opportunity of adventure the opportunity
to create an innovative and visually
express a presentation that addresses
something profoundly human from your
extensive experience that will appeal to
the masses
you have the idea you have a conviction
and you have the perfect outfit and then
you have a great title from which will
peg every known search engine in the
total creative darkness artist block a
black hole that ingest all of your
creative energy it ingests your idea you
lose your conviction you feel like a
hypocrite
and there you sit with your title and a
semicolon in the dark naked that’s your
neighbors imagination you are stripped
of creative energy and all alone and all
there you see it the glimmer of an idea
a place to begin a spark that lights
from where you will now start onto a new
adventure and something very exciting
you question your purpose and you find
it your purpose provides focus and your
conviction returns and you find yourself
empowered committed and your plans are
exciting and you feel enlightened and
ready for the magic and so here we are
in this theater together sitting here in
this darkened theater where I found who
I was and where my confidence really
began the birthplace of my confidence in
a theater much like this just across the
canyon
and it is in the theater where my belief
began in what I have to share with you
today where it developed grew into
something amazing and ultimately what
I’ve taught for the last 13 years my
conviction is that an empowered sense of
self-worth and creativity comes from
working within your perceived
constraints committing to the journey of
creation and recognizing the connections
between your efforts the sparks of
personal genius and the resulting magic
for me that spark of doubt lit up a
memory a one particular creative
experience in my past for decades and
that spark was with my grandmother Miss
Ella Mae my she sat me down at her kit
dining table and together we created a
shadowbox much like this one a shoebox
in which we took off the lid and we cut
magazines and newspaper articles and
scenes pictures what whatever we could
find and we layered them in the box so
that it created a three-dimensional
effect as you looked into the viewfinder
that you cut out of one end and these
scenes were things that objects things
that we found fascinating and I learned
to assemble multiple objects objects and
influences from my life to create
something new and innovative and fun but
we needed light to see them and so we
would cut out holes in the top and in
the back and we would cover those with
paper so that it filtered the light as
that came through and illuminated what
it was we were trying to see and that
box looked like something like this and
inside of us there are years of events
years of personality developing moments
habits the way we think the way we
interpret life the way we see our lives
happen both the negative and the
positive there are our memories our
fears and our values including our next
challenge and abilities sometimes the
hidden ones or sometimes it’s just our
passion to one day hold those talents
the experiences and influences
form this rich cavern in which we can
pull from to make our lives rich and
exciting to give a strength and
encouragement in those times when that
creative journey becomes really
challenging but if we don’t shed the
light on those moments we cannot make
those connections we cannot see the
value of those and we remain shadowed if
you will in the darkness of ignorance
neglect and our perceptions of those
things as constraints and our
constraints we often look at them as our
limitations restrictions we are lesser
than the Joneses so to speak in a world
where we live in a world that paralyzes
us with comparison right we cripple our
confidence and we cripple our initiative
and what I see as a result are two
things and this may be just my
projection but this is what I see the
first one being we degrade ourselves
before anybody else can we take it we
step back out of our great of adventures
and we stop the creative process because
we’re afraid of the pain of the needed
effort and energy it takes to get
through that the second one is that we
minimalize other’s accomplishments and
we drag everyone else down through
mockery degradation and marginalization
and we waste so much time and energy in
creating these identities who we are
fundamentally not and what we need to do
what we should do is recognize refine
and celebrate what our true unique value
is the source of real genius and the
birthplace of confidence and so I take
this practice from commedia and
improvisation and it is the practice
that we employ in my classroom and that
is always say yes it’s the power of yes
we say yes to constraints we say yes to
illuminating our shadows we say yes to
celebrating the uniqueness of others the
autistic student in his senior year who
takes the lead role in two plays we say
yes to the creative ideas of others as
well as ours of the students who propose
designs for our productions and even
though in my
no view the design is scary I have to
trust what they see is real and when in
the end it happens it’s amazing we say
yes to uncertainty we say yes to the
possibility of failure we say yes to
disappointment
hurt joy love and we say yes to our
dreams tests said yes just a few days
ago as she took on her first dance
audition in New York City
shortly after killing the music audition
and requesting the thoughts and supports
of her Facebook fans online tests jumped
in feet first and I quote I knew I would
make a fool of myself to some degree but
I also know I wouldn’t be the worst
dancer in the room I was wrong the
combinations were taught so quickly and
