Trust Where You Are

Sorry for the long delay in between posts, my friends.  I served on a jury last week and then I was struck down by the flu.  Why, yes, it was a humdinger of a time.

Now that I'm feeling much better, I'm getting back into the swing of things...including blogging. While I was on my sick-couch (that's my new name for the couch I didn't leave for several days), I came across a good little article in Backstage.  It is an interview with Broadway stars Brian d'Arcy James and Donna Murphy with a little bit of advice for newcomers.  You can check out the whole thing here but I wanted to share with you something that Donna Murphy said that really stood out to me:

"There's an element of trust that you're exactly where you're meant to be at any given moment," she said. "I remember spending an awful lot of energy in my 20s thinking 'Why aren't I being seen for this or why aren't I doing this?' As I looked back, once I was in my 30s, 40s, and now a little bit later than that, I realized I wasn't ready for that or it wasn't the right moment in time. It's really about finding opportunities where you can work and if they don't come to you, you make them. You get a group of actors together - whether it's as formal as creating a company or as informal as just reading plays together once a week - so that whether you're given a job or not, you're still working. I also believe in becoming as aware a citizen of the world as possible. Because it imbues your work with levels that go way beyond what your acting training brings you. Craft to me is huge and it's also about continuing to grow as a person."

I love this.

It really is about creating opportunities.  That was our tagline and mantra with the production company I started in NY and even though that company is dissolved, the spirit lives on.  That's why web series like Girl Parts are so important.  That's why the screenplay I wrote (and am still tinkering with) is important.  That's why improv, with weekly classes and practice groups, is important.  Sketches grow from those practices.  Scenes get filmed.  Opportunities get made.  This industry gets frustrating when the phone isn't ringing.  And you can start to feel like you're not enough.  But the reason you started on this journey IS.  And when you continue to create, continue to engage, continue to work...everything else will follow suit.  And you'll start to "trust that you're exactly where you're meant to be at any given moment."