Mariel Hemingway / Wireimage
Barry Weissler Exclusive:
Day 14
Fri Feb 1, 2008
Every morning I wake up in anticipatory excitement. And so, every morning when I wake up, I lay in bed mentally visualizing all that I will need to do that day. I picture my day down to the smallest detail.
Although I have all the important appointments written in my calendar, I need to see everything in my mind’s eye. I know if I have a casting problem, I need to think about the people I will call to fix it. I think about my work and parse it out. This gives me a sense of order and ritual.
I am always setting higher goals for myself. It’s what keeps me young. I never stop. I am an order-maker in the center of a storm of chaos.
Without a high level of energy, everything I work on would fall apart. I have to be at the top of my game every single day. Exercise keeps the mental process keen, so I go to the gym every day. People who call me between the hours of eight and ten know that there is a chance that they will get the exercise version of me; breathy on a stationary bike. Yoga is also of great benefit because it helps the mind and body very directly.
The health of the mind is a priority. There are many ways to do this. I try to keep myself learning all the time, studying areas of knowledge outside the one of my immediate interest, theater. Learning foreign languages, exploring literature, art and music are all crucial activities for one involved in theater. Sometimes to solve a difficult problem, I need to wander around the Museum of Modern Art. It keeps my mentality fluid.
But the most important activity of the mind is a simple one. Stay open and involved. Be open and interested in the people around. Stay aware of what is going on in the world at large. No man is an island and we must know what is going on around us.
Until next week…
Broadway producers Barry & Fran Weissler are the recipients of five Tony Awards®. Their numerous Broadway credits include acclaimed productions Othello with James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer, My One and Only with Tommy Tune, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Kathleen Turner and Charles Durning, Gypsy with Tyne Daly, and the Tony Award-winning productions of Falsettos and Annie Get Your Gun with Bernadette Peters and Reba McEntire, among others. They are currently represented on Broadway – and across the globe -- with the international smash hit Chicago, which earned six 1997 Tony Awards® including Best Musical Revival, as well as countless other awards in the U.S. and abroad.