The Voice Actors Studio turns 3! Happy Birthday, TVAS!
What do Valentine’s Day and The Voice Actors Studio have in common? Chocolate? Sweetness? Cupid striking? These are true statements, but no, not the answer I was looking for! On 2/14/15 TVAS opened their doors in Henderson, NV and held their very first workshop! How sweet is that?! Almost as yummy as a heart-filled box of chocolate!
I was nervous, excited, & giddy! Would anyone show up?! I had faith.
In 2010 I started hosting a pro-workout group for my voice-over-talent-friends. We had converted our formal living room into my home studio. A way better use of space! Who wants fancy furniture no one is allowed to sit on anyway? 😉
Our workout group continued to grow… Camaraderie, food, script reading, character building. Who wouldn’t love all that, right? Exactly! People were showing up and bringing friends! Their friends brought friends! I found myself not only facilitating a group for my peers, but many up-and-coming talent started to reach out asking for help too, so I held a few workshops for beginner’s. Everything unfolded from there. Mentoring/coaching wasn’t even a “plan” for me. My day was already packed to the gills as a full-time voice actor! Sharing what I knew and loved was just a natural evolution of helping others and paying it forward. I remembered how I felt when I attended my first voice acting workshop. So excited! So many questions! So much passion! I didn’t know ‘how’ I would become a full-time voice actor I just believed I would. Sometimes you just need to set the ‘how’ aside and trust the process. You need to dig in and do the work. Build your skills. Lean on the people who have ventured through “Creative-Territory” and be patient with yourself. Your way to success will reveal itself along the way. I don’t know two voice actors who have had the exact same journey.
I led voice over workouts and workshops out of my home studio for five years. Then one day 36 people showed up for a workshop! 36! Our home was bursting at the seams! That was the day Troy and I had to ask ourselves the question… Do we take things to the next level and find a commercial space or do we just stop doing this all together? The thought of NOT bringing these wonderfully talented people we loved so much together made our hearts feels so heavy. We both felt a huge responsibility to our voice over community-and friends to provide them with a proper HOME. A safe place to learn, grow, share wins, a special place to lift one another up when we needed lifting.
Being a voice actor isn’t easy. We create, emote, we put ourselves completely out there. Over and over and over again. We can get lonely at home standing in our little padded rooms talking to ourselves – wearing our straight-jackets… I mean pajamas! 😉 We NEED each other. We need our peers to support us when we second guess ourselves, when we land our dream gig, when we don’t know how the hell to trouble-shoot our technology or tackle an issue that pops up unexpectedly. Sometimes we just need a hug from someone who had the same kind of day we did! Few people in our lives truly understand precisely what the life of a voice actor entails. They think they do, they try to… but at the end of the day the love we share for our craft, our determination, and our fighting spirit to follow our dreams is the special bond that weaves us together so tightly. Our triumphs and trials along the way… we share them ALL. Every last one of them. We are all in this together.
This is why The Voice Actors Studio was born, and why I’ll never-ever-ever give up on you, your dreams or your talent. <3
Happy almost Valentine’s Day, Voicers! TVAS turns 3 years old next week!