Play's the Thing

In 2012, Joss Whedon directed The Avengers. As a massive, highly anticipated, huge budget, blockbuster superhero film, it had a far greater scope than anything he’d done up to that point, and while I don’t claim to speak for him, I’d imagine it was one of the most demanding things he’d ever done, mentally, emotionally, and creatively.

When it was finished, he needed a vacation. I don’t know how much he was paid to direct the project, but we’re talking Marvel money, so I think it’s safe to say he could afford to go just about anywhere in the world he wanted.

So what did he do? He invited a bunch of friends over, and for two weeks, they shot an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing at Joss’s house in Santa Monica. That was his summer vacation. Not cafes in Paris or beaches in Cancun. To recover after shooting a film, he called up people he’d worked with over the course of his career, ranging from Nathan Fillion and Clark Gregg to Riki Lindhome and Tom Lenk, and… They shot a film. And honestly, to me, at least, it sounds like the best vacation ever.

I’m kind of in a similar boat myself right now. While I didn’t do anything so grandiose as directing a big-budget superhero film, I am just coming off a huge project. A time travel-themed fundraiser dinner, I’d been planning it for over a year and actively working on it for about four months. It was one of the most ambitious projects I’ve ever done. Between writing, directing, performing, cooking, promoting, and about a hundred other tasks, it was also one of the most stressful.

When it was finally finished, I was drained. Our whole group was. Normally, I’m the type to go seamlessly from project to project to project, but after this one, I really needed a break. So I promised my group, no new projects until the fall.

Then, within a day or two, I found myself thinking about the next project: tinkering with scripts, pulling out props, figuring out cast lists… I tried to resist it, but honestly, not for very long.

A Project Vacation
When the fundraiser was over, I was exhausted, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Rest helps with that, but it’s not the only thing.

After a couple of days, I was able to catch up on the sleep I’d lost, and I was no longer physically exhausted. Now I needed to work on the mental and emotional exhaustion. And for that, I needed something to rejuvenate me and to stimulate me. That doesn’t come from taking a break from creative projects—at least not for me. It comes from finding a new project, something I’m excited about and want to explore. It comes from creative play. What I needed wasn’t a break. What I needed was a Much Ado-style Project Vacation. 

But how do you find a project like that? When you’re exhausted and burned out, how do you find the project that’s going to stimulate you instead of draining you, excite you instead of bogging you down? How do you find a project that feels like a vacation? Here’s how I did it…

Let Your Mind Wander
Your big, stressful project is finished. You don’t need to think about it anymore. So what ARE you thinking about? Take a couple of days and see what you seem to gravitate towards. The thought of diving right into another huge project like the one you just finished may make you feel exhausted. So what thoughts appeal to you? What thoughts make you feel excited and creative?

The fact that the project I’d just finished had been a fundraiser for my theater group provided an advantage in that regard. We raised a fair amount of money, and when everything was counted, it was hard not to think about what we could do with it—i.e., the possibilities of future projects. So when I saw the total, what did I think?

“I am gonna buy so many puppets…”

To anyone who knows me, it should come as no surprise that, when my mind is left to wander, it goes to puppets. In fact, I have a very specific puppet project that I’ve been wanting to mount for about two years. I’ve talked about it in my Spark articles several times in the past. It’s called The Pound-a-Line Poet, and it’s a silly, fairy tale play, based on a story I found in a 90-year-old British newspaper.

Up until now, the logistics of bringing The Pound-a-Line Poet to life have always been too complicated and expensive. Well… It’s no longer too expensive. The day after the show was over, I pulled up the script and started looking it over. A day after that, I started going through my current collection of puppets and making a list of which ones will work for which characters, and what puppets we still need.

By the third day, I was buying new puppets. I didn’t intend to start spending the fundraiser money quite that soon, but one particular puppet finally came up for sale on eBay—one which I’ve had my eye on for a long time, but which up until that point was always unavailable when I looked for it. Not only was it now available, but it came with a second puppet, which will also fit perfectly with my Pound-a-Line Poet project.

Then, once I had those two, I realized I only needed one more in order to have a puppet for each of the main characters in the play. And there was one that would work perfectly, available pretty cheap on Amazon…

They all arrived within a couple of weeks, and I immediately started playing with them: working them, practicing mouth work and arm work, putting one on each hand and enacting random snippets of dialogue from the play… And suddenly it’s pretty clear: I’ve got this ever-growing collection of puppets, so now I need to take them all for a spin. I want to take on a new puppet project.

What’s Stopping You?
OK, you’ve figured out what’s exciting you right now, which means you’ve got some idea of what you’d like to do. So what’s stopping you? I don’t mean that in a general, colloquial sense, but rather in a practical one. What is standing in the way of your pursuit of this thing? That can mean literal obstacles that would stop you from getting it done, but it could also mean the little problems that would turn it from a thing you’re looking forward to, into a thing that just stresses you out.

I’m excited about The Pound-a-Line Poet. I want to make plans, I want to figure out logistics… But when I think about starting up rehearsals again, it seems less appealing. I just finished a major show, and now I’d like to have my evenings free for a while. And the thought of a deadline doesn’t thrill me at the moment either: a looming performance date, locked into place and growing ever closer as we scramble to get everything ready in time. This project is supposed to be my vacation. I want to be free to work on it when and how I like, rather than saddling myself with arbitrary restrictions.

There are other obstacles, too. In order to mount a new show, I need the help of my theater group, and I already promised them I wouldn’t dive right into the next project. No new shows until fall. That’s what I said.

Now it’s entirely possible, even likely, that some of the other group members may also find themselves itching for some creative play in the meantime. But I’m also fairly certain that they’ll share my aversion to another rigorous rehearsal schedule and looming deadline, so soon after the previous one. I’m not the only one who’s feeling drained after the fundraiser.

What’s Left?
You’ve got what you’re excited about. You’ve stripped away what you can’t do, or what’s bogging you down. Whatever’s left is the heart of your creative play, and it will lead you to your Project Vacation.

I want to do something with puppets. I don’t want to get locked into a bunch of rehearsals and deadlines. I want something simple that I can do with the resources I currently have, ideally with friends, but not a play or a live performance. So that means filming something. Something I can shoot on my phone. And something that doesn’t require a lot of editing and post-production—not because I don’t want to, but because my old, slow computer can’t really handle a bunch of video clips these days.

What I finally landed on was Puppet Shakespeare. Grab some friends, go out to public parks and other cool-looking outdoor spaces, and reenact scenes from Shakespeare. With puppets. And also possibly kazoos. Then post them to Facebook, Instagram or YouTube or… Wherever. The platform isn’t really of much concern to me at the moment. What matters is to do it.

It’s simple, it’s completely ridiculous, and I’m really excited about it. I’ve already done one, just on my own, and I’ve got so many cool ideas for more: which puppets can play which characters in which locations, which of my friends can take them on, etc.

If I were to spend the summer taking a break from all creative projects, to “recover” from the stress of the fundraiser show, I would probably come into fall feeling lethargic, even apathetic, and likely still a bit in dread of taking on another looming deadline. But by indulging in regular creative play and making time for a Project Vacation, I’m hoping that I’ll be stimulated and rejuvenated, which will actually provide me with the recovery I need.

Then once fall rolls around, rather than resenting giving up my evenings up to rehearsals and feeling the pressure of a performance date growing ever closer, I’ll be raring to go, eager to dive into the next big, elaborate project, whatever it may be.

It will probably involve puppets.