Nemec, James (James Nemec, III)

PERSONAL:

Education: Syracuse University, A.A., 1976; Stetson University, B.A., 1978. Hobbies and other interests: Painting, swimming, scuba, Harley Davidson.

ADDRESSES:

Office—CraniOcean Media, 444 Bunker Rd., Ste. 207, West Palm Beach, FL 33405. E-mail—craniocean@gmail.com.

CAREER:

Playwright, author. CranioSacral therapeutic facilitator for CraniOcean Media, West Palm Beach, FL, and Los Angeles, CA.

WRITINGS:

Touch the Ocean: The Power of Our Collective Emotions, cover by George Foster, layout by Bill Groetzinger, edited by Lisa Marguetite Mora, CraniOcean Media (West Palm Beach, FL), 2007.

Journeys: Stories Our Bodies Can Tell, cover by George Foster, layout by Bill Groetzinger, illustrations by Peter Dudar and Sally Mar, edited by Lisa Marguetite Mora, CraniOcean Media (West Palm Beach, FL), 2008.

Also author of the blogs CraniOcean's Blend and Touch the Ocean.

PLAYS

Sometimes I Can't Tell the Differences between L.A. and My Mind!, Second Force Productions, 1992.

Idols and Others, first produced at Interact Theater, 1992.

Idols, Others, and the Not "I", first produced at Interact Theater, 1993.

Six Hamlets in Hollywood, Harmony (New York, NY), 1997.

Water Birth, Fuller Avenue Productions, 1998.

Tale of Mushkil Gusha, the Remover of All Difficulties, first produced at Sarah Lawrence College, 2006.

Also author of other plays, including Ten Minutes before the Millennium, Space and Cyberspace, Papa and Cleopatra, A Joyful Noise!, Jerry's Famous Deli, Henry and June, Just Like Them, Waiting for Yvette, and Bartleville …!

SIDELIGHTS:

James Nemec is an American playwright and a healer. Nemec has published or produced dozens of stage plays, several of which were finalists for various theater awards. He later moved into the realm of healing and began working in new subfields of therapy.

In 2007 Nemec published Touch the Ocean: The Power of Our Collective Emotions. Designed by George Foster and edited by Lisa Marguetite Mora, the book outlines the healing practices Nemec has been practicing since the early 1990s and the new concept of craniosacral therapy. In the book Nemec tackles questions as diverse as what effect the weather has on our moods and vice versa, where raw emotion energy goes after leaving our body, and if a person's touch can heal. Nemec proposes that the human body is an ocean in miniature, linking trends on healing the body to healing the planet's problems as well. Nemec works with dolphins and the ocean, using their energies to heal humans and describes the benefits of this in the book. A contributor to PR Newswire wrote that Nemec's writing style is "lyrical," adding that his style is one "which flows in waves." The contributor declared that Nemec is "an expert in his field" and that the book is lauded as "a modern day Siddhartha."

Nemec told CA: "Raised on the ocean in a theatrical family, I met Rysard Cieslak of the Polish Laboratory Theater and was influenced by Jerry Grotowski. I later took an interest in hands-on healing arts and eventually began working in CranioSacral therapy in the United States and abroad.

"After having been based in L.A. for so many years, I find myself working in healing sessions with dolphins and clients under the auspices of the Upledger Institute and with clients in the ocean on both coasts, Atlantic and Pacific.

"I write because I can. It comes easy to me. When I was having a hard time as an actor in college, an acting teacher said, ‘Why not do what is easiest?’ At first, I blew it off because I felt anybody could write. It was too easy. Later, after meeting a wise old man in Northern California, I learned what we think is glamorous and exciting is often not our talent. Our talent comes easy to us, so easy that we take it for granted. I did very well as an actor and held my own on the stage with powerful actors and actresses, but my real talent was in just writing. I chose to develop it, as a conscious action and as a small contribution to the party here on planet Earth. Often a person is gifted with more than one talent. What happens is this: one talent grows out of another, then another, then another. It starts by seeing what is right in front of our faces!

"After having written a whole series of books on CranioSacral therapy and the blend of Healing Art with Theater Art, and after having been inspired to show what is possible for all of us, a friend asked me, ‘So what did you learn?’ I was shocked to hear myself reply, ‘I now know less than I did before.’ In fact, now I know this: I don't know anything, and I don't really know how to do anything at all.

"I write and develop my other talents—performance, painting, cooking, and so on—not because they are needed, but as a way of saying ‘thank you’ for being here on this marvelous planet and for the gift of life. It's a small contribution to LIFE, and it's made in combination with love and gratitude. It's an expression of living and the happiness of being alive in a body!

"The great challenge about writing is to do it for the joy and love of it. If I get caught in any writing having to be a ‘success’ or a ‘hit,’ the creative process is compromised. The challenge is really to keep the channel open and clear. Rather than struggle to get anything from it, I see writing as a gift to LIFE, not to any person in particular, and in this way, I'm also out of conflict as I write. The characters might be in conflict but I am not in conflict. The canvas opens like an ocean and what is possible can be expressed without fear or hope. I'm observing all the points of view now, and on one single determined purpose, not two. And what is that purpose, one might ask? Well, to discover your own purpose: that's what matters. Your purpose colors all that you do, every action you take. It's really about doing things rather than struggling to have things. You can find the threshold to your purpose by discovering what your talent is, whatever it might be. Once found, stay on it!

"The most useful suggestions I've heard for writers is from the late poet William Stafford. He said: (1) Write what occurs to you to write. (2) When faced with writer's block, lower your standards. 3) Let your limits be your genius."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

PR Newswire, September 25, 2007, "L.A. Playwright Creates an Enormous Wave with His New Book, ‘Touch the Ocean.’"

ONLINE

CraniOcean Web site,http://www.craniocean.com/ (January 12, 2008), author profile.

Razor Pages Web log,http://www.razorpages.com/ (January 12, 2008), author profile.