Dreams

Why is a guy out of Chicago who hasn't ever picked up a pen writing about playwrights you ask? Easy. It started with a dream.

One of my many mentors and inspirations, Mary Miller, challenged me one day to think again about my dreams. It was the first time in years that I had really thought about the idea of me being on the forefront of developing new plays and musicals for the American stage. My original thoughts behind being an entrepreneur derived directly from that dream as I had put together a business plan for a festival devoted to new works. I even won an award for that business plan and had to walk away from offers of $2 million in capital campaign money offered to me by the judges because I was already planning on going to Carnegie Mellon for my Masters of Arts Management instead of putting that festival together. Some days, I can be such a chump.

But the dream never went away. Even after graduating into a 9/11 era of low arts fundraising and competing for jobs in the arts world against people with 10-20 years more experience than me. Even after seeking my fortunes as an entrepreneur, selling my business, and moving to Chicago. Even now. That dream still sits on my mind, and I've rededicated myself to that dream.

Mary is so correct that dreams are some of the most powerful things on Earth. And the more I talk to playwrights, new and old, the more I discover that, for many, their dreams also are in need of fulfillment or maybe just some enrichment. So that's where I find myself today. At the threshold of dreams, mine and others.

In the days ahead, I look to transform myself into one of the leaders in the development of new works. I've already started by talking to individual playwrights and producers of new works. There's a whole lot of value for both groups, and therefore for audiences as well, that can be shored up. I'll talk more about my project to do that in the coming weeks, and we'll see where things go from there.