"Embarrassment" from A Director Prepares by Anne Bogart

This was not my first reading of this chapter nor my first encounter with Anne Bogart. However, its information and analysis remain true and helpful and there is something that is resonating slightly stronger now than in my first read. Anne Bogart writes here about the importance and necessity of having embarrassment be integrated into anyone's artistic work. She says that without that vulnerability and true potential for humiliation or failure, all work comes off as inauthentic and uninteresting. She then describes a variety of tools to reach into that state and create work and rehearsal spaces so others can create that work. One of the most nod-worthy points she makes is with the section, "You cannot create results; you can only create the conditions in which something might happen." I wholeheartedly agree and hope to embody this sentiment because I think it is very true and helpful for creating meaningful, vulnerable work. If you want something to be great, you can't force it there, you have to give it space and resources to blossom into that thing by itself. This is something I continuously strive for in the rehearsal rooms I run because I think it also breeds the kind of space where all artists and all artistries feel valued and of equal importance. If you're actually giving the work space to grow and evolve, you have to take in all thoughts and impulses. That notion is captured in Bogart's "Every creative act includes a leap" by which she means, you have to be ready and willing to follow one idea all the way through at any point. If something comes along and takes you down a path you weren't expecting, you have to see it to the end and go there fully to take advantage of what it could bring.