Saturday, September 25, 2010

Producer vs. Player

I was recently meeting with a choreographer and visual artist in town on a project we are planning for summer of 2011 and we found ourselves discussing a tangent unrelated to the project, as we often do, about the producer vs. the player.

The choreographer and myself are quite solidly producers.  Meaning that we are always fielding ideas and we are always in need of at least executing some of these ideas.  We also know that it is impossible to instigate all ideas, but they keep coming and we file them away for another day.  To continue on the subject of my last blog post "No, I won't fall into your trap" and how some people will just insist on discussing the bad points of every performance (I have been guilty too.), the choreographer and I were conversing on why that happens with some.  Our answer was that some artists are producers and some are players.

Producers have an innate need and requirement to follow out and complete the ideas that surface in their brains while players actually have no connection to this kind of existence and are merely just executing what is given to them or asked of them.  What then happens is they are first to see all the problems with the situation since they are just participating in a fraction of the whole and cannot see any of it from other angles, all angles, or the producers angle.

We need players, and we need more of them than producers, but I would like to ask that if you are a player to make an attempt to see it from the producers point of view, which quite often is by a cyclical  process connected to the audiences point of view.

Producers can from time to time be players, and players can be producers.  Players can grow and become producers and producers can burn out permanently or temporarily and become players.

Again, on Thursday, September 23 at the Des Moines Social Club for my CD Release concert I found myself as a producer and a player simultaneously.  This happens a lot.  And, another thing that happens as a result is this huge tug-of-war in my mind that goes on starting the day before.  As a player I am quick to notice all the problems and how this situation is not ideal for "Players" and as a producer I am trying to ignore that player and concentrate on the enormous amount of logistics and loose ends to get the event running smoothly.

Despite all of the points that maybe could have made the event a drag from a player's perspective, it was yet again another non-refundable experience for me in my life, the venue was hip, the audience was an endearing collection of individuals, and I sold some CD's!

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