This month I had the opportunity to continue some self-exploration work I started in November 2022 when I took the Sam Christensen Image Process Workshop with Matthew Cornwell and Brooke Jaye Taylor at Get Taped! Studio in Atlanta.

If you’re not familiar with Sam Christensen, he was a beloved LA casting director who created a process to help actors uncover and confidently claim their unique “essences” — those indisputable qualities that we each possess and which are instantly perceptible to others and authentic to us alone. As actors, understanding the essence or vibe that we exude when we enter a room (before we even open our mouth!) provides invaluable self-awareness and a feeling of empowerment. It also helps us understand why we are invited to audition for certain roles and not others, and why we may tend to book the same kinds of roles over and over again. The workshop was an intensive 4-day weekend of sharing personal stories and a lot of vulnerability with our fellow participants. I came away not only with invaluable insight into how the industry sees me, but an appreciation for all the different parts of myself that I can draw from and use in my acting work. And now I have vocabulary in the form of “essence statements” to perfectly capture these qualities. For example, many of the characters I tend to play exhibit both empathy and strength, so it’s no surprise that one of my essence statements is “Vulnerable and Formidable, All at Once.” Meanwhile, the more light-hearted, chatty social butterfly in me is “Twirling the Phone Cord and Just Waiting to Share Her Day With the Person on the Other Side.” You get the idea.

This month, I took Matt and Brooke’s Practical Applications Class for Sam Christensen grads, which was an opportunity to practice using many of my essence statements and related vocabulary to prepare for auditions, create a contrasting take for self-tapes, and work on roles. It was a fun, supportive, and freeing way to help me play when I am approaching new material, and an important reminder that there is no “right” way to play a character. We each bring something entirely unique to a role that is authentic only to us. Understanding that can eliminate the feeling of competition between actors and instead help us cheerlead for each other in a business that is already so challenging. As Oscar Wilde famously said, “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”

Can you guess which essence statement I mentioned that I used as a springboard into the comedy scene pictured?