ENISHA BREWSTER
  • Home
  • Bio
  • Gallery
  • Reels
  • Blog
  • Retouching
  • Contact Me
  • Social Media
    • Instagram
    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn
  • CLING

Productivity Prescription

7/11/2018

10 Comments

 
Picture
A productive life calls for some planning. I’ve been an artist and entrepreneur for all of my adult life so I know that maintaining a productive and balanced work life can be challenging when you are your own boss.

Here’s a little prescription I intend to use in order to chase away my post-show blues and get back into the flow of a winning #artistlife.

A.M.

I N S P I R A T I O N (20 Minutes Minimum Daily Requirement)
  • Chant, Meditate, Affirm, Read

B R E A K F A S T (Daily. May be consumed during the Peak Performance Period when necessary, but no more than 2x per week.)
  • A nutrient rich start is a must to jump start a productive day centered on healthy choices. I like granola and fruit or a Protein Superfood smoothie with banana.

P E A K • P E R F O R M A N C E • P E R I O D (Morning Edition. 5-6x Weekly. 4 hours)
  • This is time to use the available day time hours when the brain is powered up for productivity and the creative inner child is hungry for an outlet.
  • Use this time to scribble out ideas, fill the calendar with meetings, photograph, add detail to a script or plan, follow-up, reach out to new leads, build it, try something new.
  • Auditions, Rehearsals, Coaching

L I G H T • P H Y S I C A L • A C T I V I T Y (2x Daily. 15 minute intervals. May be skipped on days of Heavy Physical Activity.)
  • Take a break… And while you’re at it, move your body.
  • Stretch those tight muscles. Do a few push-ups. Plank for 60 seconds. Cat and Cow, sun salutation, jump rope or do a couple or burpees. Or simply, take a little walk.

H E A V Y • P H Y S I C A L • A C T I V I T Y (3x Weekly. 45 Minutes Minimum Requirement. May be accomplished A.M. or P.M.)
  • Whether at your gym, or in a park, committing to a lifestyle that incorporates an exercise regime is simply a no-brainer these days. There’s too much supporting evidence to ignore.
  • Hike, Bike, Hot Yoga, Weight Train, Swimming, Running, Boxing, Just Do It.
  • (P.S. I know a guy who posts workouts you can do anywhere every Tuedsday and Thursday on IG: @yusef_brewster)

L U N C H (Daily.)
  • Because duh.

P.M.

P E A K • P E R F O R M A N C E • P E R I O D (Afternoon/Evening Edition. 5-6x Weekly. 3 hours.)
  • Finishing strong preps you for the kind of consistency necessary for a productive artist life.
  • Use this time to revise, add even more detail to a script or plan, get more specific, level up on goals already accomplished, analyze missed opportunities, edit, color correct, fine tune, upload, prepare prompts to head start the next PPP.
  • Auditions, Rehearsal, Coaching

D I N N E R (Daily.)
  • It’s just a good idea.
  • There’s an opportunity here to finish strong with self-care.

T H E • C H E C K - I N • P E R I O D (4-5x Weekly. 30 minutes.)
  • With the satisfaction of a day well spent, use this time to catch up on the activity of industry leaders and mentors.
  • Research the latest trends, news, data and predictions.
  • Use this time to support peers and encourage those next in line.
  • Sometimes creativity strikes at random. Strike while the iron is hot!

G R A T I T U D E (Daily.)
  • Because Oprah Winfrey.
  • Acknowledge a minimum of 5 things for which you are grateful.

10 Comments

Reclaiming My Time

5/15/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
T I M E
T I M E  WASTED
T I M E  MANAGEMENT
T I M E  IS RUNNING OUT
T I M E  IS FLYING
T I M E  TO FINALLY FIGURE IT ALL OUT

T I M E  AS A CONSTRUCT
T I M E  IS ON MY SIDE
T I M E  IS MY BITCH
T I M E  WITHOUT BEGINNING
T I M E  WITHOUT END
T I M E  

Today is my mother's birthday. Naturally, our conversations in the previous days have been reflections on the passage of T I M E. She and I share similar feelings these days about birthdays coming and going and piling up as they do. So consequently one begins to ponder how exactly the years have been spent, how one has succeeded, failed, survived, thrived and well...wasted countless hours, years, and precious T I M E on fruitless pursuits. But my mother is a survivor! She is a hero, a heroine in the truest most literal definition of those words. She deserves every comfort, every joy; and if I am to be a testament to her indomitable strength, and master the T I M E that I have as Enisha in the pursuit my own version of distinguished success, than my mother will know more comfort and know more joy.

