JASON CANNON
  • Home
  • Bio
    • Director
    • Actor
    • Playwright
    • Teacher
    • Accolades
    • Resources
  • Show Archive
    • Awake and Sing!
    • A Beary Big Adventure
    • The Boy Who Liked Pulling Hair
    • Brooklyn Boy
    • Burt & Me
    • Butler
    • Chesapeake
    • A Clockwork Orange
    • The Comedy of Errors
    • Constellations
    • The Cottage
    • The Crucible
    • Dancing Lessons
    • Deck the Halls
    • The Diviners
    • Doublewide
    • Doubt: A Parable
    • The Dragon vs the Hiccups
    • Fools
    • Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
    • Gidion's Knot
    • Grace
    • Hamlet
    • Hand to God
    • How to Use a Knife
    • Imagination Adventures
    • Into the Woods
    • Joseph...Dreamcoat
    • Killer Joe
    • Last Rights
    • Lend Me a Tenor
    • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
    • Little Women the Musical
    • Love Song
    • The Marvelous Wonderettes
    • Measure for Measure
    • Million Dollar Quartet
    • Moonlight and Magnolias
    • My Name is Asher Lev
    • Noises Off
    • Old Enough to Know Better
    • Once
    • Other People's Money
    • Outlying Islands
    • Peter Pan
    • Peter Pan the Musical
    • Pinocchio
    • Rap-Punzel
    • Relativity
    • Robin Hood
    • Rumplestiltskin
    • Skin in Flames
    • Snow White
    • Stalking the Bogeyman
    • The Velveteen Rabbit
    • Way to Heaven
    • The Wizard of Oz
    • 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
    • Imaginary Theatre Company
    • Various FST Projects
    • Various Freelance Projects
    • Various University Projects
    • University of Missouri-St. Louis
  • Media
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Bio
    • Director
    • Actor
    • Playwright
    • Teacher
    • Accolades
    • Resources
  • Show Archive
    • Awake and Sing!
    • A Beary Big Adventure
    • The Boy Who Liked Pulling Hair
    • Brooklyn Boy
    • Burt & Me
    • Butler
    • Chesapeake
    • A Clockwork Orange
    • The Comedy of Errors
    • Constellations
    • The Cottage
    • The Crucible
    • Dancing Lessons
    • Deck the Halls
    • The Diviners
    • Doublewide
    • Doubt: A Parable
    • The Dragon vs the Hiccups
    • Fools
    • Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
    • Gidion's Knot
    • Grace
    • Hamlet
    • Hand to God
    • How to Use a Knife
    • Imagination Adventures
    • Into the Woods
    • Joseph...Dreamcoat
    • Killer Joe
    • Last Rights
    • Lend Me a Tenor
    • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
    • Little Women the Musical
    • Love Song
    • The Marvelous Wonderettes
    • Measure for Measure
    • Million Dollar Quartet
    • Moonlight and Magnolias
    • My Name is Asher Lev
    • Noises Off
    • Old Enough to Know Better
    • Once
    • Other People's Money
    • Outlying Islands
    • Peter Pan
    • Peter Pan the Musical
    • Pinocchio
    • Rap-Punzel
    • Relativity
    • Robin Hood
    • Rumplestiltskin
    • Skin in Flames
    • Snow White
    • Stalking the Bogeyman
    • The Velveteen Rabbit
    • Way to Heaven
    • The Wizard of Oz
    • 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
    • Imaginary Theatre Company
    • Various FST Projects
    • Various Freelance Projects
    • Various University Projects
    • University of Missouri-St. Louis
  • Media
  • Contact

BLOG

Monday Musing, 2/18/19

2/20/2019

1 Comment

 
Hello Apprentices--

Three cookies for you this muggy February Monday.

First, one of my favorite quotes, from noted novelist and theologian Frederick Buechner (to whom I once wrote a fan letter, and he wrote back!!)…

“Doubt is the ants in the pants of faith.”
Likewise, cookie 2, from Robert Hughes, presses home this idea that unimpeachable knowledge is in any way something to be pursued.

As soon as something is SET, as soon as any idea becomes entrenched, as soon as doubt becomes the enemy… stagnation begins to creep.
Picture
If your faith, or your art, or your politics, are intractable, are unable to be challenged, are unable to be questioned… what does that actually say about said faith, or art, or belief? It says, that on a deep level where most of us don’t like to visit,  we don’t trust that the truth can hold up to scrutiny. Which begs the question… is that truth truly true?

​Stagnation leads to rot. In rehearsal. In performance. In relationships. In beliefs.

​DOUBT… lets in air. Allows water and sun to filter. Creates room for growth and discovery of newer/better/deeper truths. The ants in the pants metaphor is so hilariously simple and apt. Ya gotta keep moving, keep jiving, keep looking for ways to encounter each doubt, so that your belief and your art can be stronger, more supple, more earned, more vital.
Perfect confidence ends up shackling you, so that you can reach no further, and move no further forward Which brings us to cookie 3. 

Doubt need not be debilitating. Doubt is not “paralysis by analysis.” Doubt is actually the rich soil from which blooms your courage, because moving forward—even if you aren’t entirely sure of how you’re going to get there (which is basically a description of every rehearsal process)—is all that is ultimately required of the artist. Not genius. Not brilliant insight. Just moving the body of work forward, in spite of your doubt.


Move forward this week.
Picture
1 Comment
Bob
2/21/2019 10:01:19 pm

That’s why I have RUle #1: I can’t believe everything I think.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    The serious theatre artist hard at work, trying to please his caffeinated canine copy editor...

    Author

    Theatre pro, amateur yogi, and competent home cook.

    Adoring boyfriend to Marvel Universe-loving girlfriend.

    Runner of half-marathons and daddy to awesome silly Rottweiler.

    ​
    Lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan and addicted to the Gulf Coast sand, surf, salt, and sunsets (see above!).

    Open to clarification, correction, and commentary. Ideologues discouraged.

    Categories

    All
    Art And Theatre
    Monday Musings
    Political Ponderings
    Recipes And Rotties

    Archives

    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018

Proudly powered by Weebly