Confessions of a Single Parent (Actress)

Welcome to the audition hamster wheel. You know the one where you continue to audition and get called back but then do not book the gig. You feel awesome in the room. They are laughing or crying during your audition and you are feeling, awesome. Then you come home to silence and no gig. Maybe if I say it louder, the cheap seats will understand. NO GIG! NO GIG! NO GIG! I feel so much better now. You may ask yourself, Is this where you give up? Where you lay down and say well I tried, time to go back to a normal existence where rejection does not exist. The truth of the matter is rejection is around every corner and in every aspect of life. Actors, performing artists, and other artists are simply faced with it on a constant basis. This is when you jump off that hamster wheel and find breath and actual living before you lose it. This is when your spiritual toolkit becomes handy. It is vital that you find joy in this business. It can be in writing, producing a short film, practicing yoga...

This month has been filled with scheduled community meetings at 11 Philadelphia Public Schools that have been pegged to be changed as a result of their School Progress Report, an evaluation that scores schools on a scale of 1 to 100. The evaluation is based largely on academic factors but attendance and climate is also rated. On October 27th, Newsworks published an article by Dale Mezzacappa and Avi Wolfman-Arent, which discussed the differences between the meetings that occurred at Kensington Health Sciences Academy and Benjamin Franklin High School. There were vast differences in the level of engagement. Kensington had about 150 in attendance and Benjamin Franklin had 10. One is a smaller school with a staff and principal that have been there longer, and Benjamin Franklin has a new principal who has been bounced around to a few places. At the end of the day regardless of the level of engagement at any of the 11 meetings, The higher ups at the School District of Philadelphia have a ...