The Imperfect Impulse w/Bree O'Connor

Each fall, artists participate in the daft exercise of leveraging metrics, crafting statements and proposals in the hope of getting a solid crack at the grant piñata. Imagine staring into the depths of Infinity, confronting the essence of your being every day for the better part of a month, putting that information into a form, and then having Infinity grade your efforts all for the privilege of r...

Whether we identify as a “maker” of any kind or not, we ALL end up as audience members at one time or another and in today’s episode we are going to have a frank discussion about giving cynicism too much power in our art consumption habits. Broadly speaking, our access to different types of art is contracting. Work is becoming homogenized and almost mathematically assembled to maximize views and p...

In today’s episode we are talking about that transition from school to career that be bumpy for artists and collectives that spring from groups of recent grads. This is not a scientific study, but anecdotal based on personal experience and observations. As with all things, take it with a grain of salt. If you are interested in the Mike Birbiglia film I could not name, it is called Don’t Think Twic...

Giving feedback is a legitimate skill… and so is receiving it. In this week’s episode we are looking at reasons why we resist certain types of feedback and what we can do to make any feedback session more fruitful. Do you have comments or questions about this episode? Is there a topic you’d like me to cover? Reach out! Maybe we’ll be able to tackle your comments or concerns! The Imperfect Impulse...

We’ve never really talked about our Writers’ Group, have we? Strange. I know. As founder and facilitator of Playful Substance’s Writers’ Group, it takes up a lot of my time each week and space in my brain every day. It’s the very cornerstone of my theatre company so it is wild that I have gotten halfway through a third season without talking about it! Our Writers’ Group focuses on writing for perf...

I love a good Hollywood story as much as the next person, especially when that story includes a determined outsider who achieves notoriety by holding fast to their artistic goals and ideals. The previews for I Play Rocky have me thinking a little deeper about believing in yourself as an artist. We love the stories where that belief is bankable and the artist comes out on top after betting on thems...

This week is a bit of a soapbox but I make no apologies. My goal here is not to shame AI users but to shine a light on the lie that new tools have somehow made art-making more accessible. It hasn’t. It has made art HAVING more accessible, but the art is becoming homogenized with the creative focus being on all about harnessing our audience’s least evolved responses to get us more eyeballs and “lik...

Transitions are hard for a lot of artists and sometimes the space between projects can be filled with surprising slumps. We can get sick, depressed, angry, even succumb to demons of self loathing and self medication. There is both hope and power in recognizing and embracing the patterns that you witness yourself repeating as projects end. If we take the time to practice our self awareness we can a...

Bree talks with award winning playwright, Niki Hatzidis, about the challenges of writing historical figures, the naughty pleasures of Oh, Mary! and the research behind her play Setting the Sky on Fire. If you want to know more about Niki, check out her website at Niki, check out her website at nikihatzidis.squarespace.com . If you would like to hear our audio production of Setting the Sky on Fire...

Today’s musings on what makes a good room takes a dip into our internal lives. Self Awareness is the key to conscious choices, mastery of your craft, and good working relationships. This is especially true for leaders in any space. Art is impossible AND improbable. Considering the many hurdles we have to clear in order to make any art at all (but especially collaborative art) we must regard the cr...

I’ll admit it. I’ve been really chewing on this idea of “Good Rooms” this month and will probably keep going until I feel I’ve said everything I can think of to say. This week I have been thinking a lot about the rooms that have inspired rebellion in my soul (whether or not I actually rebelled IRL is a different story) and the practices that have yielded good results inside Playful Substance’s roo...

Last week in Episode 3 we talked about building good rooms and priming our artists for successful collaboration. This week we are expanding on these ideas to underline the necessity of race (or any difference in experience) as a critical lens through which we see the work. How do collaborators embrace curiosity about one another without turning difference into “the other” or into fetishization? Wh...

At what point does a creative space “go bad”? Is it in the curation of artists in the space? Is it the play/material? Is it in transparent reporting protocols for rehearsal room transgressions? Could it be the leadership? A combination? Or is it luck and sorcery that we will never understand? Over the last 10 years, there has been increasing emphasis on curating good spaces, but the definition of...

