Acting

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 “...

When the book Van Gogh Blues was brought to my attention, I read it with fervor. I was still in my 30's and struggling to understand why creating, writing, and being artistic made me so damn sad sometimes. Not when I was in it, but when it seemed to reach an "endpoint." I allowed myself to accept that creativity and depression were linked, and carried on through my creative endeavors with as much positivity and freshness as possible. Of course, there are times I still struggle. Perhaps we...

The fireworks are over and it's a brand new day, but we still have lots to celebrate here at Stage 32, not the least of which are our regular blog post guest contributors. We are, in fact, grateful for every single post that has ever come our way, regular contributor or not. All of our contributors selflessly offer their time and expertise to all of you, so that our community can grow with inspiration and education. Without these posts, so many of us would still be browsing other sites seeki...

I had a professor who worked on the show Prison Break and I went to visit him on the set one year. I was on the call sheet! Intern. First day of the shoot, my professor, the director of the episode that week, asked for me to get him a “coffee.” All right. Coffee. Um...I don’t drink coffee. Nor did I at the time. My past experience with coffee was nil. Perhaps if I had thrown it down my gullet in high school, I could have elevated to a loftier university than Arizona State, but I digress. I...

Being a performer in the 21st Century is hard. In the 20th Century, we were taught to learn & think like soldiers & factory workers, not like innovative, self-determined entrepreneurial entertainment professionals. You can thank the 19th Century Prussian educational model for that. Shows like A Chorus Line taught us that us if we’re not a star, we’re a loser.This is simply not true. To make things even harder, the barrier for entry to the entertainment industry is lower than ever. As a...

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street? Or at least some of its history on how the show challenged racism in the late 60's and early 70's? There's no question that the children's television show was a front runner when it came to diverse casting and cultural education. Author Anne Harrington digs into how it came to light. It took a group of men, unlike any other group of it's kind, to change the face of television.   “Episodes featured a strong black male role model (Gordon, a sch...

There are those who answer the call of duty by joining the military, becoming a doctor, or pastor or something else noble. Like me, there are those insane enough to work in the entertainment business. Even crazier, some actually thrive in it and enjoy it. Well, mostly. But once you are in it and experiencing the reality of the challenge of making a consistent living, one can’t help but think, “What in the world am I doing?” I am not exactly sure when I heard the call to join the circus of Hol...

Everyone loves a good superhero. And if you put them all in the same room, you'd see that they all have the same superpower: The ability to improve. Their commitment to getting better is one of the biggest reasons we root for superheroes. From Rick Blaine in CASABLANCA to King T’Challa in BLACK PANTHER, we root for these heroes as they charter new lands and a journey of growth; a growth that has them constantly working toward bettering themselves. So is the case in real life. We always wan...

Happy Sunday, Creative Army.  Let's jump right in to another edition of Coffee & Content. First up, for my money, the screenplay for The Social Network is up there with some of the greats of the last decade.  In our first video, the good folks at Behind the Curtain break it down and go to the source to take a look at why it all works so well. Next up, Variety is back with their Actors on Actors series.  This time around it's the great Michelle Williams and Patricia Clarkson talking about the...

As an artist, you live in a dreamworld. It’s a world filled with creative ideas, passion, and fantasy. In that world you meet characters, you hear music, you envision the stories that you want to create. You love your dreamworld. It’s where all your creative ideas are born and where your big career dreams come to light. This is where you feel most at home. Living in the dreamworld comes naturally, but that might mean that reality feels like a strange and challenging territory, for you....