Last night heading from our rehearsal in Beverly Hills, a castmate of mine and I were ruminating about the nature of disagreements. She offered some sage wisdom: "If it's not going to matter in 5 years, why let it bother you for 5 minutes?" I'm pretty sure I have heard that one before but if so it's been years. She is right. It's a wonderful way to diffuse any situation and get back to the heart of the people involved. I put that one in my pocket for a rainy day. But I have to admit, I started thinking about the things that have mattered 5 years later. And how fast 5 years go by. And how much T I M E I have wasted in the past on attempting to hold on to a relationship that was eclipsing my priorities and clouding my judgment. I was thinking in that moment that I am also pretty damn proud that I have learned from old mistakes and have since had the wherewithal to acknowledge a bad thing coming. Ain't nobody got T I M E for wasted time. Not anymore.

On Saturday I made a new determination to wake up earlier. Listen, I am a morning person only when necessary. I typically have no problems waking or being alert and ready to face the day once I am vertical. But maaaannnnnn, I really love sleep. It's delicious. My skin loves it too. However, I am aware that I can accomplish more daytime things with more daylight hours. So, I have been greeting the day about 2 hours earlier than normal, feeding the 4-legged princess of the castle, saying my morning prayers, studying some literature for the sake of my own human revolution, and then getting the day poppin! Yes, I have reclaimed my T I M E!

In April, my grandmother turned 80. I am only allowed to write that because it's only now becoming obvious that she is a grandmother. That she is in fact aging. But the truth is, this woman is ageless, T I M E less! Effervescent and magnificent! Hysterical and glamorous at the same time. I call her by her first name, as do her children, this having been established as the only way to address her long before I came into the world. Trust me when I say, it is the best way to show her the respect that she commands. Man, I love that lady! Anyway, none of us discussed really age when it came to her before now because the number never made sense. It never matched. And frankly it didn't matter. She has managed to make T I M E her .... you know. And I like to think I've got just enough of her in me to be confident that I needn't worry about a thing. Afterall, T I M E  might just be a construct of the matrix.
0 Comments

Mastery Achieved

5/8/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
I hate the learning curve. I always want to just skip to the point of mastery and ride that thing out into the sunset. 

I can't exactly pinpoint when this happened. But at some time after a long history of being the teacher's pet, the honor student, the perfect attendance, dean's list, magna cum laude awarded (and modest little twat) that I am... I stopped loving being a "learner" There's a concept in developmental psychology that explains that once we've hit a certain age and life benchmark we gather and store new information as "crystalized learning." Basically we're not little sponges anymore. We're just learning the necessary bits for the tasks at hand. Clever, relevant and everything that all of the people who used to cheat off of my work were trying to explain to the rest of us over-achievers: "None of this extra crap is going to matter when we get into the real world."

If you are an Industrial Architect you probably don't need to know the kingdom, order, family, or species of salt water vertebrae in the Mediterranean Sea for job security. You've got to be a whiz at mathematics and have a passion for design and city planning. Makes sense. You need to learn your skill, master your skill, and love the process.

Oh, the process.

So as an actor the P R O C E S S is a vast micro to macro web of "hurry-up and wait" and "be ready at all times" and "right place at the right time" intersecting at various shades of green from "greenroom" to "too green" to "greenlit" to "green screen." Basically a bazillion variables that are all just a means to do the thing that you love, tell stories. 

And the only way to tell those stories is to put in the work. Learn your lines. Rehearse your beats. Discover the character. Find the truth. Practice it. Make mistakes. Fail forward. Loose your inhibitions. Learn, rehearse, discover, find, practice and repeat until you reach that euphoric moment of truth which allows you to throw it all away and just be. (*Pauses for the moment.)

Every new side, scene, job, level has its own curve and it's maddening being at the bottom of that dip when you thought you had it but realize you don't and mastery seems like a hopeless dream. Ugh. I HATE IT!!! Where is my sunset?!

Anyway... just a little "discouragingly realist" pep-talk from me and the learning curve. 

0 Comments

Mama, Don't Make Me Sing

4/24/2018

3 Comments

 
Picture
Here's the thing about singing: I LOVE to sing. "I'm using the word 'LOVE' here." (name that Jack Nicholson reference). Not hyperbole. 

The Voice Memos on my phone is 15% audition dialogue and 85% my musical catalogue. My shower is my booth, my living room is my stage, my car... forget about it. It's a concert. My mother sings, my grandmother sings, one of my brothers sings. Fun fact: my father was once on the Apollo. (He never had a chance... You can't follow an ATROCIOUS gospel singer who's used up all of the audience's available patience and expect to get through a whole bar of a Fair Weather Friend by Johnny Gill if you're not Johnny Gill *rolls eyes*). Anyway.

