A new project!

Back in September of 2016 I came across a posting in a Women in Film Facebook group. In the post, Ayelette, an actress, was looking for collaborators. She wanted to produce a web series. She was looking for a writer, a director, etc.

So I responded to her posting.

And last Friday I sat in a rented room at a place called Space Station and watched as she read with a whole host of actors auditioning for roles in our web series. OUR WEB SERIES.

To say I'm still a bit in shock about the whole thing is an understatement.

Back in September Ayelette and I talked about what she was looking for in a partnership. She wanted to tell a good story. She wanted to have fun. She wanted to work with other women. I wanted all of the same things. And so after our initial FaceTime chat, I got to work. I was starting from scratch, not an unfamiliar place for me but a place that takes some time to dig out of. See, I have to build the hole and the shovel and the person to use it all before I can dig out.

There were more conversations. There were a lot of emails. But the cool thing is, Ayelette gave me time and space to create. And it was a pretty great feeling to know I was writing for an audience that wasn't just me and my little circle of readers. She was pretty committed to making this series.

I finished my work this winter. A premise I crafted, characters I envisioned, all down on the pages of seven scripts. And then Ayelette got to work.

Yes, I've had hope before. Yes, I've been excited about projects. There've been table reads, staged readings, pilot development, even that short film made for Lifetime that didn't go anywhere. But this is something more.

This is someone renting the casting room at Space Station. This is actors, who've had real work in real movies and shows you've heard of, coming in and reading scenes I've written.

That was the most surreal part last Friday. As I settled in between the director, Katy, and Ayelette, to watch the auditions, I didn't realize at first that they'd be reading scenes from the actual scripts. I mean I should have, that makes the most sense, but I didn't. And then the first actor started to read. He was a man in his 70s, saying words I wrote for a character in his 70s. I couldn't stop smiling.

Me & Ayelette

I also couldn't stop smiling because Ayelette and Katy immediately took me into the fold of the casting session, they included me, as if it was the most natural thing in the world for me to be there. And, just to let you know, that's not always the case for us writers in Hollywood. In my limited experience in this business I've been brushed aside as "just the writer" several times. To be fair, I've been lauded as "the writer" as well but you never quite remember the good as well as you remember the bad.

Ayelette, Katy & me

And so, by the end of Friday, they'd cast several parts of the series. They're still looking to fill several other parts of the cast and crew. But it's happening. There's a weekend in May when shooting will begin. And I cannot explain how excited I am that I'll get to be on set.

I've learned to be a bit more hesitant in my celebrations of good news when it comes to my writing. Things happen and then things don't. Things fall apart much more quickly than they come together. But this one...this one is moving right along. And I can't wait to share it with the world. Soon...