“Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it.” Tallulah Bankhead, actress

“Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.” Miles Davis, musician

When I read these two comments, I knew they belonged together and that they had something to tell me—and hopefully, you as well.

Why did they speak to me this morning as I sit in the sunshine at a small table at a little coffee cafe near my home? I think it’s because I’ve been mulling over in my mind what to say in an email I’m planning to write to a producer I met and would love to have work with me to bring my play, Dust of Egypt, to a wider audience.

Should I strike a businesslike tone in the hope that I’ll seem more organized and farther along than I really am? Should I make a case for enlisting her support by listing a bunch of reasons why I think she and I could work well together? Should I share some comments from theatergoers to convince her that my play is timely and worthwhile?

Or should I just be myself and write from the heart—and tell her why I’d love to work with her?

As I sit here, I realize that I’ve already decided what to do—I’m going to say what I really feel. As Samuel Coleridge says so well, “What comes from the heart goes to the heart.” I have a heartfelt admiration for this producer and also a heart-strong belief n the power of the story my play tells. If I write from this place, no matter what happens, I know I’ll have been honest and true to myself.

As the great improver Miles Davis said, “to be able to play like yourself” is worth putting in the time to do. And sometimes, it takes a long time. It’s certainly taken me a long time to get my play up and running and to shape it so it expresses the story I wanted to tell.

And sometimes, as Tullulah tells us, tongue in cheek, even we have a hard time being ourselves. Even now, I still struggle with wanting to seem to be someone I’m not—someone more organized, more connected, more successful—whatever.

But in the end, one way or the other, the heart always wins. Whether we write from it or turn away from it, the heart has its way with us.

Let’s go with Miles and play like ourselves.

I’m going to write my email from the heart and hope it goes to the heart of my reader and we find ourselves working together on the same path to make something wonderful happen. Write on!

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