Creative YOU Turn

Chapter 1: Defining & Launching Your Creative Dream “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to stay an artist once we grow up.” – Pablo Picasso I’m racing through L.A. traffic to get to the set of Mystery ER, a TV show that airs on the Discovery Channel. I’ve been called to play the role of a doctor, so on the passenger seat beside me sits a wardrobe bag with a lab coat and stethoscope. The casting director told me he really liked what I had done with the part in the audition and looked forward to working with me, and when I asked about the script, the producers had said not to worry, I would be improvising dialogue based on guidance from the director and the other actors in the scene. Sure, piece of cake. There was only one concern crowding my mind as I weaved through Hollywood: I had been acting all of about three months. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing! I had my acting “epiphany” playing Simon Cowell on stage in a skit at a trade convention. I knew I’d found something that gave me goosebumps. But what to do with it? Surely taking up acting at fifty-five wasn’t practical. There are so many people doing it better, who have been at it longer and have all the time in the world to devote to it. To top things off, I lived in Los Angeles, the struggling actor capital of the world. Where was my place and did I really have the energy for this? Did Hollywood really need another aspiring actor? I threw caution to the wind, went to classes and learned how to submit myself for roles. At that point in my life, my overall goal had been a simple bucket list item of eventually getting to be on one national TV show with a line, or even to be an extra before I turned sixty. Well, here I was, five years ahead of schedule with a substantial part on a cable TV show on a major network. I was scared to death. Like the dog that chases the car and finally catches it, I was asking, “How do I drive this thing!” Fortunately, my friend Jenny is a TV actor and I was able to call her on my drive. “What do I do when I get to the set? What happens when my scene begins? What if I blow my lines? Should I tell them this is my first time?” Jenny patiently guided me through the protocol of “action” and “cut”, listening to the director only and NOT telling them, under any circumstances, that I was a TV virgin. The set was huge and was the dedicated hospital set that the well-known TV show House was shot on. My scenes didn’t come up for five hours after getting there, so I had nearly the entire day to worry about them. Finally, I was called to the set and was told what my scene was and who I would be working with. We shot scenes for about two hours and something kicked in that allowed me to relax and enjoy the process, be in the moment and improv with my fellow “veterans”. If they only knew! With this TV appearance, my career experiments had begun in full force and have continued ever since. I had taken specific steps to get to this pivotal moment of a Creative YOU Turn, and now I want to pass along those steps to you.