When it comes to the arts, I don’t trust people who present me with a list of rules. Tried and true methodology? Sure. Experience? Absolutely. But as soon as someone tells me it has to be done a certain way or it isn’t going to work/isn’t right/will fail, I balk. I balk, because experience has told me, the arts can’t progress unless you allow yourself to think outside the box. In my world, intuition and creativity always trump rules. Always.

Trust your creative instincts and work with people who trust their creative instincts, and you cannot fail.

But the inherent freedoms that exist in the Art World can attract control freaks. They can't help themselves. They need to create tidy rows. BUT ART HAS TO BE FREE TO ROAM.

Puck eats grapes as he watches Demetrius and Lysander duke it out in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (L to R: Lee Bean, Garrett Milich and Ethan Dean, 868 Vineyards, Purcellville, VA )

Stay open. Stay open. Stay open. You never know where inspiration will come to you. Something as simple as a walk through a hardware story can cause a set change that boosts the feel of an entire production. Or you walk past an odd space and wonder if you could perform there. Meet day you meet a stranger and wonder whether if they’ve ever thought about acting: you find out they acted a long time ago, put them in the next show, and the audience loves them.

DREAM. And if something looks like it won't work after all, dream bigger.

​I have yet to be disappointed in life outside the box.

But the Control Freaks are out there, and you have to be on your guard against...

• The actor who tells another cast member how to say a line (Without fail, the worst, most insecure actor in the group);
  
• The director who directs by humiliation (A person who consistently brings actors to tears shouldn’t be allowed to direct anything but traffic);
  
• The crew member who says if it isn’t done exactly their way... Phhhffft.

Creativity always has to trump control. And artists HAVE to trump control freaks, but, well... try to be polite.