Summer so far…

Since it has been a while since my last post, instead of writing my day by day, I’m just going to share some of the fun things I have been up to lately.

ACTING

I got to spend a few days on set doing background, which is always fun, especially when you get to catch up with friends or have interesting conversations with strangers. I also did a bit of SP work, but actual acting has been pretty slow for me lately. I did get to do a self-tape thanks to my new agent, but the rest has been up to me. I have been helping other people with self-tapes, and co-running the kids summer camp at 4 Points, which is half martial arts, but also half acting. The kids wrote their own scenes (that somewhat included me), and we worked on actual scenes that they did audition style. It’s a good thing I can memorize quickly, because they enjoyed running lines while I was driving or just out of the blue, like when their parents arrived.

I am especially excited about the promising acting opportunities that will soon be coming my way. The best way to ensure this is to create them, which I have been doing. With help : ) For starters, there is an awesome-super-exciting-I-want-to-pinch-myself-because-I-can’t-believe-I-really-get-to-be-a-part-of-this project that I am helping Ayisha with, then there is an emotional, raw, beautiful short I am working on with Christine, and last but definitely not least, there is The Last 6. This is the theme of the contest, not the title of my short, but my short doesn’t have a title yet. I was yearning to create my own work, so before the first two projects were discussed, I submitted a concept to YEAA for their entry in the Reel World Film Festival. It was awesome to just be writing and creating, but then I was chosen. Which is incredible and I am so unbelievably excited. I finished up the script yesterday, have my producer and director, and a few meetings this week to work out the details. I cannot wait to spend my summer filming things that I helped create!

Finally, Patricia Chica, a super talented director from Montreal came to town for the Premiere of her short film, Morning After, so I met up with her and Jasmine for that and supper beforehand. It was so lovely to catch up and to see the short on the big screen! It was a part of the Female Eye Film Festival, which is something I would now love to be a part of next year. Perhaps with something we film this summer?

TRAINING

Training wise I have been consistently going to all of my BJJ and NOGI classes, helping with the kids classes, and hopefully improving, because I am signed up for a tournament this coming Saturday. I started BJJ thinking I didn’t really need to be good at the fighting part because I just wanted to be able to look like I could do it for TV, but things have definitely changed now. One thing I really enjoy about jiu-jitsu is that it truly is a community/family, so even after seeing each other nearly every day and having trained for hours, we still go out together a couple of times a week for supper or ice cream.

It also helps that I basically live at the gym, where a lot of cool things are happening. In addition to the summer camps we just launched, there will be acting classes starting next month, and more workshops and bootcamps, so we have been spending a lot of time promoting, postering and prepping.

In addition to BJJ, I took 2 trial taekwondo classes (and may have signed up for one of them), then did a couple of stunt training days where we worked on parkour, falls, throws, boxing and all kinds of cool things. It was awesome, and I met some incredible people who taught me, encouraged me and offered to help and train with me in the future. I also went to the monkey vault (where we practiced our vaulting, and I climbed up a wall on my first try, when I had thought our teacher was hilarious for even suggesting it) and archery (where I popped the first balloon).

I also took a couple of pole classes for good measure. It was a new teacher who taught both classes, so we mainly focused on prep work, but now that my shins aren’t covered in bruises, I was able to do a pole climb after class!

GOING HOME

I went back to Montreal for Canada Day weekend and to help my friend Christine move. She insisted I try the Orange Julep, which was a wonderful and a terrible thing, because I now live 6 hours away from it. Once the move was done, we went to swim at my place with some homemade cookie dough ice cream. Another friend stopped by for a while, and then Christine and I spent the night working on a short film we hope to shoot this summer. What started out as a 30 second clip for her demo has turned into the really awesome project I was mentioning earlier. There was a lot more family time over the weekend, as well as meeting up with JF, and a Meisner class before driving back to Toronto. I am hoping to keep up with the Meisner so that I can improve, but I can tell that so far every time I go I am frustrating to either the teacher or my partner or both. Luckily they are super nice and supportive, so they encourage me to come back and keep trying so I can eventually get it. Which I will. Promise 😉