Year End Review and a Shout Out to My Friends!

2009 was a fantastic year and we have one more year in this decade and I’m planning on finishing 2010 with a bang. :-)

In 2009 I took on some challenges, which I’m very proud of! I want to thank all my friends, who challenged me, who believed in me and who supported me!

The year started with the First Annual ArtCycle in East Hollywood, that Jennifer Moran from the East Hollywood NC led. It was an extremely successful event and on March 13th, 2010 we are taking ArtCycle to another level.

Voices From Chornobyl, that Cindy Marie Jenkins adapted and directed and which reached a worldwide audience in April, took me to various theaters and venues around Los Angeles and I’m grateful for all the people I met through this journey, which includes Catherine MacKinnon, my producer and Lysandra Petersson!

Through a performance at the Deaf West Theater, I met some wonderful and talented people, who opened up my eyes to a new culture and a new world. I started learning ASL with Sonya Wilson and I was inspired to close caption my YouTube videos as well as other videos of projects that I’m working on.

Earlier in the year I also studied Shakespeare through the Antaeus Theater, something I never thought I would ever do but I overcame my fear of the language. The staff, the teachers as well as the workshop participants were very supportive of each other and I’m looking forward to not only more classes but also working with them in other capacity as well.

Aside from the acting world, I picked up some fun photography jobs at the Odyssey Theatre, the Actors Studio, some weddings, headshots and some private events. I’ve also been continuing with my website design work and have been taking over some referrals (you can see selected work here). This skill is priceless to me, because I can work on my own time and it doesn’t get in the way of acting opportunities.

Writing and directing seemed like a natural choice to me this year, since the industry was slow. Writing and directing At What Price, was not only a great way to spend downtime, but I also learned so much about the process that I learned to respect the art of making films on a whole new level. I loved every minute of the 3 months that I worked on the film, even when I got cold feet (which happened many times) but thankfully my wonderful friends Brian Smith and Cindy Marie Jenkins were there to back me up, to support and to advise me along the way as was LAs best editors and colorists, Raz.

I also auditioned for the Actors Studio – West and passed for the Finals which has been postponed to the end of January.

It’s been 4 years now that Stephen and I’ve been car free and so of course my film was shot 100% sustainably. Big thanks to Christine Jerian & Hovig Kharmandalian, who kept me honest and challenged the Hollywood status quo and also a big thanks to Dustin Slaughter, who documented the process of making our film sustainable.

At What Price has been submitted to several Film Festivals and the documentary Reel Sustainable is being edited and will be ready for film festival submissions early next year.

This is my second year writing about sustainability for the LA Castings Networker,  I was also a guest writer for LA Streetsblog in November and I’m the co-founder of Bitter Lemons a site created for the LA Theater community.

I couldn’t have done any of these things without my husband Stephen Box, who supported me in every way possible. Not only did we do many of these things together, but we also continued our work in bike advocacy and overall advocacy for safer street and safer communities.

The advocacy and working with Neighborhood Councils has been Stephen’s baby for many years and I have been involved with him and because of him in the many aspects of it. I have supported him by speaking for the rights of cyclists at City Hall meetings, Transportation Commission meetings, the Mayors Bicycle Advisory Committee meetings, and at Neighborhood Council board meetings.

We founded a sustainable transportation solution for the Movie Industry with the LA Greensters and we’ve given out several bikes this year to friends. We’ve held planning and organizational workshops together in the community and we rallied people to ride their bikes to protest ordinances, fight old law and police abuse, bring new laws into effect and to run for political seats.

We have gone up to Sacramento to lobby for the Safe Streets Bill and we have been also teaching people about social media to empower them to be more effective in their outreach and marketing. We also organized this past years Park[ing] Day LA with the help of the Park Czar Alfredo Hernandez and led a tour with trees and a movable Park from the west side to East Hollywood, with Jeremy Grant and Ron Durgin, who both are also leaders in the LA Greenster movement.

Stephen was recognized as the Livable Person of the Year 2009 (you can read about his involvements here) and he has certainly lived up to this and more! Nobody except me knows how hard he has been working this year with public officials on the city level, with the LAPD, media, neighborhood councils, and individuals, to raise awareness of our communities, the law, and the corruption that keeps this City Machine going.

If I had an award to give, he would certainly get it. Next in line would be Alex Thompson on the west side, who has been doing his work on the west side, also endlessly and tirelessly working on making our streets better for everybody!

Stephen and Alex are my political heroes because they don’t just talk the talk, but they ride the talk, they are knowledgeable, they embrace public opinion and they love what they do. They are both extremely resourceful, they work on issues that no one dares to touch (others only like to claim victory after the fact), they organize, they work the system and learn the law in the wee hours to prepare for their meetings with our Council Members, the Mayor’s Deputies, and Law Enforcement officials.

This year has been very busy and very fulfilling. We are lucky to have been able to take a three week vacation to Australia to rejuvenate and to come back refreshed.

We have many plans for 2010 and I hope you will join me and us on this journey.

I wish you all a wonderful, healthy, prosperous, inspiring, creative and lively New Year filled with family, friends, love, laughter, loyalty and joy!

Enci :-)

January 7, 2010   Posted in: Inspiration, Support

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