Creativity in "Captivity"

What a time to be alive, huh? So we're not really captive as I indicate in the title, but I'm a sucker for alliteration. And to be honest, my day to day hasn't greatly changed in light of the coronavirus pandemic, as I work from home and prefer time with my husband and a small group of friends over big social gatherings. We moved our weekly friend hangs to Zoom/Netflix Party nights and sessions of online gaming, and have reduced our outings to only essential trips. I know it's huge adjustment for many. Many of my upcoming projects are paused or rescheduled for tentative future dates. The film and theatre industry have for the most part come to a screeching halt. 

So how do we move forward when the whole world seems to stop?

Well we have a big beautiful online community of creators, so when there's a will, there's a way!

I've jumped onto a couple fun projects to keep the creative juices flowing - a "Line by Line Shakespeare" exercise, organized by a collaborator Britain Willcock, where he chose famous speeches from Shakespeare's works, then randomly assigned individual lines to different people, leaving us all open to interpreting and acting out the words ourselves. I got a line from Lady Macbeth, and it was so interesting to see everyone's interpretations. 

Another fun collaboration from afar, put together by Chicago filmmaker Jeremy Applebaum, was the idea to put together some kind of film with a bunch of different people, but with footage put together from our own homes using what equipment was available to us. The result is a short film entitled "A Sheltered Rehearsal", about a group of theatre actors whose production of A Winter's Tale is cancelled due to the pandemic...but the director demands they continue to rehearse via Zoom. There's a twist in there too - however we went ahead and submitted the short to a couple "Quarantine Film Festivals" (yes that's a thing now), so I'll have to wait to share the footage for now. 

​I have managed to keep a few irons in the fire on more "official" projects too!

"Night of the Wicked Clown"is an official Southeast Regional Film Festival 2020 Selection!
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That little scary clown horror film I mentioned in my last update? Well it's officially been accepted into the Southeast Regional Film Festival 2020! Of course, due to current circumstances, the festival is online only this year, but there will still be many opportunities for this film to get out into the world.  

Ellipses - Short Film
I've also been cast as Shirley in the short film "Ellipses" written by Andrew Hartford, which is being produced by Hollywood Casting and Film. The filming date is TBD since we can't currently secure locations (dang you covid-19!) but this will be my first casting with HCF which is new to Chicago, but has been established in the LA scene for a while. They are also working in partnership with my agent Vilma with Dream Team Talent!

VO for Documentary Short
Last but not least, I've been hired to provide some narration voiceover for a documentary short which profiles the works of animator George Berlin, highlighting his unique work in projection mapping to massive buildings to create beautiful site specific digital works of art. This project is in process, we just have to wait to record my VO at a nearby studio once the shelter-in-place order is lifted.

As soon as restrictions are lifted in Chicago and across the country, I know we'll all be busting at the seams to create and tell our stories. I'm excited to see what kind of art we can create from this extremely challenging moment in our history. If quarantine has proven anything, it's that when people are bored at home, they turn to creativity - to movies, films, books - the work of artists. My hope is that drive for great storytelling and art will push us into a new era of artistic expression once we're beyond the "age of corona". Health & Love to all <3


PS - I've made some major changes to my site layout - going with a 1 page scrolling version so you don't have to click around as much to find things! Click my name at the top of this web page if you're on my site, or navigate straight to Amanda-Winston.com