I’m writing these two part posts, in response to some fabulous comments to follow, but also because I receive so many questions regarding my post Seven Reasons Why Professional Acting Training Programs Are Simply Not Worth It. These are the basic questions I am always asked, and I wanted to explain my thoughts further: “I want to act or at least learn how to become professional actor or actress. Do I need to go to a College or University? If not, should I go to a professional acting program? If I do go to college, should I major in acting, or should I get a BFA in acting? Would that be wasting my time? And what about MFA Acting and Theater programs? What should I do?” Well, this post will try to …

Besides the obvious inspirational religious or faith-based books that most people read, such as the Bible, or the Upanishads, or the Bhagavad Gita, there are so many other books I’ve loved and read dozens of times, which I wanted to post as recommendations, for your reading pleasure! These are my favorite books that truly changed my life! I get so many people writing me asking me for advice about being an actor or artist who’s Christian, or just plain spiritual-minded, and I realize that some of the best advice I can offer, actually comes out of these books. In them is so much of what inspires ME, and I also admit that much of what’s in these books goes even way beyond my own personal faith.

The messages within each of these books are the same. They are …

There’s something about going to an acting class that really helps you, as a person, understand that you are not alone. Having to get up in front of a group of people, and really let go, really show all your sides, good, bad, and ugly, learning to scream, and open up, to laugh hysterically at yourself and others, and just having to be a kid once again — all of this helps to not only loosen you up as an adult, it also helps you to be more creative.

Scientific study has shown, in the last several years, that if you do not use your memory, or your brain to learn something new, then those synapses in that part of your brain, Acting classes should be safe havens for those of us who have fears…where those new things would be stored, and then …

Anyone I’ve ever known, including myself, who’s taken any kind of acting class: whether it be a performance class, a public speaking class, an audition class, cold reading class, or an improv class, has always said it was the best thing they ever did. You might include in this category, classes in: any type of dance, hip hop, ballet, elocution lessons, even general movement classes such as Feldenkrais, Yoga, or Alexander Technique.

Taking an acting class helps you open up in ways you never thought possible, and it’s my opinion, that everyone, at one time or another in life, should be required to take an acting class. Let’s face it, in business, sales, politics, and teaching, most people act at one time or another. Why not actually learn some short cuts to make it all easier?

One of the most important …

For the last several years, I’ve been writing a novel. I’m now trying to get it published. The novel started as a reaction to a year-long period in my life which I could call now, “My Dark YEAR of the Soul.” I couldn’t find any film or teaching work in LA, my father was dying of alcoholism back in Kansas City, I had gained fifty pounds, was feeling middle aged, (having just turned forty), and I was more broke than I’d ever been. It was a terrible time. My husband and friends had no clue how to help me. And I struggled each day, just to get out of bed.

One morning, sick of it all, I sat down at my computer and started to write. Since I couldn’t think of one single profound thing to say, I just wrote about …

What is The Dark Night of the Soul? It’s a feeling most of us have at three in the morning (or even, for weeks and months at a time) when we feel totally alone. When we feel unbearably lost. When we ask, or pray, and do not hear any reply. It can be a period where just getting out of bed to do our daily tasks seems like the hardest thing to do. Brushing our teeth hurts. Taking a shower is painful. Sending out one more headshot or calling one more agent, or having one more conversation about “who we want to be” and “what we really want to do with our lives” feels like someone sticking a hot poker up our backs! It’s those periods in life when all we’d rather do is pull the covers back over …