Qualities of an Excellent One Person Show

I am cleaning out my lap-top and came across this piece I wrote for a solo performance class I taught eight or nine years ago. I think my advice still holds up!

The Qualities of an Excellent One Person Show:

What you have to offer in a one-person show is yourself. Therefore, I strongly support using this year to develop your best self. In performance, there are several things that are especially important in presenting your story effectively.

There are a number of exercises that we will focus on this year to bring forth these qualities:

1)    The development of breath/ To speak on stage for an hour to an hour and a half is a monumental task. To do this with possible costume changes, movement, and/or  in and out of different characters takes an enormous amount of breath. This year, outside of the class, I suggest long walks/hikes, meditation and working out as part of your year long training.

2)    Focus/ Focus brings clarity to your work, both in the writing and delivery. Focus is developed through discipline. Remember that the word discipline comes from the same root as disciple. You are devoting yourself to a creative and transformational process that is sustained through joyful effort and practice.  Again, long walks and meditation develop this quality. So does a writing practice that is regular and sustained.

3)    Authenticity/ This is the quality that will bring meaning to your show and fascination to your audience. Authenticity has many different faces. It can be humorous, it can be sad, it can be angry or loving. It can be anything. It can be felt by others and it cannot be faked. The way authenticity has the invitation to emerge in your work is through your willingness to take emotional risks, willingness to be vulnerable, drop your ego, be willing to look foolish or fail. Authenticity does not have all the answers. It is not preachy or dogmatic. As a matter of fact, those are masks to keep authenticity at bay. Authenticity is our humanness expressed. Authenticity is the heart of this process. It is what I will be supporting in your writing, your performance, your movement, your characters, your voice. Authenticity is powerful. It’s scary. It makes us cry and gives us goose bumps. We will recognize it in one another. It will take each of you in fresh directions that only you could go. It is at once, unique and individual-no one else can express your authenticity, yet it will bind you to other people through their heart/soul recognition. It is my definition of intimacy.

       4)Presence/ Presence is the energy you bring to this process. The stronger the  individual’s presence, the more connected they are with their Inner Self. This can mean their creativity/Divinity and confidence. Presence is something that can also be developed through breath, walks, writing and the daily practice of authenticity. Are you authentic in your life? Do you risk saying what you mean, even at the risk of “hurting” someone’s feelings? Do you believe that you have the right to take up space? That your voice deserves to be heard?

I have a friend and I’ve picked up on the fact that she lied to me twice about a few really silly things. One time, she made up an elaborate excuse about why she had been twenty minutes late for an appointment with me. I could feel her lie in my body and I watched her presence noticeably drain from her. I mention this because an audience will pick up on anything in you that does not have your full presence in it. In your daily life, do you drain your presence through any of the following things: lying because you are embarrassed of making a mistake, getting edgy over minor things in your life, not drinking enough water, not exercising, stuffing your feelings through overeating, drinking or smoking. Do you drain your energy/presence by not saying “no” to toxic people, toxic environments, or over committing? If so, I would like for you to write on any of the topics that pertain to you. Examine why you do this and please check in with us as a group as you work away from negative/draining choices and move into a deeper sense and fuller commitment to your unique and beautiful presence. The more you allow presence into your life, the more it will spill over into your writing and your creativity. You will have higher levels of inspiration come to your work and it will come with more ease.

5)Stamina/ Strength/ Again, this is about sustaining energy onstage. Energy is communicated in subtle and overt ways. It is carried through the voice, eyes, body, in movement and in stillness.

6)    Commitment/ Commitment is the performer’s great asset. Commitment covey’s and manifests all the previous intentions. Commitment means you’re “going for it.” Commitment in your performance means that no obstacle or perceived weakness will stop you. You put your all into each moment onstage. You give yourself over to your story, and to your character’s. Your commitment is what brings structure so the magic can emerge. Think about all the great actors you have seen in your life. For me, it was Richard Burton in “Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf”, Dustin Hoffman in “Midnight Cowboy” and “Kramer vs.Kramer”,  Meryl Streep in “Sophies Choice”, John Leguizamo in “Freak” and thousands of other great performances. Martin Luther King and JFK were great speakers because they had commitment to their ideas and communicated them passionately. Richard Pryor and John Lennon had commitment, not only genius. Great actors have total commitment to their characters. They are committed to their voice, their walk , their CHOICES. Whether you are doing a show where the only “character” is you or you are incorporating other “characters” from your life or imagination/inspiration, commitment is crucial to the realization of your intent.

