And in the meantime: Hurricane Images Inc.

Recently, I watched a video essay on what made Robin Williams great as an actor, and they boiled it down to one thing:  how he moved.  Or more accurately, how he physicalized his characters.  His approach brought emotion, history, and personality into motion... and made him a truly visual storyteller.  Watch any clip, and you'll see that he's chosen a physical activity for the scene, and through that conveys his internal life.  Unlike many other screen actors, you don't see his internal workings in the eyes, but rather the body.

This idea of visual storytelling informs Second Wind's current endeavor, which is actually through Hurricane Images Inc.  It's an Oakland video production company we started seven years ago, and have been building ever since.  We've been working in commercial film, creating for startups and major corporations like Bitdefenders and Hilton.  And we do music videos and photography as well. In 2016, we were named one of the best wedding photographers in Oakland by Expertise.com.  Until we're back onstage, come check us out.

Going National

Whew! That was a long nap.  Like the best of sleeps, there was truly unusual and inspiring things going on under the surface-- that looks so calm and relaxed.  I'll write more about that in a little bit, but we've leapt out of bed and into action, so I should cover a couple of immediate items first. 

Yes! We're gearing up an ambitious, raucous, and thought-provoking production of Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth.  For those unfamiliar with the play, it has nothing to do with the Middle East; it was, however, a major hit in London and New York, garnering rave reviews from every major newspaper.  Auditions are being held on August 9th and we're looking for a wide range of actors from 9-65 years of age.  For more info, visit Second Wind's website here.

Between then and now I'll be going national in North Carolina for the National Black Theatre Festival, a week-long bonanza of performances, workshops, and talks.  They'll be presenting a reading of my newest work, One Drop of Blood, which explores divisions within the black community in this pressurized environment of vigilantism and racial conflict.  It is a re-working of an earlier work, Vigilance, into the black community, that also asks the question of how Black and Whites deal differently when faced with similar threats to their way of live.  Given the time (racial relations today), the place (the South), and a majority African-American audience, I'm very curious to see what it evokes.