weBEgirls.com

It’s official, I am now a contributing writer for the online women’s lifestyle magazine, weBEgirls.com!

My first article, called How to Save (Money, Time and Calories) at the Grocery Store, just went up yesterday. I’m not sure if it makes perfect sense to say that you’ll save “calories” at the grocery store… but all the same!

How fun to see my work published on a real web site.

Not sure where this writing gig is going to lead, but I can’t wait to find out. Got any ideas for articles? I would love to hear them!

Celebrity Dialogue interview with Allison Volk

Allison Volk is an actress, musician and writer based in Los Angeles.  She was awarded the Denise Ragan Wisenmeyer award for playwriting by the Attic Theater’s One-Act Play Festival in Los Angeles. Allison has studied all over the world, honing her craft in Florence, Italy, St. Petersberg, Russia, and Stratford-Upon-Avon, England.  Her new romantic comedy short film “Last Ditch Therapy” is in post-production and was recently featured on Social Hollywood Magazine.

CelebrityDialogue: Tell us about your education.
Allison: I studied theater and vocal performance (opera) at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and went on to study acting and play writing at the National Theater Institute at the O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut. That was a really great experience. It was through the O’Neill that I got to study acting in England, and at the Theatre Arts Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia. Russia was amazing. Studying Stanislavski in Russia was so different than in the States! They have a purer understanding of it, I think. I also trained in musical theater and jazz voice in Florence, Italy. A strange place to study jazz, I know!
CelebrityDialogue: How did the transition from Political Science to theatre come about?
Allison: When I first arrived at Wellesley I knew that I wanted to do theatre, I just wasn’t sure in what capacity. They had a crossover program with MIT and it just so happened that MIT was casting the three-act “Star Wars Trilogy: Musical Edition” the semester I enrolled in college. Star Wars is one of my favorite movies! I auditioned, thinking that I could be one of the tap dancing Storm Troopers, but they offered me the role of Princess Leia. What an honor. That changed my mind about Political Science pretty quick. Being on stage is something that I’ve always enjoyed, and once I realized that I could do it for a living there was no hope for Poli Sci.
CelebrityDialogue: How has your international exposure contributed in refining your skills?
Allison: It has definitely changed my perspective a lot. I was in England when the Royal Shakespeare Company performed Shakespeare’s history plays. We saw a different play every night, and the cool thing was that the same actors played the same characters. It was like watching TV but on stage! The athleticism of those actors is astounding and something that I strive for. I had a similar experience in Italy. Italians are amazing opera singers, and they make it look so darn easy! They are so dedicated… and that’s what it takes to be an accomplished artist. If anything, witnessing the devotion of artists overseas has influenced my passion for performance. I want to say, “Look, I can be part of this too!” and join in on the fun.
CelebrityDialogue: You won the Denise Ragan Wisenmeyer award. What was it all about?
Allison: That was so fun. The Attic Theater Ensemble has an annual one-act play festival every fall, and I entered my play for consideration. I was so excited when my play was one of four chosen out of three hundred! It was the first public performance of my work, and I was billed along with new work from Lee Blessing and Wendy MacLeod, two incredibly talented American playwrights. The festival was so much fun… seeing my work on stage and hearing people laugh at the jokes was so fulfilling. Denise Ragan Wisenmeyer was one of the founders of The Attic Theater Ensemble and a great supporter of the arts. She passed away in 2007 and the festival is in her honor… it’s really nice that we can honor her in such a creative and artistic way.

CelebrityDialogue: Would you like to describe briefly the concept behind your new short film “Last Ditch Therapy”?
Allison: “Last Ditch Therapy” is a concept that Marianna Ladas (director and producer) and I came up with in a coffee shop. It’s about a young married couple, Dale (played by Mat Wright) and Larissa, who are at the end of their rope about to get divorced. In a final attempt to save their marriage, they attend therapy and get a heck of a lot more than they bargained for! Dr. Hillier, played by actor/magician Rob Zabrecky, takes them on a subconscious journey through the inner workings of their minds to work out their issues. It’s a story about love and redemption, seeing your partner for who they really are and being honest about yourself. It’s a comedy with strong elements of fantasy, dance and music.
CelebrityDialogue: What is your role in the film?
Allison: I play the young wife, Larissa. I also wrote the script and was one of the producers.
CelebrityDialogue: Did you enjoy portraying this character? Why?
Allison: Yes, I did. Larissa is a bossy and controlling person at the beginning of the film but you get to see some interesting sides of her personality as the story goes on. She has a lot happening behind her frigid walls… she’s always trying to be perfect and hide the raw emotions she’s constantly fighting. But you can only hide that stuff for so long before it all comes pouring out, and hers comes pouring out in a very interesting way!
CelebrityDialogue: Would you like to share with us some of the other entertainment work that you have been involved with?
Allison: Aside from acting and writing, I’m a volunteer with the Hollywood Networking Breakfast, a brainchild of Sandra Lord. It’s a monthly breakfast featuring speakers who are accomplished in the entertainment world… producers, directors, writers, studio heads; big time people. My job as the program coordinator is to call them up and invite them to speak at the breakfast. When I first started in the position, I was so nervous to make those calls I had to force myself to do it! And I would shake, my hands would literally shake. Looking back it seems really ridiculous because now I make those calls all the time, no problem-o. As a creative, it’s so important to be able to own your space. It pushed me to grow and own my space in the midst of Hollywood giants.