Technically a great show will have the writer/performer in a state of high, yet focused energy, there will be a lot of eye contact with the audience, the performer will be easily heard (volume and breath), relaxed, surrendered and having a great time being on stage. There will be a joy in the expression/communication/laughter/emotion/soul that is being given and received by performer and audience member. The script will be engaging, coherent and easy to understand. It will be dynamic and have a beginning ,middle and end. It will have a central theme even if it goes off on secondary themes or character tangents. There is safety in structure, as well as great freedom.

Fall musings...

Deep fall is here and as the weather turns cold, I find my need for deep creative work grows brighter. Right now, I am working on writing copy for two new websites which hopefully will showcase the hundreds of shows I've now worked on over the past twelve years.

There will be a new Solo Performance Coach website showcasing many of the solo shows I've worked on as well as a StoryHealers International website. Hopefully, StoryHealers will really help people understand what the Transformational Monologue process is, and all the ways I've found to utilize it for healing, whether showcasing people with cancer in "The Cancer Monologue Project", veterans in "Core Witness" or people with mental illness in "Minds Interrupted"

Solo performance is my devotion and I know that I am fortunate to have discovered my path pretty early in my life. I really created it from who I already am. It continues to deepen and unfold as I continue to have the enormous privilege of holding space and offering direction for people to write and share their stories onstage.

I truly hope that you are on your path, or finding it. Years ago, I remember hearing Marianne Williamson say that she had a huge "Ah-Ha" moment one day while looking through the classified ads for a job. She realized that she was not going to find her life purpose there and that she was going to have to create it herself from who she already was.

My path was in many ways similar and I love all the twists and turns it has provided me as I continue to follow the stories and where they lead me...right into my own heart and the heart of all beings.

Solo Performances: A Tool for Social Justice/ A Tool for Healing

here is a great movement underway in the theater  and simultaneously in the healing community. It has been a long time coming, yet in essence returns us to our deepest community roots from our ancestral egalitarian society’s. We are reclaiming our roles as storytellers, as Hero’s on a journey home, as social justice commentators, as jesters and shamans. In the contemporary theater, we are doing this through the vehical of “The Solo Show”.

The solo show that I am speaking of is the one person show that is conceived of, written by and performed by one man or one woman. It is a show that is the most holistic form of theater as it is born and manifested from one person’s deepest vision. It goes beyond conventional theater in terms of intimacy because the story, experience and perspective is created by the performer.

For me, it has been the richest and most empowering journey I have taken in my lifetime and I have devoted my self the exploration of this form. I have written and performed my own shows, directed and produced countless other solo shows and been a teacher and coach in the development of solo shows. Additionally, I have created and implemented a process to utilize contemporary monologues as a therapeutic form with populations of people with cancer, AIDS, mental illness and survivers of emotional, physical and sexual abuse. There is no form that I have found that has the possibility of being a more powerful testement to the human spirit that the solo show. On a profound level, it is about the willingness to show up onstage and reveal our humanity to one another.

Unlike the artifice inherent in traditional theater, this is no smoke and mirrors euphimism. Solo Performance is based on the direct experience of the performer him or herself. It is based on real life experiences. The emotional story is the performer’s story one way or another, every time. This includes documentary theater such as Anna Deveare Smith and Danny Hoch who are choosing their subjects for interview.It is their personal point of view and choice to frame particular subjects in a particular way that shows us who they are.

What Are You Waiting For? Do Your Solo Show Now!

At least three times a month, I get a call from somebody who is interested in working with me on a one person show. More often than not they start out the conversation by saying something along the lines of " I've been working on my show for years but cannot seem to pull it together" or "I've been thinking about doing this show FOREVER, but have no idea where to begin"

I totally relate to this. In 1984 I knew in my bones that I would do a solo show. But I had no idea where to begin. My path was circuitous. I dreamt about doing a solo show, but kept putting it off. My performance career had become boring to me despite the fact that I continued to be cast in many shows. The material of the plays themselves were just not interesting to me. They felt stale and contrived. I longed to use all of me; my voice, my concerns, my passions, my humor, my life and my ability to perform to create something unique that felt truly "my own" as an artist. At the time I did not know this consciously, but I wanted to expand and take up more space I wanted to take my place in my life as well as on the stage.

