Reflections on a time in Apan

We can ask ourselves, when we can find more to give, and when this is important. When should we throw in everything we have, when is that task actually not worth it? And then beyond this, when does the act of giving more interfere with the action itself? The effort to give undermining the desired gesture? There is an urgency to our time, a need to gather together to open up doors, rather than to close in fear. We need to be ready to jump without the need to prepare and plan. And whilst this may be a sentiment for the theatre, there is much of this that I believe needs to spill over to the rest of our lives. If our lives are our art, then there is a need to live our lives in the same manner.

Concerns, worries, certain rational thinking patterns can all draw us back from the present moment and its seemingly simple requirements. The making of art … and the self-producing of it, such different skill sets, different thinking patterns.

Nicolas' work reminds us of what we can be, and draws us back to the well in which we first drank from to begin our journey as artists.

With support from Creative Scotland, I spent 10 days in Apan, Mexico with Nicolas Nunez. A time in which we spent learning more about ourselves – the constant question of “who am I?” drove us forward. I am constantly reminded we have a lot to give the world, when we do the thing we are meant to do. Knowing our own gifts that we have to give, rather than the skill sets of somebody else. Right now, our world is one that needs, desperately.