Laurie Strickland is an award-winning actress, singer, poet and producer/director, based in New York City and London. Her latest production, A New York Carol, Everyone’s Carol, presents the “original classic text as well as the humanitarian message of Charles Dickens’ beloved A Christmas Carol through a re-imagined presentation free of the conventional bonds of period and place to truly become Everyone’s Carol.”
Laurie was our 2015 November Wildcard Fellow. She was working on a play and screenplay about Charles Dickens and Urania Cottage, a place he created for fallen women.
1. How Do You Know You Are a Writer?
Well, it’s the first thing I ever did as a little girl. I would write poems. My grandmom was an English teacher on one side of the family and the other were farmers who never got to finish high school but loved learning and reading. Everyone else was an artist of some kind and while I have done different mediums writing was the first one. When I did not know what else to do, I would and still do, pick up a pen and face the blank page.
2. How Does one Become a Director, Actress and Writer?
Gosh anything to do with art of any sort is so inspiring to me and make my heart so full, I could answer these questions for pages!
So the short version is, after all this journey and grad school training and “school of life”, I feel it is so simple really….
“Be” it by “doing” it. Be it.
Make/create something and learn. Be a contribution. It’s never too late or early to dive in.
Create the life you want to create and be what you want to be. Pick up the pen and write, and the same with acting/directing/producing… create a production or pick up a script and start working on scenes. Be of service with what you love to do.
You can take classes and such, which is great but really, I am the same actor I was before I got training and directing, I have learned the most by doing it.
Believing in yourself, as cliché as that can sound, and owning your vision is key.
3. What is Creativity to you? What is your Creative Process?
Creativity is my favorite thing… and I feel that all of life is creative and artistic… the way we make a cup of tea, the way we love someone or paint a shutter… and then there is making art of some kind…
For me, creativity is deeply spiritual.
Each project and medium have there particulars for me… like when I am acting in a project or if I am directing something… but really, I always have and still do love to weave together art forms… so let’s say I am creating a film: I will create a visual inspiration board and find the right music that fits to write to..it’s poetry to me and it’s also a great deal about silence and listening… I find these days I love to have a lot of quiet space to create from.
I love to dig into a project and really riff… really not force it to be a product but be in the process and let it breathe and evolve. There is always time for shaping it later and editing.
4. What is Inspiration or Inspirational to you? How Do You Live an Inspired Life?
Life is inspiring to me.
When I am really consciously connected, I can be inspired walking down the street or in a fancy art gallery.
People inspire me as well. Each person is a universe, a canvas of sorts and I can learn from and be inspired by anything.
Anything can inspire me… “simple” or “little” things although I think everything is a miracle when I am connected to life and really present. Nature is always amazing, music, someone’s story, being of service, architecture and I love to travel… really getting into a city or country and discovering new things.
Sometimes just having a cup of coffee and writing in a coffee shop window is like an art gallery…
I feel very passionately about creating a life, a day at a time that is inspired, connected and true for me.
Some days that comes easier than others but in general I do. I love my life and feel it is a gift and a creation as well. And even if the light feels low some days, it is still there and anything is possible.
And breath… breath is where inspiration comes in for me and taking space to get still.
5. What Advice Would You Give to a Young Actor, Director, Writer?
‘To thine own self be true”. As a young actor, I would sometimes wait for folks to approve of me or tell me who I am and what I am creating has value. And I am very grateful for the amazing mentors I have had.
But, at some point I learned, sometimes the hard way, to trust my heart, my gut instinct and vision for something be it a character or a project, etc.
Trust yourself and you don’t have to fit in a box or define it all of the time. Like, when I was little, I used to make shows in the back yard… I would act in them, write them, paint the sets, produce them, create the music and cast them.. the whole deal.
Then I went to school and felt I had to pick one only. So I did that but actually, what I love most, is to create shows… film, TV, theatre and collaborate to weave together a tapestry of something.
So, full circle, my greatest “success” has come from doing what I love most and weaving it all together.
Trust yourself and enjoy each part of the journey and learning the craft.
6. How Did You Know You Needed to Come on a Retreat?
I had been feeling it for a long while… I have been working on a big project that I created with a wonderful team for the past four years, non-stop.
It grew so fast… we went from Harlem with an idea, to two countries and so much development work alongside the creative, long long days and while all a blessing, really felt my cup needed filling.
I usually try to take space as I can but I had known for a while that I truly needed some space to recharge and work on some other projects as well.
It’s a great story, how I found La Muse… I was in New York researching a new film I am creating called “Urania” and was up late one night researching for it and typed in Urania and up popped your website and the link to the room you have by the same name!
I also loved the founding story of La Muse, the beauty of the house, France, loved what you have created, the heart/philosophy of why you did and the freedom here to create and get still.
7. What Is the Difference Between La Muse and a Writing Course to You?
Most of all I love that La Muse is not a writing course and you have space to work on whatever you want.
It truly asks you to get with yourself and your brush, pen, paper, paints, music and so forth and create… wait, walk, rest, and so forth.
The name belies the spirit… the Muse will come if you give her time and space to inspire you however and whenever she does.
Courses and classes are great and they are everywhere. La Muse is very special and unique and if you have all that training, cool, here is a place you can apply your craft.
I am a huge fan of freedom myself and find that structure comes in another way this way…
8. Can You Give Us One Word to Describe Your Retreat?
Miraculous.
9. What was the one thing you didn’t pack that you wish you had?
Funny enough, truth is I have been so happy and fulfilled here I really discovered I need so little to be deeply happy.
10. What’s Been Your Eureka/Transformative Muse Moment?
There have been many transformative moments in my La Muse tapestry… including coming here in the first place… conversations with artists, sunsets and such…
But , I think sitting in NYC, a little teary thinking how much I would love to write this film called “Urania” in your “Urania” room and then seeing that manifest so easily and quickly blew me away.
Daily, I sit in there writing thinking wow, here I am writing the film in this room after dreaming about it… anything is possible. What a Eureka moment about vision and what is possible.
The walks are a close second… going to the source to get water always feels so special and metaphorical.
We come to the source to fill the well!