Seth Compton

What I’m reading this week: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by David Eggars. I got it for 2zl at the Wroclaw International School book fair. It has been on the list for a long time.

TV show I watched this week: Girls Series Finale. There were times that I thought this TV show was about four young women who really didn’t like one another. There were episodes in which the characters were so angry at one another and that bothered me. When I discovered the show Broad City I found a show about young funny women who really love one another and support each other. But at the end of Girls, I remembered how bold and daring a writer Lena Dunham is. The series regulars (actors who are on the show regularly) were all fantastic. While there were stretches of the series that I found hard to appreciate, in the end, it is a pretty amazing body of work. “What is a normal day, anyway?”

What I’m eating this week: Well, it was Easter and Poland has a lot of delicious traditional food around the holidays. My favorite – I’m not sure what it is called – the salad with carrot, peas, corn lots of mayonnaise and pickles, or pickled herring.

More stuff I’m watching: Charlie Chaplain’s Modern Times. Meyerhold (see week before) was such a big fan at the end of his career that I thought I should watch it for a refresher.

Best compliment I got this week: “Nice deck!” I made my first power point presentation (only not with Microsoft Power Point). I gave an informal presentation and I think it was an effective tool. I don’t think of myself as a power point kind of guy but maybe I’ll use it more often to express my ideas.

What I’m looking at this week: The Best Polish Press Illustrators. Artists like Tomasz Broda, Joanna Concejo, Paula Dudek, Jan Kallwejt, and Rafal Szczepaniak.

What theater maker I’m studying this week: Vsevolod Meyerhold. He lived in Russia (1874-1940) during turbulent times. He was quite fascinated with the traditions of commedia del arte. The ideas of stylized, grotesque, music hall, were early inspirations for him. Eventually he based his entire system of acting on principles connected with silent films and its masters like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Meyerhold loved music and was quite provocative in his choices and style. He worked in a laboratory setting to develop his ideas. He was a pupil of Constantin Stanislavsky and worked with Anton Chekhov and Dimitri Shostakovich.

What I’m reading this week: Alice in Wonderland. The edition I am reading is beautiful and filled with artwork by Yayoi Kusama.

Poem I’m reading out loud this month: (It is national poetry month) The Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti.

Movie I want to see: Mr. Gaga

Tip of the week: After reading dozens of responses to questions such as “What does it feel like to breathe? What parts of the body move when we breathe?” I suggest you actually try it out. Breathe. For five minutes. And then answer the question in your own words. Answers that felt authentic received the highest marks.

What theater I saw this week: I went to the Wroclawski Teatr Pantomimy to see Batory trans directed by Martyna Majewska. The music was great. There were a few interesting images and moments but I cannot recommend this performance. Hopefully we will find something spectacular to go to.

What music I’m listening to: I’ve been listening to come contemporary classical music this week looking for new sounds to bring to class. I like John Laurence Adams “Like Ocean.”

What play I’m working on: The Tempest by William Shakespeare. I am adapting this story with 7-11 year olds. We have been working since October and the kids have just been given their parts.

What app I’m using: Overcast is an iOS app for podcasts. Podcasts are one of my favorite things about the Internet. Since I live so far away from home they are my main source of news, entertainment, and culture. A few websites say Overcast is the best podcast player. I agree. My most played podcasts are Democracy Now (a progressive news channel), Song Exploder (each episode is an inside how popular songs get made), The Business with Kim Masters (a behind the scenes look at Hollywood business and movie making), and Design Matters with Debbie Millman (interviews with lots of different artists and designers). What podcasts do you listen to? Tell me after class someday

Here is a full list of all the shows I saw this year as part of the Theatre Olympics held in Wroclaw from 14 October – 14 November 2016. I didn’t see everything and really wish I could have attended more of the talks and performances from the “More Than Theatre” line. The festival was divided into different “lines” Main Section – the masters, Eastern Line – young independent theater from Eastern Europe, Grotowski Institute’s Programme – emerging artists who have worked through the Institute, Lower Silesian Theatre Platform – regional work; More Than Theatre – centers around artistic and social issues relating to the art of people with disabilities.

Presenting Shakespeare is an encyclopedic book that collects 1100 theatrical posters of Shakespeare’s plays. It includes designs from as far back as 1860 with over 50 countries and hundreds of artists represented. On the 400th anniversary of his death this tome highlights the fact that Shakespeare can be reexamined, reinterpreted and re-imagined in ways that reflect the time and culture.

Theater managers have always had to find ways to announce performances connecting the art to the public. This has taken several forms, one of which is the theatrical poster. The poster evolved to become less of an announcement and more of a visual representation of the work. Today, the best designs strike a balance between conveying information, setting the expectations for the audience, attracting attention, and being a piece of art on its own terms.

