about Malaise, and be ready to sing, act, improvise and jam from selections of songs and scenes from our script. Bring your standard HS/resume or an appropriately creative substitute. Dates:

>>Wednesday, July 13^th at 7:00pm at Arts at Large Studio, 3318 N. Lake Shore Drive, on the inner drive just north of Belmont; and
>>Saturday, July 16^th at 3:30pm location TBA.

Please RSVP to info@kreativity.net to let us know you’re coming and for further instructions. Phone: 773-388-2880.

Malaise County Fair is created and directed by Adam Shames, accomplished singer-songwriter and founder of the Kreativity Network (www.kreativity.net) who brings experiential learning and leadership programs into organizations. Learn more on the Malaise website or visit/like the Malaise County Fair Page on Facebook.

Reinvention Month 3: Moving with Chatter

For a sampling of recent blog articles on business innovation, click here or here or here or here. For more on creativity from Adam, use search field (top left) or click on keywords (bottom right) on his Innovation on my Mind blog.

I'm keeping up the fight to overcome what Stephen Pressfield calls "resistance." How do I keep moving forward? How can you move forward on the urge to create, build something, change something?

*Don't listen to the chatter. Pay no attention to the those rambling, disjointed images and notions that drift across the movie screen of your mind. THOSE ARE NOT YOUR THOUGHTS. THEY ARE CHATTER. THEY ARE RESISTANCE.

Chatter is your mother and father's well-intentioned expressions of caution, seeking to shield you from hurting yourself. Chatter is your teachers' equally well-meaning attempts at socialization, training you to follow the rules. Chatter is your friends' regular-Joe buddy-talk, trying to make you like them and follow the rules of the pack.

Okay, I'm getting better about the chatter. I'm letting it come and go like wind. Sometimes my hair gets in my eyes. Sometimes I have to sit down. But I'm moving forward. Now what?

*COVER THE CANVAS. ONE RULE FOR FIRST FULL WORKING DRAFTS: GET THEM DONE ASAP. Don't worry about quality. Act, don't reflect. Momentum is everything. Get to THE END as if the devil himself were breathing down your neck and poking you in the butt with his pitchfork.

DON'T STOP. DON'T LOOK DOWN. DON'T THINK. SUSPEND ALL SELF-JUDGMENT. THE INNER CRITIC? HIS ASS IS NOT PERMITTED IN THE BUILDING.

*from Pressfield's new book, Do the Work.

Summer Creative Plunge

There is a cool rain pounding the streets once again out my window, as Chicagoans like me continue to wonder when summer will fully arrive. But no matter. The days are long, the trees are green, and it's time once again for me to urge you to let your creativity bloom.

With the extra daylight and outdoor opportunities, what might you be able to bring into the world this summer that only can come from you?

Perhaps you need a spark or a support group to take a summer creative plunge? Like-minded creativity rabble-rouser John Dillon--he is also a radio host, author, and Albuquerque-based speaker and singer-songwriter--has put together a free video series to inspire your creativity. Below is the first of his four free videos:

John has several websites and resources for you if you'd like help engaging your creativity. And if you like his mellow and passionate style, I encourage you not only to watch his four free videos (and listen to his "Art of the Song" radio show and get his book, left), but make a commitment for real creative change by taking a leap and signing up for his 7-week Creativity, Passion and Purpose TeleCourse. Watch the 4th video for more information and sign up using this link so he knows I referred you. Deadline to sign up is this Sunday.

Here in Chicago, I continue to develop Malaise County Fair, an audience-interactive musical and show dedicated to helping us all get out of whatever malaise we are in and creating a space to jam together as a community. We welcome more creativity rabble-rousers to join us--please like us on Facebook, and contact me directly if you'd like to be involved as a performer or behind the scenes.

Let this be the summer you become a musician--let me help you make that happen with my music coaching and you'll be jamming to songs in 6 weeks or less.

Whatever you choose to do, I want to encourage to move from being just a spectator to more of a creator in your life. As John Dillon and I agree, creativity can change lives--and it is just what our society needs right now. It starts with you.

"Everyone Agrees" about Innovation (Whatever it is)

In an article this week in Time, Fareed Zakaria succinctly captures our national conversation about innovation: "Everyone agrees it's key to America's future" but "we don't really have a good fix on the concept."

Zakaria, the omnipresent commentator who works for both CNN and Time, has emerged as one of the most lucid and sane advocates for this buzzword we call innovation. He points out the ways the U.S. as a country is falling behind--and argues convincingly that innovation is "the only durable stength we have" in these troubling economic times. Both novel business ideas and new technology are crucial to innovation, he writes, and what's most important is the "ecosystem that encourages technological breakthroughs and their application."

Click on his picture above to see an interview last night for the Daily Show as he explains that while corporations are doing fine right now, the American labor force is not.

As the political game between two parties begins to pick up steam with Republican candidate debates, we find that "innovation," as Zakaria points out, is one of the few unifying forces in American culture right now. While researchers define innovation as "the implementation of creative ideas," national commentators tend to refer to it in terms of money--for research and development, for capital to invest in businesses, and for government programs that lead to new companies and products. Zakaria is particularly good at describing that ecosystem that fosters innovation, which includes the need for government investment (that fueled great breakthroughs like the Internet, the microchip and GPS)--and which Republicans are often less thrilled to publicly admit supporting.

Zakaria's new CNN series, Restoring the American Dream: How to Innovate, debuted last Sunday, and you can find great resources on CNN for better understanding the innovation conversation, including interviews with distinguished innovators, including John Kao, whose Innovation Nation is also a must-read on the subject, and author Steven Johnson in the video below.


I've previously referred to this conversation as the innovation imperative--the urgent need we have as a country and a culture, as organizations and individuals, to better learn how to be more creative and foster innovation. One imperative is a national and economic one, which includes creating the ecosystem and investments necessary to bring innovation here at home. Another is our own as individuals and in our organizations. I define innovation in that context as improving what's now and creating what's next. For our own innovation to flourish, we have to be constantly working on improving our current state of being--questioning assumptions, proactively seeking out better ways of doing things--and be constantly visioning and creating new strategies and possibilities for the future.

What have you been doing lately to improve what's now and create what's next for your own life, career or organization?