We all have artistic influences and heroes. It is only natural that when you find a piece of work that you love to think I want to do that! There is nothing wrong with that impulse, but there is a fine line between Inspiration and Derivation. Derivative work can help hone your skills, but it may not be the most impactful use of your artistic capacity. In short, if you want to pay homage to a maste...

Effective communication starts by remembering that the person/people you are addressing are, I know this sounds weird to say but… human. They are human beings who have human responses to messaging and those responses may not be the same as yours. That has to be ok- maybe even vital to your work having relevance beyond its initial release. Speaking of releases… You may have noticed a few things… we...

In Part 2 of our 3 part interview series, award winning playwright Niki Hatzidis talks about how her acting training has informed her writing and approach to character. The conversation goes deep as we talk about personal themes, building characters and resonant dialogue as well as the writer’s obligation to the audience. Unreliable Narrator , The Imperfect Impulse w/ Bree O’Connor and Good Dialog...

Welcome to part 1 of our 3 part interview with award-winning playwright, actor, and dramaturg Niki Hatzidis. In this episode, Niki and I talk about writing characters based on real people, research, tackling subjects that are uncomfortable and Niki’s personal challenge to write a play in two weeks. Unreliable Narrator, The Imperfect Impulse and Good Dialogue are audience supported publications. Co...

Good Dialogue is a new conversation series from Playful Substance and The Imperfect Impulse w/Bree O’Connor, featuring artists discussing their latest work, creative practices, and the journeys that shape their art. Our first guest is Niki Hatzidis —an award-winning playwright, actor, and dramaturg whose work often centers on real women caught in the midst of historical events. In this special thr...

When the Impulse Don’t Stop, Mini-Episodes Gotta Drop! While cruising through my IG feed between rest areas on I-90 (don’t worry, it’s not my turn to drive) I am having thoughts about feminine desire and its evolutionary enmeshment with the male gaze, procreation, commodification, and resources (both physical and emotional). Is there a point when a lusty stare will fall out of fashion? Or would th...

I went down a rabbit hole with a triggering Reddit post this week. It started me thinking about all of the backbends we have done to make people feel more comfortable in the theatre (in particular), how those efforts may have backfired and whether we might be negating the power and purpose of the form. Being vulnerable and/or accountable are big challenges for us as a society right now. Living a p...

The body doesn’t lie. This is why we need to acknowledge and incorporate the body into every single choice we make. To complicate matters, a cast is an entire network of bodies that are allergic to untruths and we must work together to find the winding (and often strange) path to truth. If you are interested in our Writers’ Groups or upcoming Memoir Programs, visit our website playfulsubstance.com...

We know it when we see it from another artist, don’t we? The work may be powerful but it makes us avert our eyes and leaves us with a nagging feeling that the artist rushed the work and perhaps exploited their own experience. Or the work possibly feels undercooked, defensive and petulant, maybe even whiny. How do we avoid these pitfalls in our own work? Today’s episode makes the argument for conti...

There is nothing like a blizzard for giving you some space to think. This week, I have been thinking about how and why artists succumb to negative thoughts and behaviors. This lead me to think about healthy habits in my own practice- those that I have implemented and those that I am consciously trying to develop. So far, I have come up with a list of 7: * Cultivate Self Awareness * Lean on the Wis...

Today we are talking a bit more about story craft, specifically looking at what might be hidden inside repetitive images, language or anecdotes in your narrative. It happens to all of us- we find ourselves drawn to some kind of repetition and we cringe when we enter rewrites. How many times am I going to use this phrase or riff on this same image/idea? How many times, indeed! Join me in the search...

Is this week all about yelling “GIT OFFA MY LAWN!” accompanied by Jazz Hands? Maybe. This interview snippet with Carrie Coons has been making the rounds on the socials among my theatre friends and I think that the whole concept of celebrity needs to be discussed openly and WITH our audiences. It may sound like sour grapes- and maybe it is- but celebrity fuels so much of the business and the busine...