What Inspires You?

[bestofbroadway]

Posted: 1/19/04 at 9:19pm

What inspires you in theater? Are there any actors, directors, designers? Are there artists who are inspirational to you? What artists or groups do you believe continue to stretch boundaries and create new and interesting theater? What about in the other areas of the art- painters, choreographers, etc? They don't necessarily have to be alive to have inspired you.

Okay I'll start-
Anne Bogart
Twyla Tharp (particularly her work in Push Comes to Shove and Sinatra Suite)
Merce Cunningham
Jose Limon
Sondheim
Michael John LaChuisa

...just to name a few Updated On: 1/19/04 at 09:19 PM

[jesseeinstein]

Posted: 1/19/04 at 10:00pm

Jason Robert Brown
Donald O'Connor
William Finn
Brent Carver
Carolee Carmello
There are so many... those are some of the main ones though.
Anytime I see a good performance I'm inspired. Updated On: 1/19/04 at 10:00 PM

[wickedfan]

Posted: 1/19/04 at 10:04pm

Actors:
Bernadette Peters, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Kristin Chenoweth, Adam Pascal, Idina Menzel, and Patrick Wilson

(I have always had a hobby for the creative parts
Stephen Schwartz, Stephen Sondheim, Eugene Lee, Robin Wagner, William Ivery Long, Rob Marshall, Sam Mendes, Susan Stroman, and Tony Kushner

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 1/19/04 at 10:24pm

Donald Holder
Ken Posner
Natashia Katz

[BroadwayNYC]

Posted: 1/19/04 at 11:12pm

Bernadette Peters, Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber. I am inspired more in terms of creative writing and thought, as opposed to acting. I'd love to write the next best play! I'm working on something on my spare time.

[bestofbroadway]

Posted: 1/19/04 at 11:21pm

Good for you BroadwayNYC!

[BroadwayNYC]

Posted: 1/20/04 at 12:11am

Thank you bestofbroadway! I always say, "Can't be in a broadway show? Then write one!"

It would be a dream if Bernadette Peters would play the lead!!! How amazing would that be!!

[tappedout]

Posted: 1/20/04 at 12:17am

Idina Menzel is pretty inspiring right now because i am listening to still i can't be still and she's so versatile and good. Also: Sondheim, Bernadette Peters, Michelle Federer, Jack Johnson, Stephen Schwartz, Sutton Foster ... to name a few

[LiTtLeDaNcEr729]

Posted: 1/20/04 at 12:19am

I'm inspired by a lot of performers, Sutton Foster, Julie Andrews, Kerry Butler, Chita Rivera, Bernadette...just so many. I think what inspires me more though, is the kindness that is shown by some performers. The fact that they take time to talk to their fans, treat them respectfully, give them advice, reply to letters...its such an inspiration to me to get this guidance from performers.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/20/04 at 12:49am

Marissa Jaret Winokur
Jerry Mitchell
Michele Lynch
The NYTimes dance critic
The Tony voters
Marc Shaiman
Scott Wittman

[bestofbroadway]

Posted: 1/20/04 at 12:53am

:) What taste

[King Stevos]

Posted: 1/20/04 at 1:12am

A good story: Shadow Box Rent etc.

STEVOS

[TheaterChef]

Posted: 1/20/04 at 1:25am

*A stellar performance.
*Curtain call.
*A good audience.
*A vocal challenge.
*Sutton Foster, Idina Menzel, Kristin Chenoweth, Sarah Brightman.
*A profound plot.
*Closing a show.
*Stepping out of the comfort zone, regardless of winning or losing. 'Trying is succeeding.'
*Stars being sincere with the fans.
*Ballet (pointe).
*Time Square at night.
*Instrumental solos.
*George Gershwin.
*42nd Street lives.

Updated On: 1/20/04 at 01:25 AM

Posted: 1/20/04 at 3:34am

NAMO, you mentioned Michele Lynch...........You must be an insider.

[JakeB]

Posted: 1/20/04 at 9:03am

- Jason Robert Brown
- Cameron Mackintosh
- and a guy called Kenneth Alan Taylor.

[BroadwayNYC]

Posted: 1/20/04 at 10:12am

I forgot to mention my biggest inspiration....NEW YORK CITY!!
as if it wasn't implied... :)

[robyn525600]

Posted: 1/20/04 at 10:29am

Jonathan Larson and RENT. I have a frame that has "Inspiration" inscribed on the bottom and I have a photo of JL in it.

[sheekala]

Posted: 1/20/04 at 10:43am

When I first came to the city to begin my creative journey I had to a find a job asap, the big fish from a small pond needed money and fast! On day two I became a busboy,I worked with a man named Hector(what a head of hair the man had, a hairline like Eddie Munster) who spoke no english and who said I was "gringo loco" and that I did everything wrong, after a few weeks with my new "partner", I began to see how hard he worked and seemed to love his job(which I HATED).I tried so hard to make him happy and be as fast on the floor as he was,slowly I moved up to waiter, found a new "family" of actors, all new to the city, all scared at what lay ahead. We dreamed our dreams, went to our classes and auditions, fell in and out of love, I really fell OUT, to friends and family! Left that job, got a tour, came back and left a few more jobs and had some of my dreams both come true and kind of end. One day I was walking down W 47th St. and bumped into Hector,I was still "gringo loco" (but said with love) and he was still working away, happily at a new restaurant and still with his amazing hairline in tact! He asked if I was "famous actor now", I said not that I heard, we chatted and he went about his business and as I watched him vanish into the crowd in Times Square I remembered how much he inspired me, what the city was like when it was new and how the lights of Broadway and those who are drawn to it NEVER let me down and never stop giving me inspiration to keep trying my best for them and...Hector.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/20/04 at 11:10am

It's the welling up of my eyeballs while reading stories like yours Sheek (and watching recent episodes of Sex & The City) that remind me what a big fag homo I am.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 1/20/04 at 11:15am

Sheek - you should really write a journal.

[sheekala]

Posted: 1/20/04 at 11:16am

Eight million stories and I had to have the sad one.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 1/20/04 at 11:28am

Sheek, do you like cobb salads?

[sheekala]

Posted: 1/20/04 at 11:34am

A good cobb salad never fails to inspire me!

[robbiej]

Posted: 1/20/04 at 11:36am

Well, sheekala (pronounced SHEIK-ala...not she-KALA, as I had once thought!), I couldn't begin to top that. Hell, I'm even inspired by Hector!

What also inspires me are great words written by a great author. Such as Christopher Durang...which leads me to:

COME SEE ME IN A SHOW!

I'm in BETTY'S SUMMER VACATION, playing at the Native Aliens theatre on W. 23rd Street, Feb. 11-21!

I'm saying some of the most brilliant lines I've ever been allowed to say and I tell you I'm INSPIRED!!!

[BroadwayGal]

Posted: 1/20/04 at 3:51pm

Lots of performers have inspired me like Diana Kaarina, Sutton Foster, Idina Menzel, Kristin Chenoweth, the list goes on.. but after reading the interview with Michelle Federer on broadway.com it was interesting to know that she wasn't confident about her singing (and I love her voice!) and I'm the same way =)