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There is a new approach to finding balance that may help artists who face obstacles to sustaining their creative expression: Psychedelic Integration. The work is to integrate spiritual experiences into daily living. The key elements apply to the artist mindset as well, with or without psychedelics. When I discovered this emerging field at a recent Plant Spirit Summit, I felt a journey inside me come to completion. I’ve grown accustomed to disillusionment disrupting my flow of creativity but I never before considered integration as a solution. After hearing how psychedelic integration can balance transformative experiences, I realized that is what’s been missing from my own plight as an artist. Surviving NYC for almost 20 years really leaves a jaded mark on an individual who refuses to play dirty, blur ethical lines, and/or trade favors for opportunities. And yet trying to overcome ethically questionable practices turned into somewhat of an addiction for me. “New York City is a Drug,” says punk band The Dirty Pearls, a relic of the Lower East Side in times past. The city of dreams has shown me several lifetimes' worth of opportunities. There is always #AnotherWay. The city is alive with deviant art, desperate passion, and magical moments everywhere you turn. For years I consumed the energy around me, including all the exploitative practices that suffocate artists. It was just a matter of time before that took its toll. Everyone handles disillusionment differently because it’s a personal experience. I sought metamorphosis at an Ayahuasca retreat in Peru and reclaimed a creativity that had fallen dormant. But how to sustain that upon my return to an exploitive environment? Integration! Most people I’ve encountered in big cities don't speak the language of psychedelic love, the oneness of all things, living and not-living. That kind of thinking doesn’t jive with hustle culture. Unique dreams that find their way to NYC expect to break hearts, trample the competition, and “do what it takes” to succeed. That’s often what it looks like just to survive here. Integration work teaches survival without the sacrifice of deviant sensibilities or artistic expression. Post Peru I was asking, “Do I lower my vibrations to match those around me or call attention to a higher path?” Integration asks, “How do you find balance with integrity?” One side effect of my psychedelic experiences has been to turn away from the spotlight I once craved. Reflecting the light that shines from others feels more aligned with my purpose. But what I’ve discovered is that not everyone can handle their own light. Especially artists, who can feel more comfortable lost in a self-effacing ethos that culture often demands from them. (See my blog: Which came first: the exploited artist or the insecure artist?) Succumbing to a dark ethos isn’t the answer, but neither is imposing ideals. There is a third option: integrating balance. Working in the Arts as long as I have, I’ve seen a lot of artists come and go. Finding sustainability for one’s creative flame faces the same roadblocks across mediums, across disciplines, and across industries. So integration for me has three paths: integrating psychedelic 5-D learnings into my 3-D daily life, integrating a new mindset into communities that see deviant thinking as a threat, and integrating the artistic sensibility into business savvy. That’s #ArtsMeetsBiz! Integration is what I’ve been seeking all along and just knowing there was a path for it turned my spiritual void inside out. This is a calling for me, the latest “Call to Adventure” that makes sense out of the conflict I’ve survived. To that end, I’ve started a new MeetUp community to support artists seeking their own integration. The same struggles I faced as a creative in a city that’s more hustle than flow can manifest uniquely in every artist. Disillusionment is very real. If your experience of it is one and done, you’re one of the lucky ones. People need supportive communities now more than ever. So please join us virtually to share and engage in a constructive dialog around what it means to be an artist today. Whether you’ve discovered your creative talent after a psychedelic experience or are reconnecting to a flame that was extinguished by exploitive practices, your story needs to be heard, recognized, and either celebrated or composted to build a better tomorrow for the Arts. #OneArtistataTime Emileena is writing a book on artist development called ANOTHER WAY. If you are an artist looking for development, consider Emileena's E-Velop program. Original Artwork by Dave Law, freelance visual artist and illustrator. For more, please visit www.davelawart.com.

