Diary of a Smart Chick

Various writings from a curious mind

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  • screenplay readers
    Art,  Reviews

    How to Become a Reader for Screenplays (A Class I Just Took Online)

    August 15, 2020

    This morning I was browsing around on Instagram and saw an ad for a Masterclass to learn how to become a reader for screenplays. I have previously researched how to become a reader for publishers but never followed through on it. I never thought about becoming a reader for screenplays. The idea is intriguing. So I decided to sign up and hop right into the class. What is the Class? This was a free online MasterClass offered by Hollywood Gatekeepers. It was hosted by Carolyn J. Carpenter who has a long history of working in theatre, screenplay writing, and becoming a story reader. As a reader, she often saw the same…

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    Related Posts

    Interview with Sumi Ink and Honey Watercolor Artist Ms. Muse

    September 7, 2018
    Needle felting artist weijue wang

    Interview with Needle Felting Artist Weijue Wang

    September 7, 2018
    Michelle Anais Beaulieu-Morgan embroidery

    Interview with Embroidery Artist Michelle Anais Beaulieu-Morgan

    September 4, 2018
  • low hanging fruit
    Reviews,  Theatre

    Female Veterans Surviving Homelessness Together – Low Hanging Fruit, a Compelling Play

    July 24, 2020

    Heather Gordon, Cat Brooks, Livia Demarchi in Low Hanging Fruit. Photo credit: Mario Parnell Photography Intro: A Compelling Play One of the things that I miss the most during the restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic is seeing live performances including theater. So, I’ve been looking back at some of my old reviews of events like that, reminiscing. Here’s a post from July 2016 about a compelling play that really moved me, enough so that I still remember the power of it four years later (although it’s so hard to believe it’s been that long since I saw it!) Compelling. That is the word that keeps coming to mind as I…

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    Related Posts

    screenplay readers

    How to Become a Reader for Screenplays (A Class I Just Took Online)

    August 15, 2020
    book review memoir

    Book Review: Always Too Much and Never Enough

    September 4, 2018
  • Art

    How COVID Has Inspired Digital Performance Art and Where It Might Go

    May 14, 2020

    Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash I have intended to get back to posting here regularly for quite some time. I haven’t done that for myriad reasons but a lot of things have inspired me recently, and I’m finally motivated to get back to it. Tonight I am watching Digital Witness: Performance in the Era of Online-Only, a Zoom panel discussion hosted by SOMArts. It’s a smart, articulate, intriguing, edgy discussion about how performance artists are adapting to a digital forum in the era of COVID-19. Everyone Is Active On Screens Right Now It speaks to something I have been thinking about a lot lately, which I haven’t quite really been…

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    Related Posts

    Needle felting artist weijue wang

    Interview with Needle Felting Artist Weijue Wang

    September 7, 2018
    Maryanne Moodie weaving

    Interview with Weaving Artist Maryanne Moodie

    September 4, 2018
    anonymous woman art by eva lake

    Interview with Photomontage Artist Eva Lake

    September 4, 2018
  • Fanny Ara of Sintonia Flamenco
    Dance,  San Francisco

    Flamenco Dance Interview: Sintonia Presents “Tattooed”

    September 30, 2019

    There’s about to be a flamenco performance at the newly-renovated Presidio Theatre here in San Francisco. The performance looks powerful. The group performing it looks fascinating. And I’m excited to be able to share a dance interview with you below so you can learn more about all of it. But first, let’s discuss the performance and the group behind it … The Performance: Tattooed Tattooed is “an experimental flamenco dance performance about survivors’ strength and resilience.” Tattooed is a flamenco dance performance by Sintonia. The performance consists of “theatrical vignettes that utilize each dancer and musician as a player in the narrative.” It is about trauma and abuse. It explores how…

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  • inspiration to write
    Writing

    Inspiration: Before the Writing, Between the Writing, Comes the Inspiration

    September 10, 2019

    Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash My favorite feeling in the entire world is inspiration. I love to be in love. I’m thrilled during days when I feel excitement. And I’ve even been known to thoroughly indulge in immersing myself in red-hot moments of anger … But if I could only feel one feeling for the rest of my life, I would choose inspiration every single time. Inspiration is that hard-to-capture feeling of being simultaneously aware of your complete interconnectedness with the world around you and yet sure that your voice matters in the big scheme of things. It’s that feeling that you have been so touched by something in…

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  • creative duo Orange Barrel Industries
    Art,  Interviews

    Creative Duo Interview: Orange Barrel Industries

    August 20, 2019

    A portion of the interview about this creative duo was originally published in Happily Hooked digital magazine.  Orange Barrel Industries is the collaborative art business of creative duo husband-and-wife printmaking team Hannah and Blake. They are a witty pair who got married in a series of art events. They share on their website, “At first, Blake thought Hannah was some kind of itchy, excitable midget and Hannah found Blake to be an uppity ascetic. It turns out, they were both right, but they learned to love each other, anyway. They bonded over their shared passions of printmaking, drawing, cooking and hard work.“ I had the opportunity awhile back to interview…

