How Daveed Diggs of ‘Hamilton’ Spends His Sundays

• I’m on the couch, with “SportsCenter” or music on, and when I have thoughts I write them down in Google Docs on my phone. I used to work in notebooks exclusively, but I lost so many of them. I don’t think that quickly. There’s no reason for somebody who’s good at writing rap to be good at freestyling. They’re different parts of your brain. You can develop both skills. I’m a much better writer.​

• I love detective shows. I’ve seen every episode of “Agatha Christie’s Poirot.” I never go to sleep before 3. Right before falling asleep I like to watch this old British court show, “Rumpole of the Bailey.” I find it comforting.

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How to Be Rejected
Justin Taylor at HowlRound

• ​Your voice as an artist is not on your list of responsibilities. Like your singing voice, your voice as an artist is given. You cannot choose it. Conversely, it is our responsibility to discover it, embrace its unique sound, set it free and share it with those who go gaga for it. 
• Artists ascend horizontally, not vertically. We thrive when we are entrepreneurs, which literally translates from French as “takers from between.” Our careers grow by working with who is beside us, not who is above us. Put your time and energy into the people who say yes to your work already. Make a list. Get to 100. (You’d be amazed how fast you can get to 100 in one go). Put it on your fridge. Read it every day. Star the ones you want to work with, especially directors. Arrange theatre love affairs—match specific directors you adore to specific plays you think they’d line up to lick off the pavement. Call them. Make a plan for your dream project. Reach out to theatres together, theatres also dying for a play (and a director) like yours. Go to their shows. Ask for info coffees. Take your career into your own hands.

An Interview with Jessica Hecht and Alexandra Silber
The Interval

(currently playing mother and daughter in the 2016 Tony-nominated revival of Fiddler on the Roof)

• [Jessica] but I’ve done a lot of revivals of what people would consider American masterpieces or contemporary masterpieces. What’s interesting to me is not looking at it from a contemporary standpoint—I know there are many directors that do that—but I worked with a director named David Cromer, who has an incredible aesthetic for looking at revivals that really changed the way I thought about it. Because what happens is that people forget what the actual story is of the play. They do revivals and they think so much about this idea of contemporizing it that they don’t look at just the story. So people that would do a play that is in the public library of plays they know or stories they know are basically sometimes reviving a thought about the play.
• [Alexandra] I remember when we were doing the scene where I sort of say, “I don’t want to marry him,” and was playing it with a great deal of contemporary strength. And Bart said, “Try this. Try taking your time. Really, really taking your time”—I’ll never, ever forget this—“And recognizing that this is 1905. This has not only never been uttered before, ‘I don’t want,’ it’s never been thought before. And so when this comes out of her, the world needs to explode. It needs to open up. This is the inciting incident of all the changes. And I know that’s a lot of pressure, but that endemically makes Tzeitel strong no matter how it comes out. The fact that it does come out and comes from her, from this young, young girl. Allow that to sort of be what it is.” And I think that’s what you’re saying. Don’t play strength. Don’t play feminism. Play the truth, and the strength and feminism is innate.

Creativity Is Much More Than 10,000 Hours of Deliberate Practice
Scott Barry Kaufman at Scientific American

• Creativity does draw on a deep knowledge base, and deliberate practice can certainly contribute to many aspects of creativity, but ultimately creativity involves much more than just deliberate practice. Creators are not necessarily the most efficient, but their messy minds and messy processes often allow them to see things others have never seen, and to create new paths that future generations will deliberately practice. I have immense respect for Ericsson's body of work on deliberate practice, and do believe that deliberate practice can help you get better in virtually any skill. However, I also believe that an accurate understanding of creativity is important for how we recognize, nurture, value, and ultimately, reward it, across all sectors of society.

A Writer's Room: Irvine Welsh
New York Times

The space itself is really four areas: a library-type room with a large desk I can cover with a manuscript; an alcove with my decks and music; a smaller office with a whiteboard and reference books; and a balcony where I can sit outside and write in the sun, counting my blessings that I don’t have a real job to do. As much as I like this place, I try not to get too attached to it, and I therefore do a lot of work in coffee shops and on public transit. It’s important for me to be able to write anywhere and not get too precious about trying to chase the fool’s gold of optimum conditions.

It's a thrilling time for me. I'm about to enter full-time freelance mode. This is something that I haven't had to do. Three years ago, I received my MFA from the University of Houston. Since then, I've been at the American Shakespeare Center, doing a variety of mostly early modern plays in rotating repertory. For two of those years, I was touring across the country (off and on). I've worked with some incredible folks on some incredible plays.

But it's time to shake things up a bit.

My post-ASC life is starting to sort itself out--at least until Thanksgiving.

Starting at the end of June, I'm going back to Houston to play the Chorus in Henry V and Verges in Much Ado About Nothing. It's a quick six-week gig. I'm going to play with many "artistic cousins" from the Houston program.

After that, I have a few weeks off. I have grand dreams of making some theatrical pilgrimages to places like The Shaw Festival or American Players Theatre. But I'm not sure how my budget will allow for that. Or perhaps I'll just set up camp at a beach somewhere to read and rest. Or maybe I can make all of it work.

At the end of August, I'll be going into professor mode. I'll be an interim professor for a friend who will be on maternity leave. I get to cover three classes at Randolph College. Once that's up, I'll be directing their fall production of All My Sons by Arthur Miller.

The college job will be busy, but will allow for a lot of free time. I'm hoping I can go out on a lot of auditions (I've been doing a fair amount of video auditions, which aren't ideal, but they can get work) in the Philly/DC area--shoot maybe even New York.

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING
The Actor and the Target by Declan Donnellan
A Sense of Direction by William Ball
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
The Bellwether Revivals by Benjamin Wood 
All My Sons by Arthur Miller

WHAT I'VE BEEN WATCHING
The Office (recently finished watching the entire series--never done that before)
Last Tango in Halifax
The Americans

WHAT I'VE BEEN LISTENING TO
The new Lumineers album
A myriad of playlists on Spotify (both of my own creation and others)
Audiobook of Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North

THEATRE I'VE SEEN
It's tough to see a lot these days, but I caught a dress rehearsal of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, and it is absolutely bananas (this is a good thing). ASC audiences are in for a wild ride.

I'm looking forward to seeing Twelfth Night and King Lear too. I love those plays oh so much and some of my favorite actor friends are in them.



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So he leapt into action. He learned Burr’s big songs. He read up on Hamilton. He dressed to kill.

​“You have to walk toward the things that make you alive,” he said.

The show’s director, Thomas Kail, took note. “He was coming to play,” he said. “He was inspired.” But, just in case, Mr. Odom aggressively pursued Mr. Kail as “Hamilton” progressed. “I didn’t hide any of my cards,” he said. “I would text Tommy after every single reading: ‘I love this part.’ ‘I want to stay with this part.’”

(Read the profile in the New York Times here.)