I Want to Be a Two-Fisted Maker

One night when I was at the Wyndham Hotel in Georgia on location for The Walking Dead, I couldn't sleep (Maybe it was all the scary zombies I encourtered during the day!!!  EEEEeeeeek!!!  I've been having some seriously scary dreams, but that is for another blog post).

Hoping to ease my insomnia, I turned on the TV,...and saw a familiar face: Bill T. Jones.  When I did Spring  Awakening I got to work with Bill T. Jones for just one rehearsal, but I remember it was such a fun and memorable experience, so I was curious to see what he was doing on TV!!  

What I had stumbled upon at 2AM was a new documentary on PBS called The Good Man.  I had missed the first 20 minutes or so, but it didn't take long, and I was hooked.  The documentary showed those rehearsal studios on 42nd Street in NYC.  I thought, "I know those rehearsal rooms!!  That's NYC!!!"  

Mr. Jones and a band and dancers were putting together a new dance piece and filming the entire process.  Not only did the documentary make me long for NYC but it madd me miss rehearsal and theatre!  

There were many intense emotional moments during this rehearsal process, but one thing in particular that Mr. Bill T. Jones said stuck with me.  

He said, "I'm not a saint.  I don't aspire to be one yet.  I want to be a two-fisted maker."  When he said that, I thought, "Me tooooo!!!"  So I said it over and over to myself, so that I would remember to write it down!  When I typed it up in my computer it came up immediately in my Google search, so apparently others had also felt it was a phrase worth keeping at close hand!

Oh Backstage Blogosphere: what does it mean to be a 'two-fisted maker??'  I don't know for sure but I have an idea.  I think it means taking real ownership of your artistic work, getting in with both hands.  Probably not everything will be perfect along the way, but you can really gain something from putting your whole emotional and physical self into your work and really caring and working at your art as opposed to just being careful.  

I couldn't get it out of my head the last week of filming for The Walking Dead, so it ended up in at least one of my thank you cards.  It was a good thing to have in my head as fighting zombies really takes both fists, ...and both legs, and pretty much every muscle you can muster!!  

Maybe you will be inspire to be a 'two fisted maker' in your work today!

--  Emily Kinney

 

Comments

[Toronto Actress]

I've never heard the phrase before, but it definitely resonates. I'll have to check out the film. Thanks for sharing!

PS: I stumbled on this post at 2:00 a.m.

PPS: I've been rooting for you on TWD! You're doing such a wonderful job. :)

[Galvanic]

4:10 am is when I discovered this post, and I wanna be a two-fisted maker too!