Of tortoises...ish.

Within twenty-four hours of opening a blog account a week ago, I was informed by means of the 'stats' on my page that I had received eighteen (!) views from around the world. All this without the merest suggestion of advertisement or promotion.

This alone made me consider that there may, after all, eventually, be something of a readership for whatever I may choose to record here.

It also gave rise to the question of what eighteen independent blog surfers, who assumedly have no idea as to my identity, were anticipating finding on a blog enigmatically entitled 'Tortoise in the Spotlight'. I envisaged hoards of ardent tortophiles (yes I was surprised by the existence of that word too but I assure you of its authenticity) scouring for new insights into shell-care and top tips for ideal lettuce-cultivation conditions... The title of the thing really did cause me trouble. Not enough to incite sleepless nights, but certainly enough to inhibit the early enthusiasm of creating my own, admittedly relatively inconsequential, mark on the internet.

Well, let's set things straight from the very beginning.

This blog will not be about tortoises.

So, a kind hello and welcome to those of you remaining after that great disappointment. I can only hope you stick around once I have fully illumined the true purpose of my writing.

For indeed, there may well be a purpose. Eugène Ionesco may well disagree.

Or indeed, he may well have done (he died in 1994). Ionesco was a Romanian playwright of the absurd who, in his many writings, expounded the pointlessness of existence itself. He also gritted his teeth against the realism being portrayed on stage and against the notion of using the theatre to stir the audience to social activism - both of which were evident in the first half of the last century.

Now fear not. I certainly do not intend on making this a forum for an angst-ridden tirade against the structures and injustices of society.

As a reaction against utter realism, Ionesco believed in the fantastic, the irreverent, and in the scope and wonder of the imagination. He once wrote:

 

I personally would like to bring a tortoise onto the stage, turn it into a racehorse, then into a hat, a song, a dragoon and a fountain of water. One can dare anything in the theatre and it is the place where one dares the least.

EUGENE IONESCO, Notes and Counter Notes

Ah, so there's our tortoise!

Yes, my blog name is a nod to Ionesco and to his propensity for marvelling at the ordinary. For taking delight in the mundane. And for seeking opportunities to ignite the imagination and to see life a little bit differently.

Contrary to Del Boy's 'he who dares wins', Ionesco makes no reference to success. For him, it is sometimes enough to simply dare and to see what may come of it.

 

This, then, is what I hope for this blog to become. Perhaps a document to chart the events which get my own creative neurones firing or which make me challenge my own perception of reality or normality. I hope to share my experiences and thoughts on the creativity I encounter in artistic or theatrical settings but also within my own classroom. There we are then, creativity in the arts and education - and hopefully how the two combine (as I fervently believe they should!).

 

If this sparks a conversation as a result so much the better.

 

Now to see how many more page views I've accrued. Sorry tortoise fans, I don't think you can withdraw your original contribution to the total...