Songs for the Struggling Artist

The morning after Super Tuesday, I woke up with a song in my head. It’s a song I put on my feminist playlist a while ago and every time it comes around I think, “What is this? And what is it doing on this playlist?” Then the line about the glass ceiling comes along and I understand why it’s there but then I have to see who it is. Many times I have said, “Miley Cyrus? Really?!” But now, I know “ Ba...

The experience of being back onstage after many years away has not been quite what I expected. I’m not getting the major highs or the “Do they like me?” lows. The major feeling is a sense of being built for it. In performing again, I feel a sense of relief at doing what I’m built for. It’s a strange feeling actually, because I have largely set acting aside to focus on other lanes of theatre, as we...

We were watching a streaming show wherein one of the heroes wore glasses. He looked like a model but they dressed him like a nerdy bad boy, in dark framed glasses. We cracked up every time his glasses came off. “Who’s that hunk? Where did that hunk come from? There was a nerd there a minute ago!” And then he’d put the glasses on and we’d say, “There he is! He’s back! But where did that hunk go all...

About a month ago, I saw a tweet that made me sob for much longer than I expected a tweet could. The tweet featured a photo of a little plastic action figure nestled into a child’s bed. It reads, in part: I found my 5yo daughter’s Elizabeth Warren action figure in her bed when I was making it this morning. When I asked her why, she said “I was scared and she makes me feel brave”. Because the thing...

When I write a new play, I’ll usually gather a group of friends together, give them wine and snacks and we’ll read it. It’s a great way for me to hear what’s on the page and for us all to see one another. Every time, someone says, “We should do this more often.” Because a large portion of my network has largely left town to go raise their kids or whatever, I am always trying to add new people. Tho...

A few months ago, a friend sent me an article about Gen X and the presidency that was in the Financial Times. (Write a whole series on Gen X, people will send you Gen X articles.) In the article – the millennial writer expresses his admiration for Generation X while simultaneously declaring that we are about to miss our shot to have one of our own become president. I started to write something abo...

Even as I wrote the piece that shortly follows, I knew it was going to be true only for the moment. I knew that whatever happened before, I would feel differently after. I just didn’t know how. I wrote this about a month ago before a reading of my work and you can be in the future with me and know that it went as well as it could go. I saw very clearly what needed to change, as well as what format...

“Mum! Dad! It’s evil! Don’t touch it!” This is the final line of one of my all time favorite movies, Time Bandits . I loved Time Bandits as a child and in the many subsequent viewings of it, as an adult, it has not diminished in my estimation. It is a delightful film made by one of my favorite filmmakers. And I didn’t just love Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits , no. I also admired his Brazil , The Fis...

Due to having lived in London for a bit, I am on the mailing lists of many English theatres and arts organizations. On New Year’s Eve, I received an email from the Institute for Contemporary Art wishing me a Happy New Year with an animated drawing of a duck. And that was it. That was the whole message. They wished me a Happy New Year with a drawing of a duck. They didn’t let me know how many hours...

As I thumbed through the first draft of the zine that I make every year for my Patreon patrons, I thought “I actually wrote some good stuff this year.” In the same breath, I thought “That’s probably all I have. I’ve written all the best things. The well has run dry. I’ve just been coasting the last month and I don’t see how I could possibly get my mojo back. It was nice while it lasted but all I h...

While watching a much lauded play by a Millennial playwright, I found myself thinking I was watching a very Millennial play. I’ve had that feeling in theatres a lot lately and it made me wonder where all the Gen X plays were. What is – what was – the Gen X Theatre? Do we have one? Or did the theatre world just sort of skip us? To read more of Is There, Was There, a Gen X Theatre? visit the Songs f...

Ever since I realized we were outnumbered, I have been keeping my eyes open for my generational peers. We are harder and harder to find – for reasons that are not entirely clear to me. (How can there only be one Gen X-er in EVERY office? Don’t some Gen X-ers work together? Where IS everyone?) But my sense is that we’re all doing this keeping our eyes open for each other now, to some degree. I’ve n...

