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

It was intimidating to speak with my hands and face again but Sonya was very encouraging and she didn’t let me dwell on the past and on me missing classes. She told me to look forward, forget the two months and look ahead and do my best to catch up.

Of course I was asking throughout the entire class about what certain words meant and asked to repeat everything, but everybody was okay with it. It was a great exercise in sign communication for all of us and for me it was a great exercise to allow myself to ask questions. I hate to inconvenience people, but I didn’t feel like I was inconveniencing anybody because it became an exercise for everyone to explain in sign.

Words that we learned:

I left inspired on my bike and followed Sonya and Heather-Lyn all the way to Franklin, where she left me in the dust (or in exhaust) so I decided to drop by Skylight Books to order 2 books of “The Conversations” by… for my two editors Kelly Stuvesant and Raz.

After Skylight Books I visited the Los Feliz Farmers Market behind Dresden and got me some veggies and fruits and a homemade cobbler. I guess ASL makes me want to buy things, so learning ASL is good for the economy and for my community.

Thank you Sonya for the inspiration and for always encouraging me to learn, learn, learn!

AT WHAT PRICE is about a mother having to decide between remaining at home with her 5 & 6 year old daughters, who look forward to a seemingly hopeless, bleak situation behind the Iron Curtain or risking everything by escaping the country with her boyfriend, leaving her children behind to fend for themselves, cared for by her mother, in order to make a better life for her family in the long term.

This story is my story. I want to share it with all of you and we are already editing and coloring, getting it ready for the Film Festival circuit. Keep your eyes open for a screening near you!

My wonderful actors were: Lillian Adams, Aaron Lyons, Kiva Jump, Jennifer Moran, Shyloh Oostwald, and Marlowe Peyton. Thank you for being Fabulous!

My wonderful crew is listed on our CREW page and if I left out someone, I apologize. I know I need to update it before we are leaving for Australia so shoot me an email if I missed your name. Our sponsors, partners and supporters will be listed as well in the next few weeks.

Shooting this film sustainably has been a dream come true!  It has  been documented and it’s  in the editing room, as we speak. It was shot by documentary filmmaker Dustin Slaughter, whom I met last year at a bus stop. We started chatting, while we waited for the bus, we exchanged contact info and the rest is history!

The documentary will also be submitted to Film Festivals and there will be a screening for friends as well. I’ll let you know when that will happen. In the meantime, you can sign up to my Production Company’s facebook page, twitter feed, YouTube videos about the sustainability making of the film and check out the website at RebelWithoutACarProductions.com

We arrived at home at 8:45pm and I was waiting by the computer with anticipation, ready to choose Enci, the single name I like to go by. As soon as the clock hit 9:01pm, I clicked on the button that said to choose a username and I typed in Enci. And here is where my excitement went right into frustration. The user name had to be at least 5 characters long. Bummer! I ended up choosing my married name that is also my facebook profile name enci.box. But I was not happy!

It is so important for me to maintain my brand, and facebook screwed it up already when I signed up and now it continues screwing it up by requesting a certain number of characters. For artists it is a very complicated issue, more then one would realize.

As artists, we need to maintain our identity and we need to strengthen the brand that we built on years ago. Through Facebook, I lost that identity and I lost my brand, I feel because everybody calls me Enci Box, my full married name, not my artist name. I have to tell directors and producers all the time, that I only use one name, when I’m performing in their film or in their theater production. I will have to make sure that the credit is correct in newspapers, reviews, end credits, any footage, etc. It is a constant hassle now.

So, even though my facebook profile link is http://facebook.com/enci.box, I still only want to be credited everywhere as Enci. One name only! Thank you for listening!

Today, it was very difficult to get up. I only had about 4 hours of sleep and it was Sunday and one was supposed to sleep in.

But I had to get up! I’ve been planning this class for  three weeks and nothing was going to keep me from it. If I had been in an accident, I would have crawled out of the hospital to attend this class.

See, Voices From Chornobyl had a performance at the Deaf West Theatre on April 26th, the 23rd anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. I was playing Anna again and we met a couple times with actors who were hard of hearing and who were talking in American Sign Language. It was totally inspiring! It, meaning the sign language and they, the actors.

They created their character and the words to be able to perform opposite us, who were speaking the lines at the same time as they were signing it.

