Selena Shannon

Last night I saw the worst play I have ever seen.

Now, I won’t name the play, because it is irrelevant to my point, but let me just say that I saw a stage production of Pippin once, in which 9/10ths of the audience walked out prior to intermission and that deserved a Tony in comparison to what I saw last night.

Now, nothing about the effort that went into this particular production was bad, in fact, it was one of the most breathtaking and innovative performances I had ever seen. There was a miraculous integration with cinema, fantastic performances, incredible sets, and perfectly styled costumes.

There was just one but: the play made no sense. None at all. Not to be dramatic, but I firmly grasped the plot of LOST and Inception, but this, nope, I didn’t have a clue.

The problem with this show was clear, too many people, too close to the project. The play was commissioned as a new work by a Vancouver based theater company. The struggle with this was that the Artistic Director and Literary Manager of this particular company were directly involved with the playwriting of the piece. In the team of six who led the project, there was tons of talent and innovative thinkers who came up with some brilliant ideas. However, everyone involved had themselves far too intrenched in the project and there was no room for a critical perspective.

The result of this, was a very long two hour and forty five minute production that had about twenty overlapping plot points, five distinct theatrical styles, and far too many off- shoots from any of the core plot events.

As I sat in class today and we discussed criticism and feedback, and how that is an incredible skill to develop, I couldn’t help but think, if that production had simply had a few outside people with an effective critical eye, it wouldn’t have been a mess of concepts, instead it would have been one of the more moving pieces of theater I had ever seen.

This is a life lesson for all of us, in every project a little distance and a little help from those who are critical (for the best of course) is a must. So next time a suggestion is given, or a point brought up, embrace it and be better because of it – you are lucky to have heard it in the first place.

Hi Everyone!

I’m most excited to embark on this lil’ blogging adventure. I always have wanted to blog, much like how I’ve aspired to write in a diary – however, I just have never had the follow through to be able to do either. I have such respect for daily bloggers and how they stay committed to their projects, which is why I am glad this class is adding the little push I need to get going on blogging!

I am most excited about D-Studio. I call myself a pseudo commerce kid, because I am always running off trying to squeeze in any arts elective I can: theater, drama, art history, journalism, sociology and english to name a few. This is the first time after surviving the math intensive second year of BComm, where I can see a path between my favorite arts electives and my business courses being drawn.

Another reason why I am so excited about D-Studio is that I have always loved the design process. I think I can trace that love to the early days of the TV show Trading Spaces. Yes, Trading Spaces. You remember it, yes? Basically neighbours would get a 1000 dollars each and the help of an interior designer to renovate a room in their neighbours house. I instantly fell in love with the concept of altering spaces and how that affected peoples lifestyles. After that seed was planted when I was about 10, I started redoing every room in the house my mom would let me get my hands on. Eventually I got a little more formal training in the form of drafting, woodworking, architecture and interior design classes. When I was sixteen I went to Parsons in New York for six weeks to study interior design, which was really life changing. I got formally introduced to this design process of prototyping, group work, addressing needs and solving problems the way an interior designer would.

After high school, I decided to take a few years and get my BComm, but in the back of my head is always my love for design. I think without even realizing it, I have been using the same steps of the design process in a lot of the projects I have done for school and work. I never really gave much thought to my specific thought process, or giving names to these steps. However, as I have started to read through the textbook and in the first few lectures, I better understand what these phases of thought mean and what should be achieved in them – in short, matching my thought process with key words of a design language.

Till next time,

Selena