CelebrityDialogue: Where would you like your career to progress from here: Acting or Playwriting?
Allison:Definitely more acting, and nothing could ever stop me from writing. At this point I’m enjoying writing more for screen than stage, and I really enjoy writing scripts and then acting in them. There is nothing better than seeing something I’ve written come to fruition.
CelebrityDialogue: Are you working on other projects currently?
Allison: Currently I am developing a script that incorporates a lot of music… I’m not talking about it too much yet because it’s in the early stages!

CelebrityDialogue: What kind of a person do you think you are in “real” life?
Allison: They say that the eye can’t see itself! I like to think of myself as an action-oriented person, passionate and vivacious and up for adventure.

CelebrityDialogue: Allison, thank you.

Thanks to Zeeshan Rahat Kureshi and Josh Mitchell. For more information, visit www.celebritydialogue.com. 

Nothing Special About This Post

I always feel like I have to write something really smart or insightful or special when I post.

Maybe that’s why I don’t post more often.

A Mark Rothko Painting... which is very special

 

But I do have something to say about January. January is a time of resolutions, new beginnings, and, let’s face it: the January Blahs. It’s unofficial and people don’t really talk about it too much, but January is really a time of rest and rejuvenation.

And a lot of times, that = boring.

It’s tempting as an artist to feel this quiet time and think, “Oh shit, I should be doing something. I should be working on a script or going out for lots of auditions or this or that! Panic panic!” And I’m saying that from experience!

But the truth is, life has it’s ups and downs, and it’s not all about “doing” something. The trick is to enjoy all of it. The exciting, adrenaline-filled days where you can’t wait to walk around the corner because you just don’t know what will happen next as well as the days where you’re sitting at home and you just for the life of you can’t think of anything to do (besides laundry, because that’s even MORE boring).

I have to keep reminding myself of that (about the ups and downs thing, not the laundry).

This year, I would like to be in a Shakespeare play. I’m also working on a script for stage, which I would like to fully produced in 2012, and a short film script, which I would like to shoot on a shoestring budget this spring.

That’s all. Nothing special there.

Now I’ll go back to my blahs. Enjoy yours, while you can

Ever get those ants in your pants?

Hi everyone. A couple days ago, I started another blog.

This is a painting by Mark Rothko.

On New Years’ Day I woke up feeling so antsy. I’ve been doing a lot of writing, working on a couple scripts, but on Sunday I woke up with the itch to do something else, something visual and creative.

I take a lot of photos on my iphone that (I personally think) are really good. But I never know what to do with them, and I have thousands! So I started another blog. There’s no text, it’s just photos. So more of a gallery, I guess, and for all of January I’m posting one photo a day. Nothing special, just pictures from my life that I really like and I think maybe you’ll like them too.

Check it out: http://volkphotography.wordpress.com/

I think Volk Photography sounds a little pretentious, but until I think of another name — that’s what it is. Hope you like it.

Allison

If you like hooey, you shouldn’t read this post

I just had a scary thought. What if all this “acting” stuff is just a bunch of hooey?

enter!

This morning I received a monthly newsletter from an actor marketing guru whose (who’s? whos? who knows) class I took last year. It was a great class, I learned a lot about the “business” of acting, blah blah blah, but in the bottom of her newsletter there’s a section where she lists things she recommends for New York actors and LA actors. It was a class, an acting class that supposedly is a new approach to an acting technique that’s so refreshing and new that (according to the testimonials) it will make the difference between booking and not booking.

And then I thought… whoa. Hang on a second. Ever since I’ve been in LA, people have been saying, “get in acting class, stay in class, stay in class, stay in class” and for a few years, that’s what I did. But did I book any jobs from that? No. Actually, yes. I did meet another actor who was producing a short film and he gave me a role, which happened to be my first IMDB credit. So the networking aspect was helpful.

Now there’s probably some people reading this thinking, “Duh, Allison, you can’t just sit there in acting class and expect that you’ll be getting auditions. You have to put in the effort to get the auditions.” And to that, my answer is, of course. Of course that’s true. That’s the ONLY aspect of acting in LA that’s true – you have to get your own auditions.

