A New Year

I’ve never been one to make New Year resolutions. Not because I don’t think there is any merit to doing so, but because I don’t believe there needs to be a specific day in which to make a change in your life. I feel that if you want to make a change or break a bad habit you should do it immediately instead of waiting for the first of the year. That being said, there are some “resolutions” that I have been making in my life over the past month and ones that I need to start working on more. So, in the spirit of the new year, I’m going to write some of these out. Don’t worry, I’ll interweave some photos as well so you don’t get bored.

1. Stand Up Toledo

In case you haven’t heard, I was one of five comedians voted to come back for a second time to perform at Stand Up Toledo! Stand Up Toledo is a showcase of 10 local comedians at the Maumee Indoor Theatre. I was one of the comedians back in 2012 and I had a great time! This year, I am hoping to improve and do even better than last year. Ideally, I would like to be able to perform all new material, but I think that there will be a couple repeats only because I have improved on a couple of the jokes that I have been telling for a while. If you buy your tickets from me, they are only $15, otherwise they are $20 at the door, which opens at 7pm on January 20th. If you’re in the area, this is definitely a show you won’t want to miss! Along the same vein, I want to try to get as much stage time as possible and start doing comedy outside of the Toledo/BG area.

A painting I did as a Christmas present to my parents

2. Acting

I want to start acting way more than I am now. After all, it is what I want to make a career out of, but I’ve discovered that just having representation isn’t enough, at least not for me. I appreciate the fact that I am being submitted for work, but thus far I haven’t been getting so much as an audition. So, rather than just giving up or waiting, I am taking a more active approach to my acting career. Thus far, I have submitted myself to multiple websites, casting calls, and have sent out countless emails to local casting calls, such as student films and local filmmakers. I want to get my face and resume out there as much as possible in hopes that the right person will see it and decide I’m worth a shot. Until I get cast, I plan on doing as much local theatre and film as I can and build up my résumé, as well as networking where ever I can.

My roommate’s parrot, Play-Doh, enjoying the snow

3. Working out

Here it is, the cliché New Year’s resolution: Working out. We’ve all thought it or said it out loud at some point in our lives, “I should really work out more.” But hear me out, this has a bit more weight to it, pun not intended but hopefully appreciated. I have fibromyalgia, so working out has always been a point of hesitation for me. I’m not particularly out of shape by any means, work keeps me pretty active, but I want to start building up more of a resistance to the pain caused by fibromyalgia. Ordinarily, working out is a painful experience for me because of fibromyalgia, but the theory is that the more you work out, the more resistance you build against that pain. I don’t know if that has any truth to it or not, but I think it’s worth a try. It really doesn’t have any negative drawbacks to it, aside from being in a bit more pain then usual. Plus, losing weight wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world

Sam wearing his reindeer costume.

Naturally, I have other things that I am working on improving, but those are the top ones at the moment. I hope you enjoyed reading, or at least enjoyed the photos and I’ll be posting again soon. In the meantime, have a great start to 2013!

 

He who breaks a resolution is a weakling; He who makes one is a fool. – F.M. Knowles

 

Waiting…

At the point in my life, I find myself in a nearly constant state of waiting. I’m not a particularly impatient person, but I do find myself wishing that I could take a more active role in my life. Unfortunately, many things that I could be doing require me to have money that I simply do not have.

For example, it was recently pointed out to me that in order to promote my book more I need to have more copies to sell, hand out, use for book signings, etc. Unfortunately, the way my publisher works is that I have to pay for copies of my book to have them to sell/use for my own devices. Additionally, if I am going to get any sort of author discount I have to order a minimum amount of 25 books (which would be roughly $250, with my discount). All in all, this is a great deal, but when you factor in rent and living expenses, it’s a difficult number for a young actress who also has to worry about health and paying back school loans.

A peek inside my book, “Silly Billy’s Guide to the Theatre”

However, this fellow author whom I was speaking with brought up some very good points. I would be able to make the money back simply by selling the books, therefore not really losing anything. The difficult part is simply getting the money to start with. He suggested possibly taking out a loan or setting up something through Kickstarter. Since I had never heard of this program, I needed an explanation: Basically, Kickstarter is an online fundraising program designed to help artists, such as myself, begin projects. People can donate money on the site towards these projects, and are given rewards based upon how much they spend on your project. The best part? If you don’t reach your monetary goal by the date that you set, no one is charged anything. So someone could donate money towards the cause, but not have to pay if the project is scrapped for some reason. Cool, right? It’s definitely worth looking into, although I worry whether or not there would be anyone willing to donate money towards my cause, but you never know if you don’t try. Plus, I’ve already been asked to do a few book signings, so it wouldn’t necessarily be an exercise in futility.

Another route I’ve looked into is selling some of my artwork. Well, technically I have already been doing that (thank you, Redbubble!), but I’m speaking specifically about selling some of my oil paintings through Etsy.

