Nurturing the Creative Process

Happy Thursday, I hope this has been a good week for you! This week, I’ll be sharing advice from Tony-nominated producer Rachel Sussman. As always, this newsletter also serves as a reminder for my weekly Newsweek show, Better, which airs today at 12 pm EDT/9 am PT/5 pm GMT. This week, I’m talking with the author of A World Without Email, Cal Newport. We’re going to discuss email and the future of work, and welcome your questions live throughout the show! If you’d like a calendar reminder for today’s interview, click here.

If you can’t make today’s interview, there’s no need to worry, because yes - there is a replay available! We always upload my weekly interviews to my YouTube page. If you’d like to be notified when the newest episode is available, subscribe to my channel and you’ll receive a notification.

As a writer in the BMI Lehman-Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, I’ve heard throughout the pandemic the struggles that many creatives have had during this time, being zapped of energy from mental fatigue and isolation. Rachel Sussman, a producer of What the Constitution Means to Me, Saturday Night Seder, and The Woodsman, had an open discussion with me about her own creative reckoning, where to find the next story, and reframing difficult times as opportunities to grow. To hear our entire discussion, you can view the replay of our conversation here.

For the next idea, always be scouting:

“Something that I live by...is this idea of ABS, which is "always be scouting." There's no way of really knowing when inspiration is going to strike. Once you have a lot of clarity for yourself of your own personal aesthetic, and you are able to take a moment, really consider this: What story do I want to tell? What are the stories that I feel need to be told? If you're able to ask that question and then use that as a lens, it will help to really distill for you the kinds of projects and artists that you personally want to be working with.”

The importance of transparency as a leader:

“As a producer, you're the leader - the creative leader of the ship, and folks look to you and they go, ‘Okay, well, what are we going to do? How are we going to pivot?’ I didn't have any answers [at the beginning of the pandemic]. And that was a reckoning. To this day, we have much more clarity. However, I feel like the pandemic was for me both a creative and a personal reckoning as a person who is often in that position of leadership to say, ‘I actually don't know.’ So much of collaboration is based on transparency, and instead of saying, ‘well, we're working and we're going to try and make this and that happen.” If none of that had come true, I wouldn't have wanted my creatives to feel like I hadn't managed their expectations appropriately. That's my job at the end of the day.” 

Reframe despair into opportunity:

“More than ever, the thing that I have found such a struggle is hearing from a lot of my friends about how they've had to step back from their work lives in order to not only be at home working, but also take care of their family. That's one of the ends of the spectrum. I also see all of these women who are taking executive leadership courses, going to get their MBAs online, and really taking this time as an opportunity to expand their skillsets, to learn more about the world and the things that interest them. For example, the thing I do, which is produce live theater, cannot happen right now. So I have been building out this educational initiative, The Business of Broadway, I've been teaching at Columbia, and I pivoted into working in the digital space. And I really think that it's about reframing this moment of despair into one of audacious opportunity and trying to figure out: What are the things that you love that you haven't yet had a moment to take advantage of, and is this the time to do it?"

Thank you for reading this week’s newsletter! What creative endeavors or new directions have you headed into over the past year? I’d love to hear about them, so please share in the comments! There is no show on April 15th, but we will be back on April 22nd for a conversation with William Green about how to win at investing and life. For a calendar reminder, click here.

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Wishing you health and success - 

Dorie