A sample of Charlie Varon's "What am I doing alone onstage? Memoirs of an accidental solo performer" What am I doing alone onstage? Memoirs of an accidental solo performer Below is a sneak peek at the beginning of my solo performance memoirs. Enjoy! -- Charlie Prologue You may have seen me walking down Dolores Street talking to myself. It’s a wide street, with wide sidewalks, and the strip of grass running down the middle has tall palm trees reaching to the sky. In another country they might call it a boulevard. In San Francisco it’s just Dolores Street. It’s never crowded, and sometimes as I walk up and down its hills, I marvel at my solitude. How can a neighborhood so close to the center of a city be home to such a peaceful street? I’m from New York. It’s true the neighborhood I grew up in – Riverdale, in the northwest corner of the Bronx – has wooded areas that are good for walking, but midtown Manhattan is at least a half-hour away by subway. Dolores Street is where I’ve walked for more than a quarter of a century, running lines for my solo shows, or thinking through questions of plot and character in whatever I’m writing or directing, or scheming about where I’m going to get the money to produce it. If you saw me on Dolores Street in 1994, I was pushing a stroller and running lines for my solo show Rush Limbaugh in Night School . By 1997, my hands were free and you might have seen me gesticulating as I worked on my characters in Ralph Nader Is Missing! . If it was 1999, I was in the world of The People’s Violin ; if it was 2002 I was working out bits for Ten Day Soup ; in 2004 Visiting Professor of Pessimism . By 2009, I was doing some of my walking at Crissy Field, the long, flat promenade alongside San Francisco Bay, lost in the world of my magnum opus, Rabbi Sam , running my lines, preparing for the weekend’s performances. But now, in the 2020s, I’m back on Dolores Street, sometimes walking all the way from Dolores Park, near where I live, to Market Street, sometimes circumambulating the park, lost in something I’m writing or thinking of writing, or just hearing in my mind’s ear (and maybe speaking out loud) one of the voices that’s lodged in my head and that gives me pleasure. Introduction As I begin writing these memoirs, in the summer of 2021, the world is still in the grips of the COVID-19 Pandemic. So much has been upended, suspended, altered -- including theater. In the last 18 months, I’ve set foot in a theater only twice. What was once a warm and familiar setting has become scary and strange. Is the ventilation system good enough? What if the masks we wear slip below the nose, as masks do? And what of the unmasked person or persons onstage and their exhalations and saliva? Is this place a vector of disease? A few theaters in the Bay Area are beginning to reopen, with distanced seating and mask and vaccine requirements; others are being more cautious and remain closed. But the old Normal is gone. And no one really knows what comes next. So now, as I walk down Dolores Street, this uncertainty intrudes, and I hear myself thinking old-person thoughts, curmudgeon thoughts: What will become of theater? Of solo performance? All the work I’ve done in this art form over the last 30 years -- and all that I thought I was helping to build -- will it all be swept away? I hate thinking these thoughts. But the truth is that I was thinking thoughts like these long before the Pandemic. In the last decade, the seductive, ubiquitous Screen has disrupted our art form. Why leave home, why pay money, why have to look for parking or take public transit when there’s so much great free streaming content that you can watch in your pajamas -- and stop watching if you get bored? But while I was busy worrying about the future of theater, Donald Trump got elected. And we tumbled into the nightmare of his presidency, living in a constant state of political emergency, our nervous systems fried, the old Normals gone, the old assumptions shattered. Trump, the Pandemic, climate catastrophe, racial reckoning, the threat to American democracy: there’s nothing quite like a bunch of cascading existential crises to make your career as an artist feel indulgent. * After Trump was elected, I threw myself into political activism. I continued my work as a theater artist - but starting in 2017, my highest priority was politics: I canvassed for Democrats, phone banked, mobilized friends, fundraised. The two parts of my life did come together. In the fall of 2018, Brian Copeland and I created and performed The Great American Sh*t Show , which blended monologues and a call to political action. And in early 2019, I collaborated on and directed Dan Hoyle’s show Border People , about immigration in the Trump years. Even that seems ages ago now. * The idea of writing these memoirs was sparked by a conversation with my directing apprentice, Molly Rose-Williams. We were talking about solo performance, and I thought: I’ve known Molly for just a couple of years; she doesn’t know the long path that led me to think the way I do about theater and art. There’s a skeptical voice in me that looks at the state of the world and condemns this memoir project as irrelevant. The planet is on fire, why spend time writing about my art, about projects that now seem remote or dated or both? And yet this is the work I have loved, it’s what I have poured my life energies into. And I want Molly to know what I’ve learned.

