The Vs. Studio Blog

I started The Vs. Studio with this mission: “To help artists find and manifest the work they are passionate about, and to do so with excellence and generosity. For themselves, their fellow artists and the audience they seek to serve.”

I believe that if we create meaningful work with meaningful community, then we can reach peak artistic happiness. The blog, our Vs. Tuesday Night Reading Series, Vs. Theatre Club and our Producing Workshop are all centered around this theme and Vs. Studio mission.

Marisa Van Den Borre has been passionate about the play IRONBOUND by Martyna Majok for years. In fact, she sponsored IRONBOUND as the very first Vs. Zoom Reading back in March, 2020. It was a terrific reading and night.

Wanting to go further, Marisa took part in last year’s Vs. producing workshop. At the end of the eight weeks, her and her husband Chad performed a scene from IRONBOUND for our live invited presentation. The scene rocked and Marisa received tons of encouraging feedback.

And now, almost one year later, I am thrilled to announce that it’s turned into a full production! A dream come true for Marisa who is spectacular in it. As is Chad and the rest of the ensemble. I am so incredibly proud to see this project come to fruition and have The Vs. Studio co-produce.

IRONBOUND opened to a packed house last week and this weekend is already sold out. The reviews have been stellar including a “Top Ten” in Stage Raw. It’s a limited run so after this week, there are three remaining performances: Thursday, May 14th at 8p, Saturday, May 16th at 8p. Sunday, May 17th at 2p. At The Mandani Theater in Hollywood. There are still some seats for all three shows, but don’t wait as they will sell out. Tix/Info Here. Use discount code “VS” for $25 seats.

I sincerely hope you can come see it. Thanks in advance for doing so and way to go Marisa!

P.S. – I’m also hosting a special Vs. night and talkback about the producing process on Monday, May 11th. However that show is sold out. (And note: No Tuesday Vs. reading on May 12th. We’ll be back on Tuesday, May 19th)

P.P.S. – H/t to Chad for tweaking our original Vs. Theatre logo (originally designed by Liesel Kopp) and coming up with The Vs. Studio logo pictured above.

I’ve grown a goiter by dwelling in this den—
As cats from stagnant streams in Lombardy,
Or in what other land they hap to be—
Which drives the belly close beneath the chin:
My beard turns up to heaven: my nape falls in,
Fixed on my spine: my breast-bone visibly
Grows like a harp: a rich embroidery
Bedews my face from brush-drops thick and thin. -excerpt from poem “On The Painting Of The Sistin Chapel” by Michelangelo

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” -Michelangelo

The process, the grind, the story, the heroic feat behind the making of the art is just as revered and valued, if not more so, than the actual art itself.

This is one of many reasons A.I. can’t touch art.

“Nobody knows anything…… Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work. Every time out it’s a guess and, if you’re lucky, an educated one.” -William Goldman

“George Lucas was very sure that Star Wars would be a flop and did not attend the premiere because he was convinced it would be a failure. He went on vacation to Hawaii with Steven Spielberg, and during that trip, they came up with the idea for Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Many other people, including most of his director friends, also thought the film would not succeed.

Lucas’s belief in the film’s failure stemmed from negative test screenings where the rough cut, which still had placeholder effects, confused and disappointed people.

The studio was also convinced the movie would fail and agreed to Lucas’s request to give up a higher salary in exchange for keeping the film’s merchandising and sequel rights, a decision that ultimately made him a billionaire.” -Cinema Shorts

There’s a thin line between a hit and a flop. Very thin.

And nobody knows how or where to cross it.

Don’t give up.

Keep going.

Go make your art.

P.S. – We had a great Vs. Tuesday Night Reading this evening of THE MAKING by Dan Aibel. All about the behind the scenes of STAR WARS. Nobody knew about that film either.

“You must choose.” -Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

“Learning to choose is hard. Learning to choose well is harder. And learning to choose well in a world of unlimited possibilities is harder still, perhaps too hard”. -Barry Schwartz, book The Paradox Of Choice

Traditional economics is all about scarcity. We want everything, but we can’t have everything, so we must choose.

But perhaps today, especially in wealthy countries like the United States, we need a new economics. An economics that teaches us how to choose amidst an abundance of options. Like what we eat, what we read, what we watch, and how we spend our time.

In some ways, it might be harder to choose when you can have everything. But nonetheless, you must choose. So choose wisely my friend.

May The 4th Be With You.

“Your problem is not the outside world, your problem is the story you’re telling yourself about the outside world. And that story is a choice. If you’re not happy with the story, tell yourself another story. Period. That simple.” -Seth Godin

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“It turns out that positive thinking doesn’t help you do everything, but it helps you do anything better than negative thinking.” -Seth Godin

Speaking of telling better stories, Billy Oppenheimer’s recent “Six At Six” newsletter (always excellent and I highly recommend) is full of stories about people who transformed their lives simply by telling themselves better stories about their lives. You can read it here.

