THE CIRCLE OF LIGHT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They circled around her chanting, "Ibu, Ibu, Ibu, Ibu" which means Mother, or is a term of respect for an older woman. She glowed, silver white hair and bright eyes in the center of the stage, absorbing the good energies of the improv actors. Latifah shone there, right in the flow of creativity, as she has always done. Here's how creativity grows inside you, and around you when you play from the heart.

 

 

 

Latifah Taormina's  story was part of the Lucky Chaos production of The ReSet Project at Salvage Vanguard Theater in Austin. The show featured creative people talking about pivotal times in their lives, the choices they made, and their sources of inspiration. This spawned an improvisational scene by the actors, who reframed and bounced themes back to the speaker. The narrator and the audience witness how an individual's inspiration and life choices radiate to others, refracting joy, and instigating more creativity.

 

 

 

Coming of age in the early 1960s, she was one of the first improvisational actors to come out of Second City in Chicago and Cafe La Mama in New York. In San Francisco, with her husband, she went on to co-found The Committee; the theater troupe was a great success, turning out political satire at the epicenter of the early anti- Vietnam war protests in the Bay Area. Her acting career picked up speed as she landed more and more roles in television and film. She was playing at the edges of the cultural revolution of the era.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, her marriage ended, and she felt a gnawing sense that her soul was not being fed by the work she was doing. She had joined Subud, a spiritual practice based in Indonesia by this time. One day she heard a clear message in her head, " Sell what you can, store the rest, and go to Indonesia immediately." Acting on this, she did move to Jakarta where her willingness to try anything, to contribute her talents to any situation, led to funny encounters, and soon to her life's calling. She began teaching drama at the international school I attended.

 

 

 

She found her joy drawing out creativity, spontaneity, and confidence in her students. For almost a decade she inspired hundreds of us to venture out into our own imaginative playgrounds through improvisational theater, creative writing, and theatrical productions. While she has gone on to be a tour de force in many other cultural arenas, she remains proudest of this work and its lasting resonance in so many lives.

 

 

 

And there she was, my Ibu, my guide, shining on that stage, sharing herself with others, forty years later. I'm grateful to still be in her circle of light. I'm so proud of her.

 

 

 

Here's a note she wrote to me when I was a kid. I'm passing on this message of encouragement to you too - Be yourself. Play from the heart:

 

 

 

Emily -

 

Carefully nonchalant

 

Unbuttoned, center-stage

 

Her embroidered heart.

 

 

 

The audience -

 

Anxiously checking the program -

 

Did not applaud.

 

But God -

 

Who was watching from the light booth -

 

Laughed heartily.

 

 

 

And Emily -

 

Bless her heart,

 

Said, "Thank you."

 

 

 

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Thank you, Latifah.