BWW Blog: Jess Pillmore - Reimagining Art, Family, and Education

If we can devise stories that change a culture's consciousness, why not a business model? If we can suspend disbelief on stage, why not in our day-to-day lives? If we can transform from role to role, yet still be ourselves, why not from profession to profession, city to city, and goal to goal? If we can make a family out of our tour-mates, why not tour with our family?

Why not, indeed.

When my husband, Christopher Beaulieu, and I founded Creatively Independent-an internationally touring revolutionary arts education company-it came out of a curiosity to play with every aspect of our lives. Our varied arts training and experience taught us to embrace "what if..." and soak up the journey rather than the final bow. Eleven years later, we are still joyfully making it up as we go along, with a strong horizon, an improvisational flow, and an ever-growing family of revolutionaries questioning what's possible in their art and their lives.

For the next four weeks, I'll take you on tour with my company as we settle into a month-long residency sharing play, mindfulness, and ensemble devising with five schools in Jacksonville, FL.

WHEELS UP: "Do you have your Halloween costume?"

It's Sunday, and the Prius is packed to the ceiling as the family heads south to Florida from our Virginia retreat in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Skye, our youngest son, has finished giving his fourth round of hugs and kisses to The Farm cats while Griffin, our oldest, is asking me about his upcoming playdate for Halloween. Chris throws our "office work" in the front seat for whoever isn't driving the first leg. We Rochambeau for the honors.

Long drives are a hybrid of family silliness (rhymes and toy theatre) and business meetings (a.k.a. forward thinking dreams we're going to make real). In eight hours, we'll all be deliriously happy to be out of the car and into our new home for the month. Which one did we end up renting? Have we been here before? No, but it's close to a school we played in last year. "Oh, yeah! I know that area, my friend lives nearby," shouts Griffin from the back seat. The boys will give a home tour to their stuffed animals while Chris and I load in, double check class times for tomorrow, and then family snuggle and pass out.

Insider Tip: Touring with a toddler, means never having to set an alarm. Our family day is guaranteed to start before our work day ever will... by design. Thanks to our tour manager, Skye!

LET'S BACK UP - YOU TOUR WITH YOUR KIDS?

Yes. Our company creates and teaches theatre-pre-K to post-grad-in the US and Europe. We also created our company to support all aspects of our lives and that included our family. It wasn't easy, and there were no models for it, but it was a necessity. Once Chris and I owned aspects about how we teach and how we want to be a part of this world, touring 250 days/year became a no brainer, not a burden.

Being a touring, teaching artist allows the concentrated time and space to play ferociously with our students. The need to gain trust and connect quickly is also a heightened challenge that helps us stay vulnerable and take greater risks with the ensemble. We don't have time to postpone asking that complicated question or deeper level of engagement. It's now or never.

There is only now.

That mindfulness is fundamental in our work as teachers, artists, and parents. Chris and I constantly work on self-observing our process without judgment in order to see opportunities in the moment, act on them out of curiosity (not fear), and be fluid with the definitions of success and failure to best serve those we are playing with.

Our residencies are taught by either Chris or myself (sometimes in tandem) and vary from one day to six weeks at a particular school or organization. In the past, we experimented with long stints, but realized a key piece to our magic is intensity. Chris and I thrive, creating high-stakes scenarios with laser-focused commitment and whole-hearted hope for the participants. It's like flipping a lot of lights on within a dark room. The shock heightens your awareness, causes you to reassess your assumptions about your surroundings, and as your eyes adjust you're able to consciously choose how you play in that room. Our residencies generally end before your eyes fully adjust. The realizations and lifelong applications ripple out long after we're gone. It's a bittersweet aspect of being a touring artist-not being there for the deeper application-but we return to our hubs annually, and students find our workshops in other areas, so we stay connected.

This month's residency consists of five schools-middle school to university-lasting one to two weeks at each school. Our calendar is a bit like Tetris, so yes, Mom, I was learning a valuable business skill clocking in all those Nintendo hours.

We layer residencies to make the most of our time, challenge our pedagogy to stay in the moment with different skill levels within a day, and financially support ourselves during "dry months" at our retreat creating new works and playing with the boys.

Have a question or two about touring as a parent? Creating your own business model? Revolutionary arts education? Ask. I'm here for the month to play. Next post dives in the deep end with middle school, college, and creating family wherever you go.

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