Reflections

It has been many weeks since I’ve reflected on my adventures in theater, but I have a good reason. I’ve spent the last month in final rehearsals and then a three week tour of elementary schools with our adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In hindsight I can’t think of a better way to be re-introduced to performing. If you’d asked me after opening weekend I would not have said that. After doing five performances in one weekend my exhausted mind and body could not conceive of doing it 8 more times. I’m still not sure how professional touring companies do it. “Great opening weekend folks! Now let’s do 5 bajillion more performances!” But I must say I learned a lot and since I like learning…

If the two people who read my blog will think back with me to simpler times at the beginning of the semester you will remember that one of my first blogs was about my joys and frustrations with adapting this show. A lesson that I started learning there and continued to have reiterated to me through the whole process can be summed up in a now cliché slogan used by Nike: Just do it. By that I mean I- don’t fret. In writing and performing, it means that I do all the things I need to do to achieve whatever goal I need to achieve. I get feedback and make corrections. When acting I commit to choices I’ve made and just DO them. I don’t worry and fret. At the beginning I could really psyche myself out. “Did he really like my work or was he just saying that because he doesn’t want to hurt my feelings? Or even worse, because he thinks I can’t handle the truth” or what about this one “What if I think what I’m doing looks good, but I actually look like an idiot.” Yes everyone has doubts and worries, but I am what is called a “worry wart”. And I can let my worry and anxiety be debilitating. So hey, this lesson was valuable for the work that I do, but it has helped me manage my anxiety difficulties better than anything I have ever tried (and I’ve tried a lot of things). Thinking is good for a performer; too much thinking isn’t good for anyone.

A really fascinating phenomenon of theater that I got to experience firsthand is how another actor’s interpretation of their role affects your interpretation of your role. A week and a half before the show opened Oberon had to be replaced because the actor who played him quit. Though that actor hadn’t been showing up to rehearsals I had gotten to rehearse enough with him to get a feel for his interpretation of the role. I liked playing Titania opposite him. Our first scene together was my favorite scene that I was in. The actor who replaced him played Oberon very differently and all of a sudden my interpretation of Titania didn’t make sense to me anymore, but it was what had been rehearsed so I kept on with it. Also, that interpretation had been highly influenced by director’s feelings on the character. What had once been my favorite scene was less enjoyable for me. Each time I performed the scene I would think “Why am I doing the things I’m doing?” and I couldn’t come up with a reason or motivation anymore. I felt like a robot.

Part of the Robot feeling was affected by touring and doing the part over and over with no variation. So, part way through the run I told my director how I was feeling and he suggested (not just to me, but to all of us) to make little changes in our character to freshen things up. So I took time to rethink Titania and find out how I really felt about her. I started thinking about how Rodney played Oberon and how I really didn’t want Titania to seem like a bitch that deserved what she got. This helped me to come up with a new approach that not only freshened up the rest of the performances, but made the play experience more fun for me than it had ever been. I had the most fun with the part after that. I felt like the actions I took in that first scene made more sense to me. I felt like the work I was doing was stronger and that I was engaging the actor I worked with more instead of just trying to get off stage. I felt like the Titania of the first scene flowed together better with the Titania of the rest of the scenes. None of this is to say that any of the work done prior to this was wrong. Without doing it I never could have arrived at these final conclusions. I needed (1) to have some things handed to me by my director in the beginning because I didn’t know what I was doing. I needed to be taught what was good so I could recognize it and figure it out for myself later (2) to see what I didn’t like so I could figure out what I liked.

When I worked with Providence, before every class we had devotion time. The students and staff are mostly Christians so this makes sense. The day of auditions for a new play it was my turn to do the devotion. I started talking to the kids about creation and I asked them why God took seven days (literal or figurative, it doesn’t matter to me, the point is that He created) to do what we know he has the power to do with a snap of a finger. Why bother? I told them that in general we consider a good leader somebody who leads by example. So if God is good leader then He leads by example. What kind of example is He setting with Creation? I think He’s trying to show us that life is a process and it’s the process of living we should be concerned with. He’s just as interested in how something gets done as he is end the end result. I brought this concept back to theatre. Theatre, the mirror held up to life, doesn’t just mirror life on the stage, but off the stage as well. Theatre is quite possibly the only art form where the process of creating the art continues on even as it is being performed. This “wows” me. That the process that includes writing, casting, rehearsal, etc. is actually part of the art work and the art work itself is constantly changing until the last bow of the last show. How freakin’ cool is that?

