 Hello. Welcome to the Latinx super friends playwriting hour where we bring in brilliant people like yourself to come and talk about writing and what you love about it and what your process might be and what you want to share. I am thrilled to have you it's I've been a big fan since I saw your work and met you in Chicago with feathers and teeth and of course I'm following your work. And I'm just really thrilled that you're here you probably are like most consistently working TV person that we've had so far so. Oh, yes. So we're really excited. Yeah, yeah, I'm happy to talk about that and answer questions about that I'm actually currently working. I'm writing an animated feature which is a big departure from television. I'm working on currently. Yeah, you're writing for the mouse is that correct. That is correct. Yes. For those of you in the know the mouse is Disney so yeah, that's really cool I read a little bit about it but you can talk about that if you want or not. Sure, yeah, you probably have written an NDA or and what do you call it a I will I will tow the line as far as I can. Okay, that's cool. Why don't you, I'm going to just hand it off to you and want to talk a little bit about you yourself and your journey from actor, right to play right to now screenwriting and live in an LA because I think that's an interesting track. Totally. Well hi first of all hi everybody thank you all for joining me on a Saturday it's so nice to see all of your faces and yeah so I just had an idea to just I was just going to sort of share briefly sort of like how I started out and how I got to where I am and then lead a little writing exercise and then leave a little bit of time for some q amp a if that sounds good. But so I started out as an actor who had always really loved to write as well but sort of never took that seriously was always kind of something I did on the side. And when I got out of college I auditioned for grad school as an actor at Yale and got in. And while I was studying at Yale as an actor, Paula Vogel was the. Oh, let's see wait. Oh, okay. So I started. I wrote my first play and put it up at the Yale cabaret which is sort of this like student run theater, and I thought it was sort of just for fun. But then hollow came and was like you're right or you should do this and I was like, you're crazy, but then she kind of encouraged me and helped me out and I had my first production. When I graduated from grad school of a player called boom crackle fly at theater Milagro at Portland, Oregon, and then sort of one thing led to another I applied for playwriting fellowships and I was living in New York at the time and got to be a Van Leer fellow at the college which was amazing. Yeah Milagro I love that place. And then got a production at the Goodman that was like developed over a couple of years and then kind of after that transitioned into TV writing and now feature writing which I'm happy to answer more questions about that specifically in the q amp a but I would just kind of share this little way that Paula vocal taught me and and it's a thing that she does as like a frequent writing exercise that I have found to be really helpful kind of in my own work. And it's called the bake off. I don't know if anybody has heard of that or done that before it's like a cool playwriting exercise and I have found myself. Writing again and again in different genres I kind of fell in I started I kind of always gravitated towards genre and then my play hunchback of this civil was a farce that started out as a bake off and then I wrote another play called feathers and teeth that was that's like a horror play that started off as kind of a bake off to and this play that I had a yell rep. Two years ago called El Gura Khan was also a sort of bake off based on the tempest, but the basic concept of it is is like you come up with a list of ingredients for whatever genre that you are writing in and then you challenge yourself to usually very quickly with a time like a deadline. Incorporating all those elements and I found it really useful just because it kind of becomes a little bit of a puzzle and freeze me up to not always have to come up with the most brilliant idea but to say like hey there's this thing on the list that I haven't come up with and what's the creative connection that I can come up with till I sort of make this fit into this story and then usually it makes me come up with something some other sort of creative pathway to keep the story going. But anyway, so an example is like so like if I was going to write something in a horror genre, I might give myself a bake off list that was like a ghost, a mirror, and a family secret, or something. You can have as many elements as you want on it or like a revenge tragedy I'd say okay like a sword, unrequited love and a prophecy, or a farce, you could do like a trap door, a case of mistaken identity and a secret. And the fun thing about it is you can interpret the prompts, however you want you can sort of say okay like a trap door in mind is not a trap door but it's a metaphor or a concept and you can kind of do whatever you want. So anyway, I thought that today just really briefly we could do a very quick bake off. And just for the sake of fun, I thought lets you like a dark fairy tale bake off. So if you got look for a pad and a pen and I'm going to do it with you, like, we're going to have I'm going to give you like, let's say seven minutes to write this and I will give you the ingredients now so you might want to write them down. So the ingredients for our dark fairy tale bake off, you can interpret these things