In their introduction, the editors suggest that Shakespeare became renowned in part because of printing technologies which made his plays widely available first as Quartos and eventually in the First Folio. They further propose that “works of art and design” – which include theatrical posters and re-creations of historical tableaux and Shakespearean imagery – wove together a “sophisticated public relations” campaign which helped preserve Shakespeare’s legacy through the ages. I prefer the more humanist view that it is Shakespeare’s ability to create characters who developed, his universal appeal and his juicy poetry that centered him in the Western canon. His cultural significance is undeniable and this book visually catalogues Shakespeare’s international impact.

This collection is a visual delight which I think will fit nicely in any library whether you are a scholar, student, designer, theater artist, fan of Shakespeare, or poster design enthusiast. It is cleverly organized by play (or sets of plays). It has an impressive number of examples from recent productions which serves the double purpose of presenting contemporary posters but also providing a survey of companies who are actively producing Shakespeare plays. Rightfully there is a substantial focus on Polish designs. Companies from the UK and the US get plenty of coverage notably the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Public (who presented the first New York Shakespeare Festival in 1954). Africa, South America and Asia are under represented. The research could have been a bit more extensive (they selected the final 1100 from only 1500 choices) and an index would be helpful. But the end result is thoroughly inspiring.

On Being With Krista Tippett

Brain Pickings by Maria Popova

Design Matters with Debbie Millman

Two podcasts and a blog. The taglines of these sites speak volumes and indicate the scale of thinking: “The big questions of meaning,” “An inventory of the meaningful life,” and “we can talk about making a difference, we can make a difference, or we can do both.” I have been sharing my favorite interviews and articles from these three sites with lots of friends and colleagues. On the rare occasion these wise women interview each other.

I found Debbie Millman first, around the time that I got very excited about podcasts in 2012. Millman’s podcast Design Matters strikes nice balance between art and commerce. She interviews a wide range of artists and “luminaries of contemporary thought.” You can sort her interviews by discipline: art directors, brand managers, graphic directors, illustrators, typographers and more. These kinds of artists (and their firms) always have to balance the art with their client’s wishes and with the demands of the market. But the conversations on this podcast are not limited by graphic design. The disciplines of her interview subjects range from architecture critics, cartoonists, chefs, educators, poets and playwrights. I find it useful to hear about this work and the careers of these interesting people.

It was Design Matters that led me to Maria Popova and her encyclopedic effort of cataloging the work of countless authors. On the website BrainPickings.org, Popova distills the brilliance of writers, scientists, and thinkers of all sorts. Her short essays are more than just a review. She unpacks the central ideas and places them in the context of centuries of wisdom and inquiry. She seems to have a particular interest in science and children’s literature. Her picks of children’s picture books would make for a stunningly vibrant collection to any family library.

Seth Godin tipped me off to Krista Tippett’s podcast On Being. Each episode is a conversation with people who in some way are in “pursuit of wisdom and moral imagination.” What struck me at first was that she releases two podcasts a week. There is an edited version with a scripted voice over and musical interludes and and there is an extended unedited conversation. Each of these unedited conversations begins with small talk and Tippett reminds the guest that it can be a real conversation, nonlinear even, and they can go backwards and talk about things again that they may have not found the right words for the first time. On Being is gently focused on theology and thinking. Mindfulness is a catch phrase buzzword these days. Likewise, God, spirituality and faith are words that conjure lots of different associations for different people. On Being was started a decade ago in part because these topics were not being seriously considered in mainstream media. Tippett is well aware of the hazard of using the word God – for her it is “too small.” Instead she offers: “a rich, kind of wild, strange, expansive place in my mind where I think about what the definition would be.”

My words won’t really add value to what they have created. This post is really just an introduction to these brilliant women. After forwarding their work on to so many I’ve finally decided to thread the needle of how these sites are so important. Kevin Kelly once suggested if you read one book a month your life would change. Godin recommends an RSS reader and a daily practice of reading. I think listening can provide the same kind of transformation. These three women have added meaning and vibrancy to my life and work. I can’t recommend them enough.
I’ll let their work speak for itself. In the links below you can hear Krista Tippett interviewing Maria Popova, Debbie Millman interviewing Krista Tippett and … wait who’s going to interview Debbie Millman?! Well, you can see a sample of her work, one of a series of hand lettered posters available through Studio 6.

On Being – Cartographer of meaning in a digital age

Maria Popova interviewed by Krista Tippett

Design Matters – Kirsta Tippett: Author, Entrepreneur, Journalist

Krista Tippett interviewed by Debbie Millman