If we’re lucky during this process, we’ve remained true to some unconscious guiding principle – we often know what that is, even if it’s hard to articulate at the moment. The same thing is true with many of the songs I write. I often get asked, “What is this show about? What is this song about? What is the message, what are you trying to tell us?” My preferred answer would be to refer them to the quote from old-school Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn: “If you want to send a message, use Western Union!” It seems to me that in creating something-a song, a show, a blog post, a meal, a dance-a vision comes together, intuitively, gradually, bit by bit, little by little, and we don’t always know the totality of what we’ve made until we can actually see, hear and taste it.Ī few years ago I did a show that involved high school color guards, and it wasn’t until I watched a run-through that I realized the show was about inclusion. In reality, one can’t always plan it, though we might try…but happily this seems to be one of those times.
As if they’d always been meant to come together.
Once in a while, various things one has been working on for years have an opportunity to converge, separate strands meet, and it all falls into place.
