Weaknesses as Strengths - 24 Hr Theatre Festival Lessons Part II

During last November's TEDxAlbany event, I was privileged to hear a talk by Casey and Corey Wright entitled, "Winning With One Hand Tied Behind Your Back". In it, the brothers share examples of people turning supposed weaknesses (e.g. having one arm, not having money) into advantages. They encouraged us to look again at our limitations and see how we could turn them to our advantages. Great stuff. Do yourself a favor and take a look.

I was reminded of their talk as I participated in the 24 HR Theatre Festival I introduced in the last post. The idea of accepting limitations is one thing. It is quite another to embrace those "limitations" and truly yes-and them, seeing, as the improviser would say, "mistakes as gifts." How often do we think about how to work around weaknesses (or situations or ideas) or rather than asking the the question, "How can this help me? What does advantage does this limitation give me?"

The 24 HR project gave us so many opportunities to do just that, and just great direct feedback that do so has rewards. Here are a few ways, as a playwright, I got to learn this lesson:

• Most obviously, I was given from 9:00pm on Friday night to 7:00am on Saturday morning to write. Not only was that limited time, but it was weird time, overnight time. What was the gift? I HAD to produce. I had to go with my instincts, make bold choices and commit to them. The simply wasn't time to second guess or plan everything out ahead of time or be "good". I had a director and cast demanding a script - any script - in 10 hours or less. So, I wrote. Days later I am still finding connections and references that I didn't know were there. By not being able to control the artistic process to tightly, I was able to go beyond what I might have rationally thought was correct, and therefore I was able to transcend my own preconceptions and habits.
• On another, more surprising, complicated and perhaps personal note, I found that a behavior I had been engaged in, and about which I had been really self-critical, became a great source of inspiration. We all know the pitfalls of the modern world and over-stimulation. I have, like many of us I'm sure, found myself surfing Facebook or reading NYTimes articles online, or listening to RadioLab or following links to links to other links when I thought I SHOULD be "working." Or I've sneaked extra time to read to my daughter or play with her and her friends or chat with colleagues when I SHOULD have been "more focused." Now, of course, focus is good and there really have been times when I had tasks I should have been accomplishing that were more important than what I was currently engaged in. (E.g. taxes.) But delightfully, all the articles and children's books and studies I had read, all the conversations I had taken part in, became the heart and soul of my main character and the play's narrative. The most eclectic and disparate of these casual musings combined to create a play that people called "layered" and nuanced, and a character that was funny and fun, I was told to play. How lovely, then, to find that it was just this penchant for collecting odd bits of information that led to the creation of my play. What I had seen as evidence of my irresponsibility or lack of focus was just the thing that was most appreciated by my audience.

So, what "faults" do you have that you could turn to strengths? What limits can you make your friends?