But all this hoo-hoo, “take my class and you’ll start booking, you need to learn this and that technique” business? I’m starting to wonder if that’s just a distraction.

I guess I’m trying to come up with a justification to not attend acting classes regularly. All right, I admit it! I’ve painted myself in a corner and I’ll admit it: I don’t like acting class! I can’t stand sitting in a stuffy classroom for a few hours watching other people act, and then getting up for 15 minutes and performing in front of a bunch of strangers and being criticized. Maybe my ego can’t take it. Maybe I have a problem and I think I’m better than other people, or maybe I’d just rather be working on an actual film than paying $350 a month to practice.

When I was little, my mom put me in ballet class and I hated it. I told her I was quitting because I didn’t want other people to tell me how to dance.

I don’t like acting class – I like making movies.

In fact, I’m going to go work on finishing my movie right now. If you haven’t seen it already, there’s a sneak peek HERE.

Isn’t there a list somewhere of things I need to do?

This kitty knows exactly what to do

Do you ever have that strange, nagging feeling like there’s something you’re supposed to be doing? The more you try to think of what it is, the more panicked you become, but you’re sure you’ve responded to all your emails, gone to work, checked Facebook, and made all your calls for the day?

That’s me right now. I think it comes from being so used to that “behind” feeling that it becomes addictive. Because… if there’s nothing to do, then I get to do what I actually do want to do.

Which is… um, well, write. And work out. Two things that are important but not urgent.

I’m going to stop writing about it and go do it.

Friday night Craigslist

Every now and then I have a little freak out. I start to feel like this business is so impossible, the odds are so against me I ought to just give up and become a dental hygienist. That’s when I’ll spend an hour of so perusing Craigslist.org looking at the Help Wanted ads fantasizing about the life I could have.

Teach SAT prep to high school students! Make money flipping houses! Donate your eggs! Be a surrogate mother! Wait tables! Do lots of boring things all day long and make next to nothing doing it, but we’ll all pretend like it’s going to be awesome!

Tonight was one of those nights. Thank God there was no wine involved.

I started to feel a little panicked… but then I realized something. I asked myself, if I could make money doing absolutely anything in the whole world, what would it be? And the answer is so simple: this. Writing. Writing scripts and then acting them out. After all, it’s what I’ve been doing most of my life.

The answer was so simple that I felt like mentally I’d tripped and fallen. Stumbled. Oh – the answer is right here! Sure, I’m not making money at this… yet. But it’s only a matter of time, truly. If I can’t believe in myself, who the hell will? And I happen to know that I have a whole gang of peeps who believe in me, which is very reassuring (and makes me feel incredibly grateful).

Well, Fridays are my days off from writing but here I am writing about writing… imagine that.

A talk-too-much Hollywood wannabe I met once declared to me that she just LOVES writing so much. I wouldn’t say that I love it… I’d say that it fulfills me, like eating a piece of good steak when you’re super hungry. Writing makes me feel more calm, more centered, more balanced, more ME.

But I also hate it. I seriously avoid it and downplay it’s importance, making myself busy with menial tasks like tagging myself on Facebook and emailing all the right people.

It also makes me feel vulnerable. A few cross words about something I wrote and my face gets flushed, I feel ashamed and angry, and I want to defend it. How can you say it’s not good!? I want to yell, I don’t have control of this! It just comes out of me! I didn’t choose this, it chose me!

I'm so impressed with whatever movie these people are watching... it seems to appeal to a huge demographic!

And a lot of the time, that’s how it feels. Who’s writing these elaborate stories and sentences that somehow flow off the tip of the pen? It doesn’t feel like it’s me. They just come out and I sit here and try to relax my mind so they can. Maybe I could go for a glass of red after all!

So it comes down to this: do what you’re being inspired to do. That tiny nudge, that little whisper deep inside, so quiet you could breathe heavily and not hear it. That’s the voice that writes on the page. Yeah, it feels uncomfortable getting this stuff out, but out it comes one way or another. Out it comes.

And this is the abrupt ending to this blog post.

 

The Golfer and the Millionaire

more than golf

I just finished a great book called The Golfer and the Millionaire, by Mark Fisher. I took a lot away from the book, but here is a quote that touched me:

“Life is strange. When it realizes that we’re not going to submit – no matter what obstacles it places in our path – when it sees that nothing can drain our determination and enthusiasm, then, like a lover finally giving in after a long courtship, it gives us everything we ask for.”

–Mark Fisher

A Confession

Actually… not so much of a confession,  just an expression.

The Journey

Last Ditch Therapy is nearly complete. The finish line just keeps inching farther away than I think it is – first it’s because we can’t secure the sound stage to make our final mix, or the visual effects are delayed, or the music isn’t coming together quite right… just when I’m ready to declare, “It’s done!” there’s another issue popping up and we’re delayed another week. I guess that’s why feature films take so long to finish.

