Mark Evans Studio

  Act Selfishly  I was recently walking uptown on 8th avenue away from Penn Station as hundreds of commuters were quickly shuffling in the opposite direction during rush hour. Everyone was extremely eager to make sure they didn't miss their train.  I often have moments where I’m reminded that this city is full of people who are just trying to survive. We all are, right? YOU are just trying to take care of your day whether that be, making your train, paying your rent, finding a love or getting a job, the list is endless.  I almost find it moving just how selfish everyone is required to be in order to get through.  Most of us are taught as children and young people that to be selfish is bad. It’s rude, it's inconsiderate, it’s wrong. I agree. To be selfish is pretty awful, but we ALL act selfishly at times, whether we intend to or not.  We have all rushed to get a train and accidentally stepped in front of someone and bumped them. We were putting our own ne...

  ‘Good’ isn’t good.   I just returned from a trip to Wales in the UK to visit family.  I tend to fly back once or twice a year and every time, I have moments of clarity about my childhood or teenage years that I can appreciate with a broader perspective now that I'm old(er). I drove past my old high school, where I mostly had a pretty miserable time as someone who didn’t fit in with the majority crowd. Somewhere I excelled however, was in music and drama classes….(and Catering - Yes; my school offered a GCSE course in Catering - Random) I had a flashback to a moment in a drama class where I was asked to do a scene with an unfamiliar regional Welsh accent. I had never tried doing it before and the lack of preparation time or control made me terrified. I felt so intimidated to just be put on the spot. Mainly because the time I spent in music and drama class was when I felt safe and confident because I was considered the talented kid. The top-of-class student who took ever...

  Bored of being bored. I went to bed last night looking at my schedule for the next day: A very busy 24 hours was planned out. Justin and I need to know that at least one of us can be with the baby at all times (duh; parenting), so we put everything in our shared calendar.  Each event in my calendar is color coded. Teaching and coaching is orange. Acting work is red. Baby stuff is yellow. Social life is purple etc etc etc. At a glance, my rainbow calendar looks as gay as every corporation during pride month. I was set to wake up at 7am. However our dog had other plans and needed to pee at 5.50am. So I woke up and brought him downstairs and let him into the yard and I looked at the clock and thought “I have just been gifted an extra hour of awake time”. So I didn’t go back to bed. As I type this, I am sitting on the sofa, next to the dog who of course, went back to sleep. I began reading a book that contains a quote from Marianne Williamson, which reads: ‘Children aren’t bored...

  Let your yourself bubble out I recently took our daughter to watch the Off-Broadway production of ‘The Gazillion Bubble Show’ at New World Stages. I can safely say, it’s definitely not false advertising. There were bubbles by the GAZILLION!  Our daughter is 1.5 years old and my friends’ son who also attended is 2 years old. Watching them experience this wild show was awesome - and inspiring! They literally couldn’t contain their excitement - and didn’t for a second feel they SHOULD. They were screaming and dancing and their limited vocabularies were popping out all sorts of enthusiastic gibberish.  I’m sure we’ve all witnessed a child in this sort of environment. It’s so innocent. It’s so unselfaware. It’s so unrestricted. It’s so honest and so PURE!  Trust me when I say that when they introduced LAZERS to the bubble show ten minutes before the end, my child may as well have been at a rave. She popped ALL THE WAY OFF.  Mouth open cheering, stomping her feet, s...

 " What a time to be starting out" I lucked out this past weekend by being asked to join a friend, last minute, to watch the Broadway production of ‘Merrily We Roll Along’. If you’re not familiar with it; it’s one of the most talked about musicals Stephen Sondheim ever wrote, because, controversially, it was a big flop when it first premiered on Broadway.  This production, wonderfully directed by Maria Friedman, is as close to perfection with this show as you can get in my opinion. The story is told in reverse. Meaning, at the beginning of the show you meet the three main characters at the end of their journey and gradually as the show progresses, they turn back time and reveal how their story began. That concept was always what made it a challenging show to execute well.  Within the final scene - so the youngest we see the three main characters, and right at the very beginning of their careers as creative artists, they’re sitting on a rooftop, staring at the stars and th...

  Plant The Bulbs  A reel recently popped up on my instagram during one of my pointless scrolls into the pits of social media doom and it snapped me into consciousness because the sentiment really resonated with me and inspired me to share this with you all.  I don’t even know who this woman was but she was in her allotment on a gray cloudy day, looking a little weathered and ‘outdoorsy’, talking to the camera about these tiny little bulbs that she was about to plant in the ground. She was speaking in a motivating/inspiring tone which was also a little like she was reprimanding me for being a lazy son of a bitch on instagram.  *I think the following reads best with a New Jersey accent “I’M DOING THE WORK RIGHT NOW! I’M GETTING DOWN IN THE DIRT AND I’M PLANTING THESE BULBS AND I’M SOWING THESE SEEDS. SOME OF THEM WON’T BLOOM UNTIL THE SPRING BUT I’M PLANTING THEM NOW. SOME OF THEM I KNOW WON’T BLOOM FOR ANOTHER TWO YEARS BUT I’M PLANTING THEM NOW. AND SOME OF THESE,...

  Clear The Cutlery  Our dishwasher at home recently stopped working. We are in the process of getting quotes to either get it fixed or buy  a new one, but in the meantime we’re washing all our dishes by hand. I’ll never not appreciate a dishwasher again.  I’m sure you all know that feeling when you’ve had a big meal, you really enjoyed it, your belly is full and satisfied and THEN you reenter the kitchen and see the carnage. The mess. I had a flashback last night to being a young teenager where my Mam would yell from the kitchen “can you come wash these dishes please?!” and I would respond “I’M WATCHING SISTER SISTER, I’LL DO IT AFTER”. But of course, my mother would succeed in that battle.  Back then, I found a trick that would make it less overwhelming. Clear the cutlery! Right now, picture the pots and pans and plates and bowls and glasses everywhere. Now add bits and pieces of silverware and utensils scattered all around and in between. I found that if I wo...