In early 2010, I was a bit of a mess.
Well, moreso than usual, that is.
STUCK IN THE MUD
I was 30, a college graduate, a stay-at-home-dad to one child by day with a second on the way, on my way to becoming a career waiter, disheartened and despondent over the state of my acting ?career?, and in a very anxious place. The Dream was dying. Despite a semi-succesful run at producing from the ground up a seasonal theatrical performance, as well as the occasional ? very occasional ? commercial or theater gig, I was seeing the light on the horizon that was What I Wanted To Do When I Grow Up flickering and threatening to be snuffed out. I began the mental game EVERYONE in my shoes begins to play, and more often than not acts on: Should I move to LA? ?I?d had one dear actor friend, on his way out of Charlotte tell me ?You?re too ambitious for this town,? while another dear friend in the arts in Southern California, familiar with the work I?d begun doing under the Starving Artist banner, told me, ?Why would you leave a good thing? People slave for years out here and don?t get to do what you?re doing.?
I was fidgety. Anxious. Ready to possibly uproot my little family from our strong support system and lovely life here in the Queen City for the vast unknown. My wife and I began having conversations of what a relocation would look like. It wasn?t feeling like the best step, but I was done waiting tables, I was at an impasse. It was time to sink or swim. In tears one night and at the end of my rope, my wife, a bourgeoning internet presence herself, suggested it was time I quit my job and start Building. The Birth had worked. It worked! Why couldn?t/wouldn?t/shouldn?t other projects/dreams/visions/ambitions?
START SMALL, DREAM BIG ? NO ONE ELSE WILL DO IT FOR YOU
My wife?s steadfast support and a series of heartening conversations led me to quit my Job and start my Work. When I started The Birth in 2006, it was barely what you?d call a production, but there were performers and there was an audience ? of course, a small one ? the primary ingredients for the type of endeavors I wanted to see happen. We had done it. And then, we did it again. And again. And have taken this minimalist ? completely original ? stage production from a tiny room with 40 people in 2006 to 10 performances and over 1500 people in 2011.
When we started 2011 our goal was to make 3 short films. You will find all three of them ? Ladies Room, Little Star, and Mr Lucas ? all on this site. We did it.
In 2011 we staged our first non-The Birth theatrical production, Brian Friel?s heartbreaking and mesmeric Faith Healer. You?ll be hard-pressed to find a more beautiful and moving piece of theater. 227 people saw that show. A small number, to be sure. But we did it. And did it with excellence.
Just 2 months ago, a year after Faith Healer, we staged the Charlotte premiere (that word is a big deal) of a locally written, nationally performed, comedy called Don?t Cry For Me, Margaret Mitchell. It had major local print coverage and 597 people saw it.
Online, our 3 short films have had a total of over 5,000 views.
These things are happening. There is momentum.
I?m not shy about how big my vision and ambition is for what our little company can pull off.
ACT LIKE WHAT CAN BE, WILL BE
Two things keep me pressing hard toward bigger and loftier goals for Starving Artist:
1. the internet
2. Tyler Perry
1. With the advent of social media, the capacity to have our material find an audience is greater than it?s ever been. With the advent of things like the AppleTV, Roku and the like, the transition from traditional cable to internet based television viewing is no longer the future. I can now watch Starving Artist short films on my home TV, without the need for a dvd or other piece of media, just by searching for it via my AppleTV.
Do you know why there was a Writer?s Strike in Hollywood 3 years ago? Because the Creatives knew what the Suits were trying to ignore: New Media is blasting into our present with thunderous force. Television writers, in addition to their normal series-writing workloads, were also creating content for the internet, which was ? not very slowly, mind you ? usurping the role of Main Mode of Viewing Entertainment in peoples? homes and they weren?t getting paid for it.
What had once mainly just been an avenue of marketing has now become the main avenue of entertainment consumption.
And with it, companies like our?s are better positioned than ever to get our material out to the world.
2. This may seem an odd one. But look at this: For someone like me, who has reconciled himself to not relocating or living with any permanence in any of the Entertainment Meccas in our country, someone like Tyler Perry, who has created a media EMPIRE outside of the Hollywood system, is definitely someone worth having in mind. And don?t be fooled, Hollywood may not like to recognize him much, but his enterprise is worth millions of dollars, and it began with the man writing plays ? granted, he also dresses in drag to do so, but no analogy is perfect, right?
In a world where internet content is becoming the primary mode of consumable entertainment and pioneers like Tyler Perry can come to fruition quite successfully outside of the mainstream, there is hope for little operations like our own to reach such great heights, as well.
