YoungArts

Rain shot off the roof at the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, Artist Housing, where I stayed last Saturday for the Woodstock Film Festival. The porch light shined powerfully, making it look like a curtain of silver party tinsel. Just a few hours before, I debuted Kendra Elliott’s film “Beatrice and Bob” in the festival. I play a title role, the character Beatrice. I began to think about how creative energy can be used like the electrical energy in that porch light, to illuminate stories and people in an instant.

The Woodstock Film Festival is connecting a-list performers, with emerging filmmakers and other industry professionals to share ideas which are affecting us now. One of them, Jeff Toolan told me about the practice of Fracking in Upstate New York, which may destroy the region’s water supply. Jeff believes fiercely in making an impact. He and others are using the power of entertainment to inform us and the “fiercely independent” Woodstock Film Festival is there to power the challenge and the change. Like YoungArts, WFF is connecting people through the arts, they are doing something great for all of us and I have tremendous gratitude!

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- Thea Samuelson is the recipient of NFAA’s Career Development Award and the Young Arts Scholarship Prize in Acting.

Blog by: Thea Samuelson