You get my point. But I'm not really a singer. I sing. But I learned the hard way (from a brutal experience with a director) not to call myself a singer. I can't belt. I have short breath control and my range is about as short as Angela Rye's patience for that bullshit. But ask me to sing a jazzy something or other, a classic, or a bluesy standard and I will be all over it... That is, if it is me actually asking myself to sing for moi and no one else is listening. And I'll be damned if I'm not constantly asked to sing. It's my personal version of hell to be asked to sing for something important. Or heaven forbid a performance! 

So, I have worked very hard to control what can only be explained by the worst version of stage fright I have known (outside of that one time when I couldn't remember the rest of my routine for a gymnastics recital at 7 years old.) My new response to the cringe-worthy, "Can you sing?" is now: "Yeah, I sing a little and dance a little." 

And last night I sang a little. In fact, I created a melody for what will be something between a song and a chant for our Hollywood Fringe Festival show The Goddesses Guide: Adura for the Women of African Diaspora. I steadied my nerves, dropped the key, and used all of the power my little diaphragm could muster. And you know what? It sounded pretty damn good, if I do say so myself. 

Pray for me though... 


3 Comments

No Coincidences

4/17/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
The world is incredibly small.

So, last night was rehearsal day one for a brand new show for the 2018 Hollywood Fringe Festival entitled, ​The Goddesses Guide: Adura For the Women of African Diaspora. ​​(Info.)

This will be my first time back on stage for a theatrical--that is to say LIVE theater production--since I moved to Los Angeles 6 years ago to become a STAR!! (Kidding, not kidding.) I got all of the tingles remembering what it felt like to choose a monologue, memorize it, and actually hand a printed headshot and resume to the director on the day. Gave me all of the warm and fuzzies. Challenge: the monologue was to be prepared in a West African accent. Not a problem. My ancestors got me (dusts off shoulders).

I go. I act. I get called back. I go. I dance. I sing. I sweat. I leave. A few days later I get an email from my (very capable and definitely my junior) director, Camille that she would like to offer me the role of OYA. YASS! I accept.

Now, regarding this teeny, tiny, world we live in: I feel like I know the director. I think I even mentioned in the callback that perhaps she simply has a familiar face. I let it go. Truth is I feel this way all of the time--as if I know people, when I actually don't. And it can be a bit embarrassing, looking someone deep in the eyes searching for confirmation that we are already acquainted, only to be sneered at... because no one likes to be stared at by strangers. But I didn't really let it go. Before the end of the callback I offer that we've probably just auditioned together back in Atlanta where I find out she once lived. Good enough for me. 

A few days before our first rehearsal, I find and add Camille on LinkedIn and discover that we have 1-degree of separation. Several years ago she interned for a theater where I performed many times. Okay, okay. We've definitely run into each other. I'm satisfied. At the appropriate time, we'll bring it up and have two seconds of the obligatory, "Oh really? Yeah. Oh, how funny." responses. It'll be a cute connective tissue, a way to build camaraderie. Such a small world. 

First rehearsal arrives. My cast members are great, our stage manager, Bri, is my spirit animal, the choreographer has a warm smile and great eyebrows, the read-thru leaves me inspired! We talk about how there are no coincidences. They simply do not exist. This amazing show, with these talented people, about the Orishas is going to be electric, and we can all feel it. Camille looks me deeply in the eyes when she speaks... I KNOW THAT I KNOW her.

Rehearsal ends and I drive from Beverly Hills eastbound with a mission. I will crack this code... And I did.

While in Atlanta I supplemented my acting income with photography. I had a built-in clientele of actors needing headshots. So, as soon as I get home, I unearth my old hard drive, open a folder called Photo Gallery, find a folder named Academy Theatre, click the blue folder labeled Interns... and I'll be DAMN (by the way shout out to Kendrick Lamar for winning the Pulitzer Prize)!

Eight years ago I shot a small group of interns for Academy Theatre... one of which was a bubbly, young brown skinned girl dressed in yellow by the name of Camille Jenkins!

I copied the headshot to my dropbox immediately. Wait until I find the perfect moment to reveal our full-circle connection on Thursday...