As a self-identified artist, I want to believe I’m pretty in tune with my emotional intelligence. After all, art is what people turn to to make sense of their own feelings. My favorite music, film, literature, visual art, and even live performance usually derive from the emotional depths of personal experience, even if it’s deeply implicit. But a rather poignant little secret I’ve unearthed in my artist development research is that while creativity feeds off emotions, the artist can rarely control it. Just because someone can express it doesn’t mean they’ve learned to manage it. American conceptual artist Glenn Ligon speaks for artists when he says artwork is, “the way that we figure out who we are, rather than express who we are. …the making of the work is an exploration of what we are.” There is something to be said for the power of releasing that which has been swimming around in your embodied experience unconsciously. When you can name that which you feel, the feeling loses some of its unrestricted reign over your life. But making your emotions conscious doesn’t immediately translate to mastery over them. In some cases, those emotions can take on a weird life of their own. That’s why some kind of mindful, holistic practice is essential to sustainable artist development. #DevelopmentNeverEnds I know this, but I also have an artistic sensibility that can get lost in the intricate poetry of emotions. Sometimes that comes at the expense of my own conscious, sustainable living. This phenomenon is described beautifully in Pixar’s Soul, in the scene where Joe learns that souls can get lost in “The Zone.” So when I shared my Ayahuasca journey recently on the Mamas Boys Podcast, I was caught a little off guard by some buried emotions that surfaced. Having never spoken publicly about my experience with plant medicine, I was blissfully unaware of how much of it had gone unprocessed. There is something transformational and somewhat magical about putting words to buried emotions. What I learned from this process holds valuable lessons for artists regarding unexamined thinking patterns. Here are my three biggest takeaways: 1. Some experiences defy description, and that’s what art is for. Mere words can not fully contain the bizarre world of Ayahuasca and I have still not yet settled on the best way to explain it cohesively. I have, however, been able to touch it at one time or another through various mediums such as literature, song, dance, image, and more. I realize now that my book on artist development is meant to express this experience - it’s my creative process. Maybe I’ve always known this on a subconscious level, but it’s only now that I can articulate it: my book is an artistic representation of the lessons I’ve learned from plant medicine, as told through the mediums of literature (Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey specifically), image (with some help from Dave Law Art), song (follow me on Apple Music), and other multi-media (still in development). 2. Our life experiences are framed by our state of mind. So much of my Ayahuasca Journey was tainted by the jaded disillusionment I felt from navigating the concrete jungle of New York City. Although I have composted most of that in my head, I was surprised by how negative my memories sounded when I recounted them out loud. I was physically ill for most of my stay in Peru, which was easy to write off as altitude sickness, food poisoning, and the dieta I was on pre-retreat. I felt hopeless while Ayahuasca was drawing me into the oneness of Love. The moment I was able to let go and truly embrace this LOVE, all my physical symptoms lifted. It now seems so clear to me that my negative judgements were simply manifesting into my physical experience. 3. Insecurity is a distraction from staying present. After the podcast, I felt immobilized by a familiar insecurity: I tend to get stuck in the past at the expense of moving into the future. In this case, I scrutinized every word I said, fearing it would be misinterpreted hereafter. Hello, ego! As a Daoist, I recognize that the wisdom of the Tao lives in the present, a perfect balance of duality (yin/yang). That means I try not to dwell too long on one side over the other, the past versus the future. But what sometimes happens, as a result, is that I can get lost bouncing between perspectives. I'm not changing the past, I’m not moving forward, and I'm definitely not present. This happens in the second stage of The Sustainability Cycle, which I also call “The Bounce.” In my book I explain that the further you go in your awakening journey, the faster the bounce of perspective happens. But it can also be an intellectual trap that is easy for visionary artists to get lost in (back to “The Zone” in Pixar’s Soul). I’ve been feeling more like Alice Through the Lookingglass. Maybe the Cheshire Cat is right, “We’re all mad here.” In those moments I turn to my box of tools to ground myself back into presence. I like to remind myself that we are all exactly where we need to be. And since Time is Relative, you can’t fuck up your own journey. This helps my anxiety when my ego is making a lot of noise. #DevelopmentNeverEnds ---- Perhaps I’ll never be able to capture Ayahuasca in its majesty and it will keep swimming around unexpressed as I stumble through life. Who knows what hidden emotions will be revealed if and when they do surface. But grounding into presence, being here now, feels more manageable than worrying about what will be or what has been. So now that I’ve processed the recounting of my Ayahuasca experience, there is still the wisdom of the plant medicine left to digest. The love that I felt, and now know I hold inside, can consume any and every negative experience past, present, or future. I can even love myself, which feels strangely radical to say out loud. But that simple takeaway is worth all the disillusionment that came before. So while I continue integrating these lessons into my life, one day at a time, I can never erase the visceral messaging I received atop that mountainside in Peru: Love is always the answer. Listen to The Mamas Boys Podcast: Ayahuasca, Creativity and Artist Management Emileena is writing a book on artist development called ANOTHER WAY. If you are an artist looking for development, consider Emileena's E-Velop program. Original Artwork by Dave Law, freelance visual artist and illustrator. For more, please visit www.davelawart.com.