contains so such advanced material that
I found myself missing every other step
it was by far the most embarrassing day
of my life I thought I would be one of
the average girls in the room but I
never thought I would be the worst my
confidence was shattered
I left the audition kept my chin up and
got on the train for a 45-minute ride
home I checked my Facebook and found
comments like you got this you’re going
to kill it you are destined for
greatness and you were made for this I
wept on the train people stared I was
broken but not for long I have a new
fire burning in me I know what I need to
do now I will take lessons I will get
better and I will do everything I need
to do to find myself in that dance call
again and to no longer be the worst in
the room I’ll be average and that will
be an incredibly proud day so we say yes
to committing our dreams once again we
say yes to believing others when they
see our value and the amazingness in us
and we say yes to loving who we are and
so I turn to the person who finds love
in my life she’s the measure of someone
who loves without reservation and that
is my daughter Harriet so Harriet had a
conversation with her mother recently
and he began something like this which
it does often mom I love you mom says I
love you too
are you going to take care of me when I
get old here it’s his yes I will and mom
says what if you marry a man who doesn’t
want to take care of me and Harriet says
well then I know it’s that he’s not the
perfect man and I will leave him and
live with you and take care of you and
stay with you for ever mom says I won’t
live forever and Harriet says when you
die I will stab myself because I can’t
live without you and this is the
definition of commitment right when I
started my undergraduate a journey a
professor gave me a piece of paper and
on this piece of paper was a quote and I
read through this quote and I liked it I
thought it was great and I kept that and
I still have it I think I’ve lost it but
I’ve memorized this quote and this quote
means so much to me because it is about
this very subject this commitment the
power of design and this quote was
created by a man named Goethe some of
you may have heard of him a very famous
German playwright and theatrical genius
and director and this quote I pledged my
career in my life – and it begins every
semester as I talk to my students and
say it is about the power of commitment
commit commit and Goethe of course
commits and this quote came from this
masterful play called Faust and as I
began researching for this talk I
started to know some notice some
inconsistencies with this quote and
perhaps this quote came from someone
else and I thought no how could that
possibly be this is 13 years of
commitment now on the floor huddled at
my feet and as I find out that John an
ster actually translated goethe’s faust
in night in 1835 and loosely so and
those loosely two couples those loose
two couplets were quoted by another man
named WH Murray and this is who created
this quote and how could I this be how
could this be that my allegiance to this
quote is
from an app a Himalayan hiker from
Scotland not at the–at Racal genius not
a playwright but a man who climbs
mountains for fun and at first there you
know with my talk on the floor in the
dark if you remember that moment I
thought oh no how can I talk about this
how can I talk about commitment and then
I realized maybe this is a profound
moment maybe this is the moment I need
where this thought this idea of
commitment is universal on top of a
mountain as well as in the classroom and
on the theater stage and the quote goes
something like this until one is
committed there is hesitancy the chance
to draw back always ineffectiveness
concerning all acts of initiative and
creation there is one elementary truth
the ignorance of which kills countless
ideas and splendid plans that the moment
one definitely commits oneself then
Providence moves to all sorts of things
occur to aid one that would never
otherwise have occurred a whole stream
of events issues from the decision
raising in one’s favor all manner of
unforeseen incidents meetings and
material assistance which no man would
have ever dreamed come his way whatever
you can do or dream you can begin it
boldness has genius power and magic in
it begin it now in any endeavor along
the path the truth is the same it
doesn’t matter where we are headed or
what our journey is commitment connects
us to the spiritual experience of
creativity and confidence as well as the
magic of the universe vision for me is
the design commitment every costume
sketch every scene design every play
season cast lists they’re all spiritual
designs to guide the universe in aiding
our creativity when I was in Boise I got
to choreograph a piece for balance dance
company for the first night celebration
in 2000 and I got to choreograph this
piece as well as design the costumes and
one such costume was a young girl would
wear a dragon mask on
her head and I needed to create a
costume that matched that mask and so I
drew this robe green robe with green
splotches on it just thinking this is
the ideal I set out to the fabric store
two weeks later and they’re in a bin in
the aisle was a roll of green fabric
with little splotches that were velvet
peacocks that’s the universe and the
magic the magic continues with Ashland
Ashland is now in Tokyo working for
Disney playing the role of various
little pixie characters she writes
something to this after making a
decision to pursue a practical degree at
a university an invasion by a burglar in
my home a fraudulent work experience a
failing semester a breakup and a mental
breakdown she realized that she needed