Acting! Not just for crazy people.

“I guess this acting “thing” isn’t so bad.” She told her professor, half smiling.

That’s the conclusion I’ve come to recently.  Like I’ve said before, I haven’t done any acting since high school (8 years) and until now I don’t think I even approached understanding what it is.  I’m not able to put it in words yet.  It’s just this feeling of…well, fascination with the process of acting.  There is so much to it and I’ve just barely scraped the surface with a finger nail. 

I realized the other day that working on Titania for Midsummer and Blanche (from Streetcar Named Desire) for my Oral Interpretation Class that I’ve been doing something that I’ve never been able to do non-grudgingly  (is that a word? It is now) before: practice.   When I played piano (for 10 years), or flute (5-6?), or for a while guitar (not even worth mentioning) I could never practice without thinking- “I’m practicing now.  How much longer do I have to practice?”  That is why I’m not a very good piano player (appalling actually considering all the years I played).  But with this acting “thing” it took me weeks to even realize that what I was doing was practicing and that I liked it.  That thought kind of freaked me out a bit.

I thought to myself “What kind of person likes acting?  What kind of person likes to pretend to be someone else?”  I had a kind of crisis moment where I asked myself “Does this mean I don’t like who I am so I have to go around pretending to me someone else?  What is the point to acting?  What is the point to Theatre?”  I know that sounds ridiculous –now, but in case you haven’t noticed by now, I over think EVERYTHING.  After I calmed down I started thinking.  Well, not really started since I’d already been thinking and I mean WAY too much, but this was after that thinking when I started using my thinking powers for good instead of evil.  So, I was thinking about how I think I might like to do Drama Therapy and how I feel Theatre really has healing power.  And I wondered what kind of hypocrite (ha ha, get it?) am I if I can’t live out this belief?

Let me put it another way.  If I believe Theatre- that includes acting- can heal and bring change then why in the world shouldn’t I take a bit of my own medicine?  Why shouldn’t I find healing and change for myself in it?  Couldn’t it be good enough that I like it, that it helps ease my anxiety, helps me express myself, helps me understand and connect with others (both real and “fake”(and the reason I put quotation marks is because characters in books, stories etc. are real to me.  Just try and talk to me about a novel I love sometime and see how defensive I get when you disagree with me.   This parentheses within parentheses is dedicated to my friend Bryan Cool)) and makes me excited about life?  Why would Theatre have this meaning for others and not for me?  What’s my problem anyway!?

Another really neat thing about this is that I accept where I’m at in it.  I’m not upset because I’m not brilliant at it.  What I mean is that I can accept that I’m a beginner and that I’m not going to be able to apply everything I read in every acting book right yet.  Have a mentioned yet that I’m a perfectionist and that it’s nearly impossible at times for me to find middle ground between brilliant and crap?  For the moment, I can accept that I’m neither brilliant nor crap, just learning.

As an aside, I have a parentheses addiction.   I only mention this because I seem to be using them more and more.  I haven’t decided yet whether I want to be rid of it though.  That’s why there was the joke above about the parentheses within parentheses.  The other night my husband Brian and my friend Bryan and I joked about crazy things people do with parentheses.  See above.  Also, in the Bible where the parentheses are so long you don’t remember what the main sentence was about or where it started.  Also, see above.  Joking aside, I will try and watch it with the parentheses- all two people who read my blog.

Today’s recommendation:  Go see a play!

I don’t finish things. I’m a writer.

Hey! It’s another blog about how I used to be better at things when I was younger. 

I’ve always been drawn to writing, ever since I was a wee child.   When I was a kid I could sit in my room and write for hours without stopping.  I remember visiting my grandparents and my big thrill was using my grandpa’s computer that had the printer with the roll out paper ( Which was totally hot technology to me.  I’m only 26, but the computer has only been a household mainstay for the last decade or so.  At least to my recollection.  We did not have the internet in my house until I was in junior high) to write a story about Fuzzy Wuzzy the Bear. 