I was so inspired that I wanted to learn American Sign Language. And I have been planning on taking this class since our performance. So nothing was going to keep me from going!

And I’m so glad that I did get up and went. I learned so much! And my mind was tingling from being visually, mentally and physically challenged at the same time.

We are used to talking and thinking and using our mouth muscles. But in ASL I had to use my eyes, my brain, my hands and also coordination. This was a new challenge. Every sign is very specific and you have to hold your hand in the correct position, so that you don’t “misspeak”.

Cindy, the director of Voices From Chornobyl, came to the class, so did Aaron, Kappa, Amy, and Shawn. Two of my friends who saw the play and Stephen attended the class also.

First we were introduced to Sonya Wilson, our teacher. She doesn’t speak, only does sign language and that intimidated me. I thought I would never understand her. But she immediately made us feel comfortable and at ease. She was funny and she slowed things down for us, she repeated for us, moved our hands and fingers where it needed to be for correct spellings.

After she introduced herself, we, the students, introduced ourselves and learned to finger-spell our names. Then we all talked about why we wanted to learn ASL. And we had to speak with hands and feet and Caitie, who hooked us up with this class, was helping us.

Today I learned to sign these words:

This class was amazing! Sonya was amazing! She made us feel like real champs and she was so happy that we wanted to learn.

I can’t wait for next Sunday! I already bought a book that she recommended, “The Everything Sign Language” book by Clayton Valli.

I have my week pretty much carved out for me to study ASL and I’m very much looking forward to next Sunday!

It was nerve wrecking. Nobody gave me my lines, I had to make everything up myself. I had to sound good and smart and knowledgeable.  I had to look good.

When I got to the interview location, I checked myself in the mirror, adjusted my hair and sat down on the sofa. I brought one leg up underneath me to be comfortable. I shifted myself to the right a bit so I wouldn’t be square to the camera. I drank some water and some hot tea to clear my throat and to wet my vocal cords.

I was sick for over a week now.  My cough stopped for the moment. I was sucking on some lozenges before we started with the interview. I asked the DP to please make me look healthy. We both laughed.

The lights were adjusted. Finally the lawn mower outside stopped and the camera started rolling. The first question came from Lysandra Petersson, who is the Director of this Documentary and who conducted the interview.

She had a smile on her face. She was pretty and she had a very open comforting look about her. No judgment. I opened my mouth, said something and her face changed. She listened with her eyes, she nodded, and I could read everything I said on her face.

I relaxed. All of a sudden I didn’t think of anything else except the questions and I was looking to see if Lysandra listened, if she believed what I was saying, if she cared. And she did all of the above. And I started talking like a waterfall.

Memories came back about the project, about the process, about the actors and the rehearsals and the performances and my preparation, and everything that happened with Voices From Chornobyl in the past 3 years.

It felt good. It felt good to be connected with this project again. It’s been forever since I’ve spoken Anna’s words, since I read the script, since we shot the promo in February of ‘08.

I’m looking forward to the next phase of Voices!

I became a member of the Antaeus Academy last September, when I passed my company audition. I had no idea what to expect and what was ahead of me. And sometimes it’s better not to know and be surprised.

I participated in a 3 month vigorous exercise in classics. I studied Shakespeare, the Greeks and the “new classics” like Shaw, Coward and Wilde. It was a crazy 3 months, while I was also performing in “Death and the Maiden” at the Sidewalk Studio Theatre in Burbank.

At the end of the 3 months, all the actors got together with some of the Companies finest directors  to create a brilliant evening of classic scenes that was free and open to the public. We had a full house, the energy was high and the evening was electric.  I was proud to be part of this ensemble and part of the Academy.

After a month break, I received the great news, that a school in Brentwood was interested in doing Shakespeare Outreach to their students and my scene from “Measure for Measure” was one of the chosen scenes that they wanted to have presented in their classrooms.

So on the morning of January 26th, 4 actors, 2 scenes and 1 director will head out to the Brentwood School to present a Shakespeare scene and do a short q&a with the students afterward.

I’m very excited about this opportunity! I never dreamed that I would present a scenework in a school and I never dreamed that I will perform Shakespeare. I hope that there will be many more schools and many more opportunities that will challenge me as a performer and as an artist.

I’ve had a rough few months and my rehearsals were badly affected, especially because I was doing a very intense play DEATH AND THE MAIDEN.