As I slid into my café chair on Thanksgiving Eve, a woman in sunglasses leaned in and asked, “Are you cooking Thanksgiving dinner?” “Nope,” I said. I was not interested in having a chat. I was there to write. To read more of A Thanksgiving Visit from the Patriarchy visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.  This is Episode 181 Song: If You Want to Sing Out Sing Out by Cat Stevens Image...

For the podcast version of the blog, I try and find a song to pair it with – a song that speaks to the content of the piece. For my piece about screaming , I searched for songs on the subject. There are a fair amount of songs with the word “scream” or “yell” in the title but almost all of them, I found, were by white guys. I found this phenomenon curious. Why are there so many scream songs by whit...

Please put me in a show. You may know me more as a writer or director but I’m also a performer. I can act, sing, puppeteer, play guitar and ukulele or whatever you need. I would carry a spear like nobody’s business. I could also be a movement coach or dramaturg. Just. You know….ask me. To read more of Put Me In Your Show visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.  This is Episode 179 Son...

I don’t know where the Legitimacy Fairy lives but I sure would like her to come visit and wave her wand over me. I know her magic doesn’t last for very long, even when she visits, but still – a visit would be nice. Also, I must have really pissed off the Rejection Fairy because she’s over here almost every day, kicking up dust and making me cry. To read more of A Visit from the Rejection Fairy and...

When I read about the three people who challenged Harvey Weinstein at a show for young artists, I tried to imagine what I would have done if I’d walked in to an event and found him there. I hope I’d have been as brave as Kelly Bachman, Zoe Stuckless and Amber Rollo but I don’t know. Would I be the first person to say something to him? Probably not. I’m not particularly confrontational. But I would...

I decided I needed to find a way to adapt to these screwed up circumstances. I decided to scream every time I read or heard some new infuriating fact. Screaming is releasing and physical and expressive. I thought it might help get the fury out of me rather than letting its poison build up in there. But. I do live in a dense urban area. And probably my neighbors don’t need the extra worry of a woma...

It WAS a magical show. It’s not that we didn’t have difficulties – it’s just that they were so minor in the face of the magic afoot. The cast was talented and smart and game. The design team was innovative and generous. The musicians were curious and supportive. The three of us who made it happen thought of ourselves as Charmed Ones – bringing forth good art magic. It was a charmed time, I think....

You guys. Sometimes I get a little cranky about how common my name is. Like that time, a while back, when some other Emily Davis got into some serious debt and caused debt collectors to call me at various relatives’ houses because they couldn’t be sure I wasn’t THAT Emily Davis and they really wanted to find her. Or when they wouldn’t give me a mailbox at my college post office because they said I...

The show nailed the standard white American male theatre director so well, I found I had fantasies of kicking his head down the road a few days later. Forgive me the violent imagery but I guess I’m a little bit furious. American Moor is a show about an actor grappling with the weight of Othello. Caught in a tug of war between the demands of the racist American Theatre system and his African Americ...

I am so used to rejections that when I saw the email in my inbox, I thought, “I don’t think I can handle that rejection today.” So it took me a little minute to open it and read it and see that was actually an acknowledgement that the play is moving on to the semi-finals and woot! To read more of Small Victories , visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This is Episode 172 Song: Things Can...

Look – I’ve always been a LITTLE bit weird. I wore my tutu with pants and an engineer’s cap to school when I was a kid. (I might still wear this, given a chance.) I don’t care much for social conventions or fashion trends or behavioral controls. I’m sort of constitutionally an artist and a certain amount of difference discomfort is just a normal part of my life experience. But recently, I’ve been...

In the bathroom at my local café, someone has written on the wall with chalk, in what I’m sure is meant to be an inspirational font: “Believe in Yourself!” I hate this note. I know it’s meant to be uplifting but I cannot imagine that anyone could look at a note on the bathroom wall and change their belief or lack of belief in themselves. In response to this cheery message, I may have given a bathr...

Are you having a party? Invite me. I would like to come. Can I guarantee that I will make it? No. Stuff happens and sometimes migraines happen to me. So I am unfortunately not a terribly reliable guest anymore. Also if it’s super late and the trains aren’t running again on the weekends, it can get a little sticky but please invite me anyway. To read more of Invite Me to Your Party , visit the Song...