Inspirational

So there I was, minding my own business (not really) in a Facebook group filled with actors when I came across a thread where a fellow actor posed the following question: “Do I really need a brand as an actor? I see all of these posts where it says we need to brand ourselves and I’m freaking out. Does it really matter?” The answers that followed the question were varied, to say the least. And of course they did; this is social media we’re talking about. You can say whatever the hell you want...

Not everyone who lives in Hollywood is from Hollywood. The industry is mixed with folks from all over the world who want nothing more than to fulfill a dream. Making the move is a massive decision, and can ignite a number of mixed feelings, including (but not limited to) excitement and absolute fear. These feelings fester from the moment you cross the city limits. Once in, you look around and you ask yourself, "Now what?"What was once a place that seemed so far away and out of reach is now a rea...

Happy Monday, Stage 32 Family! I hope you all had a productive and creative weekend. I wanted to take a moment to talk about screenwriting contests. As you probably know, we just closed the extended deadline on our 5th Annual Feature Contest. I hope you were all able to submit a project for consideration. I was speaking with a writer recently who questioned the value of screenwriting contests. He had been a winner or finalist in several different screenwriting contests in the past, but ultima...

Welcome back! When we last parted, my friend Brian gave up two hours into the day. I made sure not to tell my mother that he ditched me for fear she would not let me go back to the set alone. I am not sure I actually lied about it. Well,l I guess there are lies of omission, so maybe I did lie. But I did tell her I saw people using things I considered to be toys as equipment on the set, and I was obsessed with these man-children and their toy box. Boys and Their Toys How many of you rea...

For the past few years we've been doing a mid-year check in to see where all of you are at. What kind of projects are you working on?Have you been killing it with auditions?Where are you with writing? Networking? Pitching? Let's take a minute to do a mid-year check-in and see how - and what - you’re all doing thus far. Are you on track? Do you need a push? Did you change direction entirely?   Let's talk about it in the comments section below. And, of course, if there is the opportunity...

Good morning Stage 32 Family! Can you believe that we are already halfway through July?! This summer is flying by and the successes keep piling up for our writers! We’ve had the privilege of hearing directly from a few of our writers in recent weeks as they tell their success stories! But those are just a fraction of the success our community members are enjoying this summer! First, I want to send a huge shout out to the winner of our 4th Annual Comedy Writing Contest, Greg Mania, with his pr...

I have spent all of my life (and I mean all of it), striving for success. Even as I write this, I just wrapped a 5-day shoot of an original pilot I wrote, and am wading through the throes of post production, including a crowdfunding campaign to raise the cash I exhausted shooting it. So basically, I'm broke. Yet I feel so damn successful. High level executives don't know about the project yet.Yet I feel so damn successful.My name isn't on the screen yet boasting - Written and Created by: Jol...

Some time ago, an acquaintance at my local coffee house made the following comment about a writer’s life, quoting Gustave Flaubert: “Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work.” I had been living this way for some time. As I worked and put myself through graduate school, I made time to write. Writing had been part of my life for over a decade. So what does it mean to be “steady and well-ordered in life so that you can be fierce and original” i...

As an artist, you live in a very unique world. You get to express the fullness of who you are. You have the opportunity to leave something meaningful behind that will impact generations. It’s a privilege to bring value to the world simply by expressing and living your passion. At the same time, you take on unique challenges. Your artistic life is filled with pressure, rejection, competition, and unknowns. You have to have courage, show up, and take risks... You also have to know when to say “...

I remember joining Stage 32 years ago, shortly after it was launched I believe. I hadn’t yet moved to Los Angeles, and I certainly hadn’t begun writing, but it immediately became a welcoming community of creatives from all over the world. I started as an actor. I performed in plays my entire life, went to college for theatre including a semester at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland, and then moved to Seattle to pursue a career on the stage. But when I began auditioning for TV and...