This is the Thirty-second article in a permanent column for Stroud Arts that appears in the Stroud American. The mission of these articles is to inform, educate and inspire you, the reader to Make Art Happen in your life and the life of our community.
The first time I heard those words, growled by Clint Eastwood in the 1986 movie ‘Heartbreak Ridge,’ I knew that a key of wisdom had just been handed to me.
This nugget of advice has been with me throughout my life and I find its wisdom very appropriate for the current trying times.
We, as individuals and as a society are having to change our patterns. We are having to adapt, overcome and improvise.
Changing a pattern isn’t easy. It demands that you examine how and why you do something and then determine how and why you will replace your current pattern for a, hopefully, more successful one.
Artists and creative people are used to this process, as creating anything is truly a process filled with Overcoming, Adaptation and Improvisation.
For painters, you have to approach each canvas with a willingness to adapt your vision to your skill and ability. Sometimes you have to overcome a skill deficit and when you touch the brush to the canvas not exactly like you planned you have to improvise. As Bob Ross says; ‘There are no mistakes, only happy little accidents.’
For musicians, especially those who cover successful and popular songs, there is always the pressure to remember and perform the lyrics as the audience remembers and expect them to be performed.
For actors in live theatre, Adaptation and Improvisation is essential to Overcoming the fluid nature of performing before a live audience. Once the play begins, it can’t stop until the end, and when something happens that was unrehearsed, the actor must adapt to the change and improvise a solution that maintains the flow of action while being internally consistent with their character and the story of the play.
What do you do when a chair accidently gets knocked over? What do you do when a drink is spilled? What do you do when a prop you need is missing? What do you do when your acting partner gives you the wrong line or even worse, forgets their line and looks at you with that wide-eyed, pleading expression that says; ‘Good Lord! I forgot my line! Where are we in this play?’
You adapt, you Improvise, and you overcome this momentary disruption so that the play gets back on track and you bring the show to a successful conclusion to the enjoyment of the audience and the cast.
As I’ve said before, ‘Life is Art’ and in these trying times we are having to Adapt our patterns, our schedules and activities. Some of us are having to Improvise how we spend our inside time but the goal for all of this is to Overcome the Covid-19 Virus.