Last weekend, Cynthia, Andra and I had the opportunity to attend the Utah Theatre Association conference where high school theatre students from all around the state convened for workshops, college auditions and this year's keynote speaker, Anne Bogart.

Anne's speech was totally inspiring and I couldn't help but think that so much of what she was talking about is what we try to do here at SLAC. Also, much of what she talked about related heavily to our next play, TOO MUCH MEMORY. This play is a gorgeous example of what Anne meant when she said, "Theatre's subject is always society and it always asks the question 'can we get along?' " and her quote "Certainty always leads to violence" could be on our TOO MUCH MEMORY poster. It's so dead on.

Listening to her made me incredibly proud to be part of the theatre world, and more specifically to be a part of Salt Lake Acting Company.

Below are the seven points Anne so brilliantly established as what makes for good theatre and a life of passion.

1. follow the pulse.
be in touch with what excites you.
enthusiasm: to be filled with god.
follow what changes you
"frisson de coeur" - the goosebump factor

2. make a mark.
what do you do onstage that is worth people watching?
theatre is a verb: to remember
our job in theater is to create memory for the audience.

3. create the world you want to live in.
theatre's subject is always society.
"can we get along?"
you create a model society in the rehearsal room.

4. finish the sentence.
people who don't finish sentences are of no danger to anyone.
to be an artist is to be articulate in the face of uncertainty.
theatre is a place to practice commitment.
find your own words that work for you.
if you have a dream, describe it.
use words that give value to what you do.
least favorite theatre word: want
"what i want is usually a little perverse and has nothing to do with theatre." - anne :)

5. be unreasonable.
sometimes logic and too much reason can kill theatre.
whatever you do needs to be unreasonably impossible.
starting a monologue is jumping off a cliff - let the scary momentum of falling drive you.
say, "i know!" then make something happen.
allow yourself not to know the answer.
allow the work you're doing to be bigger than you.
CERTAINTY ALWAYS LEADS TO VIOLENCE
show up, pay attention, tell the truth, don't hang on to the results.

6. bring attention where attention is needed.
observer created reality
the quality of your attention to something determines others' attention to it.
theatre: to shine light in dark places.
expand the definition of what it means to be human.

7. cultivate attitude.
feed-forward: going toward something
feed-back: the sensation you get from an experience
good acting: a balance of the two
attitude=posture
your attitude can poison or make magic.
you must have the will to go out and the grace to receive.
there are a lot of things we can't choose; we can choose our opinions and our attitude.
go too close or back too far but the middle distance won't help you.
you must have: passion, something to say, and technique.