Artists love to complain about the squeezed funding dedicated to the Arts, an unpleasant reality that has seen decreased spending on the Arts starting, arguably, with Reaganomics. I’ve shared that narrative in almost every presentation, workshop, and event I’ve produced. But what I’m starting to see now is that more than the lack of funding, it’s the very system itself that is broken. Specifically, non-profits that are created to fund under-served artists simply cannot keep up with the demand. There are just too many people awakening to the artist within. I think we’re finally starting to see that the answer to the squeezed Arts industries is not to find more money, nor create more organizations. All that does is replicate the same problems. In an increasingly diverse environment (which was always diverse, society is just now starting to embrace it), what we need is more diverse systems! But the point of this article is not to offer a solution. There will always be #AnotherWay, which means no one way will ever be a cure-all for everyone equally. Instead, I’d like to suggest that we are in a time of unpreceded opportunity precisely because our systems are collapsing. The events that have transpired since 2020 have catalyzed interest in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Most notably, integration of the BIPOC, BLM, and LGBTQ perspectives has been given a greater weight inside the workplace. Both corporations and non-profits have increased their efforts to ensure representation. This in turn supports inclusive narratives that will propel the organization’s footprint into a post-pandemic environment. This all sounds very forward-thinking, exciting, and…modern. It seems we are in the season of the “individual.” Time’s Person of the Year in 2011 was “The Protestor,” so it seems appropriate, in my mind, if “The Individual” assumed the prestigious title for 2022. In a recent New York Times article about the Global Culture Wars, David Brooks writes that the idealized vision of globalization that the majority accepted in the 1990s, has since devolved: “This was an optimistic vision of how history would evolve, a vision of progress and convergence. Unfortunately, this vision does not describe the world we live in today. The world is not converging anymore; it’s diverging.” Western thinking was built on patriarchal views that strived for a unified ideal. We are the United States, after all. But in the Year of the Individual, it seems to me that the very concept of unity is flawed. And while some people may be upset about the splintering of our collective, I see this moment as having tremendous potential. We are sitting in a liminal time in history. That means that buried in the chaos of broken systems is the opportunity to create #AnotherWay. Creativity thrives in the liminal space. As many people still have one foot firmly planted in the comfortable, predictable way of life that was pre-pandemic, we are simultaneously stepping into a new reality. It’s a paradigm shift where technology is a deity, to be worshipped or crucified, and temporal unpredictability is the new normal. We’ve lost favor for those in dominant, wealthy positions of power, such as government officials, religious leaders, and even educational institutions. Allegiance seems to lie, more so than ever, with an individualized identity. So I leave you with a prompt to consider in your own life: How can you build a new narrative that doesn’t attempt to unite, but also doesn’t suppress? Your answer is the creative thread that you carry in this time of chaos. According to mythologist Michael Meade, if we each carry our own thread, we can collectively weave a new reality. Be the change. Emileena is writing a book called ANOTHER WAY, the Dao of Artist Development. If you are an artist looking for development, consider Emileena's E-Velop program. Original Artwork by Dave Law, freelance visual artist and illustrator. For more, please visit www.davelawart.com.

