Tuesday, December 05, 2017

Miss Isabella Rainsong and Her Traveling Companion: A One-Guitar Show


Anyone who has started talking to me about creativity over the last eight years or so has probably heard me mention this "play with music" I've been noodling on since 2009 (or since I was born, depending on how you count). After lots of dreaming, but not a lot of action, it's finally becoming a real thing. 

Miss Isabella Rainsong and Her Traveling Companion: A One-Guitar Show
Written and Performed by Ross D. Martin
Saturday, January 20th, 2018
7246 Cradlerock Way
Columbia, Maryland
  
Here are links about the show:
Brown Paper Tickets: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3184030  All of the proceeds are going to The UUCC Minister’s fund, which helps needy folks in Howard County with things like food, rent, transportation, medical needs, etc.

Short background: In 2009, I was asked by a neighbor to write the music for a musical being put on by Art Stream, an inclusive theater troupe that includes adults with various disabilities – Down’s Syndrome, autism, etc. They put on two original shows every year and rehearse year round, but wanted to try a musical for the first time. I ended up being in the show, "It's a Wonderful Pie", playing an itinerant musician who played guitar on stage for the songs in the show. It struck me odd that this homeless-looking guy had such a beautiful Taylor guitar. I thought about the backstory of the character and how he came to have such an amazing instrument. The notion festered for a while and I finally wrote the script about five years ago, tweaking it occasionally, but never having a plan about how to turn it into something real – it was always a “someday when I have more time” sort of thing.

Then last winter, my neighborhood business book club was reading The One Thing: a book about the myth of multitasking but also about finding the efforts that you’re passionate about but that need a plan to be fully realized. We went around the room talking about that “one thing” that was in us but wasn’t getting out. I talked about this play. Right there, the group made it their mission to cajole me into making it happen. They insisted that I set a date to perform it – for them. Last August, I did a workshop version of the play in my home for about a dozen people from the book club and the neighborhood – complete with a lightning storm and other effects. It was far from perfect, but was good enough to show that it had some legs. Some members of my Unitarian congregation in Columbia saw it too and they asked me to do a full two-act production of the show there – tickets and all. We eventually set a date for this January.

There is never a good time to do an extracurricular project like this. I’ve tried to give myself enough of a runway to memorize the 55 minutes of monologue that go with the dozen original songs in the show I’ve written over the last 20 years. Memorizing lines in my 50s is a very different experience from doing it in my youth! But it’s coming together and I expect that this show will be good enough not to be embarrassing, though I don’t expect any agents to come calling about the national tour…

If you want to see a "commercial" for the show, you can get a little taste here:

Here's a quick video I shot the day after the workshop performance -- showing the tech I put together to make the show work. 


Thursday, October 12, 2017

digituRN

The American College of Medical Informatimusicology 
is pleased to present the World Premiere of 
digituRN

dig·i·tuRN  \'dij·i·tÉ™rn\ tr verb:
     to transform the nursing profession
     through the application of informatics
     and digital innovation.




Written, performed, produced and edited by Ross D. Martin, MD, MHA, FACMImimi
President and Founder of The American College of Medical Informatimusicology.
www.ACMImimi.org

Commissioned by the Southern Indiana University College of Nursing and Health Professions for the 4th Annual Health Informatics Tri-State Summit.

The healing touch
Words of compassion
An understanding ear
It all seems so old fashioned
The rules are changing as we
Jump into this digital game
(We're digituRNing)

Wait a minute
Our path is timeless
More than ever now
We need human kindness
The flow is changing
But the calling is still the same
Let's repaint the patient picture
And surround it with a digital frame
(We're digituRNing)

We need more healing
And human interaction
The system's reeling
It's time to spring to action
We can't go back to the
Prison of paper chains
Just imagine what can happen
When we multiply our digital gains
(We're digituRNing)

When you let the data go
You won't believe your eyes
As you push it to the flow
The data liquifies
Filling the gaps
Making sure you're aware
Avoiding errors and traps
And driving quality care
Nursing informatics has the
Power to burn and when you
Crank it to eleven you digituRN
Turn, turn, turn... digituRN
(We're digituRNing)

One last notion
Our history's just beginning
It's all in motion
We've got the big wheels spinning
There's just no telling where
DigituRNing takes the flow
Just put the patient first
And we'll keep digituRNing as we go
Just put the patient first
And we'll keep digituRNing into tomorrow
Turn, turn, turn... digituRN
(We're digituRNing)

(c)2017 The American College of Medical Informatimusicology
Creative Commons License 4.0


Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike