Break Over - Dreams Renewed
I wrote back in October about being finished with long work hours. I was wrong. I put in beyond 40 hours for another 4 months at my day job and only stopped doing that this week when I fell ill. I’ve been miserable, coughing, wheezing, resting but not sleeping and running a fever. You get the idea. This went on for about 8 days when I finally got in to see the doctor. That was yesterday. I am still wheezing and coughing and sputtering, but significantly less so. It turns out I have Bronchitis and the antibiotics after a day have improved my health by 20%...more than the previous 8 days combined. Thank goodness for my doctor. She’s excellent.
On this Sunday past (today is Friday), I put my “Relax the Back” chair on the patio and was able to take a cat nap for about 45 minutes. It was the best snooze I’d had in a few days and the best I had until last night when the cough syrup with codeine kicked in. While I was out on the patio, I had my eyes closed but was awake much of the time.
I didn’t realize how alive my neighborhood is. There was a cacophony of life sounds all around me. Pigeons talking to one another, birds singing - not sure what kind they are, planes going by every half hour or so, cars on the highway in the distance passing by like the sounds of distant ocean waves, occasional pedestrians walking by underneath me caught up in conversation about this and that. Neighbors voices from across the street and next door in other apartment buildings floated up through the air from time to time as the afternoon waned. I think one fire truck and a paramedic went by at some point, too.
I know from reviewing the housing market around me that there are roughly 5000 people per square mile in Studio City and surrounding cities, but until Sunday, I hadn’t particularly experienced it as such. It doesn’t feel congested to me though, because I’m from the East Coast and in our cities there, high rises are everywhere and it is a very different world. Even so, my current neighborhood is teeming with life and possibilities.
As for acting, it has taken a back seat to my day job now since June 2007. As of last Thursday as I was coming down with my illness, we held TAZ, the Actor’s Society that two friends and I began a year and a half ago. It’s invited only and we never discuss it with others and it will probably never be mentioned any where but here. It is for us to grow ourselves and our careers. I got the idea one day at a SAG Foundation event (the ones I rarely attend) and Robert Duvall at one point said,”Go up with a group. That’s how you make it in the industry [the movie making industry].” A short time after, I approached two friends who I trusted and TAZ was born. Since then we’ve grown to a core of about 15 actors. In the beginning, we met weekly and after the first three or four months, we moved to monthly meetings. We all bring reports about what we’ve been doing for our acting careers and we offer each other insights and suggestions about how to further our careers. This past Thursday, I was exhausted and on the downhill slide of health and freely shared, much more so than I am apt to when I am well and rested. I shared and others, who have also been distracted by day jobs or paying the bills or whatever distracts us from our dreams, offered suggestions and insights…and most importantly compassion and empathy. One of the guys said,”It’s time to play again.” I cried and all of us responded emotionally, most eyes welled up in empathy, each of us having traversed various difficulties on our dream quests. With all those eyes empathetically reflecting back to me, I renewed my belief in my dreams and my career. Though dormant lately, my dreams are far from over. They are just beginning.
We meet again in a couple of weeks and I’ll be ready with a better report than those recently shared. We all will. Being sick and awake nearly a full week has given me lots of time to think. I’m grateful for that time. It has helped me regain my focus of dreams rather than a job.
If I were to offer other actors any suggestions, I’d say,”Form a group and go up together. Keep your dreams alive.”
On this Sunday past (today is Friday), I put my “Relax the Back” chair on the patio and was able to take a cat nap for about 45 minutes. It was the best snooze I’d had in a few days and the best I had until last night when the cough syrup with codeine kicked in. While I was out on the patio, I had my eyes closed but was awake much of the time.
I didn’t realize how alive my neighborhood is. There was a cacophony of life sounds all around me. Pigeons talking to one another, birds singing - not sure what kind they are, planes going by every half hour or so, cars on the highway in the distance passing by like the sounds of distant ocean waves, occasional pedestrians walking by underneath me caught up in conversation about this and that. Neighbors voices from across the street and next door in other apartment buildings floated up through the air from time to time as the afternoon waned. I think one fire truck and a paramedic went by at some point, too.
I know from reviewing the housing market around me that there are roughly 5000 people per square mile in Studio City and surrounding cities, but until Sunday, I hadn’t particularly experienced it as such. It doesn’t feel congested to me though, because I’m from the East Coast and in our cities there, high rises are everywhere and it is a very different world. Even so, my current neighborhood is teeming with life and possibilities.
As for acting, it has taken a back seat to my day job now since June 2007. As of last Thursday as I was coming down with my illness, we held TAZ, the Actor’s Society that two friends and I began a year and a half ago. It’s invited only and we never discuss it with others and it will probably never be mentioned any where but here. It is for us to grow ourselves and our careers. I got the idea one day at a SAG Foundation event (the ones I rarely attend) and Robert Duvall at one point said,”Go up with a group. That’s how you make it in the industry [the movie making industry].” A short time after, I approached two friends who I trusted and TAZ was born. Since then we’ve grown to a core of about 15 actors. In the beginning, we met weekly and after the first three or four months, we moved to monthly meetings. We all bring reports about what we’ve been doing for our acting careers and we offer each other insights and suggestions about how to further our careers. This past Thursday, I was exhausted and on the downhill slide of health and freely shared, much more so than I am apt to when I am well and rested. I shared and others, who have also been distracted by day jobs or paying the bills or whatever distracts us from our dreams, offered suggestions and insights…and most importantly compassion and empathy. One of the guys said,”It’s time to play again.” I cried and all of us responded emotionally, most eyes welled up in empathy, each of us having traversed various difficulties on our dream quests. With all those eyes empathetically reflecting back to me, I renewed my belief in my dreams and my career. Though dormant lately, my dreams are far from over. They are just beginning.
We meet again in a couple of weeks and I’ll be ready with a better report than those recently shared. We all will. Being sick and awake nearly a full week has given me lots of time to think. I’m grateful for that time. It has helped me regain my focus of dreams rather than a job.
If I were to offer other actors any suggestions, I’d say,”Form a group and go up together. Keep your dreams alive.”
Labels: dreams
posted by Sarah Jean Fry at
10:21 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home