New Beginnings in the Year of the Dragon
Do you need a fresh start to wipe the slate clean and set sights on new goals? Beginning with the Gregorian calendar’s New Year on Jan 1, to the Lunar New Year just ushered in with the first new moon of the lunar calendar, January has provided opportunities to make – and perhaps break – New Year’s resolutions.
Although other countries celebrate the Lunar New Year, including India, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and more, it is often called Chinese New Year. This is the year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac and in the Vietnamese zodiac. Celebration of the holiday doesn’t entail making resolutions but it is about slate-cleaning in the form of starting the new year debt-free and with a ‘clean’ house. It’s also about celebrating all things positive and passing along best wishes for peace, longevity, and prosperity for the new year. Can anyone manage a career in theater without some measure of all three of these?
Women in Theatre Online asked colleagues what they will be aiming for in this New Year. Here are some of their thoughts:
A Theater critic: I will see and cover more indie/off-off-Broadway theater.
A producer: I will complete production of all current projects.
A director wrote:I want to strive to make every new show an advance over my last in terms of creating with a climate action objective.
An actor responded: For every theater project completed, I commit to organizing some restorative time for myself as part of my creative process.
A Professor of Arts Management made a pledge to, “Put more time into my own writing.”
A house manager aspires to:“a Clean house, dammit!”
One Theatre Administrator told us: “This year I want to reward myself when I meet deadlines early.”
This from a screenwriter: “Write, swim, read, repeat; quit my survival job.”
A playwright and a prop supervisor both posted the same goal: To spend more time in rehearsal rooms.
A Dramaturg said: “I am determined to pursue projects I love and decline projects that will be pure slog.”
One Leader of a Theater Organization Nonprofit vowed: “To be kind to myself. That’s all and everything.”
A Longtime Artistic Director of an off-off-Broadway company told us: “I want to really focus on getting administrative help and to leverage this moment to get the admin help we need to succeed in ALL our programs.”
Another theatre-maker tells us she was “inspired by some creaky, jerry-rigged, and completely delightful post (‘post’) pandemic theater.” Her 2023 resolution begins with this mantra:“TINY STUFF IS BIG.” She reports,“I’ll be looking at how to tell the best stories in the least pretentious ways.”
Many of us can identify with the with the playwright/publicist who pledges, “To send more of my work out into the world.”
Whatever your tradition, whatever your field of endeavor, take time to consider new challenges and how to meet them with joy and success.
WIT journal 