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THE CREATIVE LIFE by Julia Cameron, Excerpt One
By Steven Fales | August 22, 2010
The doorbell shrills and I open the door to a damp but cheerful Steven Fales, playwright and actor.
“Your hair! It looks wonderful! So youthful! So elegant!” He swoops me up in a bear hug. I kiss his cheek, leaving a crimson kiss. We settle onto a leather couch, giving each other a quick once-over. To my eye, Steven looks wonderful. He has just come back to New York after a grueling but satisfying run of his cabaret act, Mormon American Princess, in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He swapped his way through three venues, each one better than the last.
“I went to see ____.” He names a friend of mine who is still in the hospital. “He couldn’t talk, but we managed to have a lovely visit, reading lips.”
“That’s great.”
“He had a sparkle in his eye. I thought, Oh, good. He’s going to make it.”
“Yes, I think he is,” I agree. It occurs to me that our friend must have mixed feelings about our visits. He doesn’t want word to get out that he is ailing. He is in the midst of planning a one-man show, and a noted actor has expressed interest in playing him. Our friend would direct. It would be quite a coup if it all happened. There would be layer upon layer of artistry.
“I hope it all works out,” says Steven. “There was an actor friend of his there at the same time. He is in a Broadway show right now.”
Steven himself had a very successful off-Broadway show, Confessions of a Mormon Boy. Our ailing friend helped him to shape that show. Steven values him as a mentor.
“I have a present for you,” I say, taking out a copy of Prayers to the Great Creator, a compilation of four prayer books I have written. “I feel a little strange giving you a prayer book, knowing you have a whole collection of Mormon prayers.”
“Oh, no,” Steven says eagerly. “I’m open to any prayers. Mormons don’t have set prayers.”
“Well, then, good,” I say. “These are the concepts that undergird The Artist’s Way.” I open the prayer book to a selection from Blessings.
Steven avidly reads the prayer. ”I’m going to like having this,” he says.
Conversation turns to Steven’s career. His cabaret act went over well in Provincetown. He hopes to shape it further. He is set to make a documentary of Confessions of a Mormon Boy, and he has a date slated for a reading of this third work, Missionary Position. He is writing daily, hard at work on a memoir.
“It all sounds wonderful,” I tell him.
“It all feels good,” he answers. Then he checks his watch and does a double take.
“I’m due uptown,” he apologizes.
“Let me get you a bag for your book,” I offer.
“Thanks for the visit.”
“Thank you for the visit.” With another bear hug, he is out the door. He has an uptown meeting at four and then a pot-roast dinner party at seven. As I watch him walk to the elevator, I think he is a delightful mix of show business and apron strings.
From The Creative Life by Julia Cameron. Coming this fall and published by Tarcher/Penguin.
Topics: Missionary Position, Mormon American Princess, Steven Fales | No Comments »