A perfect example of the ?Act Like What Can Be, Will Be? mantra, as well as a tooting of the horn of Starving Artist?s own Michelle Wheeler, is when she and I were discussing the casting of a potential short film we were interested in developing. It was a script I?d written, a primarily two-character piece. I?d suggested to her the possibility of exploring what insane possibility there would be of getting Josh Holloway from LOST to play one of the characters. I knew he was from Georgia and wondered if the stars could align for some southeastern kismet. Any pragmatist, anyone trained to think only about What Is and not What Could Be would have laughed in my face. But Michelle, without missing a beat, said, ?I?ll get on it,? and actually started researching getting in touch with Josh Holloway. We didn?t get anywhere with it, but that?s not the point. The point is it was a Could Be, and we pursue Could Bes until they?re proven to be Can?t Bes or until they become Will Bes.?
LA-NEW YORK-CHICAGO: IGNORE DISTRACTIONS
One of my passions lately for Starving Artist has become, to the best of our ability and whenever we can, to go local. We will, perhaps many times, produce plays that weren?t written locally. But to the best of our ability and whenever we can, we?re going to go local.
One of the greatest gifts I?ve been given in my creative life is to be utterly surrounded with insanely talented creative people. Duke Ernsberger is one of the funniest human beings I know. Someday soon, perhaps, we will produce the Duke Ernsberger Show, which will just be him in a room with a camera on him for 30 minutes recording the zaniness that pours forth. And then there?s Thomas Torrey, a gifted autuer filmmaker who can take even my inane words and turn them into a slick, polished short film. Or Rodney Kennerly, a percussionist with soul coming out of his pores, who can make amazing beats and sounds come out of any object on-hand. They number in the dozens or more and are everywhere, these insanely talented individuals who are ready and willing to rally behind a mission or project they can believe in.
I don?t understand our absolute insistence on using New York or Los Angeles or Chicago or any of the other Industrialized Entertainment Hubs as our barometer for what is or can be quality content. Don?t get me wrong, I understand that, to a degree, that?s where the money is. There are networks and studios and record labels by the truckloads in these cities. That?s where the blockbusters get greenlit. New York is home to Broadway! But the ground and the atmosphere is littered with the talents of those who were sincere and passionate and thought these places were their only avenues of ?success? and potentially deprived their communities of their talent and gifts and quality art only to end up bruised and beaten ten or twenty years later with nothing of substance to show for themselves.
I?m not suggesting we make art in a bubble. Or that this all exists in a vacuum. Or that we ignore what?s going on in the broader entertainment world. We can?t and we shouldn?t. But to suggest that the level of quality art and entertainment one can produce is solely contingent on geography or that our natural artistic instinct should be to orient ourselves towards those locations is utter lunacy and dismisses the gifts and talents of those in our own backyard just waiting to be utilized.
Do not be distracted. You will never be satisfied with what you produce as long as you?re dissatisfied with where you?re producing it.?
ENRICH THE WORLD AROUND YOU
I don?t know if you?ve noticed, but things are pretty dire out there. Economic meltdown, environmental disasters, pink slime. People, more than ever, are not just looking for escape, though that?s part of it, but are looking for something to remind them there?s good in the world. They want to look in the mirror and be reminded of a purpose, to be involved in a story. We do our best work of letting people know there?s a Story they?re involved in, by telling them stories ourselves. We, you, me, anyone who dares adopt the mantle of Creative, are the Storytellers.
In our case, in the case of Starving Artist, we are Storytellers in Charlotte, North Carolina. We want our influence to expand, sure, but we start where we are. Our interest is not to develop a good thing and ship out of this community. We?re here for whatever Long Haul is allowed to us.
POINT A TO POINT ?ONE & DONE?
I?ve taken the effort of telling you where we?ve been to help you see some of the places we want to go.
Our newest project, ?One & Done,? is meant to root firmly in our world of Charlotte, NC. It is a comedy web-series meant to highlight, through the romantic successes and failures of its lead character, some of the attractions and environs of our Queen City.
We?ve launched a Kickstarter campaign to try to raise funds for One & Done. Our window of fund-raising is closing and we?re woefully below our proposed goal. If we don?t reach our goal, none of the money pledged thus far comes to us. It?s all or nothing.
We need your help.
Help us continue to accomplish the goal of producing local. Help us continue to carve out a place for the arts in Charlotte.
While my goal was certainly to help raise funds for this, I?ve come to a sort of zen-like moment of trusting that it will happen one way or another. My primary goal of this post was to share our story with you.
Partner with us, whether with One & Done or in the future, to help make the Can Be a Will Be.
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