So much of my work in theatre is all about listening.  Listening is as essential as speaking, possibly even moreso.  In improv, you must listen to what your fellow actors are saying as they are building a scene, so you can be consistent with the information that is being added.  In scripted work, there should be every bit as much “acting” going on when you are listening to the other cast members as there is when you are speaking your lines.  As Susan B. Anthony, I need to be very sensitive to how much my audience is listening to me and I have to listen very carefully to any questions or comments they might have, in order that I can give them the most meaningful experience possible in my program.

Today I got a very intriguing invitation in my email.  I’ll just let it speak for itself:

The project is called 1000 Ways to Listen. The goal of the project is to give Philadelphians the opportunity to ask each other the question, “Are we listening?. 

The program is a collaboration between Temple Contemporary at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture, and the theater artists 600 HIGHWAYMEN, with funding from the PEW Center for Arts and Heritage. 

Seeking volunteers to sign up to take part in A Day of Listening that will take place on Saturday, November 2, 2019. 

On that day, one thousand Philadelphians from across the city will engage one another in an hour-long conversation, hoping to forge a growing and empathetic movement that will empower Philadelphian’s to listen to someone they would have otherwise never met. 

When you dig deeper into the invitation, you learn that all participants are expected to reconvene one year later, no longer as strangers. I am unable to participate in this event, unfortunately, but I love the idea of it.  I love that both visual and performing artists are collaborating on this project.  Aren’t all the arts really about communication?  A book without a reader, a play or choreographed work without an audience, a painting or sculpture without a viewer–these are all incomplete.  The connection–the “listening”–is necessary to make the work complete.  And we artists need to listen to and observe the world around us, including our prospective audiences, to make sure the work is relevant and will hit its mark.  And can’t we all agree that listening is a skill that can help in all kinds of situations, artistic or otherwise?

So much of art is about telling stories.  Even static art can tell a story if you listen closely.  One of my all-time favorite maxims is from “Howard’s End” by E. M. Forster, in which one of his characters puts forth her primary philosophy of life:  “Only connect.”  That is always my goal in my work, and I don’t think I’m going out on a limb when I say that artists generally share that view.  I love to tell stories and I love to listen to them, too.  So…what’s your story?