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WITH YOUR HELP
WITH YOUR HELP
The next 3 Filling the Well Artist's Retreat in 2012 are already booked up, and we have already scheduled the next 3 Artists-in-Residence. We can't do this without the space. And your donations go to paying for exactly that.
What is Filling the Well?
An interview with Diana Oh
Questions curated by, Christine Drew Benjamin
Q: How did you come up with the idea behind Filling the Well?
A:
...I came up with the idea of "Filling the Well" because of something I came across when I was in Grad school at NYU. It was the summer before my thesis year and I was battling an extreme amount of performance anxiety. I felt like people were expecting me to succeed and write the most amazing brilliant earth-shattering piece of theatre ever written. I spent week after week trying to create one hell of a musical and putting myself under the most unrealistic expectations. I cracked one day because I simply couldn't handle the pressure. I felt like I failed and experienced my very first panic attack. That's when I knew something was up--that's when I knew I wasn't okay. I sought counseling because it was free to all NYU Tisch students and my counselor told me A) You're depressed and B) Maybe you just need to fill your well. Go see a movie. And she was absolutely right: my well was empty. I had nothing to create from, no inspiration to pull from, no story to tell. How could I create if I was creating from a place of end-picture ideologies. That thinking is never going to merit good work--well, I shouldn't say never but it certainly wasn't working for me. The Filling the Well Artist's Retreat feels like the perfect synthesis of who I am and the experiences I want to share with others. It's a place I want artists to come to make things the way I like to make things. A place where you are given absolute permission. And a place where you fill your well by getting away from the city, surrounding yourself with other artists, exposing yourself to new territories and opening yourself up to whatever comes your way.
Q: Can you tell me about a little bit about the background of the home you are taking the artists to?
A:
...The home we are going to is my Aunt Cece and Godmother Mary's home. Aunt Cece passed away this past February and Mary passed 10 years ago. As a family, we are still healing and mourning the loss of two unbelievable human beings. They ran an adoption agency together and lived with one another in this home for almost thirty years. It's housed many animals. It's full of loving energy, mystery, and their spirit and it was heartbreaking to have this house sitting on 2.5 acres of land, in the middle of historic Doylestown, only 2 and 1/2 hours from the city stay empty, cold, and unlived in. It was screaming "use me, make use of me." And I knew in my gut, in my heart, in every nerve ending in my being that I needed to do something about it. My family who all live on the Westcoast, where I'm originally from know I'm hosting the retreat and are in complete support of Filling the Well. Our wish is to build on the land. For example, we'd like build a black box theatre to help establish the retreat as a regular artist haven. It's screaming potential. The house doesn't have any doors, it's all open--all the bedrooms, like an orphanage. Exactly as I want the artists to be--you don't need much, just a great group of people and enthusiasm and suddenly there's genius at your fingertips. There is a garage with an office next door, an empty sun room, kitchen, dining area, gazebo. My boyfriend and I went to clean the place up a few weeks ago to make space for all the artists. I'm excited to see what the house feels like once bodies are in it. It will always be Cece and Mary's home though and I know people will be respectful of that. It's a special place and you can't help but feel their warmth wrapped up all around you when you're there. The home feels like a gift. A gift that cannot go to waste. Oh, and there's a lake.
TO READ MORE VISIT:
WWW.FILLINGTHEWELL.ORG
