Oddfellows Head to Guest on NPR's Where We Live

The head of the city's children's playhouse will join the conversation about inspiring creativity in students on the next edition of WNPR's Where We Live.

Oddfellows Playhouse Executive Director Matthew Pugliese knows a thing or two about creativity. After all, when he came aboard in December 2008, there were seven full-time employees running the popular children's theater based in Middletown.

Pugliese says he's been thinking a lot about creativity to prepare for the show — both as an artist fostering his own artistic imagination and what he does at Oddfellows.

To succeed, he says, "we have to put some intentional thought and energy towards creativity. We might all be able to occasionally pull a good thought out of the air, but it needs to be practiced and nourished. And we can't immediately edit what comes.  For every beautiful, insightful, innovative idea, we will have 10, 20, 50 that are useless...today (maybe not tomorrow.)  

"Oddfellows gives children a chance to make this happen. In theater, we have our minds, our voice and our bodies.  The process of rehearsal involves repetition — and a process that invites our children to try things again and again, to throw hundreds of ideas up against the wall and see what sticks.  

"We don't expect that the first movement, the first word uttered by a young actor is the way the character should be portrayed on stage, we let them develop by rehearsing and refining their thoughts. Creativity is really the ability to pull multiple ideas out of the blue — creating something from nothing — not the art itself."  

Pugliese says the dramatic arts are much different from other artistic outlets for children for a number of reasons.

"Is that it is a collaborative art form," he says. "A playwright develops the script, a director begins to focus and refine the storytelling, each actor adds their point of view and creates complicated characters, lighting, set and costume designers create this world.  

"I've never been involved in producing a play, on any level, that was exactly as I first imagined it as an artistic participant. Each new idea is a new opportunity for additional creativity."

Oddfellows has a long history since it was founded in 1975 by Wesleyan students with the desire to engage the community through performance-based arts.

Wednesday's Where We Live show, Let’s Get Creative, will air live at 9-10 a.m. and be rebroadcast from 7-8 p.m. Previewing the show, the website offers:

What are the essential habits of mind for people who aspire to a long creative life? Is creativity more about having a talent — or having a discipline? Where does creativity come from in the brain, and how can we keep it fresh? Join us for a conversation about art, creative and critical thinking, and best practices. A group of high school students joins us in studio along with our creativity experts.

You can call in when the Connecticut Public Broadcasting show airs live on WNPR 90.5-FM to (860) 275-7266, email wherewelive@wnpr.org or tweet to @wherewelive. You can stream Where We Live online here.

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