however you'd like a shoe that won't fit a bad little girl, a coyote or wolf and breadcrumbs. So I will repeat those one more time in case you missed one so it's a shoe that won't fit a bad little girl, a coyote or wolf and breadcrumbs. So it is 1208 right now. I'm going to set a timer on my phone for seven minutes and just start writing a scene about these things and at the end I think maybe we'll let everybody share like their top favorite lines if they feel like it so timer starting now for seven minutes. And just to clarify, it can be snippets of dialogue. Amy anything you want to whatever. Yes. Yes. Feel free. Go crazy. All right. Seven minutes. So you have about one minute left. So if you need to wrap it up or if you don't feel like wrapping up either is fine. Okay. That is it. Seven minutes have passed my friends. So, uh, that was cool. So, I don't know, why doesn't everybody go through and like circle their favorite part and like everybody can share like one line of their favorite part. So I'll give you like one minute to do that to like find your favorite sentence or line or something. Okay. So do we want to just like sort of go in order here or volunteers and they can like turn on their mics and their, their cameras and any takers I'm not scared to go first. I can. Okay, I will go first. I can go first if you want. Yeah, go for it. Okay. This is just weird. So the wolf offered the man six pieces of gold in exchange for the goat so that he could buy the shoes for her daughter. All right, please. Okay, I can tell you can hear me right. Yes. Um, I have the little, I gotta read my handwriting. Um, the little girl says, but mom, I saw it and the mother stands up in full authoritarian mode and speaks loudly. There aren't any wolves around here because I killed them all. Right. Very cool. Yes, please. Hey, Brenda. Can you hear me? Yes. Great. Um, so I wrote, um, the little girl sees the shoe filled with bread crumbs. They look familiar. She puts the shoe on. That doesn't fit. But suddenly the shoe transforms her into a little coyote. She runs the other way. Yes, I saw Issa. And a little spoiled British wolf cub walks in rolling her eyes. She walks toward the shoe box at the center of the stage. Awesome. I love it. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. My feet are raw from shoes that are too small. Hand me down from a lifetime ago. A memory, a distant past. Is it me? Am I the thing that's wrong? Oh, so intriguing. I love it. Any other takers? I think there's another screen. I just want to make sure I'm not missing every Christa. Amelia said, the little girl says, it's about time. I'm starving. Her sister Nan slices the bread and places it on a wooden plate. Amelia goes to take a bite, but the bite immediately turns to sawdust. She spits it out. Nan says, I told you not to summon them. Love it. Yes. Okay. Well, one character says, I'm not going to give their names. I'm not drinking the poison, so to speak. And the other one says, okay, then let's figure out what will work. How about, I don't know, a gorgeous, delicious, sumptuous, very, very bad little girl. She got eaten in that one. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? Viviana, I see you and Hazel, you'll be next. Cool. He had always wandered in the shadows of forest paths because others were afraid and he learned very early on that when people saw him, they were afraid. And when people did not see him, he was more able to watch the loveliness of others from afar, a sort of loveliness people were able to experience amongst themselves but never towards him. Oh my God. Yes, girl. Yes. Love it. That was seven minutes. Alright, Hazel, you're up. Okay. I'm going to take a little bit of dialogue. Okay. Awesome. So I just have A, B and C. Great. So A and B are walking along and they've had some dialogue already. Okay. So this will be B. This will be A. We don't eat people. I'm a carnivore. I can't just eat leaves. I'm physically incapable. Here she comes. Be nice. Be strong. Do not eat her. Amazing. Hazel, I think you froze. I don't know if you're saying more, but that was awesome. Eat in it or Irene? Yes, either is fine. Oh, sorry. It might be, I don't know if it's on my side or your side, Hazel, but I loved it. Thank you. Do you think it's broken? Did you miss the death scene? Oh no. We lost some of it. Go ahead, Hazel. Go ahead. From which part? Feels like rehearsal. Okay. So B said we don't need people. He says I'm a carnivore. I can't just eat leaves. I'm physically incapable. Here she comes. Be nice. Be strong. Do not eat her. And then I'll be C. Hi. A goes sniff sniff lick. Be careful with it. It can bite. Oh, that's okay. Stuck in an eye. And then C kills A. And then B runs away and leaves a shoe behind. Oh my gosh. It's like Greek tragedy. And that's my puppet show. That's awesome. Thank you, Hazel. Amazing. Irene, please. Okay. Here we go. Mine is pretty short. I had some shoes I outgrew after I got pregnant and I was trying to figure out how to get rid of them. My friend Bella said I would all, I could always sell them to an old Ski V wolf we knew, but I wasn't too excited by that. However, my eldest clearly going through her rebellious period snatched my phone when I wasn't looking, pretended to be me and contacted the wolf trying to lure him out. How does she know about bread crumbing? I wondered. Oh man, amazing. I think we have time for maybe one more person and I just want to wrap it up really quickly. If anybody else wants to go, who hasn't gone yet? Anybody? Fernando, please. Can you hear me? I can. When Mrs. Brown came down to the river, she found a pack