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Creative Magic: "Courageous, Outrageous and Contagious"
Take a group of highly creative people sharing their art for the first time, a keen supportive audience,
and an array of literary genres and you have a recipe for 'Creative Magic'.
On Friday, October 13th, Creative Magic weaved its spell over an audience of over seventy people.
This event was the successful vision of organizer Cindy Shantz, a teacher and writer, who believes
that everyone should have a venue to showcase his or her creativity - and what better venue than
the Nanaimo Art Gallery?
This cozy gallery was adorned with artwork by two of the participants and had a proper stage-like area for
the presenters. Shantz's vision began in February during the course of her 'morning pages' ritual and took flight
through her own efforts and the support of the participants. All proceeds for the evening's events went towards
a scholarship for a writer to attend the Victoria School of Writing (VSW) 5-day intensive workshop.
VSW will select the winning participant based on his or her talent and need.
The evening's risk-takers were Fran Thiessen (Storytelling), Andrew Brown (Poetry), Eliza Gardiner
(Musical Drama), Lorna McNeil (Dramatic Monologue - written by Cindy Shantz), Rebecca Friesen
(Novel Excerpt), HawkOwl (Myth), and Cindy Shantz (Personal Essay). Shantz kicked off the evening
with an introduction where she said that, "All of the presenters will aim to inspire the audience with
their courageous, outrageous and, hopefully, contagious love of the written word."
Creative Magic was designed to encourage aspiring writers in all genres to step out of their closeted
comfort zones to test their projects on a live audience in an intimate space.
The event sold out several days in advance. "The main goal for the evening is to encourage these
artists and writers to make connections in the audience and establish support," Shantz said. "We also
hope that when people see the show they will be inspired to develop their own creativity." During
the intermission, audience members were encouraged to mingle with the presenters to give feedback
on the presentations.
In her personal essay 'On Writing: The Work, the Pain, and the Magic', Shantz described
the agonizing pain of 'killing your darlings' and - sigh - rewriting. However, she said,
"When I'm writing, I laugh out loud, weep, rage, fall in love-feel alive! I'm in the moment
-'in flow'-fully conscious. Connected to my soul."
When writing is shared in an intimate, supportive atmosphere, the rewards are even greater
- in fact, they are magical!
Andrea McKenzie
grew up in Victoria, B.C. where she still resides.
She is a long-time fixture at the Mocambopo Poetry Series, which is now Planet Earth Poetry.
Andrea holds a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Victoria. She is an aspiring poet,
novelist, and freelance writer. Her poetry has appeared in Canadian Literature, Mocambo Nights, Quills,
Boulevard and Rubicon Press. In 2005, she published her first book of poetry A Mother's String through Ekstasis
Editions.
Email: Andrea McKenzie
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