My Items I'm a title. ​Click here to edit me.

My Items I'm a title. ​Click here to edit me. Past-Life Regression More Tesla's Free Energy More Daoism (Taoism) More Synchronicities More The Pineal Gland More Chakras Explained More Pande-mania More Simulation Theory More

Robert L. Hecker Joshua A. Kashinsky Amy Klewitz Evan Storey Duane Pagano Peter Hoerburger Candice Knox Robert L. Hecker (Playwright) enlisted in the Army Air Corps after Pearl Harbor. He completed thirty missions as a lead bombardier on B-17s and was awarded six Air Medals, four battle stars, a Unit Citation and the Distinguished Flying Cross. Shortly after the war, he began a freelance writing career for radio and television, while specializing in business, education and documentary films. His documentary film awards include: San Francisco Film Festivals Golden Gate Award, Atlanta Film Festivals Gold Award, five Information Film Producers of America Cindy Awards, and four United States Cine awards. He also has had 12 novels published and five stage plays produced, including Honestly Abe, his first musical, as well as a new feature-film screenplay scheduled for shooting in the spring. Robert is a graduate of the Pasadena Playhouse and the Westlake College of Music and a member of the WGA, the Dramatists Guild, and the Alliance of LA Playwrights. Upcoming directing projects include a reading of The English Bride by Lucile Lichtblau (Luna Stage). Recent directing projects include the new musical Honestly Abe by Robert Hecker (La Muse Venale/Mint Theater) and a reading of Dead and Buried by James McLindon (Luna Stage). Recent producing credits are McCarter Theatres High School Rep and The Mad 7 by Yehuda Hyman (dir. Mara Isaacs) in the NY International Fringe Festival. Other directing credits include McCarter Theatre's Youth Ink! Festival and MCC Theatre's Youth Company. Josh was recently a Directing and Producing Assistant at McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ where he assisted Des McAnnuff, Amy Morton and Nicholas Martin. As a playwright, his work has been seen in California, New York, Maine and Ontario. Most recently his play Heels in the Sand had a reading at Woodie King Jr.'s New Federal Theatre. He is the recipient of the Lipkin Prize and is a Corwin Award winner. Josh is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara. He received his MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild. Continues an active career as choreographer, dancer and actor. Favorite choreography credits include Diabetes Costars (With Paul and Mira Sorvino), Midsummer Night Swing at Lincoln Center, Wooden Breeks (MCC), Erica Schmidts Price of Pearls and Other Stories, Unity Ball Dance for Alseheimers, Hot for Manhattan Ballroom Showcase, 10 Blocks On The Camio Real, JosephDream Coat, Honestly Abe, among many commercials, musicals and films. Amy worked as managing director of Little Light Productions. She competes as a professional Ballroom and Latin dancer, and dances for the American Ballroom Theatre. She holds a BA in Dance and Theatre and an MFA in Theatre from The Actors Studio Drama School. Through his prior work at management firm 101 Productions and as Executive Personal Assistant to producer Timothy Levy at Robert Boyett Theatricals, Evan has worked on more than 20 Broadway shows and Westend transfers. In addition, he served as Administrative Production Coordinator for the Drama Desk Awards, co-coordinated the New Island Festival, managed Front of House Operations for The New York Musical Theatre Festival, and acted as Production Manager for the Midtown International Theatre Festival. As a playwright, he has written four full-length plays and two musicals. As director, he has mounted six New York stage productions and two television pilots, with one earning him a Velocity Award Nomination for Best Director. Evan studied at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and is currently working on a degree in Cultural Media from Eugene Lang College at the New School for Liberal Arts. DUANE PAGANO is obligated to thank Emileena and crew for the opportunity to be a part of this production. He has designed lights for any number of productions throughout NYC, some of which you may have seen. And if you havent, no