A Piece of Sky
(Do you like the new page? Less boring, huh? And I got the RSS subscription button to work–so now you can subscribe for reals!)
In case you missed it the first thousand times I said it 12 months ago, I proclaimed near and far that 2009 was going to be MY YEAR.
Near and Far! Grover is Near and Far (<–Something my brother and sister and I laugh at all the time.)
And it was my year. 
Until 2010, that is! But we’ll get to 2010 in a bit…first, let’s talk 2009!
It started off promising, with more auditions than I’d usually gotten. Call-backs and workshops and more training! I accepted a couple roles in some short films, for no pay, as usual. Toward the middle of the year, I decided I wouldn’t work for free anymore, unless I really liked the project. I’m done padding my resume and am ready for juicy, meaty roles that satisfy my soul as well as the bill collectors! 
One such project that I really liked was THE HERE BETWEEN, a short based on a short story by Ambrose Bierce (“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”). I’d loved the story as a teenager, and Ilian Iliev adapted it for a short, putting it in the early 1920s and adding a few characters. It was filmed in Bailey, CO over a weekend in August. I hesitate to say I had a blast with it, because it was a serious subject matter…but, as with every project, I did have fun. It’s a powerful piece, and I look forward to seeing the finished product. I know they’re still in post-production now, but plan on making the rounds of the festival circuit in 2010. I have a feeling it will do very well, so I look forward to keeping you guys updated!
Here is a small album of some of my gigs this year. I haven’t gone crazy and put hundreds up there, like other albums, so don’t worry!
THE HIGHWAYMAN finally started production this year, as well. As you know, my part is very small…I play The Highwayman’s grandmother in flashbacks–I’ll be surprised if my total screen time when completed is 5 minutes! Darlene Cypser (writer/producer) has added a backstory to Alfred Noyes’s famous poem of the same name (I am SO in my element with literary adaptations! Loving it!), and that’s where my character (Lady Catherine Stiles) comes in. Her adaptation is fantastic, and she’s put together a wonderful cast! We’re still filming–also still seeking locations!–but hoping for a 2010 release date.
The biggest news of the year, though, was getting the lead female role in CHHEVAN DARIYA (THE SIXTH RIVER), filmed in Punjab, India!!! If you’ve been a faithful reader of my blog–ahem!–you’ll know all about it. It was definitely the highlight of 2009–as well as my career to date.
I am so blessed to have been a part of this.
What can I say, really? I spent two months in India doing two of the things I love most in this world–acting and traveling! I played an American researcher writing a book on the various states of India. When she gets to Punjab (Land of Five Rivers), she realized there is also a sixth river–to her, it’s the people and the culture…but in reality it’s the drugs and alcohol poisoning the land. There action, intrigue, romance…and yes, there’s also a dance number!
I have my own forum now on Punjabi Portal–how crazy! I love it!!! But it’s so weird, too…about as weird as seeing my picture blown up on a huge poster for the movie.
They’re still in post, but last I heard they’re planning on releasing it in India in February/March-ish. Ish Amitoj Kaur (the director/writer/producer) and I also hope to submit it to a lot of major western film fests. If that’s the case, I don’t know when it would be released in the western world. It may be another year before you’re able to see it…that’s just how this business works.
So now what am I up to?
Well, I no longer have a “survival job,” much to my husband’s chagrin. I’m considering it a blessing in disguise. No, I’m not making money at the moment, but I finally have time to get other projects started. And here are my plans for 2010:
1) I’m starting a new webseries loosely based on a modern-day Ricky and Lucy. We film our first webisode in three days! I’ll post them here when each webisode is finished…as well as You Tube, Facebook, etc! I may start co-producing at some point, if I ever start a production company!
2) You may remember me talking about WILD GEESE, the short film I was wanting to write. I still hope to do that! India sort of interrupted that project–a good interruption, mind you! But I have to make my brain go back to that place…find out what research I’d done and get back into the groove of 1691 western Ireland. And yes, I still plan on writing it in Irish…and YES, I still hope to get Cillian Murphy attached! Somehow. Someday. Some way. Can’t you just picture it?
(Only, looking more Irish and less Dutch.)
3) I started a novel in the summer of 2008, putting it down that December because life got so hectic with work and travel, etc. I never picked it up again, unfortunately. I recently did, though, getting re-acquainted with all my old friends. I had such Good Things in store for them–I’d hate for them not to experience everything! So I must trudge forward and get it finished this year! (I even knew what was going to happen in the sequel…!) I kind of left Plum and Henry, et al, stranded in the middle of a story. That wasn’t very nice of me.
4) I hope to complete an album this year, too. Such lofty goals and ambitions! But why not?! Why can’t I dream big? It’s my world, after all…I can do whatever I want. I’ve never written songs…always said I couldn’t do it. But I never tried, either. I think it would be best to start co-writing some…and I have so many talented friends and family that I’m hoping can help. I’ve created a new playlist called The Muse–with artists I love and hope will inspire some good songs out of me! (Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Feist, Amy Winehouse, Muse, Jason Mraz, Simon and Garfunkel, etc. I also included Dead Can Dance’s \”Summoning of the Muse.\” Seemed rather apropos.)
5) Get cast as Daisy Buchanan in Baz Luhrmann’s THE GREAT GATSBY.
And so there you have it. Of course, there are lots of little things I hope to accomplish through the year, but these are the biggun’s.
Please click on the piece of toast on the right to suscribe to the RSS feed! That way you’ll be able to stay “in the know” with all my goings-on. Hopefully my posts will get more and more exciting as time goes by!
Until then…it’s well past lunchtime and I have a dog who wants to go play in the snow.
Here’s to a fabulous 2010 for all of us!
Tell me where…
Where is it written
what is it I’m meant to be?
That I can’t dare…
It all began the day I found
that from my window I could only see
apiece of sky.
I stepped outside and looked around.
I never dreamed it was so wide
or even half as high.
The time had come
(–Papa, can you hear me?–)
to try my wings
(–Papa, are you near me?–)
And even thought it seemed at any moment I could fall,
I felt the most
(–Papa, can you see me?–)
amazing things!
(–Can you understand me?–)
The things you can’t imagine
if you’ve never flown at all.
Though it’s safer to stay on the ground,
sometimes where danger lies
there the sweetest of pleasures are found.
No matter where I go,
there’ll be memories that tug at my sleeve.
But there will also be
more to question, yet more to believe..
Oh, tell me where?
Where is the someone who will turn to look at me
and want to share
my ev’ry sweet-imagined possibility?
The more I live, the more I learn.
The more I learn, the more I realize
the less I know.
Each step I take -
(–Papa, I’ve a voice now!–) Each page I turn -
(–Papa, I’ve a choice now!–)Each mile I travel only means
The more I have to go.
What’s wrong with wanting more?
If you can fly – then soar!
With all there is – why settle for
just a piece of sky?
Papa, I can hear you…
Papa, I can see you…
Papa, I can feel you…
Papa, watch me fly!
~ “A Piece of Sky,” from Yentl.
A Piece of Sky- amazing. (Click here!)