"Out of Office" Charlie Varon's Comic Bonbons #20: "The grass is green and the sky is blue" The grass is green and the sky is blue 00:00 / 02:02 Written & performed by Charlie Varon Collaboration: J.P. Tilleman Special Thanks: David Ford Get tix now Buy before May 1 and get $5 off w code COCOA More announcements #1 Don't postpone writing your memoir! Say What You Mean Before You Die New session starts May 1 #2 Can't stand what's happening in this country? Life is better when you're doing something to change it Here's one place to start

1-on-1 coaching with Charlie Varon Coaching Package for Advanced Solo Performers Getting a solo show ready for a Fringe Festival? Or for another venue? Want to get your work in front of an audience? This package includes Four 1-on-1 coaching sessions (each 1 hour) One workshop performance (30-60") in front of a small audience Debrief immediately after the performance $1500 How it works: 15" free consultation to see if it makes sense We set weekly rehearsal schedule for 4 sessions & p erformance date at my Monday morning Salon in SF Note #1: The Salon happens Mondays 10am to 12noon at Noe Valley Ministry. This is a warm community of writers and storytellers who know each other. The first hour of the Salon is devoted to writing. You'll perform in the second hour. Note #2: The venue is beautiful but has no sound, lighting, or formal stage. For more info, email me at charlievaron at gmail.com "Charlie has been my collaborator, director and mentor for 20 years. He has helped me stay on my creative path with dignity, self-reflection and joy." Dan Hoyle , playwright and performer “Charlie Varon helps me explore, deepen, and find joy in the creative process. He is a master of character development for both the page and the stage.” Kenny Yun , solo theater artist

Another Bernie Sanders dream Charlie Varon 's Comic Bonbons #9: "Bernie's Strange-Bedfellows Dream " Bernie's Strange-Bedfellows Dream 00:00 / 02:29 Written & performed by Charlie Varon Keep the bonbons coming! Email me when the next one is ready! Email Subscribe Attention, writers and performers: I have openings for mentoring/coaching starting in February.

KPFA April Fool's Prank 2007 Charlie Varon 's KPFA April Fool's Day Prank 2007 Charlie Varon's KPFA April Fools Prank - 2007 00:00 / 13:43 Written & performed by Charlie Varon Collaboration: Marc Fisher In 2007, KPFA's Larry Bensky asked Charlie to fill in for him on his Sunday Salon show. Charlie did, and here's what happened. Attention, writers and performers: I have openings for mentoring/coaching .

Charlie Varon's ideas about how to keep going as an artist

1-on-1 writing coaching with Charlie Varon The world is not set up for us to do our best work as artists. The odds are against us. But with commitment, structure and guidance, we can change those odds. "Not just a great director and writing coach, Charlie helps me navigate my creative life. He is a therapist for artists." Emily Silverman , M.D. , founder of The Nocturnists medical storytelling series "My memoir was stalled for a decade. Thanks to Charlie's guidance, I now have 20,000 words under my belt." Barbara Saunders , writer and writing coach "Charlie has been my collaborator, director and mentor for 20 years. He has helped me stay on my creative path with dignity, self-reflection and joy." Dan Hoyle , playwright and performer “Charlie Varon helps me explore, deepen, and find joy in the creative process. He is a master of character development for both the page and the stage.” Kenny Yun , solo theater artist Email me if you'd like to find out more about my coaching/mentoring, and set up a free 20" consultation .