In high school I could start writing a story a couple of nights before it was due (okay, sometimes the night before it was due) and just write and write until it was done.  Even if it took me until 2 am, it didn’t matter because I felt inspired.  My vision was clear.   I have to admit that writing doesn’t work like that for me anymore.  My husband and I often lament this.  His story is much the same as mine.  When we hit adulthood we didn’t seem to have the ability to write endlessly that we used to.  We both suffered interupptions to creative flow right out of high school that might explain this.  His was shady behavior (though you’d never know it if you met him now.  As one of my young girlfriends says “He looks like a big teddy bear.”) and mine was let’s say- my misguided desire to be the first Protestant nun.  However you shake it we both supressed our creativity. 

We both rediscovered it about the same time.   I’d say around 22 years of age.  But we found that we weren’t able to write as before.  I’m a little reluctant to admit that neither of us has finished anything we’ve started in the last four years.   Excepting  the Prodigal script.  It’s not that we don’t have good ideas.  I have ideas spilling out my ears.  It’s that every time I sit in front of a computer screen I freeze up.  I don’t know what it is.  Maybe it’s that a computer makes things seem so final and this adds a lot of pressure to somebody who already has a perfectionist personality.  Until, I forced myself to stop I would rewrite a sentence 4 or 5 times and never get out more than a couple of paragraphs in several hours.  I’ve tried forcing myself to power write (just write don’t stop no matter how horrible what your writing is, don’t revise, just write for a certain amount of time), I’ve tried writing strictly with pen and paper.  These things help, but I’m still stuck with the feeling of defeat that comes with never finishing anything.

Recently it occured to me that maybe I’m writing the wrong kinds of things.  I have always written fiction (again aside from Prodigal).  It has never occured to me until the last 7 or 8 months that maybe I should try turning my ideas into plays.  At first, I wasn’t doing much better with this than I was with short story writing, but then some opportunities came my way.  Right now, I’m in the middle of working on a script for a Global Theatre project.  I’ll blog about the project in more detail another time, but right now I want to talk about what working on this project has done for me creatively.  No, the writing for this project is not coming from the very depths of my soul.  Yes it is coming from a more cerebral and academic place, but it is providing me with something absolutely invaluable.  Practice.  It’s giving me an arena to practice my skills and its forcing me to write.  That is what I need right now. 

Sometimes I ask myself why I want to write at all.  Most of the time when I have ideas the last thing I think about is getting published.  So why write something that may never be exposed?  Because it eats at me not to write.  Because it won’t leave me alone.  It bugs me.  It’s like this little knat buzzing around in my head saying “write, write”.  I have this need to complete something.  I have this need to give birth to something.  To me these stories, these ideas are alive and banging to get out of me and sometimes I feel like I don’t have the key to let them out and they’re driving me nuts.   I’m really feeling good about this writing practice I’m getting and I’m starting to feel confident that it is giving me the key to open that door.

A final note- I posted some of my unfinished fiction from the last couple of years on my portfolio in case anyone is interested in taking a gander.

The best things happen when your dancing…as long as you have sweet moves.

When I was in high school I thought that I was capable of playing any part I wanted.   I was thoroughly convinced that it was my looks, not my ability that kept me the leading lady’s mother instead of the leading lady.  The day before my first day of classes this semester I would have given anything to feel that way again.   I was far from confident.  I had chosen to take performance heavy classes to get reacquainted with acting.  Even though I don’t have even a mustard seed size desire to become an actress I still feel that it’s really important to learn about and experience the performance aspect of theatre, especially if you want to write and direct.  And if you are considering Drama Therapy (like I am) the certifications that do exist require plenty of performance experience.  So there I was, not having done any acting in 8 years, really terrified of the process.   

                When we started the children’s theatre project I decided that I would focus most of my energy on adapting and writing.  I had decided that I would just play whatever little parts where left over –like a fairy or maybe Egeus (the role I played in Midsummer in high school).  I wanted to start out slow, you know, ease into acting.  I wasn’t sure of my capabilities and so I thought I would stay in the background.  Then I started reading parts aloud (I thought I was just reading to fill in while other people were auditioning) and all of my anxiety disappeared.   Thinking about acting scared me, but actually acting felt kind of …natural.  And fun.    Also, after a couple of readings I was starting to like characters that formally I couldn’t stand.  By the end of that class meeting I was starting to think that I might want to take on a little bit more than Fairy 1. 

                The verdict is still out on my acting ability, but I can’t afford to think about that.  I have to keep thinking in terms of working through the acting process and learning about it.  I have to focus on the play (because “the play’s the thing”) and on finding the best way to bring my character to life.    Lately I’ve been dying to ask my professor/director whether or not I’m doing okay or if he thinks my classmates made the right decision casting me as Titania.  But I don’t, because I know that I would no longer be able to function if I focused on myself and whether I’m “good” or “bad” and I definitely can’t function when I’m obsessing about what my director is thinking. 

                Every once in a while I have doubts as to whether I was the right choice for that part.  I really thought, when I decided to go out for that part that I could do the things it required- like the dancing.  I have always secretly wanted to be a dancer.  You know how some people scoff at musicals and say “people don’t really do that in real life.”  I do.  There is constant singing and dancing in my home.  In fact, ask people who used to work with me when I waited tables-once I become comfortable enough with you the singing and dancing spreads to the workplace.   Blame Fred Astaire.  Oh and Vera Ellen.  Oh man, that scene in White Christmas where she and Danny Kaye dance outside the night club…sigh, I always wanted to do that.  Unfortunately dance lessons eluded me (I have done some things like swing dancing and social salsa dancing), so I had to settle for watching dancing on television, then locking myself in my bedroom and imitating it.  It’s kind of my little secret that that habit never ended.  It just moved from the bedroom to the living room when I moved out on my own.  I thought for sure that I could do the dance aspect of being a fairy.  The choreography was supposed to be simple enough for anyone to learn it.  And it is, but I have to admit that I feel like a total clod.  It’s very possible that I don’t look like a clod, but I sure feel like one.   In the end, it doesn’t much matter what anyone thinks at this point because I am Titania and that can’t be changed so I have to focus on performing the part to the best of my ability and having fun.    By the way, I’m starting to feel a sort of affection for this play, which is huge because to be frank (in case you didn’t get this from previous blogs) I’ve never really cared for it or its companion tragedy Romeo and Juliet. 

Recommendation:  If you’re interested in theatre check out Theatre Talk.  It’s a show made for PBS out of New York.  If you enjoy hearing people talking about the different crafts of theatre (writing, acting, directing) than it’s the show for you.  I have links to it on my sidebar, along with two blogs that I follow.  The blogs have nothing to do with theatre.  One is my husbands on technology and the other is my best friend’s blog about her family’s experiences with immigration.

Update

I know I haven’t written in a couple of weeks, but I haven’t really had much to write.  I have had things to write about, but my thoughts on them haven’t been extensive and I’ve been a little busy.  So here is a quick update on  my goings on.

Last time I wrote I was hating Shakespeare.  We’re not exactly in a love affair, but we’re doing better.  Two fridays ago I sat down with my Midsummer script with the intent to make some of it a little more accessable to children.  Don’t worry, just a few tweaks of especially confusing parts.  We’re not rewriting whole passages.  The problem was I was still feeling Shakespeared out and I didn’t even want to look at my script.  I had been practicing my brains out trying to memorize my lines and a person who shall remain nameless gave me two more Shakespeare books to peruse.  I finally decided to take a different tact with my adapting.  So I opened my computer and Googled the top rated kids show and watched a few episodes of it.  I realized while watching iCarly that not only could I a get a job writing for children’s television, but that kids were going to LOVE A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

I was telling Brian at lunch today that I think there are two different kinds of realism.  There is the realism where the things happneing are things that could and do happen to us.  And there is the realism where even though the situation may not be realistic,  the characters are.  The characters behave in a way that makes sense for the situation they are in. (Hey is that a Zola-esque thought?)  They behave and feel in ways that we can relate to even if their situation is pure fantasy (Hannah Montana).  I think kids really like the latter better than the former.  When I was a kid I more often than not wrote things in that vein.   The result of my foray into children’s television is that I’m starting to be okay with this play and it wasn’t being cerebral that did it for me.  It was watching the Nickelodeon.  Oh and Bollywood movies.  I think this play would do well in a Bollywood style.

Now for something completly different…Here is a little dialogue to show you how rehersals are going.  The characters are Me and Myself:

Myself: So how are rehersals going?

Me: Rehersals are fine, but I’m a bit up tight.

Myself:  That’s because you’re a perfectionist and it’s either brilliant or it’s crap with you.  You should relax and have fun.  Remember you are there to learn nobody expects you to be able to do everything right away.

