Archive | January, 2011

Still Speeding Along

31 Jan

I can’t stop!!!

I know a few weeks ago I said it was good to slow down, as exciting as all these projects are. But I can’t take my own advice! It’s been go-go-go ever since with finally completing the feature film, Spooks, filming every weekend for the new webseries “Ruth and Lori”, producing the full length play, Slumpbuster, for my production company PianoFight, meeting my writing partner on a weekly basis to finally come up with a feature length script, and starting rehearsals for the Spring semester Shakespeare production at the high school I teach at.

Whew.

The thing is, there are still plenty of things I said I would do (non-acting career oriented) that I have not gotten around to starting. It is a balancing act, I suppose, and I’m still finding my rhythm. I do think I’m on the right track in focusing whole heartedly on my career and taking every opportunity available, but I also think it is important to have other things going on in your life. That is where I currently lack. I would like to take a yoga class, a dance class, paint more, hike/run more, and see my friends! How does one find the time? I know, you’re supposed to make time. But, still, how do you do that? Or do I just need to be content with not having a life for a little but while I get this career on a roll?

Look Back to Look Forward

24 Jan

Low points are inevitable in the pursuit of any career. Acting is no different. It’s important to have concrete things to refer to when you’re feeling like you’ve accomplished nothing and are wasting your time, because when you’re deep in that funk it’s hard to see clearly.

I’m a pack rat of sorts when it comes to ticket stubs, cards, pictures and the like. I’ve been pretty good at keeping every postcard of every show I’ve ever been a part of. A fellow actor/producer/director friend of mine got this clever idea to frame all her postcards and display them in her apartment. I remember seeing the row of lovingly mounted show postcards and thought, that’s a brilliant idea. I always wondered what I was going to do with the growing pile of cards stuffed deep inside a desk drawer. So I thought the New Year is the perfect excuse to gather them all up, frame them and hang ’em up on my bare hallway wall that’s just begging for something to display. Now, every time I go to and from my room I have to walk past the little slice of history, the physical proof that I have accomplished a lot gosh darnit. And looking at that cluster of frames makes me feel inspired, eager to forge ahead and add to the collection.

I’m thinking one day I will be able to frame film posters…

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Other ideas to keep those low points high!

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New Year, New Reel

17 Jan

I had a new years resolution last year that I would update my demo reel. Never happened. But that’s ok. I worked my butt of this past year shooting new material and acquiring past material so that slowly, but surely, I had some solid stuff to include on my new and improved demo reel. So when 2011 clocked in (Literally. I was working on my demo reel when the clock struck 12am and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Symbolic, no?) I was determined to complete my new reel within the first month of the year. And I did! Thanks to the nifty editing skills of my boyfriend, I got a snazzy new demo reel that I am very proud of. And 2011 will just be building towards an even better one for next Jan. Onward and upward!!

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Full Speed Ahead

10 Jan

Have you ever had that experience where your mind is going a mile a minute and your fingers can’t catch up with what you’re writing, and you look down at your page or computer screen and see that your sentences don’t make any sense because you were unable to keep up with your thoughts. Well, that’s kind of how I’m feeling only with my whole body.

This year has been off to a great start: Producing an original full length play, which will go up in February. Completing a feature length film, which I’ve been shooting since July. Starting to film an original web series, which will launch in June. And a number of other exciting things- directing a new crop of high schoolers for a spring production of Shakespeare monologues, sonnets and scenes; a new freelance gig helping a fellow performance artist get her stuff out there; and a handful of other projects and exciting lunch dates discussing script ideas.

But with only 10 days into the new year where I’ve been working on ALL of the above mentioned projects has resulted in today: I’m sick. My body is like “I HATE YOU!” but my mind is like “YAY NEW YEAR”.  Basically my body is trying to play catch up to all of these awesome things that are going on. And though this is exactly the way I’d want to kick off the new year- full speed ahead– I do need to remember that I need to stop and take take some vitamins every once in a while.

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