Mark Evans Studio

There's a kind of holiday season we all should aspire to, right?!  If we are guided by history, society, mainstream and social media we are expected to have something close to a  Hallmark special. Lots of red and green. Lots of laughter and joy. Lots of gift giving and smiles. Lots of eating and drinking. Lots of love and togetherness. I truly hope you experience all of the above because it sounds glorious, doesn’t it? However, even the romanticized version of the holidays above can make one feel all sorts of conflicting feelings, so I encourage you to not just get wrapped up in the ‘social media’ presentational version of the holidays but to actually experience ALL of it. As you head into the holidays, I want to remind you of the power of your breath.   If you experience tremendous joy -Allow a breath  If you feel overwhelmed - Allow a breath If you feel anxious - Allow a breath If you feel content - Allow a breath   Notice how I write ‘Allow’ and not ‘Take’....

“It’s Both” Last Monday I attended the memorial of my beloved friend, and friend to many , Gavin Creel.  Gavin was a human like no other. A bright light, a joy and a relentless inspiration to myself and many others.  One of the things I appreciated during the memorial was that in addition to focussing on his successes and joys and what will ultimately be his legacy as a Broadway superstar talent, they also focussed on his occasional struggles in life. Mentioning his challenges at the memorial, was an effective way to humanize a Broadway icon and allowed us all to remember the real him and not just the idea of him. Gavin often navigated periods of deep pain and struggle and one of his mottos was the word ‘BOTH’. That in the search for an answer, remembering that two (or both) things can be true. A simple reminder that you can experience happiness and grief in the same moment. Gratitude and disappointment. Pride and jealousy.  It’s ambivelence. Meaning that multiple things ...

  Love Within Brutality. As most of you who are members of Mark Evans Studio are aware, on September 3rd I started rehearsal for the brand new Broadway musical Tammy Faye.  After six weeks of studio and technical rehearsals we began preview performances on October 19th. We officially opened the show on November 14th. Then, on November 19th, just five days later we each got a call from management saying that our show would be closing in three weeks, on December 8th.  More than a hundred actors, stage managers, musicians, crew members and many more staff who were contracted for twelve months, will lose their jobs nine months too early.  Many people reached out to me personally, asking how I was feeling when the news broke publicly and my main response was, “I feel absolutely exhausted”.  Not just in the throw away “I’m really tired today” way but really EXHAUSTED. Exhausted and depleted of my energy, my determination, my focus, my hope, my resilience, my ...

 Be A Director And Zoom In When the world, the country, politics, or your life become too much and you understandably feel overwhelmed, within this blog is some advice from me to you. If you are already sick and tired of people telling you how you should handle yourself in these trying times, you can absolutely choose to stop reading now. Please know that this is not me telling you what to do but an offering for you to consider.  The biggest difference in the medium of TV and Film compared to stage work is that the story on screen is predominantly told through pictures.  Consider an opening montage of a movie:  You see shot of the city of San Francisco, then a specific neighborhood with a row of houses, then a tighter shot on the house with the blue door, then a shot of a person laying in bed with morning sunlight spilling in from the curtains, you hear an alarm go off, you see an iPhone on the bedside table, then a hand shutting off an alarm that is labelled ...

  You gotta be a problem solver.   What I’m realizing more than ever as I try to deconstruct what it takes to create theatre, TV and Film is this:   It’s mostly just problem solving.   * A writer gets an idea and pencils an initial draft and then fixes the problems with a second (and third and fourth etc) draft.   * A producer receives a script and solves the problem of funding a production by collaborating with investors and hiring the best creative team to tell that specific story.   * A director receives the script and solves the problem of bringing the concept to life.   * The production design team solve countless problems throughout the process. And the list goes on in every department….. How do YOU fall into the problem solving equation as an actor?   Firstly, by acknowledging that during the audition process you are a potential solution to the problem they have - which is that they don’t have actors yet. Are you going to solve the proble...

  You gotta get it done Why aren’t you auditioning enough? Don’t read that as a shameful criticism (which I imagine most people would).  Focus on the word why! Why aren’t you auditioning enough? If you ARE happy with the amount of auditions, this issue of the Blog is not for you. The culture in society today, particularly through social media, is to very often make you feel ‘less than’. You’re not doing enough. You’re not traveling enough. You’re not working enough. You’re not socializing enough. You’re not posting enough….. aka YOU ARE NOT ENOUGH! So listen to me carefully. I’m not judging you. I’m asking you, WHY are you not auditioning?  And you should search hard for the answer to that question.  I am pretty sure it is something much deeper and more personal to you than “there’s just not enough work out there”. That is true but it’s ALWAYS been true and always will be and I believe we should not accept it and no longer allow ourselves to have that in our bac...