But even though it’s not finished yet, I can still feel the project coming to a close. The artist inside me is looking around, becoming a little bit panicked, and thinking, “What am I going to do next?”

The constant concern of an actor.

The incentive behind LDT was to create my own work, to cast myself in a project when no one else would. So what next? Do I write another project for myself, or start auditioning again and hope that I’ll hit the jackpot?

The fact that I’m having this thought at all makes me realize something important: it’s more about the process of creating than the final product. To put it in cliche terms, “It’s about the journey.”

So what’s the next journey? I’m open…

Interview with CurveWire.com

I had a lot of fun answering Eliza Gale’s interview questions about life as an actress in Los Angeles. Check out this recent interview, from CurveWire.com . Thank you, Eliza!

At the It’s So LA launch part in October

Allison Volk is a Los Angeles based actress and writer. She wrote, produced and acted in the film “Last Ditch Therapy”.

The films website is: http://www.indiegogo.com/Last-Ditch-Therapy

What do you hope to express though your writing?
The funny thing that I’ve found about writing is that it isn’t like this big planned out thing… it just kind of happens. Almost like you have to just sit down, let go and allow the story to write itself. Trying to think about it too much can stifle the flow, so to be honest, I haven’t thought too much about what I want to express in my writing. I just sit down and start typing, and whatever comes out comes out. Sometimes it’s great, and sometimes it’s not so good, but what ever ends up on the page is always a reflection of issues that I’m working out on some level.

What is “Last Ditch Therapy” about?
“Last Ditch Therapy” is a story about love and seeing someone for who they really are. A young couple, Dale and Larissa Becker, are on the brink of divorce and attend therapy as a final effort to save their marriage. They realize pretty quickly that their therapist, Dr. Hillier, isn’t your run-of-the-mill therapist and his methods are “creative” and “unusual,” meaning he puts them is some pretty strange situations. Larissa and Dale ultimately have to come to terms with facing their own inner demons and deal with whether they really want the marriage to succeed.

How did you come up with the idea for “Last Ditch Therapy”?
I got together with Marianna Ladas, who directed the film and produced with me, and we brainstormed a lot of ideas for the plot. The story changed a lot since it’s first inception, but it always had this element of mysticism that Marianna and I really like. We wanted to make something about redemption and love, and something that was funny, too. “Last Ditch Therapy” has all of that.

How did you go about getting funding for your film?
We got creative! Most of the money came from crowd-funding platforms like Kickstarter.com and IndieGoGo.com which were very successful. I spent hours emailing everyone I know asking for money and a lot of people pitched in to get this project off the ground. It’s hard asking people for money, that was definitely a challenge for me. We also threw some fundraising events, like a Poker Night and a Greek Night.

What do you like about working in Hollywood?
The best thing about Hollywood is seeing a project through to completion. Visualizing what a scene will look like, then sharing that vision and seeing it live on set is so cool – then seeing it again on screen takes it to the next level. Writing something, acting it out, and then watching it is really, really fulfilling and fun.

What don’t you like about it?
I don’t like being at the mercy of other people to get a job. Auditioning is really tough when you feel like you did great in an audition, the casting director praises you, and then you never hear back. There’s no closure! It would almost be easier if they called you and said, “Man, you sucked!” but most of the time it’s just radio silence. That was a big motivation to get “Last Ditch Therapy” off the ground, it made me feel empowered as an artist.

Who are some of your artistic influences?
Oh man… there are some terrific actors out there who have really influenced the way I approach the craft. Cate Blanchett, Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern are among my favorites. When I studied in Italy with Faye Nepon, she had a huge influence on me. Her understanding of words and emotions is so tender and wise… just watching her incredible intelligence on stage brought something to life in me, too. That’s what great performers do, they spark their audiences.
It says in your biography that you switched from majoring in Political Science to acting. In what way is Political Science similar to theater?
I think they have a lot to do with each other. Political Science is about studying the relationships behind politics, and acting works in the same way. When I’m learning a character, I’m putting myself in their shoes and figuring out why they would react a certain way. What beliefs that person has that would influence her one way or the other… that’s what makes it interesting.

If you were a famous writer which one would you be and why?
Margaret Mitchell – so I could find out whether Scarlett and Rhett get back together in the end.

What would you say to someone who says Hollywood is racist sexist and looksist?
Maybe it is, but I don’t see much sense sitting around talking about it. I know a lot of people who sit around talking about whether Hollywood is this way or that way, but those people usually aren’t getting anything done. All I know is that taking inspired action is empowering, so if that person sees a change they want to make, they should take action steps to make a difference!