Inspirational

Oddly enough, I consider myself a survivor. Not of the Holocaust, or of the dreaded C word, or an horrific accident, or a natural disaster, or a substance addiction. No, my survival is of the intangible kind. I have survived my own childhood. I have finally, at fifty-two, freed myself from a demon given to me at birth by my mother. This demon’s name is Rejection, and she has stopped me my entire life at every turn. I am able now to experience joy in my own insanity because she and I are intim...

I’m at the traffic lights, sat on the back of (my then) boyfriend’s sports motorbike. “One more blast round, or go home?” he said. My silent voice inside instantly urging me to say, turn right, lets go home. “Turn left”, I said thinking he would prefer another 20 minutes out in the early evening sun. It was Sunday evening, August 9th. Five minutes later a red car hurtling up our side of the road at 70 mph came into view. In a nano-second I shift into paralyzing terror. Th...

I have been working intensely with actors for the past 15 years; first as a casting director and now as owner of The Actor’s Green Room. I tell most actors that they will be embarking on a journey if they choose to pursue acting full force. In 99% of cases, I tell people that things take time and auditioning/booking work is often a numbers game. There are hundreds of thousands of people attempting to procure work for themselves as actors so naturally...it’s a bit competitive. In my last blog...

Over the last few years I have been very blessed to see my entire world turn around after experiencing massive loss in both 2011 and 2013. The one thing that kept me going was always holding on to my dreams and learning the technique of visualization. When I was first starting out as an author of books, I decided to look at those authors I admired and respected and wanted to learn from. I researched what they did to write their books and to make them successful in a publishing industry that was...

Once upon a time, many years ago when I was an upcoming young actress, I was watching a television talk show interview with the famous comedian Carol Burnett, who was asked about her early years in the business. She pointed out that in those days, the network executives kept her show on the air because they felt that it was good and that she would eventually succeed, which she did magnificently. “But now,” she said, “ratings are all-important, and a show that is slow to win an audience is quickl...

Those of you who have been around the site for a while know that Orson Welles and Citizen Kane played a significant role in why I named the platform Stage 32. (For those unfamiliar with the history, you can read all about it here. May 6th would have been the iconic filmmaker’s 100th birthday. As a result, Welles has been front and center in the news this past week.Besides a special tribute and screening of a new 4K version of The Third Man at Cannes (as well as other screenings across the glob...

Last month, the awesome owners of Film Courage came to the Stage 32 offices to interview our CEO, RB Botto. The wide ranging, over 3-hour interview covered a plethora of subjects including screenwriting, filmmaking, acting, distribution, indiefilm, the state or the industry, crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, social media, and networking in person, online and outside of LA to name a few. Film Courage has begun releasing the interview in segments and we're happy to announce that we'll be bringing th...

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." - Mahatma Gandhi "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." - Nelson Mandela "The great aim of education is not knowledge but action." - Herbert Spencer I'm very excited and proud to announce the launch of our new and improved Next Level Education section. When I first conceived of Stage 32, my wish was to bring education to all film, television and theater creatives r...

I’ve only been with Stage 32 for a few weeks, but I’ve already connected with a lot of great people. This is an amazing site that leads to great opportunities in the industry. I absolutely love it here and I would like to thank Andre Corrales for inviting me to write this blog. I left school at 16 and went straight into the workplace. I didn't want to go into further into education, because I had been relentlessly bullied my whole school life and I couldn't face studying any longer. At school,...

When Stage 32 invited me to write a blog about screenwriting, I thought, “what better way to share my story and advice than by interviewing myself?” So... cue opening music and FADE IN: Screenwriting Blogger Self: Marla, what drew you into the world of screenwriting? Marla J. Hayes: The first movie I ever saw. I must've been around 12 when my parents took me to see The Sound of Music. The opening vista made my jaw drop. I was glued to my seat. I wanted to make the same things happen with m...