Today we’d like to introduce you to Neil Ellis Orts.
Neil Ellis, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
It’s a bit circuitous and winds around still. As a farm boy growing up near Giddings, Texas, I was always drawing. I spent most of my childhood imagining I’d be drawing comic books for DC Comics when I grew up. Then in high school, I took the theater class and got bitten by that bug. I was a theater major at (Southwest) Texas State University, but quickly burned out on acting a few years after I graduated. Through all of that, I was writing, and that became the focus of my creativity. Then I went to grad school at Columbia College Chicago and earned an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts, where I became a performance artist—no one is more surprised than I am. Oh, and in between, I went to seminary where I found I did not have a calling to parish ministry, but that influences and colors my creative work, too. I’m also gay, so there I am, a gay, Lutheran, performing and writing farm boy. I confuse a few people and sometimes myself.
As I think about that, it’s not really a story, just a list of things I did. But you probably don’t have time for the story. Suffice to say that in my bio-notes I just say I’m a writer and performer and leave it at that—even if that’s not all.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I do primarily think of myself as a writer, but I’m not terribly prolific and long forms elude me. I’ve published a couple of novellas, but have never managed a full-length novel. I’ve had two 10-minute plays produced, but am currently wrestling with a full-length play. I’ve published short stories in a few literary journals and anthologies (including the Lambda Literary Award finalist, Outer Voices, Inner Lives, edited by Mark McNeese and Stephen Dolainski). I seem to be doing more short non-fiction/memoir type writing and have a very personal piece about a health scare, which is in a book called Illness, Resilience, and Spirituality, edited by Marguerite Bouvard. That just came out at the end of November.
But then there’s the performer side of me. Had I discovered modern dance earlier or if I’d seen a path to pursuing it even when I did discover it, I might have been a dancer. I still take a class, but my aging body has its limitations and I don’t pretend I’m a dancer, I just sometimes dance. (I have channeled this love into writing the occasional article or review about dance, so there’s that.) I sometimes do a little theater, but as I noted earlier, I burn out quickly on it—although for the right projects, I would direct more. I really prefer playing with the intersections of the performing arts (using that ‘interdisciplinary arts” degree) and making performances that use text, movement, non-verbal vocalizations, etc. Or silence. I’m a big fan of performing in silence, where everything is conveyed by movement and gesture. I’m least confident with music, although I’ve played with that, too.
Whatever medium or media I’m engaging, it almost always has some theological underpinning to it—not always overt. Sometimes I’m a theologian working in performance or story. Sometimes I don’t know if I want people to know that or not, but I think I mostly do, so here it is.
My work does tend to be quiet. I don’t write action/adventure stories, even though my first inspirations came from superhero comics. I always say that when I grow up, I want to be Marilynne Robinson. Her Gilead is a wonder of a quiet but compelling voice. I don’t pretend that I’ll ever reach her level of skill, but she’s my gold standard. That goes for whether I’m writing or working on some performing project.
Artists rarely, if ever pursue art for the money. Nonetheless, we all have bills and responsibilities and many aspiring artists are discouraged from pursuing art due to financial reasons. Any advice or thoughts you’d like to share with prospective artists?
Struggling to focus on artwork due to financial concerns is the path, as near as I can tell. At least it’s mine. I have a full-time day job at a local university and anything I accomplish is accomplished around that huge chunk of time.
Advice I’d give to anyone is that while I thoroughly enjoyed my education, the student loans are real. If you can at all get through higher ed without student loans, do it because I don’t know many (any?) creative types who paid off their loans with creative work.
If you can’t pay for a formal education, I’d say put whatever resources you have into doing workshops and shorter-term classes. Use them for networking and being available to work with other people. The university education is great and I’m not knocking it at all, but go as you can pay for it and when you can’t make the big semester payment, save up for the next semester while getting into situations where you’re doing creative work. It’ll be hard, either way, but I wish I’d taken that longer journey to education.
Rainer Rilke gave the advice in Letters to a Young Poet, that if you can NOT write, never pick up a pen. That sounds harsh to some people, but it’s true. I often tell people, “I’d stop this if I could.” There’s too much heartache and disappointment in this life to live it if you can put it aside and binge watch Netflix.
But the joys of the life can also greatly outweigh the heartache. If you find more joy than heartache, despite never making a living with your creativity, you just may be an artist. Own it and make no apologies for it.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I would love for more people to give my novella, Cary and John, a try. It’s currently only available from Amazon or the publisher, Parson’s Porch. It’s the story of two adult women, lifelong friends, discovering that their fathers had a decade long, secret romance.
Then there’s the Illness, Resilience, and Spirituality book that has my personal story, “Performance Art, My Pancreas, and a Desert Father’s Prayer.”
And I’m writing. I always cycle through two or three projects until one is complete and ready to be sent out into the world. Right now, I’m bouncing back and forth between a novella and a long play.
Performance-wise, I’m helping a local choreographer by letting her try some ideas on me and other performers, but if I end up in the final product of these exercises, only time will tell. I enjoy the process. I most recently performed in the 2018 Houston Fringe Festival, doing a short piece called “broken/heart/ache.” I also made a cameo appearance in Margo Stutts Toombs’ Fringe piece called “Bananas” and that wasn’t the first nor, I suspect, the last time I’ll work with her. I was in Misha Penton’s music video “Threshold,” this past year (which can be found on Vimeo). I’m pretty open to working in a wide range of work. I learn from everyone’s process.
How to support me? Well, I’ve never incorporated as a non-profit, but I would invite people to follow me on Facebook and Instagram. (Twitter, too, but I’m less active there.) I have my personal Facebook page but I also have a Facebook author’s page and my performance page is under Breath & Bone/Orts Performance (a performance company that is currently dormant, but I do post about my performance work there).
And if someone with deep pockets and a love for quiet, reflective, theologically grounded performance work wants to fund me, I’m always open to talking! Breath & Bone could be resurrected pretty easily!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.neilellisorts.com/
- Email: neilellisorts@yahoo.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neowrites/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Neil-Ellis-Orts-911085562306127/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/neilellisorts
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/BreathBoneOrtsPerformance/
Image Credit:
Misha Penton
Pin lim
Alex Barber
Jet Liam
Hilary Scullane
Getting in touch: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
