Today is ‘National All or Nothing Day’, a day that encourages people to…
‘throw caution to the wind and go for broke’
Now before you sell the house, quit your job, buy a camper van and start touring North Africa can I just issue some words of caution whilst also saying…what could possibly go wrong?
Let’s turn 4 retail units into a theatre Swansea High Street.
So many times in my own life I have found myself at one of these moments where the safe option is the wise option, but I’ve still decided to bet the house on some crazy scheme or another.
Looking back I can agree with Mark Twain when he said
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.”
Everything in life involves some risk or another, it’s just some of these choices involve bigger risks than others. I don’t think I’ve ever taken one of these risky decisions without sitting down with a piece of paper and trying to work out just how risky the ideas might be, but there comes a point where you are standing on the edge of the cliff and you have to decide whether to jump or not.
Once having made the decision to take a big step the organisers of ‘National All or Nothing Day’ suggests telling family and friends or maybe post about your decision on social media. Once you have shared your dream with others you become accountable for your words.
Let’s do the show right here…
Now before we go any further it’s also ok to stop at any point, hold your hands up and say this isn’t working. If that is the case at least you won’t always wonder, and possibly regret never having given that dream a chance to fly.
Let’s book a concert at the Swansea Arena.
I still remember exactly where it was when I made the decision to write a musical about the Welsh Revival. It was 2003 and if I’m being honest work was in short supply. I was toying with the idea of writing a piece for the theatre and I was walking down the road when I got a call from a friend in Cardiff. He was working on a special project to celebrate the centenary of the Welsh Revival in 2004. Almost without missing a beat I found myself saying, what a coincidence, I’m writing a musical about the very same subject.
Why don’t I send a tape of my songs to Radio One?
Within a few days I was in meetings with various organisations about my new project and by that stage it was too late to pull back, it really was a time for all or nothing. In my defence I had some experience of writing songs for a musical, I had the contacts in the world of theatre and music to draw on to make the project a reality, but I also knew that this was a long and probably expensive journey. Having said my ‘Dream Out Loud’ I felt accountable to the dream and the people I had told.
It is strange how some dreams can then lead on to others. It was through the musical ‘Amazing Grace’ that I was contacted by a theatre producer from Minneapolis. He had heard about the show and was interested in possibly taking it to the Mid-West. We got talking and as always I did my online research about his past productions.
I noticed that one of his biggest hits was a show called ‘Triple Espresso’, a musical about 3 lads in a coffee shop. The next time I spoke to him I said congratulations on Triple Espresso and that I actually had a show about 3 girls in a coffee shop called ‘Cappuccino Girls’. Now I wasn’t exactly lying. I did have an idea for a show based on my 3 minute song ‘Cappuccino Girls’ and I did have a one A4 page synopsis, but it wasn’t anywhere near being finished.
Once I had told him and he had said he was interested I had passed the ‘All or Nothing’ test again. This dream was further put to the test when he almost immediately invited me to Minneapolis to see his show, the theatre where he was based and also to talk through my new musical. I literally had a few days and a transatlantic flight to turn that synopsis from one page to 4 and also to include a character breakdown. If you are going all in remember, you’ll also have to put the work in.
Let’s make a film about our football club!
Sadly, after 4 trips to Minneapolis the Credit Crunch of 2008 scuppered our plans to open the show in America but the whole experience had left me with a completed show. What I had seen in Minneapolis was a model that I thought might work here. It was a small show about 3 lads in a coffee shop that had run in the same theatre for 12 years!!! To do the same thing this side of the Atlantic wouldn’t be easy but at least I had seen it work.
The trouble was I couldn’t quite find the right venue for a show that potentially would run for a long time. That was when I decided to build my own theatre on Swansea High Street. Now let me tell you over a decade later even I think that sounds completely absurd, I actually shudder when I think of the consequences of failure and if I could have a word with myself all those years ago I would say don’t do it…but I did it.
Let’s turn our cafe into a TV Studio.
Well, when I say I did it what I mean is we did it. As I started telling people about the dream, and as more people heard about the scheme to take 4 unfinished shop units in the new Coastal Housing project on High Street and turn them into a theatre space, suddenly it didn’t seem so absurd after all.
That’s one of the things I’ve learnt. As you share your dream you can attract other people to your project because your dream aligns with their dream. When I told Gary Iles, the Manager of the Swansea Grand Theatre, back in 2003 that I wanted to write a musical about the Welsh Revival it was a time where Gary was working with Director Michael Bogdanov to produce new Welsh theatre. My dream became their dream too.
When I approached Coastal Housing about taking 4 unfinished shop units to create a new theatre space they were actively looking for ways to encourage people back to the High Street. Our dreams aligned again.
Let’s go to Prague to record an orchestra!!
So back to the start, Today is ‘National All or Nothing Day’. Remember Mark Twain and also remember…
‘it’s easier to steer a moving ship than one that’s sitting in the docks’.
Think carefully before any big decisions but if you’ve been thinking about it for a long time, then, maybe today is the day to make things happen, you never know where it will lead you.