MURDER MYSTERY DINNER THEATER

A long time ago, a fellow artist commented that they had stopped growing a garden each summer because it robbed their creative energy.  I thought that was odd since I didn't view creativity as a limited resource.

Since then I have discovered that her words, in fact, are true.

I find that I need to limit where I direct my creativity and if left unfocused, I can get bogged down in endless projects and never finish anything.

Since I was a kid, I have loved performing in live theater.  I remember vividly when my mother took me to see Carol Channing in "Hello Dolly."  I wanted to to do THAT!  I don't honestly know how many shows I've acted in or directed.  Since founding our community theater in 1979, my husband and children have all contributed lots of time both on and off stage.

I am right in the middle of directing a murder mystery dinner in our town to benefit a newly forming emergency youth shelter.  It's a very worth while project and I am having a great time working with both the youth shelter committee and the talent I've assembled.  The show, "My Fatal Valentine" is about a group of rival romance novelists who are competing for an award.  One of them is murdered and the audience gets to vote for "whodunit."

BUT - I'm also yearning for my free time and my time on other projects - mainly painting.  I've got my easel set up and hope to get some time there preparing for my Taos show but I know that I can't easily jump back and forth from theater to visual art without one suffering or feeling spread too thin.  In about three weeks the production will be gone like pixie dust and I'll be able to concentrate on my paintings. 

Yes, you can most definitely spend your creative currency so be thrifty, dear friends.