Now is the Time and Space is the Place

A problem is a chance for you to do your best. — Duke Ellington

Dealing with COVID-19 as an artist and an entrepreneur

On the dreary afternoon of March 12, I was sitting in the lobby of the CitizenM hotel in Times Square, right across the street from the Gershwin Theatre, where Wicked lives. I was in between meetings, getting my work done, and one by one the notifications began to come in.

Within a matter of hours, The Met, Carnegie Hall, and Broadway all announced that they’ll be going dark.

Social media feeds are blowing up. Artist friends are sharing news of canceled gigs and lost revenue. A travel ban was implemented yesterday. Speaking engagements are evaporating for clients and colleagues. I’m watching this all unfold — literally, around me — and trying to keep the feeling of helplessness at bay.

I’ve spent most of my adult life toeing the line of art and business. I’ve done so to varying degrees of success, and I’ve worked in several genres of both art and business by now. My latest move, as of mid-2019, was to begin studying and writing musical theatre as I continued building my online business. Just this weekend, I was at a commercial theater conference, learning about what it takes to get a show off the ground, and hopefully, eventually, to Broadway. And now Broadway has closed its doors for at least a month, for the first time in its modern history.

What’s happening right now is unprecedented in our cultural consciousness. Major events are being cancelled. Schools are going virtual. Offices are being shuttered. It’s looking more and more like we’re headed for a recession — if we’re not already there.

I am not an epidemiologist, and I’m not an economist. But one thing that I am — as an artist and as an entrepreneur — is an innovator. We all are. We wouldn’t be business people if we weren’t. We wouldn’t be artists if we weren’t.

In my TEDx talk, I spoke about innovations that were born of the solution to problems. The inventor Adolphe Saxe created an awkward hybrid of the bass clarinet and bassoon that he intended for the orchestra. The instrument was too brash and didn’t blend well with classical instruments, and it was destined to live on only in music textbooks. But it turned out that jazz musicians needed an instrument that had the same breadth of expressiveness as a human voice, and could cut through a brass and rhythm section. The saxophone’s cultural legacy was cemented in what I think can be chalked up to a series of happy mistakes — its inventor wanted it to fit into one genre, but then it was discovered to be perfect for another.

It may be hard to be hopeful right now. But if we can build new income streams, create new forms of art, and maybe even create something the world has never seen before — then maybe we can make our time during this crisis a little easier. I hope we can all help each other stay the course.

One of my favorite jazz composers, Sun Ra (the composer of Space is the Place), said “The possible has been tried and has failed. Now is the time to try the impossible.”

If that’s not a rallying cry, I don’t know what is.

Marie Incontrera is a musician and entrepreneur living in Brooklyn, NY. To get an invitation to her upcoming theatre summit, sign up here.