of coyotes eating bread crumbs. On the top of the nearby hill, there was a single female shoe, but Mrs. Brown knew it couldn't fit ambers. Amazing. I love it. So, as you guys have seen in like just this very quick amount of time, the awesome thing about that I find about this activity is that like, people will take these ingredients in any multitude of different directions. And it's honestly just like a really fun activity to do with your friends too. Like, sometimes like in grad school, we used to do this and like have a list of like maybe 10 things and like even say like, okay, like we're going to take two days to write as much of a play as we can. So you can say, you can get together with like some of your friends and say like, we're going to do a bake off about like this. Here are the 10 ingredients. Let's meet back up in three days and like share our plays that we wrote with each other. And it's a good way to just kind of free yourself up and get out of your own way. And then you wrote a play, which is awesome. So anyway, there you go. That's bake offs in a nutshell. And I would be happy to like take any Q&A questions or anything like that now. Yeah, so I'll just open it up for this Q&A I'm going to request that everybody go ahead and raise their hand in chat if you have a question. Just to keep this keep things nice and orderly, Issa I see your hand up. If you're looking for the raise hand option it should be down at the bottom of your screen there's a little blue hand you might have to click the participants button and you might have to click the little dot dot dot dot icon over on the right. But Issa you are unmuted. Hi. So I'm an actor that's very interested in like venturing into playwriting. And I was just wondering, well, I have two questions first, how your experience as an actor has served you as a playwright. And then, and then what things you had to learn and kind of, yeah, like what advice you would have for me. Yeah, sure. Well, I actually found it to be extraordinarily helpful coming from an acting background as a writer, just because you know that as an actor when you're playing a scene, you always have to have a strong action that you're playing. You always have to like really know what you want from the other person. And so as a writer when I'm writing a scene, I'm always I'm always trying to put myself in the character's heads, and make sure that they have like very strong objectives and that they're really fighting for what they want. And I feel like, if I don't know how to play a scene, then I think then I know I have a little bit more work to do as a writer. And I found that to be extremely helpful. And also just in terms of the like, I have actors that I work with again and again and I feel like I just have a shorthand and I love actors and I get them and I feel like if you're playing and you're open to it actors are the people who make your play the best really because they'll tell you what's not working and there just can be the most invaluable allies for a playwright I have found. So that's I think the first question. What was the second one. Just what advice you would have. Just start writing just do it like you all just did it. Just start, who cares, like if it's too bad, if it's good. Just write a play and then your second play will be better than your first play maybe that's that's how I that's that's the only thing I can tell you that's how I started doing this. Amazing. Thank you. Yeah, my pleasure. Okay. Tomatoes you are unmuted. Hello, everybody. I'm always, I was like these things I get a lot from it. Um, so I'm my big question is sort of like structure. Yeah. And I know, especially with the stuff you've written that I've seen that I like. I know a lot of the stuff you've done that are very structure I could I could tell that a lot of thought went into the structure. So I always wonder, because I have we all I have big ideas I think we all have big ideas and how do you start telling that story from that specific perspective at that specific moment in time and then sort of lay out that structure. So I wonder what that process is like in the brain and I know sometimes you have all the writers in the room but for you specifically how just going about that is like. I think it's different for every kind of, I mean plays are different from TV are different from screenplays. Mainly from TV, sorry. From TV. Okay, well from TV that is much simpler actually I think then structuring a play, because television has really set structures that like you definitely have to work within much more so than with plays so I would say start off by identifying what it is that you're trying to do. Are you trying to write like a one hour drama for ABC. Are you trying to write a half hour comedy for HBO. Like, I would say like identify the genre, really first, and then like what what the format is and that format will guide you very clearly usually. I think if you are give me a more specific example of something I can point you in a clear direction. Oh, I think you're so muted. Let me. I'm yet. Okay, I'm still I'm still trying to learn how to do it. I guess I guess for me I find myself especially particularly with TV like horror and things like we're laying out sort of a story and you could tell it sort of linear or you could jump. Yeah, and I've always was so curious about how the I guess I guess the if there are any techniques or tips to really lay that out in front of you before you start digging into the script because you can do an outline but I wonder if there's anything that helps you in terms of like oh yeah here's where there's a