After posting last night about the past few months, I see I left a TON out. Here I am again, after Day 2 of 3 with David Strasberg… I AM EVEN MORE INSPIRED!!! First of all, today in the Strasberg workshop, we dove back into our bodies and then text. I pulled out a monologue that I haven’t done in awhile. I am very passionate about it but wasn’t sure how it would feel now. So much happened! David Strasberg was able to ask me questions and I could then create possibilities and dive back in. FOCUSED. FRESH IMPULSES. TRUTH. Tomorrow will come and go too soon, but I know this is only the start of my work with Mr. Strasberg. I am not afraid to travel to continue honing my craft.

Other important projects I failed to mention last night…I worked with Tom Skerritt!!! I was called in to audition for his web-series, “Stroller Gangs”. A series about Moms, their kids and the lives they live and wish they could live. I got to audition for TOM, it was more like a meeting/interview than an audition. We met at a Starbucks and talked for over an hour. We found ourselves barely talking about the project and more about life, our families and passion for the Arts. I was cast and filming was a great experiencet! Tom was such a simple and humble man on set, even making fun of himself in the script. “Tom? Who, Tom Skerritt? Isn’t he like 150 years old now?”. I also got to work with some Mighty Seattle Actors, like Wonder Russell, Telisa Steen and Tabitha Bastien. We all can’t wait to start filming again next year.

Last month I was asked to take part in the Icicle Creek Theatre Festival. I have wanted to be part of the festival for years. Actors are selected, 2 playwrights are flown in, and 2 top notch directors take on each show. I was Maddy, a lover, a Marine Biologist and a woman who chooses work over her partner. The play was “A Perfect Robot” by Sarah Saltwick, Directed by Anita Montgomery and the cast were Seattle staples (Hana Lass, Connor Toms, Michael Patten, MJ Seiber, Julie Briskman and ME). We spent a week in Leavenworth, workshopping the script and then putting it on it’s feet for a public reading there and at ACT in Seattle. What a quick and dirty way to sink your teeth right into the text with it’s writer and then let it all go out onto the audience to hear and experience. I hope to do ICTF again.

I haven’t expressed how excited I am that Locally Grown had it’s premiere!!! There I was, Sheila Rhodes, fake British accent on camera and bitchy american off. I LOVED IT! We will also be filming more episodes next year and I think Seattle is ready for a witty and LOCALLY grown web-series. AND we did the Red Carpet and you know we love Red Carpets (See SIFF pic below).

PHEW! I am sure I may have forgotten a few more things but I need FOOD. It’s been such a fullfilling day, I find myself feeling so fortunate. It’s beyond loving to do what I do, Acting and teaching…it’s that I have been blessed to have my art truly become part of my life. I am happy. I am not what they call a “struggling artist”. And not because I work all the time, I don’t, I have see MANY roles pass me by this year. But I am not struggling because I embrace and live each day of my life in the NOW. It isn’t always easy. I will still get bummed when I don’t get a role or think of the future and all its “what ifs”. But then I bring myself back to the NOW, and remind myself of something even more important than my art…Its My Loved Ones.

The loss of our baby girl, Vida, was life changing. And more so because it came right after the passing of my Grandfather and Grandmother. It is loss like this that impacts your soul, the way you think, feel, live and perform. I am a different actor than I was 5 years ago. I am a stronger actor. I am a better wife. I am a better daufghter. I never took my loved ones for granted BUT I wasn’t always living in the NOW. I could live “in the moment” on stage and screen, no problem. But I needed to do so all the time. Life is so short, just like a play or a film, it all goes by so quickly. Never let one out weigh the other, it all is a part of you and you are a part of it.

Cherish every word and every silence…