The Olunike Experience....

Olunike is an actor who is developing to become a successful movie star. She started out just like me as a regular drama student growing up in Brampton. It is always a privilege to know that a young black Canadian is successful in the entertainment industry.

On December 14th Soul Visionary Production had the great opportunity to meet Olunike. It was an organic experience as I heard her words of wisdom, power and encouragement. She was definitely the light in the dark theatre as she helped to have hope in our future career. Soul Visionary Productions is full of talented student who have dreams to become successful artist and we are just waiting for our big break.
Olunike described her journey of how she met different actors, producers and directors. It was her priority that she did everything that she could and refused to turn down opportunities that was available to her. Even though she had to babysit the celebrities children, she used that experience so that she could have access into the industry. Denzel Washington encouraged Olunike to have an education so that she could be well rounded as a person and an actor. It was definitely a struggle for her to be a single-mother and a university student. However, she pushed through and did not let anyone get the way of her education.

I was truly inspired by Olunike's words and I pray that she will become a successful holywood actor. Her life experience has taught me so much and I have to prepare myself for success. In the future I hope that my life will be an inspiration to someone elses.

A Recipe for Disaster ...

Soul Visionary Pro. was preparing for a special guest to come into the class. Marv Brown is successful man in Toronto and the USA. He is known for producing music artist, clubs and theatre shows in the GTA. It was a great honor to have such an iconic African- North American Man visit Soul Visionary Pro.


For the preparation of our special event, my group was responsible to prepare the food and beverages for Marv Brown. It was my responsibility to bring the vegetables and my group would bring everything else. Firstly we as a class were rushing to set up the room because the time was going by fast. In addition to the kayos, I opened the vegetable container and this horrible smell started to fill up the room. Unfortunately, one of the veggies were spoiled and we had to throw it out as soon as possible. This day was a true disaster as the school hallways started to stink and the class and to run around the room fanning the smell away. We had students who were distracting the guest and showing them around the school as we tried to get things back in order in our classroom. Nevertheless, Soul Visionary Pro. turned water into wine as we had an amazing red carpet event for Marv Brown. It was truly a miracle in the end and we were definitely inspired by his words of encouragement to us.

Lesson Learned: Always smell your vegetables before you bring it to a red carpet event...

Mentoring (Gr.10) Drama Students

The aids assembly was approaching and Ms Moon requested if the Acting Academy could select her top two performances from her class for the assembly. Unfortunately it was a difficult choice because the pieces were not strong for the type of stage and audience they were performing to. However, we selected two groups that would be easy to workshop to be onstage in the next couple of days. I had the privilege along with Ramona, Risa and Ashani to volunteer and direct a scene for one of the groups. There was a high concern for this group because group one had a stronger performance. Therfore, we had a huge challenge to re-work this scene and transform it into a stellar performance. In Mrs. Thomas words and also a quote from the bible: "it's like turning water into wine". Before School, After School and our lunch were our times to work with the grade 10 drama students. It was such a privilege working with them, because they were willing to learn and they took direction well. In addition, they were giving each other advice and placing input which had a great impact on the outcome of the performance. After working with the grade 10 student, I feel like I have learnt allot throughout my four years of drama. I was in the exact place that they were, making the exact mistakes that they made. However, I learned and I developed my skills so I can now help someone else grow as an performer. Looking back to the days when I was in grade 10 made me realize that I have grown as an artist and I am continuing to grow.  This experience encouraged me to learn more about drama and performing in the future. It was a blessing to work with such talented students, and I hope that when the reach grade 12 then they would be able to do the same for someone else.

Back Pocket Character

"Granny" is my strongest character that I enjoy performing. This is a character that allows me to be flexible because I have the opportunity to play any kind of "granny". In Mrs. Thomas' Productions i normally play the church granny. And in other productions I could play a unsaved granny, a knitting granny, a crazy granny and etc.  Many people may ask how I do it and honestly i don't even know myself. My Drama Teacher (Mrs. Thomas) tells me that it is hard for many other actors to play an old women.
I know that actors have to get into the moment when they are ready to perform. Nevertheless when I a performing as a granny sometime I don't feel like I'm "getting in the moment" It just feels natural. And I think I feel that way because I used the skill of method acting. Since I was in grade 7 I remember that I would be telling stories as an old granny to my friends during our luchtime. In addition I also played that character throughout presentations in middle school and drama performances in highschool. I have been buildind, developing and enhancing the character of a granny through-out mylife. Therefore, since I have developing this character for years it has become natural to me and that is why I find it easy to perform the character of a granny.
The other day my mother tried to convince me that I was born with the talent of performing an old lady because she did the same thing at my age. And even though it seems weird, I also find it cool how my mother was mini actor in her years. And she should be proud that she raised a talented girl... who is just like herself!

A Christmas Redemption

Granny is back!!


