Friday, June 25, 2010

Love & Progress in the City of Angels

As soon as my fingers landed on this keyboard writing on this entry for my beloved HanSarang Movement, I forgot what it was like to write for myself and talk about anything that I want in this space right here.

Ahhh..It feels like home.

It is now June 25th, 2010, making it four months and twenty four days that I've been here in Los Angeles. It's only been about a third of a year but already it feels like I've been here for a lifetime. Since I landed, every single day has been filled with auditions, callbacks, a few landed gigs, taking a wonderful acting class at Beverly Hills Playhouse, networking with the Asian American community here in the city and meeting some truly wonderful, beautiful people along the way, getting my car window smashed in and broken into, working as an enumerator at the U.S. Census Bureau, hot mess fights with my very emotionally moody roommate who has an Asian men fetish, writing for an Asian American online publication, and so many more adventures and misadventures that I rather end this incredibly long sentence right now than drag it on any further.

All of this in my pursuit to become an actor and social justice activist.

It's been particularly rough taking my chance to be an actor and I can only say that I am extremely blessed to have supporting friends back in Virginia, South Korea, Los Angeles, and from all over who is cheering me on. But most importantly, I am blessed to have an understanding mother and father who supports me emotionally and financially. I've always had a reluctant relationship with them in the past but for them to be so supportive of what I am doing now by myself here in Los Angeles, it means the world to me.

I am not represented by any agency nor do I have a pile of gigs coming up. Then again, this is a story that can be shared with countless, hard-working actors out there right now. The journey to accomplish this has never been an easy journey in the first place and ties directly to the reason why life has never been boring here.

Yet despite the hardships and obstacles, I feel good because I know I have love and support from so many. I feel good because I know my other passion as a social justice activist keeps me strong and no matter what happens, I will do my utmost best to make the best for myself. I feel good because I have a wonderful acting class at Beverly Hills Playhouse with an astounding teacher who I am learning so much from.

So let's take the last sentence off and carry on that thought.

Beverly Hills Playhouse is this acting class that lots of known actors in the past have been taught under in the past and was created by Milton Kaselas. Okay, history lesson done.

During my two months in this class, I have met truly dedicated actors and performers who put their absolute best in their scenes, even with all the baggage and drama they got going on in their lives. I have met a fabulous acting teacher by the name of Art Cohan who told me to look beyond my Asian skin and find characters and roles that I relate to internally, because that's what matters the most. If there's anything I can boil down for this class, it's that it's filled with love and with all this love, it has inspired me to be the best goddamn actor I can be. It has also inspired me to be the best goddamn human being I can be as well. That's how great this class is.

I am most fortunate to have met such people here in the City of Angels and elsewhere, with particular shout outs to Lac Su, Kate Agathon,Emily Wu, Steve Nguyen, Sabina England, Kristina Wong, Beau Sia, and so many more.

Love. That's what it's all about. That's what keeps me going and I just know that I gotta do my best and pay it forward.

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