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“What do you fear, lady?” [Aragorn] asked. “A cage,” [Éowyn] said. “To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.” -J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return Of The King “When deciding whether to do something, if you feel anything less than ‘Wow!Continue reading “Fear And FUN”

“Do you know what the scariest thing is? To not know your place in this world, to not know why you’re here.” -Elijah Prince in the film Unbreakable Struggling to find your purpose? First commit to something. Anything. Honor that commitment to its completion. Give it everything you got. Then find something else and doContinue reading “Commitment, Then Purpose”

Don’t talk about it. Be about it.

Two things the world badly needs right now (and will always need)… Leadership. 2. Solving interesting problems. When you produce something you’re passionate about, you get to deliberately practice both things. And like any skill, the more you do, the better you get. What are you waiting for? If not for yourself, how about forContinue reading “For The World”

Actor Matthew McConaughey talked a little about his process on a recent Marc Maron podcast. He mentioned finding a “lock in line” somewhere in the script. This is a word or phrase that unearths the character for him. It’s his “way in.” This is good acting advice which can also be applied to finding yourContinue reading “Lock In Line”

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” -C.S. Lewis “All streams flow to the sea because it is lower than they are. Humility gives it its power.” –Tao Te Ching, Translation by Stephen Mitchell I was in an Oceanside vintage store looking at gifts for a friend. Minutes before, IContinue reading “Your Blog Sucks”

“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” -Shakespeare, Hamlet Like any great script, there will be all kinds of unexpected twists and turns along your producing journey. Try not to label them as good or bad events. They just are what they are. And your job is to flow, toContinue reading “Outcome”

“What we’ve got here…is failure to communicate.” -Captain in the film Cool Hand Luke “Communication breakdown, it’s always the same. Havin’ a nervous breakdown, a-drive me insane.” -Led Zeppelin from their song Communication Breakdown A central theme in any drama or comedy is the characters inability to communicate with one another. That leads to conflictContinue reading “Failure To Communicate”

Who doesn’t love a good origin story? If culture is the story we all agree on, then it makes sense that in order to change the culture, we need to tell a different story. That starts with ourselves. To “be the change we wish to see in the world” as Ghandi advised, let’s first makeContinue reading “Origin Story”

My favorite question to ask a fellow artist (and one someday for the Vs. Studio podcast): “What production, either one you were in or saw, made a significant impact on you? And why?” Following up my most recent post about August Wilson’s Jitney, I’d be remiss if I didn’t discuss another giant personal takeaway fromContinue reading “Jitney (Part Two)”