It is the season of Christmas also known as one of the most joy est times of the year. It is a time where people are in the spirit of giving and finding hope. This year, my Christmas season is even better than I expected it to be. Soul Visionary Productions is currently involved in Ms Thomas Christmas production called "The Christmas Redemption". It is a great opportunity to collaborate with Ms Thomas' church - Kingdom House. I enjoy working with her church members because they are so nice, supportive and easy to talk to. And I hope that we can collaborate together in any other productions that may occur in the future.


The Christmas Redemption is about how three different relationship are failing because they are not putting their hope, faith, peace and love in God. The problems in each relationship are unravelled in a beauty salon and a barber shop. Where the couples have discussions with their friends who are also going through relationship problems. It takes a world-wide grandmother who is connected to each character, to bring everyone together to help solve the relationship problems. In addition the grandmother also address the true meaning of Christmas because there are others who are misinterpreting the true meaning of Christmas.


I believe that this play will touch and change the lives of many people....and it is such an honor to be apart of the life changing experience.

My Christmas Wish List ...

Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year because it brings so much joy and excitment into my life. Toys and gifts are a bonus to this celebration however, it is not the main reason why I love this holiday. The birth of christ is why I celebrate this holiday because he is Jesus and he came into the world to save us all from sin. And I also love christmas because of the feeling of joy and happiness that happens during this time of year. My favorite part of christmas is watching christmas movies at night with my siblings while it is snowing outside. When I'm in that setting I feel like life is perfect and that I'm in a bigger and better world.


Many people write a christmas list of the iteams that they are requesting for christmas. However, I have a christmas wish list of all things that I hope to be accomplished or in process of accomplishing for the new year.


Wish List


1. Bring my cousin back into the church
2. KLM Youth Choir do a stellar job at concert
3. Have a stellar performance in "The Christmas Redemption"
4. Make a Final Decision on Post Secondary Education
5. Have more patience and respect
6. Give to others
7. Be more friendly
8. Have high grades in school
9. For my Grandfather to go to church
10. Have some "me" time

Change

Walking down the streets of downtown Toronto has opened my eyes to new and enriching lives and stories. It was an unbelievable experiences as I watched how people live their lives on a daily basis. As I continued to observe my surrounding, the word "Change" came into my mind. The phrase change focuses on making a change in the life of the unfortunates. I honestly do not expect us to take them off the streets completely and provide a stable home for them. However, we as the society have to be our brothers keeper. Therefore, it is essential that we help those who are facing proverty the best way we can. If we have too much of something, then let's be humble and hand it over to someone else that has nothing. We as a society can sometime forget that there are other who are struggling everyday and they rely on us to help them get by. There are time where we may judge as say that they are just trying to still our money to by drug or etc. Nevertheless there are some who grew up on the streets and have no where else to go and we cannot punish them for the fault of others. And even if we ourselves are struggling with our own finanances, then we should at least try and put a smile on anothers face. Just our respect, curtosy and aura  can make someone's day. We have to understand that change doesnt always have to deal with money. But it could invloves so many things that doesnt even cost us a penny.


Fot my media presentation I just the medium of a video montage. I believe that it was the easiest and strogest way for me to portray my thoughts on my theme "Change". When I added the song "Lean on me" by Kirk Franklin, it made my message alot more clear.


One of my of my key statements was: "We must give them home...for a brighter future"

The Suspect

"If I take a shot, I never miss. And If I choose to come after you, believe me you'll be the one falling. I gurantee it!"


This is the famous line from the scripted scene called The Suspect. My co-star Jenisha and myself has worked hard together to perform this amazing piece. The conflit in The Suspect is that Ms Hansen (played by Jenisha) is trying to frame a man for the death of her father. Detective Dickerson (played by myself) is interrogating Ms Hansen because she believe that the man was not the killer. This performance leaves a great suspence as the audience does not know wheather or not Ms Hansen is in fact the murderer.


Jenisha Palmer is an amazing student to work with and it was a great privelege having her as my partner for this performance. We are students who are really focused about our education and we always like to achieve for exellence. Practice, practice, practice is always the key to almost everything in life. Everytime that we had together, we used it to rehearse our line and our blocking. We encourage ourselves and eachother on what we can do to make the scene and the characters more authentic. It is always a great feeling to know that you can work with someone who is honest and is an reliable person. And if one of us did something wrong or if we needed to improve on something, we would let eachother know. Jenisha and I definetly understand that Acting Academy is hard course and we have to work hard to earn our marks. Therfore, we prepared alot for this performance and it was important for us to be focused and stive for a level four.


Unfortunetly we did not have a level four performance but it was a giant step from where we started. We started from level 2 performances to a level 3 performance and now we are getting ready to jump from a level 3 performance to a level 4 performance. It always takes a step at a time and even though we did not accomplish exactly want we wanted to, we still grew as artist. And we are excited to go into our relationship scene in hopes to learn from our past mistakes so that we can create a stellar performance. I know that it will not be easy, but we have to do our best to stand up and stand out!


We are the light in the dark theatre and it is our goal to let our light shine brighter everyday.