worries, as he has more upcoming. Hes also designed sets occasionally. Possibly you hadnt recognized his name before, as you hadnt read through the program. Thanks for reading and enjoy the show. As always, he dedicates his work to his biggest fan. Recent Designs: My Base and Scurvy Heart, Space Bar, The Erotic Diary of Anne Frank, Gaugleprixtown (Studio 42); Transatlantica (NYTW); Present Perfect (NYIT Award); We Are Being Held (Coffee Cup Theatre); Boise, St. Crispins Day (Rattlestick); Fear (Naked Angels); Marvins Room, HurlyBurly, Crimes of the Heart, Taste of Honey, Bedroom Farce (T. Schreiber Studio); Peter Pan, Tom Jones, Waiting for Godot, The Foreigner, The Orchard, Towards Zero (Dorset Theater Festival); Associate Credits: Bring It On (National Tour); Aladdin (5th Avenue Theatre); Ghetto Klown (Lyceum Theatre); ELF (AL Hirschfeld Theatre); Mrs Warrens Profession (Roundabout Theatre); Stuffed and Unstrung (Henson Alternative); Beauty and the Beast (National Tour); Brighton Beach Memoirs (Netherlander Theatre); Accent on Youth (MTC). MFA graduate of Sarah Lawrence College. NY theatre productions include Tartuffe, Wickets, The Winters Tale, and Twelfth Night. Film credits include Tomorrow Comes Today, My Name is Your First Love, and Gods Atheist. She has also worked in TV as a costume coordinator for 2 seasons at Law & Order and 1 season at Blue Bloods. Ien DeNio Charlotte Volage Sarah Kate O'Haver Paul Siebold Heather Hogan Jamibeth Margolis Genevieve Ortiz Ien DeNio never knows what to say in these things. Ien is an artist, with a general focus in theater and a particular fascination with sound. Her recent work includes Planet Egg (St. Anns Puppet Lab; Holon Puppet Festival, Israel), Hay Fever (NYU-ATC), Blue Roof Skies (92nd Street Y; Jacob's Pillow Inside/Out Festival) and DayDreamers(Canadian Fringe Festival). Her work can be seen in the upcoming weeks in Trojan Women (NYU-ATC) and Anne and Emmett (Atlas Theater, DC). Many thanks to Josh, Mom, Dad, Kate, and neverbugs... little ones. Charlotte Volage theatrical credits include Broadway, Off Broadway and regional theatre. Broadway shows represented are Absurd Person Singular, Goodtime Charley, Yiddle With a Fiddle and Crown Matrimonial. She has worked along side Marsha Norman on Marsha's play Lunch with Ginger observing first-hand this Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright in action. Her first professional theatre experience occurred on the national tour of That Championship Season which starred Danny Aiello and academy award winner Broderick Crawford. She also worked with Elia Kazan on one of his final directorial projects The Chain which premiered at the Hartman Theatre. Cheryl Crawford produced this play, which was optioned for Broadway. Charlotte rode the train every day to rehearse with this icon of theatre history and heard many stories from Cheryl's halcyon days with the Theatre Guild one of the most prominent producing organizations in the history of the American theatre. Sarah Kate is thrilled to be joining The Show Goes On team. For four years she worked closely with box-office guru Joseph Craig at his offices at both Nielsen Research Group and Entertainment Research Marketing, where their research credits include work with Disney Theatricals, SPOT Co, Spiderman: Turn off the Dark and more. Additionally, she has served as the marketing director for the past two seasons of the Midtown International Theatre Festival. She also gives marketing assistance to Touching Humanity, a theater company featuring "differently abled" performers. She has an M.F.A. from Rutgers' prestigious Mason Gross School of the Arts, where she studied playwriting. Paul Siebold is the managing director of OFF OFF PR, a firm dedicated to promoting developing theatrical productions through effective marketing communications. He has been a marketing, promotions and public relations executive for over 15 years. Pauls work has helped to achieve significant pre-press, sold-out houses and post-production success for his clients. Among his many successes, Paul was the publicist for the 2008 and 2009 winners of the New York Innovative Theatre Award's "Outstanding Production of a Musical." Paul works with performers, album releases, comedies, dramas, musicals, plays, dance