One of my oil paintings, currently making my kitchen wall a bit more classy

Instagram made the coloring a bit brighter than it actually is, but you get the picture (lol, lame unintentional pun). For those of you that don’t know, Etsy is essentially a site designed to help artists sell their art online without having to worry about not getting the product or not getting paid for your art. Shipping would still be my responsibility, of course, but this not only gets my art out there, I don’t have to worry about giving it away to someone who will neither pay for nor appreciate it.

Another route I’d like to look into is doing comedy on a bigger scale. This is something I may not have to wait for, I just need to be more aggressive on finding work. However, I am making the choice to do this after…

The finished product! It took a lot of work, but I finally have the poster where I want it. It’s definitely one of the better posters I’ve created.

Murder in the Cathedral! We are drawing closer to tech week and the inevitable opening of the show. I am truly fortunate to be in yet another show with so many of my friends. I am also fortunate that the director has been very patient with me, I have unfortunately been fighting a cold for several weeks now. I’m hoping that this will have passed by opening night, though the doctors are, frankly, a little stumped at this cold’s insistence on staying in my system. Never the less, as the old saying goes, “the show must go on” (and it’s often forgotten counterpart, “or else we’ll have to give them their money back”). Speaking of the show, I have to get some things ready before rehearsal tonight, so I will end this entry here.

“All things come to him who waits – provided he knows what he is waiting for.”  – Woodrow T. Wilson

Lionface, AH! Lemonface, Ooh!

Happy Hunger games!

That’s right, I’m going to come right out and admit my intense nerdy love for The Hunger Games, but more on that later.

First, I’d like to talk a bit more on this fantastic organization that I am apart of: Lionface Productions! We are a non-profit theatre organization in Bowling Green, OH and are currently coming to the end of our second official season!

Plus we have sweet, sweet t-shirts!

That being said, our final show, Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot is now in rehearsals and thus far it has been incredibly fun! As opposed to setting the show back in the early, early days of the Catholic church, our director has decided to place it some time in the era of WWI, which was actually the time in wish Eliot wrote the show. I’m interested to see how this will affect the acting, especially when we get into rehearsals. Plus, this gives the women of Canterbury (of which I am one) a lot more strength and say in what is going on as opposed to the early days where women were seen and not heard. If you are interested in learning more about Lionface Productions, please check out their website: Lionface Productions

We are currently trying to raise money to put this show on, so if anyone has a few dollars that they would like to donate to this fantastic organization, please click her: Lionface Productions Fundraising

A little bit more of my painting is complete! Naturally, there’s still a lot to go, but I’m having fun with it.

Back to my nerdy excitement about The Hunger Games. I have to admit, I am a little disappointed that they are coming out with a movie only in that it means that I won’t get to play Katniss Everdeen, which is a phenomenal role. I am going to the midnight première with a few friends and I truly hope that the film lives up to the phenomenal book series. I am sure I will write more on this after I see it, but I wanted to share my excitement.

As for the headshots, I am still excitedly awaiting them as they are being touched up! However, I feel that I can reveal the group responsible for them: Glass City Stills!

Glass City Stills is run by the multi-talented actor/photographer, Cole Simon, who I had the absolute pleasure of working with. Though the company is out of Chicago, we were able to meet in the Columbus area, which was a great deal more convenient for me. A mutual friend ended up setting up this first contact and the rest is, well, that’s what’s going to be seen soon. I had a lot of fun working with him and I cannot wait to see how the photos turned out!

Keeping this post fairly short, I’m still not exactly a “blogger” by any means, so I’m trying to keep things simple. Feedback is always a plus as well! So until next time, may the odds be ever in your favor!

“You never forget the face of the person who was your last hope.” – Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games

My Life as it Stands

Hello everyone!

Here’s what’s going on in my life at the moment.

I’m in the process of getting new headshots so that my manager can start submitting me for work! For the time being, I am not going to release the name of the company I am associated with (for privacy reasons, of course), but the type of work I will be submitted for includes film, commercial, theatre, etc. As for the headshots, I have a couple of different leads and will hopefully schedule an appointment tomorrow.

As for what I am working on currently, I was cast as Chorus I in Lionface Production’s Murder in the Cathedral. As many already know, I also do the poster designs and some general public relation things for Lionface and I am very excited to be acting for them again. Additionally, I have already completed the poster for the show (though it is subject to some changes).

Not going to lie, I’m pretty proud of this one.

I can’t wait to get started!

In other news, I’ve started a new oil painting. This one is inspired by my nerdy adoration of Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games and excitement for the upcoming movie.

A rough sketch on canvas

If you can’t tell from the sketch, it’s the Mockingjay pin. I’m actually doing the film version of it, which has it on fire. I did this yesterday, and earlier on today I applied the base.

Base coat on the mockingjay, check out the tail

The only part that is even close to being done is the tail. The rest is just a base to get me started on, so I can work around it without leaving white spots on the canvas (which is pretty annoying when you have it on the end product). Naturally, I hold no hopes of this being a “perfect painting,” but I love the challenge of it.

That’s really about all I have at the moment. I’m not a huge blogger by any means, but I hope to start keeping up with it fairly regularly. We’ll just have to see how it goes.

“I am not afraid, I was born to do this.” – Joan of Arc