Women’s Visionary Award and Lunch at Sardi’s…
Some exciting life news… I am the recipient of the 2013 League of Professional Theatre Women’s Lucille Lortel Women’s Visionary Award for my work with Girl Be Heard. There was an awards luncheon at Sardi’s where I received the award in front of hundreds of NY theatre bigwigs. I can’t even begin to express what an honor this is and how much it means to all of us at GBH. It was my first time ever having lunch at Sardi’s and I was so nervous that I only had a few bites of the delicious salmon and sweet potatoes. Below, find my acceptance speech. It’s such an honor to share this with the Green Room community.
…with legend Judith Malina, founder of the Living Theatre.
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When Kelli told me about this award I started to really think about how artists envision and enact social change. I’m actually always thinking about that. I work primarily downtown where even in the darkest of political and economical times artists are making theatre with the vision that art can and will lead us to a better world.
More so, with the work that Girl Be Heard does, this award is a reminder that we as teachers and mentors to young women need to serve them in helping not only develop as future performers and practitioners but as leaders, thinkers and visionaries who will look beyond their given circumstances and use their art to move us toward what this world could be.
Self-Producing: A Solo Adventure #5
The process of getting this show rehearsed and ready for the stage is not unlike childbirth.
During labor, there are peaks and valleys – waves when things are happening and you feel great and empowered, and waves when you feel like you have totally stalled out and you are lost, adrift, wondering when – or if – this child is going to do you the courtesy of finishing the business of getting itself born. It is the most mentally, physically, spiritually demanding thing I have ever done.
Until this show.
This show has been born over the course of five years. It is a very personal story, and one that I am keen to ensure is an entertaining evening of theatre, not just a therapy session for myself. Due to the very personal nature of the story, I have run the gamut of emotions during the writing, editing, and now rehearsing of View from the Pews. I am happy to report that I can now get through the show without breaking down into tears – or fits of laughter. There have been days when I knew I had to rehearse but I just didn’t want to – and I wasn’t just being lazy. I experienced deep-seeded avoidance and had to figure out how to work through those emotions to get the work done. There were days – or moments, at least – when I felt totally empowered, and days when I felt stalled out, lost, adrift. I have struggled with overwhelming self-doubt and, on more than one occasion, I have been heard to utter the phrase, “What the hell was I thinking?!”
Audition confessions
Guys, I have a confession.
I hate auditioning.
I mean…. no, that’s what I mean.
I can’t believe I said that. Do I get kicked off the Green Room team now? Do I have to turn in my actor’s card?
I hate auditioning so much that sometimes I’ll procrastinate getting ready, to the point that I’m late and I know I’ll hit dumb LA traffic and I won’t find street parking and why-the-heck-am-I-out-of-updated-resumes? Or sometimes I wake up with a terrible stomachache or headache, totally caused by anxiety. In both those situations I can easily talk myself out of going to the audition.
And we haven’t even started talking about the actual audition.
Stefanie is a New York City based actress and author of the personal finance blog www.thebrokeandbeautifullife.com. Please welcome her to the blog today!
As actors, we need to make constant investments in ourselves to keep our skills up to par, our bodies ready for the work, and our business network growing. We shell out for everything from dance classes to voice lessons to gym memberships to audition coachings to networking events, all in the hope that we’ll book a six week contract at $700/week.
With the exception of a nice, long run of a Broadway show, there seems to be a huge disparity between the amount invested to book the work and the amount paid when the work is booked.
A Month of Curly’s Advice
First of all, thanks for the overwhelming support here on the GreenRoom Blog and on Facebook for my post on Curly’s Advice. I’m glad it resonated with so many of you and hopeful that my journey can help unravel some of the struggles that you might be having too.
Just to sum it up for those who didn’t read the first post, I decided (after a mini-breakdown in my car in a traffic jam on my way to a Portuguese speaking physical theatre audition) that I needed to stop scattering my energy, my career and my life into any and every project that came my way. I decided then and there to take Curly’s Advice (from City Slickers) and do Just One Thing, as an experiment for three months. And that, I decided, will be to concentrate on working in film. This is what’s happened so far:
Rolling…and action!
I vastly prefer theatre to film, I still feel camera work is important to have (besides, my roommate will be doing her student film next year and I would love to work with her!) in your toolbox. They are Venn diagram worlds, with some overlap and I’m blogging today to explore the differences I’ve observed for acting and writing.
Writing:
Last semester, I took a script-writing class to fuel my creative writing energy and because my theatre department severely lacks a playwriting class. This particular class, as it turns out, was intended for Video majors who need to know how to write a script before they can direct and shoot their own films. The class itself was still really interesting and it was great that I got to take it with my roommate (I even got some good scripts worked on!) but it was very obvious that I was a theatre person trying to write for film.
If you crack open a George Bernard Shaw play and read a page of description about the set and the characters, you know this is definitely intended for the stage. Film scripts are much more streamlined, intended to just capture the essence of a shot before moving on.
After interviewing the lovely Jennifer Weedon, I thought I would reach out to some other juggling actor/moms who inspire and excite me. The first person that popped to mind was the inspirational Wendy Braun.
Wendy has enjoyed over a decade working in TV, Film, Commercials and Voice-Overs and is also the founder of ActorInspiration.com. I’m a huge fan and use her guided meditations regularly before auditions.
Wendy has generously shared so much great advice, she even has a FREE GIFT for you all!!
Wendy Braun
–What are the biggest challenges in juggling being a mom and an actor? Any surprises or misconceptions?
I remember when I was pregnant with my first child, and I had a day with 4 auditions, and I came home and lost it, and thought HOW am I going to do this once I have a baby!?
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