Sources of Inspiration

One of the practices that I have as writer is to keep a running list of inspiration for the play I'm working on. Then I have kind of an Uber List of people, places, or things that inspire me or inform my work as an artist.

My ten sources of inspiration.

• Ariane Mnouchkine
• Vivienne Westwood
• Tim Etchells/Forced Entertainment
• David Foster Wallace
• Mary Overlie
• Anne Bogart
• Pina Bausch
• Robert Wilson
• Bruce Lee
• Andy Kaufman
• Secretariat

Okay. That's more than ten. And I could go on. I've spent time obsessing over practically every person on this list - reading about them, studying with some of them, and then there's YouTube. YouTube is great for finding examples of a particular actor, playwright, or director's work. Plus there are great interviews. Mind you, this is not an excuse to procrastinate. But sometimes, just taking a break and watching an interview or a scene of someone else's work will inspire me or take me in a new direction or just give me some breathing room.

There is also source material that I use for a specific play. It can be research, but it can also be images, stories, music, poems that remind me of the play I'm working on, have similar themes or tone, or that for some inexplicable reason inspire me.You can go on to my personal blog and check out what that looks like here.

I also wanted to share a couple of links to some people around the web who inspire me daily.

Ming-Zhu Hii. Ming lives in Melbourne, Australia, was a theater maker and now has this great shop that'd make me go broke if I lived there. Check out her blog here.

Plus: Amelia Critchlow, 101 Birdtales.

And if you want to read about some playwrights - check this out!

What about you? What are your sources of inspiration? If you haven't done this before - take 5 minutes and just quickly list the first 10 people, places or things that come into your mind.  Feel free to share them!  Are there any particular sources of inspiration that are connected to the play you're working on now?