all of you can now post!

i sent everyone an invitation to be an author for this blog. the catch is that you have to create a gmail account. if you have gmail already, you're good to go. if not, take a minute and set it up. your account will be your log-in.

POST FREELY!
write on anything: your writing process, something about the show we saw, a quote, an event in the city no one should miss.... any and all things TRaC. posting on the BLOG is pretty intuitive, so even if you've never done it before, it's not too hard to figure out. shoot me an email if you have questions...

moving on!

(<---this is Deborah Artman. click the picture for her bio. she wrote this:)

One of the best fiction teachers I had was a writer named Lore Segal, who perhaps still often teachers at the 92nd Street Y in NYC. She was a phenomenal teacher. I remember her first wquestions when looking at a piece of fiction one of us had written was very simple: What is this story about? And then: What do you think the author was trying to achieve here? Did s/he successfully convey that idea? And, because it was a workshop of works-in-progress: How can we assist in the effort?

I think this way of approching fiction can be expanded to the other art forms. What is the piece about? What do you think the artist was trying to achieve? Why did the creator of a piece include this or that element or image? Do the details add up to a satisfying whole?

In any work of art, there is a kind of conversation between the maker and the viewer/reader. I've always thought of it as this: The creator assembles elements into a form that feels right to him/her and presents it to the world, like a gift. The viewer/reader encounters this form and unwraps it, projecting their own self onto what they see. I think it is important for critics/reviewers especially to be mindful of both sides of the equation -- both the making and the receiving/interpreting. It's not only: how am I receiving this (because that can change depending on things as varied as whether you just had a fight with a loved one or the weather is bad or someone bumped you the wrong way on the train). It's also: where did this spring from? What was the artist hoping to do?

some food for thought. consider these questions whenever you go see anything: a play, movie, art exhibition, concert... whateva....

Also, with this in mind, jot down a few questions you'd like to ask Rob Neill today at our workshop! And make sure to bring a 3 or 4 copies of your review!!!