No coincidences.
0 Comments

    enisha b jane

    In my own words.
    E as in "elephant" 

    Inquiries or requests:

    Archives

    December 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    March 2022
    October 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    August 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    November 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018

    Categories

    All
    10000 Hours
    2020
    ABC
    Actor Problems
    Actors Life
    Afro
    Age
    Album
    Aldo
    All American
    Angela Rye
    Anthropology
    Artist Life
    Atlanta
    AUC
    Audition
    Ava Duvernay
    Award Season
    Axtionwear
    Bacio
    BCBG
    Beauty
    Bill Cosby
    Bi-racial
    Birds
    Bishop Curry
    Black Box
    Blackness
    Bodak Yellow
    Booking
    Boss
    BTS
    Buddhism
    California
    CardiB
    Carondolet House
    Cat
    Cate Blanchett
    CAU
    CBS
    Chun-Li
    Cinderella
    Citi
    Clemency
    Cling
    Coawff
    Colonialism
    Commercial
    Consignment
    Coronavirus
    COVID-19
    Crowdfunding
    CW
    Dating
    David Muller
    Debbie Allen
    Desert
    Determination
    Diamonds
    Dignity
    DJ D-Nice
    Doria Ragland
    Double Consciousness
    Eddie Redmayne
    Elton John
    Erin Majors
    Evita Robinson
    Exercise
    Fairytale
    FAQ
    Fashion
    Fendi
    Fiance
    Film
    Film Festival
    Filmmaker
    Florence
    Floss Dance
    Flowers
    Footage
    Footloose
    For Colored Girls
    Friendship
    Game Of Thrones
    Giuseppe Russo
    GoFundMe
    Grandmother
    Gratitude
    Greenlit
    Grey’s Anatomy
    Haiku
    Hair
    Halo
    Happiness
    Harmony
    HBCU
    Headshots
    Holistic
    Hollywood Fringe Festival
    Homeopathic
    Houston
    HR 40
    Ice Cream
    Immune System
    Influencer
    Injustice
    Inspiration
    Instagram
    Intersectionality
    Jack Nicholson
    Jazz
    Job Security
    Johnny Gill
    Justice
    Kamala Harris
    Kendrick Sampson
    Kerry Washington
    Kev On Stage
    Kiera Newsome
    Komono
    Korbin Bielski
    LA
    Learning Curve
    Leather
    Lena Waithe
    Line Hotel
    Liz Benoit
    Ln2 Pizza Shoppe
    Long Island
    Magna Cum Laude
    Mara Brock Akil
    Margie Haber
    Marianne Williamson
    Married
    Maserati
    Mastery
    Matrix
    Max Azaria
    Maxine Waters
    Meghan Markle
    Mel Mah
    Melody Ehsani
    Meryl Streep
    Michelle Kwan
    Mother
    Mother Theresa
    Natural Hair
    Netflix
    NFL
    Nicki Minaj
    Nikkolas Smith
    Ntozake Shange
    Olympics
    Opening Night
    Oprah Winfrey
    Orisha
    Paulo Coelho
    Peace
    Pearls
    Per Elisa
    Perfection
    Philosophy
    Photo Shoot
    Pink
    Poetry
    Poison
    Portos Bakery
    Prescription
    President
    Prince Harry
    Productivity
    Psychology
    Publicity
    Q&A
    Quarantine
    Queer Eye
    Qurantine
    Red Carpet
    Rehearsal
    Rejection
    Relationships
    Reparations
    Resistance
    Royal Wedding
    Sag-aftra
    Salton Sea
    Self-isolation
    Serena Williams
    Sheku Kanneh Mason
    Shemar Moore
    Shondaland
    Shopping
    Short Film
    Sickness
    Singing
    Snow
    Stephanie Sigman
    Steps
    Stiletto
    Strawberry
    Street Style
    Stunts
    Style Report
    Sussex
    SWAT
    Taye Diggs
    Teaching
    Teamwork
    Technique
    The Alchemist
    The Apollo
    Theatre
    The Crown
    The Goddesses Guide
    Time
    To-do
    Trailer
    TresLA
    Tristan Bailey
    Twitter
    Uniqlo
    Vanessa Crocini
    Vera Wang
    Victorious
    Viola Davis
    Vote
    Wayne Shorter
    Wedding
    Will Smith
    Womanhood
    World Premiere
    Xonr8
    Yahna Harris
    Yara Shahidi
    Yoruba
    Youtube
    Yusef Brewster

    RSS Feed

Copyright 2021 Enisha Brewster. All Rights Reserved.
  • Home
  • Bio
  • Gallery
  • Reels
  • Blog
  • Retouching
  • Contact Me
  • Social Media
    • Instagram
    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn
  • CLING