flashback here's where we got to discuss what the monster is what the demon is or here's where there's anything any tips that help follow so you don't get scrambled and buried in this sort of like lost and telling the story. It's interesting like specifically within horror for TV. I've worked on a couple of different horror TV shows and both of them have dealt with them in different ways, but I can say that the sort of unifying element of like most of the war that I have written myself or worked on is that it's very character driven. And so what I was doing what I would do if I was starting to write like a horror TV show like wholesale right now if I was going to start at this moment. What I would do is I would start with whoever my protagonist was. And I would say okay like I think this TV show has six episodes and they're each half an hour long. And in episode one this is where my protagonist is in an episode six this is where my protagonist ends up and then I would sort of work backwards and see sort of what has to happen in each episode to sort of get from point A to point B. And then sort of within each episode I would say okay so like if I know that in episode two, I need this person to get from like here to here. Oh sorry my husband coming in. If I need this person to get from here and here over the course of an episode, I would then kind of go backwards and like break out the steps of how they got there and then kind of, there's no like set rules in terms of flashbacks or anything like that. Honestly my best advice to you is to like watch a lot of it and see what you like and see where your taste leads you and see who does it well and see who doesn't do it well. I love X-Files. I love X-Files so much. I think they have like a great way of sort of like unrolling whatever monster it is that week, but that's just my taste. You have probably different tastes but that's, I hope that was at all clear. Totally and I actually think about Jordan Peele and how he's completely taking the horror genre and just putting a whole social lens behind it, which is incredible. Yeah I haven't watched the new Lovecraft, his Lovecraft show yet. I don't think it's come out yet, but it's come out. Oh okay well I'm super psyched for that, yeah. But he also reproduced or reinvented Twilight Zone. That's right, with Marco Ramirez who's also a playwright. That's right. Good ol' Marco. So do you have like a hangout like all the former playwrights in LA that you all go to a diner and talk about like, no I'm kidding. I wish we did, that was super fun. It'd be fun. There's so many, there's so many playwright TV writers in LA, there's a lot. Right. Started a club? Yeah. Started a club. Well, you know where the LA is now, so are you? Yes. Right spot. Any other questions? Yeah, we have one from Brenda Oriana Quijada. You should be unmuted. Hi Brenda. Hi. So my question, I mean all of them kind of had the questions I had too, so I'm trying to think of the other one that I had. Oh, so I'm in Tennessee right now. I just graduated from the acting MFA program. Awesome. I, for my thesis, I did a play, I wrote a play. Awesome. I find that there's not that many Latinx work for us and stories for us and about us. But my biggest problem that I found that I kept hitting was not hitting a lot of the problems I wanted to address in the mail, like in the head with the mail. So I find yourself always kind of limiting yourself or trying to figure out or mitigating yourself in a way that can still make people who should see these stories or hear these stories that maybe are not just from the Latinx community, but people who can understand our community in a way through our writing. Is there, do you ever find yourself in that kind of, how do you not make, and I guess in the simpler way, how do you not make white people look away? Oh, huh. Seriously. I can say, so the project that I'm working on right now is intended to reach a very large audience. The story that I like that we kind of returned to again and again with, as I'm working on this with my collaborators is when Fiddler on the Roof premiered, it like toured around the world. You know, Fiddler on the Roof, right? It's like about this like little village in Russia and they performed it in Japan. And I guess the Japanese audiences were like said to the people who wrote the play like, how did you write a play that is so specifically Japanese and like so deeply speaks to our concerns. I like this story because it makes me remember that if you write something that is specific and true about the human experience. It actually, culture is a part of that but it is not the only part of that and I think that anybody can find a way into a story that is about humans and about humanity and about the truth about humanity. So that's how I tend to think of it. I don't know. So the play that I wrote that was up at Yale rep in 2018 was an extraordinarily personal play that was basically just about me and my grandmother, my mom and it was about Miami and being Cuban American and leaving home and a lot of it was actually in Spanish, and I was very worried that like, you know, Connecticut audiences were not going to connect with it at all. But what I found was that people did and it sort of was meaningful culturally to some people and other people sort of found other ways into it. That's how I kind of try to think about that I hope that's a helpful answer. No it is. Yeah, thank you so much. Wonderful. Next up we have Enrique. You are there's a little bit of delay on your sorry, but you should be any moment now unmuted. Hi. So, I'm a playwright who's also