Self producing does not mean producing alone! But before I hire that team for my solo show, I have to finish rehearsal and development. For the past seven months I have been writing, rewriting, and developing my solo show  Off Off Broadway with Matt Hoverman and with directing by Maura Kelley. 
I am happy to announce that my show will be a part of One Woman Standing, a series in the New Works play festival curated by Emerging Artists.

It's called HaveYouSeenThisGirl and the date is March 6th, 2012. Advanced tickets are $10 and available here. This is the first showing of the material in its entirety, and I'd love to have you in the audience. It's a coming out story wrapped in an adoption mystery.

Our class is part of a documentary on solo shows by Shannon Romines and I'll post clips or trailers as soon as they are ready for the public.

I am so grateful for my classmates and my friends who showed up to one or all phases of the production and cheered me on or gave feedback. It's a slow but necessary process.

While it has been a challenging seven months, it has also been more fulfilling than my busiest year pursuing TV work. And yes, I'd like both, please!

In 2011 I graduated from UCB, made new friends I want to work with, and then started to develop my own work. I let my manager go, stopped commuting to L.A., and took 6 months to mark off 5 things on my Can Do List.

It's only February and I have four more months to go on my quest to focus on creating my solo show, short film, sketch, and feature script. I share my goals to share inspiration, and because most people don't! I want to hear your goals! 

Are you writing something that lights your fire? Just talking about my feature script makes me more excited than I have ever been about anyone else's script.

So tell me, what's your dream? Everybody comes to Hollywood with a dream! (And name that movie quote!)

I first read about natural consequences in a magazine wherein a woman allowed her daughter leave the house without a jacket on a chilly day, just to experience that choice. She never left without a jacket again.

Humans adapt their behavior by experiencing the natural consequences of that behavior, and who are we to rob them of that?  However, I am  very uncomfortable when I am aware that I am delivering those natural consequences in the form of a confrontation. Especially as actors, we have to pick our battles, and often I opt out. 

Case in point, I was at a holiday meal and there was some much needed hired help in the kitchen. It was sweltering in there and the sun beat down through the windows. I noticed that their sweat was dripping precariously close to the soup, so I closed the blinds. Not long after that, one of the workers sought me out with his wet face and a sweat-speckled black shirt. He asked could we please close the blinds, as someone had opened them. 

"No. I prefer them open," was the host's answer. As I relayed his preference, the caterers all leaned in to stare in disbelief as sweat rolled off their hairline, down their cheeks, and right into the soup. 

At what point do we say, "Hey stop being weird about the blinds. These people you hired are suffering and you have an obligation to stop it!" But there was a crowd and that seemed wrong. Also, he was being cruel and self entitled. So I just let the man eat the soup with droplets of funk and dander. Natural Consequences.

How many people are just letting you eat the soup? Are you really open to hearing honest talk about your own stuff? 

One way to find out where you stand on anything is to begin a collaboration; to self produce. As actors we no longer need to solely fit into someone else's vision/film/play/TV series. When we self produce, we evolve personally and professionally. And our professional work is only as great as our personal growth, so what are you self producing this year?
 

Here is a great example of self producing, but not producing all by your self: Judy Greer! I loved her in Thirteen Going on Thirty with Jennifer Garner, and in the past two TV shows she’s starred in. Now ABC had picked up American Judy for pilot season! Yea!

The Hollywood Reporter:

“If you see her face, it looks familiar. If you hear her voice, it rings a bell. But if you read her name, chances are it draws a blank.Such is the reality of life for the great character actress Judy Greer, who, since making her big-screen debut in 1998, has appeared in dozens of critical and/or commercial hits — among them  What Women Want(2000), The Wedding Planner(2001), Adaptation (2002), 13 Going on 30 (2004), The Village (2004), 27 Dresses(2008), and, most recently, The Descendants -- consistenly stealing scenes from her A-list co-stars, but always ceding the spotlight back to them before the end credits…”

 It’s about time! This woman is so talented and funny - I can’t wait to hear how it goes! I hope more actresses self produce and get this break this year. Today I lift my latte to you Judy Greer!

Cynopsis:
“Judy Greer...will star in the comedy called American Judyand dually serve as EP.  The single-camera comedy from writing partners Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont is about a sophisticated woman who gets married and is out of place living in the suburbs where her husband’s ex-wife is the town sheriff.”  

In celebration of artists who self-generate content, I would like to share with you the events of the past week at Sundance! Erin Greenwell wrote and directed My Best Day. She has been writing and directing films since I first arrived in NYC and she’s an actor’s dream to work with. In fact, everyone on her team is a dream.It got me thinking: wouldn’t I love to curate my own working teams as much as I would love to curate my work? 