I was on medication for a couple months and two weeks before performances opened, I quit taking any medicine. I didn’t like being on drugs and I didn’t like being affected by them.  So I decided to just work on my breathing and just focus.

The first day that I could breath and yell without coughing was a very powerful day for me. I felt alive again and I couldn’t stop raising my voice and screaming everything that I said. It was an awesome feeling to be able to breath without anything holding me back.

I performed for 8 weeks without any incident, though I kept my emergency inhaler in the desk drawer on stage and Eric and Benton and the Stage Manager Charmaine were very aware of it and were ready to “rescue” me if needed.

The asthma incident, not being able to breath, the shortness of my breath was a horrible experience. I was afraid that I was going to die.

Therefore I’m starting out this year with a fast and a cleansing. I  want to get rid of all the toxins that are in my body so I won’t get any allergies or anything else.

I started 3 days ago and I’m on my 4th day. It’s a new year and it’s going to be a new me. I’m looking forward to it.

Singing is for me a phobia that I want to face this year and being cast in a play where I have to sing is the best thing that ever happened to me in my theater life! But this date just came too fast for me and I didn’t even get to rehearse with Tom and Brian, who help me to overcome this fear.

So for a week now I have been listening to the songs on my computer and on my iPod. Stephen GC composed the music to the songs and wrote CDs for each cast member to rehearse.

I have been singing for two days straight, while I rode my bike, while I walked to the grocery store, at home, and everywhere else where no human ear that could hear my voice. I was so scared about this rehearsal, I even started to get a headache and a stomach ache.

But I wasn’t going to chicken out! I wasn’t going to let Cindy and the cast down but most of all I wasn’t going to let myself down. This was my chance to overcome my fear.

So I arrived at rehearsal, we received our revised scripts and we started reading. I had no idea when my singing was going to come up because the script was new. I was sweating and my heart was beating like crazy.  I could feel it in my throat. I was getting more and more nervous as we flipped the pages.

And then there was the page. Stephen was going to start the first chorus and then I had to jump in.  Just as I opened my mouth to sing, one of the actresses next to me started to sing my song as if there was no tomorrow.  She sang loud and confident and I sang under her cover, not knowing if I should be thankful or angry. And then the song was over.

I looked around, and nobody stared at me as I expected. They were all looking at their script, reading. The sky didn’t fall, nobody laughed. Maybe because they didn’t really hear me?  Maybe they will stare at me on Mondays rehearsal?

Now, hours later sitting here at home, I’m relieved that I didn’t sing alone and that the actress next to me was “covering” me. But I know that on Monday I will have to deliver. And even though I’m already scared at the thought of it, I’m actually looking forward to facing this monster. Wish me luck!

• I design websites not only to make a living, but so that I can apply that skill to promote myself and my projects.
• I photograph productions, so that I can meet other people and get to know the different theatres.
• I work with the SkyPilot Theatre not only because they are an amazing company but also so I can learn about the process of running a theatre.
• I helped out on the Voices From Chornobyl film shoot, not only because I love my director, but also so I can learn about the process of making a film.
• I teach at AFI through the SAG Conservatory, not only because I love to help actors, but also so that I can learn about myself and meet others in the industry.
• I volunteer at Women In Theatre so that I can meet people and so that I can get them excited about Theatre in LA.
• I go to plays and to see movies to learn and to support my friends.
• I promote my friends who I work with so that I can promote my projects.
• I blog to share my passion…

Everything I do has something to do with acting and the creative process.I find myself the most relaxed on set or in the theatre. That’s where I can finally breath, focus and be myself. That’s the only place, where I can feel my skin from the inside and where I can feel my heart beat. That’s where I really feel alive.

I have been working monthly and weekly on one project or another and I love it. I always look forward to those few hours where I can be directed, where I can relax, where I can be amongst the creative people that feed me, encourage me and guide me.

So am I lucky that I’m working? Am I lucky to know the people who cast me? Am I lucky to be cast? Maybe I’m lucky that I have the health and the energy. Maybe I’m lucky that I have a passion for something that most people are looking for their entire life. Maybe I’m lucky that I met the people who I love working with.

But I don’t think I’m lucky to be working. I work very hard every day to keep in touch with the people. I work on staying in touch with my self. I work hard in promoting my shows and my projects. I work hard to support my fellow actors, directors, producers and writers. And I work hard on my craft every day!