In Our Selves & On the cover...

My second collection of essays from Recovering The Self is being released this weekend for all digital formats. Called In Our Selves, this collection includes a year's worth of inspirational essays, bonus material, and this fine cover...

Look for it on Amazon and wherever e-books are sold!

You Scream... I-ce Cream! (Blue Food, Trailer #1)...

Trailer #2 comes out for Climbing Maya...

Angelia Formisano helps bring episode 7 of So Dream Something...

My guest this week is Angelia Formisano, and I am pleased to welcome her to the podcast. Angelia is likely the youngest guest I’ve interviewed thus far, and she brought a new kind of energy to the show. She’s a young woman who knows what she wants and is going for it – and hasn’t been beaten down a dozen times in the process. And let’s hope she never is.

While just a senior in the Bachelor of Fine Arts Theatre Performance program at Chapman University in Southern California, Angelia’s resume is extensive. Some of her shows have included Company, The Rimers of Edlritch, Arabian Nights, Urinetown: The Musical, Don't Call Me Baby, The Vagina Monologues, Shrink, The Myth of the Cubicle (by some unknown writer) Murder at the Porcelain Ballet, Anything Goes, Seussical the Musical, Arms and the Man, My Fair Lady, Noises Off!, The Foreigner, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Grease, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Taming of the Shrew, and Lend Me a Tenor. She also appeared in the film: Incest! The Musical”.

Angelia is a charismatic young woman whose energy towards life and the dream she’s engaged in is always obvious. And she’s looking forward to continuing that journey as a professional actress after graduation in Spring 2013.

While Angelia’s career is only beginning, I was reminded of those lines by Shakespeare when she mentioned a little writing she had done and some of her interests beyond what she can see right now, her search for growth, her openness to whatever life brings. Part of pursuing a dream means being open to whatever turn it takes – and sometimes those turns lead us into new roles.

You can find out more about Angelia at her forthcoming website: www.angeliaformisano.com.

We covered a lot of territory in this episode, including…

As You Like It, Shakespeare, The Day We Said Goodbye, Chapman University, Company, The Rimers of Edlritch, Arabian Nights, Urinetown: The Musical, Don't Call Me Baby, The Vagina Monologues, Shrink, The Myth of the Cubicle, Murder at the Porcelain Ballet, Anything Goes, Seussical the Musical, Arms and the Man, My Fair Lady, Noises Off!, The Foreigner, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Grease, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Taming of the Shrew, Lend Me a Tenor, Incest! The Musical, A Whole New World, Aladdin, Bishop Gorman High School, Las Vegas, Elena Ferrante-Martin, Our Town, Renny Harlin, Die Hard 2, Burn Notice, White Collar, Stephen Sondheim, Irene Ryan, Ladies Who Lunch, Bristol Palin, Reality TV, Arabian Nights, Scheherazade, The Chance Theater, Kelly Todd Robinson, OC-centric, www.angeliaformisano.com, www.kenlasalle.com, Climbing Maya, A Grand Canyon

Third time's the charm...

The second trailer for A Grand Canyon, the prequel to Climbing Maya, is now available for your viewing pleasure.

The Worth of Dreams The Value of Dreamers... New Trailer!...

Check out the latest trailer for A Grand Canyon...

Recovering the Self… Year Two…

This morning, I was emailing my editor over at Recovering the Self when a realization set in.

I just finished my second year writing about pursuing your dreams. (You can find the most recent column by clicking this link.)

This fact astonishes me because I’m not really what you might call a “believer in that kind of nonsense.” You see, before I started writing about pursuing your dreams I would look at anyone who said “put out good vibes and good things will come back” or “believe in yourself” or “make your own happiness, blah, blah, blah” and I would immediately roll my eyes.

There’s a whole school of thought out there that likes to suggest that dreams, once followed, have to happen. As if the world will just roll over if you want it to. “The Secret” and all that bullshit.

I don’t believe that at all.

So, what was I doing two years ago when I suggested writing a column about pursuing your dreams?

I realized that, like it or not, that’s what I had been doing for years. If there was one thing I could write about with authority, it was that! And I decided that I would take things in a different direction, a more honest direction.

The simple fact is that pursuing your dreams is just better than not pursuing your dreams. You learn more, you live more. You’re happier, healthier, better off when you go after what makes you whole. Sure, you might not win every time. You may fail. But the wins you get make it worthwhile, make it meaningful.

That’s why you have to pursue your dreams. Not because the world will roll over for you but because IT WON’T! If you don’t make it happen, nobody else will.

And so, two years later, here I am. And they have been two incredibly fulfilling years. Now, I host a blog about pursing your dreams called, So Dream Something. (Here’s a link.) And I’ve learned to think outside of myself and about others just a bit more.

I can’t wait to see how Year Three goes!

(You can find my collection of Year One essays, in bothdigital and audio formats, by clicking here.) (A Year Two collection will be out later this year!)