Writing from a theater pov What writers can learn from theater people 1. A book is not a thing. It is an experience. We actors see when the audience is slumping or sleeping. Writers don’t see the reader put down your book forever. 2. The audience teaches you. What’s alive? What’s dead? What’s stuck? What’s waiting to be discovered? 3. Energy, energy, energy. In every story, at every moment, energy is either building or waning. Ditch your perfect plan and follow the energy. 4. Be ruthless and playful. Cut ruthlessly. Then take what’s left, write it again, and surprise the hell out of yourself. 5. Get “investors.” People you trust. Who will help you not quit. Who will be your first audience, and give you non-stupid comments. 6. Read your fucking work aloud! Even to yourself. Especially to yourself. And pause. And gesture. Yes, gesture. 7. Iterate intelligently. Don’t work in isolation for months on end. Find a director, or a collaborator, and set a "rehearsal schedule" for the next 1-3 months.

Alan Watts: "Six Men" Charlie Varon 's Comic Bonbons #11: Alan Watts, "Six Men" "Smartphones brought the internet everywhere. Many times I’ve walked into a public bathroom and everyone is simultaneously using a urinal and staring at a screen. - Ezra Klein, NY Times, Aug. 7, 2022 Alan Watts - Six Men 00:00 / 05:42 Written & performed by Charlie Varon Thanks to J.P. Tilleman for collaboration Keep the bonbons coming! Email me when the next one is ready! Email Subscribe Attention, writers and performers: I have openings for mentoring/coaching .

Free writing workshop " This is the easiest writing has ever been for me." "I have met some incredible people who have led inspiring lives." "I feel so lucky to be held in and inspired by this community you've created." Do you want to write but... ...can't seem to get started? ...get distracted and give up? ...don't like the isolation? Make an appointment with yourself to write this Wednesday morning. W riting prompts. Or you can w ork on your own project. Conversation. Company in the creative process. All levels welcome. Get Up and Write! Led by Charlie Varon Every Wednesday - 8am Pacific Time Free & open to all Email me for the Zoom link

The art of revision allows us to go deeper, think in ways we otherwise could not, and make our writing better. The secret to great writing is revision. Revising our writing allows us to go deeper, think in ways we otherwise could not, and make our work stronger and more readable. This is... The dance of writing and rewriting Think of writing and rewriting as two entirely distinct modes. Mode 1: Writing As you write from inside memory or imagination... -Write with abandon & let the writing take you wherever it will -Don’t censor -Don’t overthink Mode 2: Rewriting The trick is to step outside what you wrote and ask: “How will a reader/audience member receive this?” -Totally different mindset -Try to read what you’ve written as if you are someone else -Ask yourself: “What do I, the reader/audience member, need?” -Be bold in revision -Treat the draft not as sacred, but as source material What good rewriting requires: A total shift in orientation! Can be jarring Can be fun! Ideally, you find a looseness & freedom in revision (a freedom totally different from that of the original writing) Question: So after rewriting, how do I get back inside my work? - Consciously shift mode - Don’t need to forget what you learned when you stepped outside your work - But let yourself find the energy of freedom & exploration again! Want more? Read my 7 Rules for Revising Your Writing

Free writing workshop After teaching writing and performance workshops for 30 years, I am now focusing on 1:1 coaching and mentoring . The only workshop I'm currently offering is on Wednesday mornings via Zoom (see below). "I am really enjoying the class. This is the easiest writing has ever been for me." Get Up and Write! E very Wednesday 8 to 9.15am Pacific Time Free via Zoom An appointment with yourself to write. Writing prompts. Or you can work on your own project. Conversation. C ompany in the creative process. Zo om link . ________________________________________________________________________