interested in transitioning to television. But I'm also not living in LA and I don't have an agent. And so I'm just curious, can you talk a little bit about how, like, what was your path to TV how you got the first TV job. Sure. Yes. So I, um, as I said I studied acting at Yale and then when I graduated I started writing plays I Paula, I got my first production in the craziest possible way. And so my role model was like, identify who you think are your fellow travelers, like fellow like people playwrights who sort of have similar interest to you and find out where they're for they were first produced and mail your play to them and see if they'll do it and that happened. So that's how I got my first production it was kind of crazy. And then I, as I was, I was living in New York and I got a couple of like playwriting fellowships as I said and then I sort of got my first agent as a playwright. And it was ICM and they encouraged me to just write a pilot sample. So I did that, like just made up a pilot to use as a sample and then my first playwright that I really admired named Tanya Saracho was writing on a TV show called Devious Mates. And I was out in LA just doing meetings before I'd done anything and I just literally called Tanya and I was like, do you want to have coffee with me and she did and she ended up giving my pilot script to the producers of that and that's how I got my first TV job through her basically it was like just sort of happenstance and then sort of one thing led to another. Thanks. Yeah, I hope that's helpful. It's always useful to hear how it happens for people. I was very bold about just asking for things when I was getting started. I just like would email people and tell them I thought they were cool and ask them to get a beer with me and sometimes they did so that was how I got a lot of my first things. But anyway, other questions. Yeah, absolutely. Next up we have Krista Gonzalez. Krista. Hello. I'm going to get in my needed and what are a couple of tools that you've picked up along the way as a writer that were like, oh man I really wish I'd had that one sooner. That have just kind of cracked things open for you. It is not an easy skill, but it is a critical skill I believe to not be afraid to sort of do weeding in the garden of your own play by which I mean I would get really attached to like some bit of dialogue or a sentence or like a scene even because I really just like it, but it just doesn't belong in that play or there's no reason why that character is saying that I just kind of like the sound of it or something. And writing it and like letting it flow out of you but then not being afraid to sort of take a weed whacker to your own little babies is a critical skill I believe. And I think for television and film. Something that it took me a second to learn that was not quite intuitive coming from a theater background was learning how to see and write as a camera. Right, because like, as a playwright, you're just writing for a big group of people who are in a room, and anybody can focus on anything and take away whatever they want from that experience. So if you're doing for television or film, you are the eyes and you are, you have to, you have to show people what to see so that was a skill that took me a little while to learn, but ended up it was very critical. Thank you. Yeah, sure. We have somia it sounds like her raise hand function wasn't working so let me just somia me I'm going to unmute you. Is your audio working today. So me I think we can barely hear you maybe you can type in the question. Yeah, there it is. Okay. So the question I have perhaps with the previous one. It says, can you see it I can read it. Yeah, wonderful. I can't say too much about it. I can say almost nothing about it. But it is animated. And it will soon come into the world. So that I can't talk about very much, unfortunately, NDA is people. Can I speak about how I got my first writing job in LA that I got my first writing job in LA through through Tonya. Yeah, yeah. I'm a playwright. I mean, I think there's lots of different paths that lead to Rome, you know, and honestly, I have been working on this animated feature for some time now. I have not actually tried to get a TV writing job post this whole agency blow up. So I think it might even be different now. And I don't know exactly I can't actually speak to how people are getting those jobs right now because that's, I haven't had to try to do that without an agent so it's not helpful. I apologize, Sonya. But keep at it. There's there's jobs out there. Viviana. I see that I cannot answer that unfortunately. They're watching. They're always watching. Lynette LT was having trouble finding the raise hand feature you are unmuted. Thank you and thanks for that exercise that was really fun. My question is, if you could speak a little bit about discipline and how that I feel like that's so important for writing because you're usually just on your own terms on your own deadlines or no deadlines, you know. And so, yeah, I was wondering if you had any specific like routine that you like to stick to or that you recommend and how you've developed your own discipline. I'm especially struggling with that because I have as probably many people have a full time job. And so it's like, I write when I have energy and time which is not every day, unfortunately. So yeah, if you could share anything in the inside on that. Thank you. So my interest, my cancer that question was very different before this whole situation where I started and after I think I was not terribly disciplined, especially also before I had a child