Me:  Wow Myself, that’s great advise.

                                                                 Exuent

As you can see, I have mad writing skills.  Someone challenged me this week to write a 10 min. play- well, only 9 more minutes to go!

On the writing front.  I have decided to set aside the characters with no play that I wrote about in one of my previous blogs.  Just for a little while.  I have actually started working on something else that I have a clearer vision for.  I was talking to my friend Ed who is a visual artist (painting and collage) and we were talking about this topic of unfinished pieces of work.  He was telling me how he had an unfinished painting and it sat for like six months.  Then one day on his way home from work he got a vision .  As soon as he got home he started to paint it.  When he was done he looked over at the unfinished work and realized that the painting he’d just done was a part of it.  It was the missing componet.  I told him I thought it was hard to find the balance between being inspired and being disciplined.  So, like Ed I’m putting aside one work and starting another in hopes that at a later date I will find some kind of vision for my 5 characters without a play.

Last thing.  We’re starting work soon on the Global Theatre Project.  Things are in line for us to take it with Italy.  I’m more excited about writing for this project now that we’ve opened up the topic a bit.  If you look in my Portfolio section you see that we were focusing on the immigrant experience in St. Louis during the 1904 World’s Fair.  Now that we are expanding beyond the World’s Fair bit I feel better about admitting that the subject matter didn’t really light my fire.  I’m getting excited about playing around with connections between the black experience and the Italian experience during this time.  Sharecropping is a common thread for both groups.  I’m just waiting for my books from the library and Mobius.

Allright, so that’s it for now.    This blog was a bit of a departure for me.  I feel like it was a little more casual than I want to be, but I think it will be okay.  I have another blog that I need to edit and will probably post tomorrow.  No book recommendations today.  Actually if somebody could recommend a nice picture book that would be great.  Lots of shiny pictures and very few words.

Shakespeare. A genius! At least that’s what they tell me.

Usually I write these blogs in Word documents before I post them.  I fret over them and edit them.  Not this one.  I’m just going to throw this one out and hope for the best.

Can I just say that I am really sick of Shakespeare?  Right now anyway.  Ever since we started work on A Midsummer Night’s Dream I have been throwing my self full throttle in to it.  I have watched several movie versions and a ballet.  I rented Mendelssohn’s music from the library.  On this cd I was also subjected to passages of the play…in German.  I hope I don’t offend anyone who loves German, but ugh.  I have read this play countless times and now I’m reading supplemental literature. 

I really thought I understood my lines.  I guess I do, but with all of this reading about technique and iambic pentameter I’m starting to feel overwhelmed.  It’s not that any of the technique or verse is hard to comprehend.  I just think I’m Shakespeared out.  I’ve been bombarding myself and I need a break.  No, what I need-is to do.  I can’t tell you how much fun it was to get up on stage yesterday and just do a warm up excercise.  I’ve intellectualized the heck out of myself and I think what I need now is to put it into ACTION.  Wow, thanks blog, I feel better.

I still have to admit that I am and may always be a bit ambivalent towards Shakespeare.  I can’t decide whether or not I like him.  I feel that I should like him.  And sometimes I do, like when I read Hamlet talks about needing to “unpack my heart with words”, or almost all of Oberon’s speeches- that’s great stuff.  But I’m convinced that Shakespeare doesn’t know crap about what it means to have a healthy relationship.  I may have only been married a year, but I’ve had lots of different kinds of realtionships- friendships, work mates, family-I know what works and what doesn’t and I strive to do those things. 

Maybe that’s the point.  Maybe Shakespeare was trying to instruct.  Or maybe he was trying to entertain. Maybe it doesn’t matter.   There’s a reason there are so many books and theories about Shakespeare.  Because nobody really knows for sure- Genius or 16th century Seth Rogan? 

Maybe something I learned in my Oral Interpretation of Literature class can shed some light.  We learned that three important criteria for deciding whether or not a piece of literature was quality are as follows:

1.  Universality- does it contain something- a theme or idea- that is universal- that can be connected to in a universal way.  For example a first love.

2. Individuality- is there a unique or individual style.  I would say so.  Most of Shakespeare’s storylines are not his own.  He rehashes plays from the Italian Renaissance or mythology but if you study his language and structure he does it with panache.  Tristan and Isolde do nothing for me, but despite the fact that I’m no big fan of Romeo and Juliet I will still go see it and find something to appreciate in it.

