Inspirational

Let me take you back to the summer of '07, where a father takes his little 12-year old son with him to his work. They had never really talked about his fathers’ work. Of course, the boy kind of knew what his father did, but he was never this close. The father explained to him how he was working on this particular project and that maybe the boy would like to see how everything worked. The big day, as his father called it, was in Amsterdam. Dad asked the little boy to prepare a movie scene wit...

Remembering Robin Williams There’s been much written regarding the passing of Robin Williams this week. As is always the case when someone takes their life, the search for understanding and the need for rectification dominate. But when the life in question is a celebrity of Williams' caliber, one who spent the better part of four decades making us laugh, one who through his art made us feel connected to his very being, the search and need for answers is only shadowed by the dull ache in our...

Today is August 5, 2014. My name is David Rountree and I am ranked 5th on the Top 10 Up-and-Coming Directors under 40 on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).    With two films of completely different genres receiving theatrical releases this year, and winning the Best Film and Best Director award at the 2014 Independent Film and Television Festival, I was recently interviewed about how I became an overnight success as a writer/producer/director. The irony is that my journey in achieving moder...

Part of what makes our Stage 32 network so inspiring is the overwhelming sense of community.  There are any number of metrics that we can point at to support this claim - a record number of threads and posts almost daily, for example - but one that truly stands out is the increase in Stage 32 Meetups occurring across the globe.   Below are some pictures of recent Stage 32 Meetups where members of this terrific community took their networking to the streets.  We're happy and proud to report...

When I was asked to write a blog for Stage 32 I was extremely honored, but worried that I, as a writer/actor, would have NOTHING to say. Nothing that hasn’t been said before. Nothing unique, fresh or original, but I remembered that so much of what I teach to actors is: WALK THROUGH THE DOOR! My entire career has been based on the “YES” principle. Yes, I’ll take that role, yes, I’ll commit to the path, yes, I’ll write the blog. Yes, Yes, YES. Actress Ruth Gordon got booted out of The Acad...

The July session of On Stage With RB is now available FREE On Demand.  This is another 2+ hour session with our Founder and CEO, RB. During a nearly 30 minute opening, RB covered the following Stage 32 topics: New navigation bar Searching the Lounge by keyword How to set up and search for Stage 32 Meetups How to best complete your profile How to promote your Stage 32 profile to other social media to "complete the circle" of promotion Happy Writers pitch sessions Then, in a...

So where do I begin? Believe it or not I have memories from the age of three or four (does this mean I am getting Alzheimer’s?). I was in the Public dispensary in Leeds having my adenoids seen to and remember being put on a trolley and asking ‘Where are we going?’ The porter wheeling me responded with ‘To the theatre’ to which I replied ‘What’s on?’ So there must have been some early desire to tread the boards, although I didn’t realise as much at the time. In those days repertory theatre wa...

When I was first asked to do a blog entre for Stage 32 I thought, easy, I’ll get this done in no time, I’ll get this out before they can even release the next Marvel Superhero movie (it’s another Daredevil, right?) But then I realized, I have to give the awesome members of the Stage32 commuity something good. They deserve to hear some real-life experience, not one of your (insert Ben Stein impression here), “The state of film today is blah blah, tent-pole, blah blah, overseas markets, blah bla...

I’m not like most actors that you hear about or read about. I wasn’t born with the burning desire to perform. I have no stories of sitting in the dark theater, being hit by some divine lightning bolt that told me that this was my purpose, etc. For me, it just didn’t happen that way. I grew up on Long Island in New York, and although my parents were great supporters of the arts, there was never a moment that they thought I would choose that as a profession. Sure, they encouraged me to take vi...

I caught the travel bug early in life and have been blessed with the number of places on this planet I have visited. It’s more than a lust for vacation, but it is a desire to see the world, learn from the people, and tally up some great stories. I'm sure there are plenty of you out there who have the same desire to hike Machu Picchu and Angkor Wat and photograph the penguin colonies in Antarctica. But there is always something that stands in the way, the lack of travel funds and the fact that I...