In 1992, I began journaling daily. Then I joined a few writing groups. "The Artist's Way" was a brand new book at the time. Morning Pages and Artist Dates became part of my life. Tentatively, I was finding my writing voice. I always was confident in my acting ability, but did not know how I would find a way to write what I really wanted to express.

Slowly at first I eked out the words. I wrote and wrote and began to uncover nuggets of gold. Finally, an experience arrived that matched my insides in terms of what I really wanted to say.

And so, after many years of living with a burning and haunting desire to do a solo show, I wrote and performed "Honeymoon in India"


One of the reasons I do the work I do is to assist people in short circuiting the time on this process. By quite a bit. We work together in my studio, and within four days, you have the raw material for your show.

All of my own experiences with this form are grist for the mill. At this point I have worked on over one hundred solo shows. I'm able to take you straight to the heart of your story. The most essential story. The one you have needed to tell for your entire life.

There is no need to wait. If the strong desire is inside of you to write and perform a solo show, I can guarantee you that it will not go away. No matter how hard you try to get it out of your mind. It will remain and grow bigger. And the longer you put it off, the more it will drive your crazy!

Because your SOUL knows. It knows what it knows. And if you were meant to take this journey, just do it.

Your Soul will thank you and you will be able to rest at night without thoughts of your undone show swirling in your brain.

Best of all, your life will expand. Because when you stand up on that stage and take up that much space, power and energy, things really won't ever be the same.

Don't believe me? Check out one of my favorite solo performers, John Legizamo in the video above. Wouldn't you like to be that engaged? That alive?

Yes, it is possible.

Queer Voice Monologue

From a Queer Voices Monologue Show I facilitated in Santa Fe some years back with the college of Santa Fe. GLBY students each wrote and performed a 10 minute piece over the course of a week-end.

Spalding Gray video

Here is a scene from Spalding Gray's seminal work, Swimming to Cambodia. I met Spalding a few years before he did this show at the Wooster Theater Group.

I saw an earlier  show at the Brattle Street Theater in Cambridge, Ma. in 1984. It changed my life. About twenty of us sat in the audience. He came onstage in his usual way. His voice and style was already established.

He spoke openly about his mother's suicide and masturbating at Walden Pond to feel closer to the Spirit of Thoureau. I was hooked. From that night on, I knew that solo performance/contemporary storytelling was my path. Who knew how far it would lead me.

I love you Spalding. You were my first and the best of the best. Your generosity onstage set the bar.

Creative Empowerment: The Right and Need to Create Your Own Work

I am sitting here in a cafe in my hometown of Santa Fe...pondering.

What do we crave? What do our Souls need? What is the highest path as an artist?

The answers are different for all of us. But, I do see certain patterns in common...either for better or worse no matter what the medium.

My medium is solo performance. It began almost 30 years ago when I met Spalding Gray and saw him perform an original show.

At the time I was studying acting and didn't realize it consciously, but I was already feeling confined.

I had performed in classical plays for years by then. I began as a young teen. Shakespeare, Molier, Albee, Pinter, the Greeks were already in my repertoire. I loved the experience of pouring my own emotional experience into a character. It was amazing. But the stories I was telling were not my stories.

I could relate to some. Many..not so much. Including the pinnacle. When I was twenty seven years old, I was in the Pulitzer Prize winning play "The Kentucky Cycle". It was a well done production, but less than satisfying. I has the realization "If this is the BEST, contemporary American theater can offer me and I am still not getting the experience I was desiring, I need to create my own work.

So, I did. I took the leap. The terrifying, exciting and HUGE leap into the world of creating my own work and helping others create their own work. It was raw, it was hilarious, it was heartbreaking, it was true, it was hard.

And I was hooked.

That was twenty some years ago.

What has my life been since?

It has been authentic. It has been hard. It has been joyful.

Mostly, it has been ALIVE. Vitally and unapologetically alive.

My medium is solo performance. Some will call it indulgent. Some will call it narcissistic. Sometimes it is. But not the way I strive to work with it.

I call it generous. I call it intimate. And I call it fulfillment in the way that conventional theater never could be.

My favorite musicians are always also composers. I'd take a rendition of one of Sam Llana's songs, straight from his own Soul and life over a polished Broadway voice or pop icon calling it in any
day.


My own guide has been "do the most intimate work in alignment with your own soul as possible"And, you will find your true audience. The one who resonates with you.

Be bold. Risk failing. Be true. Be who you are. Put it on a stage and let yourself shine.