and solo performances as part of festivals, theater company seasons, independently produced productions, and more. www.offoffpr.com . Member, AEA /AFTRA. Broadway: In The Heights Off Broadway: The Sphinx Winx Regional: Most Wanted, After the Quake, The Farnsworth Invention and Carmen The Musical (LaJolla Playhouse), Denmark, Mauritius (Madison Repertory) Hamlet, As You Like It (PCPA Theaterfest). International: CANDELA "Fuerza y Pasión" (Pura Vibra), Oedipus Rex (TOGA Japan), INDIA (Dragone Productions). She received her MFA from the University of Delaware. Heather is also on the board of directors for the nonprofit arts organization R.Evolución Latina. www.revolucionlatina.org Jamibeth is now entering her 16th year as a professional casting director in New York. She was with Johnson-Liff Casting, Cameron Mackintosh, and Margolis-Seay Casting and is now out on her own as a freelance casting director. Previous credits include the Broadway and National Touring Companies of LES MISERABLES, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, MISS SAIGON, and CATS as well as many other shows on Broadway, Off Broadway, National Touring Companies and shows for prominent regional theaters. Jamibeth is a member of the Casting Society of America. Currently, she is casting many new plays and musicals in development for commercial productions including SISTAS (running Off Broadway at St. Lukes) and WARSAW and is dedicated to developing new works. She is thrilled to be working with Emileena again and the entire creative team of GHOST DANCER. Recent credits include SOPAC's Significant Others (stage reading); NYMF This One Girls' Story; Abingdon Theater's How I Fell in Love; Morgan Street at BRIC Arts New Black Festival; plus various NYC credits. Alyssa Renzi Emily Padden Alyssa is a New York City based theater/film artist. Previously, she has interned on the independent film The Green as the production office assistant and at the 2nd National Asian American Theater Festival as the marketing intern. She also co-produced the short film White Rice which was accepted into the 2011 Big Apple Film Festival and is currently producing the short film Underpaid Narrator. Alyssa does freelance graphic design and editing. Emily Padden is happy to be working with Emileena and Evan again after interning for them this summer on the Midtown International Theatre Festival. A native of Massachusetts, Emily earned a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Salem State University (formerly Salem State College) in 2003 and immediately went to work in the Boston area as a stage manager, production assistant, stagehand, and event tech. She's worked for such regional theatres / theatre companies as The Lyric Stage of Boston, North Shore Music Theatre, The American Repertory Theatre, Boston Actors Theater, The Firehouse Center For the Arts, Boston Theatre Works, New Repertory Theatre, and Company One. Additionally, Emily served for four years as a stage manger / co-artistic director of the Boston fringe theatre company, Junkyard Dogs Productions, and in 2007 went with the Dogs to The Edmonton International Fringe Festival with their original production of Lineage. Since her move here (finally!) in May of 2010, Emily has tried to get involved as much as possible in theatre and so far has worked for the aforementioned MITF, volunteered for the 2010 New York International Fringe Festival (sensing a theme here?), and helped out as a volunteer script reader at New York Theatre Workshop. Currently, Emily is a staff member at State Supply Equipment & Props, Inc. The Production Team of GHOST DANCER ​ Joshua A. Kashinsky Director Robert L. Hecker Playwright Amy Klewitz ​ Choreographer ​ Evan Storey ​ ​ Production Manager ​ Duane Pagano ​ ​ Scenic Designer ​ Peter Hoerburger ​ ​ Lighting Designer ​ Candice Knox ​ ​ Costume Designer ​ Ien DeNio ​ ​ Sound Designer ​ Charlotte Volage ​ ​ Prop Designer ​ Sarah Kate O'Haver ​ ​ Marketing Director ​ Paul Siebold ​ Off Off PR ​ Publicist Heather Hogan ​ ​ Production Stage Manager ​ Jamibeth Margolis ​ ​ Casting Director ​ Genevieve Ortiz ​ ​ Production Assistant ​ Alyssa Renzi ​ ​ Production Assistant ​ Emily Padden ​ ​ Production Assistant ​ Press Process Team Cast About