[SML] USITT in March, flights are pretty cheap, at the moment

[Jerry Durand]

      *Zen and the Art of Stagecraft*

The house is dark. A silence, deep and pure,
Before the chaos that will make the cure.
A single ghost light on an empty stage,
A blank and tranquil, unenlightened page.

No thought of applause, no future, and no past,
Just splintered wood and shadows we have cast.
The rope is coiled, the counterweight at rest,
In this great void, we put our craft to test.

A measured breath. The hammer finds its mark,
Not as a noise within the echoing dark,
But as a note the universe has played.
A flat of canvas, patiently arrayed,

Becomes a wall, a sky, a distant shore,
Is both the thing itself and something more.
The sweep of brush that paints a linden tree
Is not for them, but for the one who sees.

The actor's step, a quiet, focused tread,
Upon the boards where countless souls have bled
Their fictive joys. He finds his light, his place,
A moment of un-forcing, and of grace.

The cue is called. It is not a command,
But the next wave that meets the waiting sand.
The curtain rises on a breath, not will,
A truth the empty space agrees to fill.

For in the doing, with a mind made clear,
The magic finds its form and settles here.
Not built by force, but allowed to be born,
A world from silence, and a truth from scorn.

So this is it: the sawdust and the soul,
The art of making broken pieces whole.
To build a dream with disciplined, calm hands,
And understand the wood where wonder stands.



On 29-Sep-25 17:51, Dave Vick via Stagecraft wrote:
> This thread is becoming very Zen....
>
> -DV
>
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