Ah the blank page.
What to do with it. I’ve promised
myself that I would blog every two weeks, once on the Coffee with Gail blog and
then on The Artist’s Path. But
inspiration feels in short supply. I’ve
taken time off since pulling Path 2012 together for April—reading, walking, two
small road trips, watching videos, doing some research on Path 2013, but
leaving the white expanse of space bereft of words.
I said to a class mate from my high school days
that I’m not a writer, but a wannabe writer.
All the poems, short stories, novels, plays, films from a lifetime leave
me in awe of the written word and those who use it as their medium of expression. I’m grateful to them beyond measure and not
just as a source of knowledge, a way to know the self, a source of pleasure and
pain, but these words allow me to practice my own way of expressing myself
through using my body, my voice, my Self as an instrument to play their words.
Yet…yet there is still that yearning to make some part of the world manifest in
words.
And so I listen for that tap on the shoulder when my muse,
often absent, off inspiring someone else I suppose, whispers in my ear,
planting an errant thought that begs birthing.
These last words remind me, and not sure why but willing
to just chase this alligator and see where it leads, of a time I was
driving cross country west to east on I
40 and decided to stop off at the University of Oklahoma in Norman where I had
attended grad school in theater. Like
most universities in cities, it had grown, bursting the seams bordering the
neighborhoods surrounding it. I scarcely
recognized where I was. My internal map
was not working and it’s usually spot on.
University of Oklahoma's Bizzell Library
Where My Acting Thesis On Agnes of God Remains for Posterity
Finally I found the Fine Arts complex and wandered through
the building where the theater program is housed. The main change in my 25 year absence was the
addition of a black box theater where I
had once directed The House of Bernarda Alba and what I believe is now a full on
musical theater program.
Few people were about, so perhaps I arrived between
semesters. I found the classroom where I
had spent many hours in acting courses and where when I was teaching
one semester a couple in their ‘60’s wandered in. I welcomed them and they told us that they
had once been students there, fallen in love, married and eventually gave birth
to one our most iconic child actors and gifted directors—Ron Howard.
Rance and Ron Howard
We were thrilled and to this day I watch for
Rance Howard who is still living, (Appearing most recently in the film The Dilemma directed by Ron. ) and his
wife Jean, also an actor, who died in 2000.
Ron Directs is Mother in Apollo 13
They spent an enchanting hour with us talking about OU in
their day, working in Hollywood, Opie (Ron Howard) and the craft of
acting. No specifics remain in my
memory, but they seemed so content with one another and so genuinely happy to
spend some time with us.
Sometimes inspiration literally walks into your room with no
warning, to tap, tap, tap.
I still don’t know what to write about, but I’ll post this
jaunt down memory lane and hope my muse shows up before the Path blog is due. Who knows …maybe inspiration will literally
knock on my door again. The welcome mat
is out!