3. Suggestion- basically does it suggest more than one interpretation.  In the last few years I have seen four different interpretations of Macbeth.  I mean they were all different, yet they all still felt like Macbeth. 

Okay, so to end, I guess Shakspeare and I will get on okay with each other.  And tomorrow when we start to get Midsummer Night’s Dream on its feet I don’t think I feel as overwhelmed by the process.  Ah, one last think-

What I’m reading right now- Thinking Shakespeare by Barry Edelstein- I’m just through the first section of the book right now.  His big thing for actors to focus on is asking the question “Why am I using this word right now?” to help them get aquainted with the language and their character.  Just as a sort of P.S.- just because I post that I’m reading something doesn’t mean I subscribe to all the thoughts in a book, it just means I’m reading it.

And we’re off! or Hiding from Shakespeare’s Ghost

I have to admit that I meant to write this blog last week because the title is indicative of how I felt last during the first week of school.  My week did not start slow, in fact I was given a rather large and intimidating task the second day of school.  To be fair, I asked for it.

  One of my classes is a theatre practicum that is responsible for putting on the Children’s Show every year.   My professor decided that doing an adaptation of Shakespeare went so well last year that he wanted to do it again this year.  The twist- not only are we doing an adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but we are going to adapt it ourselves.  Of course, I found this to be an exciting prospect, because as I’ve said before being a part of a production from conception to performance is something I really dig.  And the more experience I get at it the better. 

After class on Tuesday last I asked my professor if he had anything that he’d already done I could see.  He responded by telling me that he was going to send me a text document of the play he had and that he wanted me to take the red pin to it.  He said that he had already started cutting stuff, but that he wanted someone else who was familiar with the play to do it as well and then compare notes with him. 

I have to say that in the last three years of my life I have spent a lot of time feeling a little out of depth.  I felt out of my depth three years ago, sitting at a table in the Boda household talking about a musical that we were going to write.  I was thinking, “What could I possibly contribute?”  It turned out a lot.  I have felt out of my depth many times in returning to school.  I felt out of my depth last week as I nodded yes to my professor.  “Yes I will tear apart the work of a genius with my one year of community college education.”   I have to ask myself why I am in so many situations that make me feel this way.  I would hope it’s because I like to stretch myself, but it might also be that I doubt my own abilities more than I should.  Either way, I plow through because that’s how you learn to do things.  If you really, really want to do something you’ve never done then you say, “No I don’t know how to do it now, but I can figure out.”

Anyway, after my discussion with my professor I went to my car feeling a bit sick for all the reasons I mentioned above.  My mind started reeling.  “What am I going to do?  How do you decide what stays and goes in Shakespeare?  More to the point, how will I decide?”   After taking a few deep breaths and alternately freaking out and joyously proclaiming my task to my husband over the phone I calmed down and was able to think.  Thanks to Jeffrey Hatcher, action was on my mind and I decided to put my new found awareness of play structure to good use.  I read the play through once, plotting all the action as I went.  This made my task a lot less intimidating.  When it came time to cut I used the action as my guideline.  That meant cutting out some wonderful poetry, but it also meant cutting out places in the play that I had always found a little draggy (as it turns out my professor and I saw eye to eye on most of these, so it wasn’t  just me not understanding the brilliance of Shakespeare).   This cutting process is the reason for the second part of the blog’s title: “Hiding from Shakespeare’s Ghost”, which is what I would be doing right now if believed in ghosts.

So now the cutting is done…mostly.  I have gone back and forth. I had many doubts.  I didn’t cut enough.  I cut too much.  My professor is going to look at my cuts and think I’m an idiot.  You know what?  Who cares?  I did something I’ve never done before and I learned and I stretched and I applied knowledge.  That’s something. 

 The adapting isn’t over.  More will be done during the rehearsal process, but that is for another blog at another time.  Meanwhile I’ll post what we have on my portfolio section. 

Today’s recommendation: check out this interview on NPR of music artist Johnny Flynn.  I won’t write a blog (not right now anyway) about artistic inspiration, but I think it’s awesome the way Johnny Flynn get’s inspiration from so many varied sources.  Notice Shakespeare is a huge inspiration for him.