to change her plans and so enough within
a 24 hour period in her moment of doubt
she made a decision and committed once
more to her dream of pursuing a career
in performance she says in September of
2015 I decided to go back to school and
finish out strong as a music theater
major through this decision and though
it was huge leap of faith it has changed
my life forever as soon as I decided to
be true to my heart and my passions the
universe shifted for me
the universe wants to help us on our
path but if we don’t know what we want
it can’t take us there when you commit
to your truths and the path that you
need to take in your life there is so
much goodness in the world waiting for
you as soon as we make a concrete
decision to embark on the journey we’ve
longed for our whole lives the magic of
the universe becomes addicting to
addicting to ever look back take Michele
Michele was a Romanian refugee at the
age of nine that came to Twin Falls due
to cultural stress and probably a lack
of nutritional information or focus
Michele shot up 60 pounds quote I didn’t
really understand why I only remember
being outside at recess and looking at
all the girls knees and noting that they
did not look like mine by the sixth
grade Michele weighed 250 pounds
she bought men’s clothes and particulate
so they would fit better but she found a
vest and that best became her safety
blanket where she buried herself in in
ninth grade she joined drama class and
she was cast in the role of a witch and
she was so excited because of this I was
so excited to get on stage and wear a
costume without my vest
Michelle’s focus changed that year and
six classes later she holds the record
with me she wanted to go to fashion
school so now weighing 326 pounds
Michelle moved to Los Angeles with the
$600 in her pocket and a dream she would
call and we would talk every once in a
while and one night in particular she
was on the bus at 1:00 in the morning
trying to get home which was miles away
from campus and she was fighting to keep
that dream alive all the girls at school
have so much money and great clothes
they are so beautiful and here I am
trying to get by
Michelle studied and struggled for the
next two years in the to finish fashion
school scraping tuition living off $20 a
week and buying her groceries at the
dollar store I finally graduated school
and in the end I was so mentally and
physically drained all I could think
about was leaving LA I needed to become
strong and find my way again that moment
began November 1st 2010 she says I woke
up I was done that was when I took
control of my life I was done feeling
small I was done being looked down to
and I was done not being the best me and
inspiring that one moment and her
infectious personality or an absolute
determination to stay committed to her
vision led her to five years of
unforeseen incidents meetings and
material assistance enough that she
could fill her own TED talk a job with
the benefits of a lifetime and a total
loss of a hundred and eighty pounds it
was not an easy battle as Dakota also
adds you gain of all what comes with
commitment including the vast storm of
invisible weight that crushes your very
soul the weight of depression of doubt
of self-loathing can cause
even the hardiest of us to collapse the
crown jewel of commitment is that we
never stop we are committed and the word
itself is as glorious as a fine booty I
have pressed onward even when no one
else had cared about me or what I did I
had to push that aside and continue my
work eventually I found the small calm
in my life that makes it all worthwhile
the small token is enough to make me
continue ever onward to commit and flow
is the name of the game and commitment
the good the bad but what holds you to
that course is your connection you see
where the provincial aid comes you make
that connection you tie to the past and
the present and you revel in that you
place your gratitude where it needs to
be and you speak it and you connect you
and what you know together and you own
it because it is you Kenna documents
this early in childhood my family
struggled with bankruptcy job stability
obesity cancer treatments and the death
of my mother although there was much
love in my home the stress had been
deeply affected by my adolescence
confidence and feelings of self-worth
especially in the turbulent seas of
changing schools and the general terror
of being a teenager
however a quiet despondent and depressed
girl found her way into the welcoming
arms of her drama family during the
spring of her freshman year Kenna did
not speak to most people around her she
rarely said any words until the first
second semester although I was
overweight and shy I overcame a
confidence barrier with acting and began
cherishing my voice as my own and my
person as someone to truly be worthwhile
that led me to pursue further college
education and then to also lead my
fellow sailors in the United States Navy
with the hopes to one day become a Navy
pilot it’s really quite a thing when a
girl quiet as a frozen fly can grow into
a full-blown Caden scholar during the
marching drills always some patience
kindness and love found in our drama
classroom and a rather bohemian family
fess pians the message is really quite
simple and perhaps a little bohemian but
it’s true emboldened your creativity
celebrate and enrich the constraints or
the uniqueness that is your own commit
to the plans you have always dreamed and
wanted to pursue and see the magic in
your lives and then create and the
committed genius of those around you
so whatever you can do or dream you can
begin it boldness is genius power and
magic in it begin it now thank you [Applause]