This week, I only managed to complete a creative task on 4 of my workdays. It's quite good that I've made a mistake this early on, before perfection gets crystallised into the process.

I played my flute on one day, I used two days to work on my mood board for La Traviata (shown in the image), and I attempted to write some poetry. The latter is barely begun but I might go back to it this week, and see if anything emerges from a few days of ideas marinating.

Which neatly brings me to something I noticed this week. The Traviata concept actually came to me about two years ago. I have had the key themes of the piece, and a visual metaphor relating to glass and mirrors floating about in my brain since 2023. However, that's not enough to make a production. Interrogating those ideas in enough detail to find the right images forced me to refine them. Now I know I want the production to be contemporary, and to exist in "high art and culture" locations, as if they've hired out the Palace of Versailles to throw a grand party (can you even do that?). Art needs room to breathe.

Another thing I noticed after I played my flute. Most people don't even know I can play, but I took my exams all the way through school to Grade 8. However, I have no interest in pursuing a career as a performing musician so now it's just a hobby. That's not the observation. What I noted was that it felt really good to play my music, in the same way it felt really good to learn a dance last week. Inhabiting the art felt really good, which is important when so much of my work as a director is conceptual thinking, and it is others who practically apply it.

That's all I've got, except manifesting a commission for that Traviata production. I really want to direct that one!