I have a two year old now. And so two year old and pandemic have forced me to really hone my discipline game. I can say that before both of those things were true, I was deadlines were really the only thing that got me to finish things at all. And even so I would say if you want to like, as I was suggesting with this bake off, if you want to like, say like, buddy, we're both going to do this, we are accountable to each other and in one week we have to have this done. I think you will find a way to have it done. I find deadlines to be incredibly helpful for that kind of stuff. Now I have to, I get up before my daughter gets up and I work out to sort of get out all my like anxiety and writer's block and then before I start writing I journal three pages, like in my journal, just to sort of get the naggy voices out and then I just go. That's how I do it now so it's different deadlines plus like whatever works for you to sort of get your creative little gremlins out of the way. Yeah. I love Rivas has a question. I do. I wrote it. What's giving you inspiration right now. During this time and, and is there anyone that you write for a particular person a community. Whose, whose shoulders do you stand on right now. Oh my God so many, so many. There's not too much away. I, as I suspect many people here on this chat very deeply committed to representation and the stories that we tell and how that gives people a sense of meaning and worth in the world. And so with the projects that I'm working on right now that is always it's always a front of mind. And so I'm really into everyone's heads. The project I'm working on right now is for children so I'm specifically always thinking about what kind of stories I think are valuable for like a next generation to kind of carry with them. So that's where I'm, that's where I have that at the moment. Next. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Oh, next question. But if you want to finish that thought. No, I just saw a question in the chat, but I will go in order. Great. You are unmuted. Okay, awesome. Hey, me again. I know you produce, right? That's great you produce. I don't want to assume you have. Yes, I was wondering what that's like that relationship and as you produce how has that informed or helped your writing. And anyway, sure. Yeah, no, it definitely has so I produced a pilot for ABC I produced my episode the exorcist. I was not on set for Hill House, because I was super, super, super pregnant at the time. But I think producing has really given me a lot of insight into the, like what, like making television really entails because I kind of learned that with TV you make, you make the episode three times you make it once when you're writing it. You make it once when you're shooting it on set and you make it once when you're editing it. And honestly, like it's three you got like three swings to make to like really make the thing. And so I think it sort of freed me up in a way to realize that like the script didn't have to contain every possible thing that I had because I was going to have another opportunity when I was on set and we're going to have a whole other time when we're editing and going through an editing process was like very, very really elucidating for me because the amount of work you can do on a story in editing is really mind blowing. Once you kind of go through that and see how much can change it's kind of astonishing. Oh, thanks. We have a question from Danny in the chat is also having some audio issues. What do you do about doubt about whether or not you're a good playwright. Yes, that never ever ever goes away. I don't know. Maybe it does like when you're 90 but I'm certainly not there. I don't know. You just kind of have to wrestle it however you can and try to surround yourself with people who love you and encourage you and try to have patience with yourself and be as kind to yourself as you possibly can and when the voices say like why me just say why not me. It's not easy but that's the best I can do. Next up, you are unmuted. Hello. Okay, I don't know. It might be like an ignorant young person question and I'll raise my hand because I was like I don't know this is the space to ask this. But I noticed there are many confused actor playwrights in the in the room. And I'm about to graduate from undergrad. Congratulations. Thank you. It's very loaded celebration right now. Yeah. But yeah, I'm like, you know, vaguely thinking of MFA is and I, I've been in like, like little creative writing programs like I'm like a writer turned actor. I've been in like creative writing programs since I was like a little, little bead and gravitated towards acting. Like, despite like a lot of parental like no don't do that, which is why it was like such a big deal for me to even get near acting. So like I'm like vaguely, I'm like thinking about like I've always thought I was going to get like some sort of writing MFA, but like the thought of like workshops is like irksome to me. Like, I basically like have, I have the conflict between like, I think that if I were going to get an MFA for myself and like what I'm interested in exploring it would be acting like because I'm just I'm interested in what like what I learn about people and humans through like embodiment and, you know, play and all that, or like theater PhD because I'm interested in theoretical stuff too. But like I'm wondering but like the thing that's holding me back is I'm thinking about like what's practical like I would like to be a professor and I can't picture myself acting I only can picture myself teaching like playwriting or fiction