What a gift to be able to choose who we work with. We are often told as actors that we have to “deal with” bad behavior from other actors, directors, or stage hands. But what if we don’t? Just another plus to creating our own work: we get to create our own working environment.This is Molly Lloyd and I play her BFF, Laura, in the film:I made some great new friends this past week and am inspired to go back to writing with my cohorts and developing our projects.————————————————————--
Follow the ups and downs of the ride as our director for My Best Day, Erin Greenwell, writes about meeting Robert Redford, reviews, and many modest victories:


“I’ve been considering many cold opening quotes to this “During Sundance” blog ranging from, “Bagels again?” to, “Marina Abramovic is in the next bathroom stall!” I’ll let Robert Redford start it with, “There’s Sundance here,” as he points towards the floor at the Directors Brunch “And then there’s Park City,” he indicates down the mountain.“Park City is not Sundance.”We directors nod. Bob understands. We won’t buy into the machine of the market place. Our film is already the gold and Bob is warning us to stay grounded…”
http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/news/2012/01/meeting-robert-redford-the-during-sundance-blog/trackback/

We got a great review in Variety!

Witty, wacky, multicharacter comedy “My Best Day” features a rural milieu that’s authentically American: a place where people don’t have health care, run out of gas, get places by walking the train tracks, and don’t even envy each other either. The talented cast of helmer Erin Greenwell’s debut consists of unknowns, which is likely what relegated the film to Sundance’s avant-gardish Next section, an odd placement considering how much this accessible, entertaining item embodies what used to be considered indie spirit.
—————————————————————And we walked the press line, attended parties and panels, and checked out great causes at the gifting suites such as Beat Liver Tumors and Music Saves Lives. We stayed with a wonderful couple in Park City and are so grateful for our time at Sundance!Beat Liver Tumors at ECO Lounge. At Sundance Channel Headquarters, we ran into friends, charged our cell phones, and they gave us free hats and lattes! 
Harris Doran, Ashlie Atkinson and I  and friend at Outfest’s Queer Brunch, and somebody yarn bombed Sundance! A good time was had by all.

Erin Greenwell's Best Day - Curve Magazine - Web Articles 2012
“ …I grew impatient trying to get my scripts read by production companies. I started learning digital cameras and editing so I could self produce and direct my own ideas which grew from short skits, to shorts to features…”

 In Theater History we learned that actors used to do everything. We wrote it, we directed it, and we produced it. The last script I read had 35 men… and 4 women: 1  bitch, 1 victim, and 2 sluts. Meh. 
      

                                                    
It got me thinking about self producing and initiating a collaboration.Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed, and produced many of their films. Today’s studio system has devolved into one that generally isolates its actors from the other branches of film-making and TV production. And it seems like the “acting only” market is saturated.

What if we, actors, came full circle and turned ourselves back into the storyteller again? We can create the roles we long for, if we are bold enough to imagine them. We can hire a script coach and write our own material in lieu of that scene study class for the next 8 weeks. Or at the very least, create it and hire writers to write it.Maybe writing and producing will be more gratifying than endless, mind numbing auditions under duress based on our look… or casting workshops.

I am willing to find out. I want to redirect the energy that I have been pouring into the possibilityof other people’s work and hire a cinematographer to make a short film.

I believe that there is infinite room for good work in our industry. And if we, actors, fill the industry with our good work, it would raise the bar and push out the projects with stereotypes and lack of diversity.  Let’s occupy Hollywood. With content.

Between now and July, I’m swearing off classes and workshops. I am creating my own content and I want to build a new tribe. Join me. Here’s how: ‘Like’ my Facebook page write about your project on my wall. I will support you any way I can. Even if you do a Kickstarter.

 (via Zooey Deschanel, Digital Broadcasting Group Team for ‘Single Life’ Web Series (Exclusive) - The Hollywood Reporter)

Trailer for My Best Day by Erin Greenwell 
Click the link above and check out the trailer here for My Best Day by Erin Greenwell!

I’m so excited to share that My Best Day by Erin Greenwell is going to premierat Sundance this week! This movie is near and dear to my heart because I love the story, the cast and crew, and the entire town we filmed it in: Bangor, PA. Okay, and I play the Laura, the  BFF of one of the leads, played by the incomparable Molly Lloyd.Writer/director Erin Greenwell confidently juggles the multiple plots, serving up a charming, up-to-the-minute slice of Americana. This is Mayberry 2012, where Opie waxes existential and Aunt Bea has finally come out of the closet. Greenwell’s quirky script and great ensemble performances ensure that My Best Day is both subversive and sunny. Cue the fireworks!Screenings6:00 pm1/21/2012 Yarrow Hotel Theatre7:00 pm1/23/2012 Redstone Cinema 79:00 pm1/25/2012 Broadway Centre Cinema 62:30 pm1/27/2012 Prospector Square Theatre
I’d love to see you!  Got any suggestions for movies for me to see while I’m there? Will you be there too? Chime in!
SYNPOSIS: Karen can’t believe that she has to work her receptionist gig on a gorgeous Fourth of July. Then a call comes from her long-lost father and sets in motion a crazy chain of events that will change one small town forever. Meanwhile, Megan must decide between the stability of her longtime girlfriend and the thrill of a new love. Young Ray fends off bullies and organized sports to woo the girl he likes. In a little burg like this, you’d better believe everything is connected, which means that pretty soon everyone is mixed up in each other’s business.