Butterflies Effect

Well it's opening night tomorrow at Contact for Voices of Dissent, and I've so far failed to post anything about the rehearsal process. I don't feel that's actually much of a failure though as I've realised that documenting something like this as you go along isn't necessarily the best course, and is probably best done in retrospect. Without wanting too sound to artsy and pretentious the creative process can be a fragile thing, and not necessarily something you want to share publicly while you're in the thick of it. And this has definitely been one of the most painful births of a piece of work I've experienced. I wasn't really happy with the writing I had going into rehearsal, which meant doing a substantial amount of re-writing as I was going along - not ideal for separating the jobs of writer and performer that I've learned is essential from previous projects! But sometimes that's just the road you get given to walk and you have to make the best of it, and I feel we have. And I've learned alot about my self and the way I need to work in future through the process, pressured though it has been. I still feel like there's a lot of room for development/improvement in the piece but I think it'll evolve as it goes along, and I've always wanted it to be the sort of piece that can respond to new events as they arise. Public attitude to environmental issues has changed a lot even in the three years I've been working on Changing Cycles, and they'll continue to, increasingly, I think.
It's actually Earth Day today, which is why I felt like I had to post something, even though I'm tired and have got a massive day ahead tomorrow. Earth Day is a US creation that begin in the 70s as a series of grass-roots teach-ins and now seems to have been embraced by politicians and corporations keen to promote their green credentials. I didn't actually know about it until I got home tonight and read about it on Grist. I'd like to think it passed with little mention here in the UK because we don't go in for dubious tokenism and are too busy considering the earth the remaining 364 days of the year, but I suspect that's not the case. Still, to mark the occasion I thought I'd share one of the best motivational quotes I've been reminded of over the last few days, wrongly attributed to Goethe (see here for why): Whatever you can do, or think you can, begin it; Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.