or poetry or whatever. And I'm just like wondering if you had any advice about that. I also don't know what's, what's, like, I'm vaguely starting to, to like run, keep running into people who have like MFA's and acting who are also playwrights and I'm just like is this fake. Is genre fake. I don't know. I think of the best and the best thing I can say to that is, you really never know where life is going to lead you. So, just kind of try to do what makes you happy now and then see what happens later that I didn't know that I was going to end up doing what I had no idea that I was going to do what I'm doing right now. I just acting made me really happy and I pursued that and then that led to something else and that led to something else and you just have to go with your gut and say like this is what it makes me happy right now pursue it until it doesn't. So that's the best advice I have for you. I'm sorry. It's okay. Beautiful. Up next we have Vita you are unmuted. Okay, hi. Hi. Hi. Thank you so much by the way that was a great exercise. And I think I might use the material so I'm really excited about it. I'm asking a quick question I actually have written a pilot and I also it's a female buddy film. And it's funny, but it's also serious, you know that has a spiritual message and theme, and it takes place by coastily. And I've shown it to, I've shown it to people who are different ages who are friends and they're like oh I never saw a cast of characters like this this is really exciting, and these are not people who needed to say that to me, you know they are like, so I feel good about it, but my concern is like, as I said I really do think I have something. I mean, I can just say that, but I worry I don't have an agent and I'm worried about showing it to people so much that someone says, you know, I don't have a cast work before. This is the story of my life. So I'm very concerned I just want to make sure that I'm showing it to the right people. And what is your advice, without giving away my project. You know, you're talking in terms of like, you're scared of like rights issues or I just want to make sure I understand what you're asking. Oh, I think you're so muted. Okay, good. Yeah, I'm worried that it's a good idea and I'm going to show it to somebody who's, for example, a producer and they're going to say this is a good idea and I'm going to do this, but in a different way with somebody else or something like that, you know, I'm really worried about this issue. Here you go. You know, it's copyright or scripts. If you're very worried about it. Oh, I do. But I'm sorry to interrupt you. I beg your pardon, but I do that, but but I've learned that that doesn't always protect you. Unfortunately, I have to say I don't think I'm like an expert at talking about this because I've never really run into this issue. I know it's I'm sure it's real but I don't actually have anything to do with that. And so I, I don't really have advice to give you on that one. I'm sorry. So do you just give them like a synopsis of what it's about and maybe not hand over the whole enchilada. I have really only sold things when I had agents who also had a very large vested interest in making money off of what I was writing so I think to a certain extent that took care of it but I also know that the WGA is really, really encourages people if you're pitching to not leave any materials behind because I think people get into trouble with that as well. So if you're doing a verbal pitch, if they say, Oh, hey, can I see some pages be like, yeah, just be polite and say no. That's, that's like sort of standard WGA policy. Okay. Thank you. Oh, that's helpful. It is. Okay. It's not bulletproof but you can register your script with the WGA whether or not you are a part of their guilt. Yeah. Any more questions, feel free to toss them in the chat or raise your hand. I'm not seeing any at the moment. Just going back to Danny's thing I shared a quote by August Wilson have a belief in yourself that is bigger than anyone's disbelief. Yeah, that's a good one. That's really good. Smart man August Wilson. You know that's why I'm in Pittsburgh I'm trying to channel, you know, play writing vibes. That's awesome. It was. Oh, I guess that's it. We are just at time. Oh my goodness. That was great. Thank you. Thank you guys. It was a pleasure meeting you all. And I hope that you and your families and your loved ones are doing well in the midst of all this and lots of love and good wishes. And yeah, thanks guys. So are you on social media? Where can we stalk you? I'm like a social media permit, but I am on Instagram. Although I don't think I've posted on Facebook or Instagram in like a year. I do have accounts. Right. Yeah, well, I'm on Instagram too. I think I tagged you on the, on the announcement for this. So you probably got that. But no, I'm really, I'm super proud of you and happy for you. And I hope things continue to go well and that your family stays safe and healthy. And, you know, I'm going to salute you and yeah, you've come a long way. Yes. Thank you. And, and we're, we're, we're talking about like designing like a, like a super friend's t-shirt. So we're going to send that out to anybody who I know, right. We're going to send that out to you and, and hopefully soon, and then we'll have everybody like pitching for, I don't know, they can buy it. But we're still trying to figure out like a charity for it. We don't, we want to like give the proceeds to something. Um, thanks everyone. Thank you. And then on Monday, we have Josefina Lopez. Thank you all so much. See you on Monday. We'll talk soon.