Wanna be better?

First, think better.

Then, tell better.

“Early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable!” -Eric Jerome Dickey

One giant life hack and a way to avoid being in a hurry and then subsequently, harried…

Once you determine what time you need to set your alarm in order to wake up and get everything you need to get done and then drive to that audition, meeting, interview, appointment, etc. so that you can then be on time for it…

…Go back and set your alarm for fifteen minutes earlier than you originally thought.

This one will pay off enormously. (Especially if you’re a person who is often late or barely on time.)

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” -Harry S. Truman

Sometimes you get the credit you don’t deserve.

Sometimes you don’t get the credit you do deserve.

But if you just do the work for the work’s sake and do it to the best of your ability, because that’s just who you are…you won’t care who gets credit at all.

No credit. No problem.

“When we’re able to put most of our energy into developing our natural talents, extraordinary room for growth exists. So, a revision to the ‘You-can-be-anything-you-want-to-be” maxim might be more accurate: You cannot be anything you want to be—but you can be a lot more of who you already are.’ -Tom Rath

What’s the thing that comes very easy to you, but doesn’t for others? (Perhaps people even tell you as much.)

What innate talent do you take for granted?

What do you love or is fun to do?

Those questions are all ways to figure out your world class strength.

Once you find it, do everything you can to develop and harness it.

Whether or not it becomes your career, it can lead to an extraordinary life. One in which you provide an enormous service to the world.

P.S. – This Good Will Hunting scene. So good.

“Epictetus says to think of ourselves as actors in a play. We can’t choose our roles, and they can be switched at any time without warning.” -novel, Go Gentle by Maria Semple

“The problem is that the vast majority of us think that we are the directors, writers, and above all, stars of our own ‘ego-dramas’… Of course, our dramas are always uninteresting, even if we are playing the lead role. The key is to find the role that God has designed for us” -Bishop Robert Barron

“There are no small parts, only small actors.” -Konstantin Stanislavski

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players -Shakespeare, As You Like It

Once you figure out your role in the play that the universe has in mind for you, no matter how big or small you perceive it to be, go play it with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

It’s not about you. It’s about the play.

Your whole life will change once you fully accept and live this out.

“The note which any creature forms in the song of existence, it is made first for itself.” -John Muir

“To hear the song of existence — ours, or another’s, or the entire symphony of being — is the supreme task of life. But how do we listen to that song when it is drowned out by the ceaseless noise of daily distraction, muffled by apathy, or crowded out by a cacophony of demands?” -Maria Popova

Speaking of listening to the sounds of nature, I’ll leave you to contemplate this phenomenal poem from the great Walt Whitman. Enjoy your weekend. Get outside. Walk. Linger. Listen.

SONG OF MYSELF
Section 26

Now I will do nothing but listen,
To accrue what I hear into this song, to let sounds contribute toward it.

I hear bravuras of birds, bustle of growing wheat, gossip of flames,
clack of sticks cooking my meals,
I hear the sound I love, the sound of the human voice,
I hear all sounds running together, combined, fused or following,
Sounds of the city and sounds out of the city, sounds of the day and night,
Talkative young ones to those that like them, the loud laugh of
work-people at their meals,
The angry base of disjointed friendship, the faint tones of the sick,
The judge with hands tight to the desk, his pallid lips pronouncing
a death-sentence,
The heave’e’yo of stevedores unlading ships by the wharves, the
refrain of the anchor-lifters,
The ring of alarm-bells, the cry of fire, the whirr of swift-streaking
engines and hose-carts with premonitory tinkles and color’d lights,
The steam-whistle, the solid roll of the train of approaching cars,
The slow march play’d at the head of the association marching two and two,
(They go to guard some corpse, the flag-tops are draped with black muslin.)

I hear the violoncello, (’tis the young man’s heart’s complaint,)
I hear the key’d cornet, it glides quickly in through my ears,
It shakes mad-sweet pangs through my belly and breast.

I hear the chorus, it is a grand opera,
Ah this indeed is music — this suits me.

A tenor large and fresh as the creation fills me,
The orbic flex of his mouth is pouring and filling me full.

I hear the train’d soprano (what work with hers is this?)
The orchestra whirls me wider than Uranus flies,
It wrenches such ardors from me I did not know I possess’d them,
It sails me, I dab with bare feet, they are lick’d by the indolent waves,
I am cut by bitter and angry hail, I lose my breath,
Steep’d amid honey’d morphine, my windpipe throttled in fakes of death,
At length let up again to feel the puzzle of puzzles,
And that we call Being.

P.S. – You can also listen to a fantastic reading of the poem here. (H/t to Maria Popova’s phenomenal blog, The Marginalian for providing.)