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    Related Posts

    Interview with Sumi Ink and Honey Watercolor Artist Ms. Muse

    September 7, 2018
    screenplay readers

    How to Become a Reader for Screenplays (A Class I Just Took Online)

    August 15, 2020

    Interview with Weaver Meghan Bogden Shimek

    September 4, 2018
  • we shall overcome by Ellen Schinderman
    Art,  Fiber Art,  Interviews

    Interview with Thread Artist Ellen Schinderman

    September 7, 2018

    Ellen Schinderman is a self-taught thread artist based in Hollywood, California. She doesn’t focus on the labels of being a “feminist artist” or a “fiber artist”, preferring to just be an artist, working with thread as her medium. Nevertheless, her work offers powerful messages to and about women. Her work recontextualizes images of women, including images that may be considered pornographic. She works to remind us that women are not objects. Instead, we are thinking, feeling, amazing beings. She wants us to love who we are the way we are. Furthermore, she wants to support other women in doing the same. Those are messages she shares in her work as…

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    Related Posts

    Interview with Weaver Meghan Bogden Shimek

    September 4, 2018

    How COVID Has Inspired Digital Performance Art and Where It Might Go

    May 14, 2020
    Michelle Anais Beaulieu-Morgan embroidery

    Interview with Embroidery Artist Michelle Anais Beaulieu-Morgan

    September 4, 2018
  • Needle felting artist weijue wang
    Art,  Fiber Art,  Interviews

    Interview with Needle Felting Artist Weijue Wang

    September 7, 2018

    Needle felting artist Weijue Wang is an emerging Chinese feminist artist. She was born an only female child to a family in China. Now she lives in San Francisco. Weijue is navigating different identities and bringing her personal experience into her work. She works to approach difficult topics through humor and cuteness. Her art is in done in several mediums, particularly incorporating needle felting. This choice is a direct result of her own personal experience with cosmetic surgery, a practice her work regularly comments upon. We learn more from this interview. What are your earliest memories of becoming an artist? Before I was born, my dad’s best friend bought a…

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    Related Posts

    Interview with Sumi Ink and Honey Watercolor Artist Ms. Muse

    September 7, 2018

    How COVID Has Inspired Digital Performance Art and Where It Might Go

    May 14, 2020
    Mixed media artist Whitney Turetzky

    Interview with Mixed Media Artist Whitney Turetzky

    September 7, 2018
  • India photography by Danielle Da Silva
    Art,  Interviews

    Interview with Director, Photographer and Activist Danielle da Silva

    September 7, 2018

    Photographer Danielle da Silva is a multi-lingual, multi-disciplinary artist and activist. Her art includes writing, photography, and filmmaking. Moreover, she is a public speaker, the Founder and CEO of Photographers Without Borders (PWB), and Co-Founder of the Sumatran Wildlife Sanctuary. Furthermore, Danielle also serves on the board of the Dandelion Initiative, a grassroots organization run for and by trauma survivors. Although she tackles many different projects from many different angles, a single thread runs through all of her work: “communicating the extraordinary efforts of people around the world working to solve the most challenging problems.” She took some time out of her busy schedule to inspire us with this interview: The artist…

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    Related Posts

    creative duo Orange Barrel Industries

    Creative Duo Interview: Orange Barrel Industries

    August 20, 2019
    anonymous woman art by eva lake

    Interview with Photomontage Artist Eva Lake

    September 4, 2018
    screenplay readers

    How to Become a Reader for Screenplays (A Class I Just Took Online)

    August 15, 2020
  • Mixed media artist Whitney Turetzky
    Art,  Interviews

    Interview with Mixed Media Artist Whitney Turetzky

    September 7, 2018

    Whitney Turetzky is a self-taught visual artist whose mixed media work combines vintage photography, textiles and other ephemera with color block painting. Her pieces evoke powerful emotional responses while honoring common women of past and present. In this interview, she shares what makes this feminist work as well as how her art helps her pass on strong views of womanhood to her young daughter. Journey of a Mixed Media Artist Can you tell us a little bit about your journey to becoming an artist (and claiming that title, which can often be hard for people)? I have always been a maker, but I didn’t always call myself an artist. About…

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    Related Posts

    How COVID Has Inspired Digital Performance Art and Where It Might Go

    May 14, 2020
    screenplay readers

    How to Become a Reader for Screenplays (A Class I Just Took Online)

    August 15, 2020
    creative duo Orange Barrel Industries

    Creative Duo Interview: Orange Barrel Industries

    August 20, 2019
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