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Sam Prince 0:05 Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a great actor on stage or television? Do you wish you had an acting coach to help you get to the next level? Or maybe you just have a great idea for a movie series are played but aren't quite sure where to start? Well, you are in the right place my friend. My name is Sam Prince and I am the director of a production company here in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and have been an actor for over 30 years. I've directed and written plays, and screenplays and taught many acting classes. This podcast is your place to learn how to move forward with your career in acting, theater, film, playwriting, screenwriting, and much more. There will be inspiring conversations with special guests as well. So welcome to the creative torium podcast, and action. All right, welcome back to the creativity dorium. We are here again with my friend, Michael Travis. How are you sir? Unknown Speaker 1:28 Hey, I'm good. How you doing my brother? Sam Prince 1:30 Good, man. Good, good. Good. Well, let's talk about both black and beautiful man that that show was really great man. Unknown Speaker 1:38 Oh, glad you liked it. Glad you liked it. It was a it was a labor of love, man. You know, we started we started writing it and trying to put together coordinating it with a consortium of musical directors, artistic directors, actors. And executive director from Civic Theater. We started it back in December of last year. And it was flat. It was supposed to go up. Yeah. For Juneteenth. We were supposed to, you know, try to have it ready for Juneteenth and things just didn't follow through. Auditions, you know, auditions, people that just freshly auditioned for the summer shows coming up summer. Right, bills come bills coming up. And we didn't get it. We didn't get it ready in time. So we bought it off in October. And it was it came off really good. labor of love, historical look at our music man and how it affects how it has affected black people as a whole, you know, throughout history is just a historical look of the joys and pains of you know, what the music has helped us through what it represented. And, you know, the positivity and the, you know, the emotional support that music provides for us. So we, we didn't get all of it in. But we you know, we got to start a police be linear and Yeah, sort of program sort of a program. Sam Prince 3:07 Yeah. Yes. And it was at the Grand Rapids civic there just a few weeks ago. Unknown Speaker 3:14 Yeah. And into 17th, I Sam Prince 3:17 think. Right? Yep. Yeah. That's almost a month ago. Yeah. No. But it was, is it? It's an original show? Is it? Written? Right? Unknown Speaker 3:33 It's original show? Yeah, that was the that was the labor. The Labour Party, you know, a couple of us did the love pass, maybe three of us did some writing. Pretty much all the writing for it with Lisa Knight doing the majority. She also directed it. But yeah, we did. All the, you know, all the writing the narrative narration, we put that all together. And the music, like I said, we went through probably, if we had added all that music together, I bet it would have been at least five hours worth of music that we had to choose from. And we had to choose down to like between 16 and 20 songs. So a couple 100 songs easy that we, you know, we sifted through to try to get it, you know, to congeal and that's fine. For program you know, so yeah, yeah, we started almost close to a year ago, and put it on. Yeah, original, original show Sam Prince 4:33 original show. That's awesome. Yeah. And you said it set some records too, right. Like Unknown Speaker 4:42 as far as we know, you're I sit on the board of directors for a civic and we looked at the numbers, but there was you know, it's it's kind of shaky to talk about the records because it's, you know, it's COVID it's COVID records you call it records, right. You can set attendance records with When you came home for house, you know, right? But it was, yeah, they we did good. I put it like it showed, it showed how much participation you can get from the black community or community of color because we did, you know, had some Latino x performance at natural. We had a lot of people come to that show that is not your traditional theater goers at Civic Theater. And you know, at Civic. So what we did is what we set out for it to do is to show what can happen when you put on production of black production? And it's not to say, I have never done it before. It's just that the publicity got out, you know, a little more community outreach this time. So we did it didn't set records, per se, but it did set a precedent, you know, of what? Yeah, Sam Prince 6:01 right. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Well, great, man. Hopefully, there's more on horizon with that, you know, like theater, black music, you know, it's, it's gonna just need to grow Unknown Speaker 6:20 out there. And it's got to and you know, like, well, I know, you and I both have grown the same accord with that, you know, how we want to get that done. And I think it's a step in the right direction to make an attempt to be more intentional in your efforts to do so we will get it going. And not only that, this show in itself, has still got some momentum going. We've been asked to probably put it back on again in February, you know, for black ears. Awesome. You don't worry about when we pull that little nasty month out of the bag every year. We've been asked to do it for February as well. So Sam Prince 7:00 yeah, yeah, I know. I don't go. Alright. So we'll look for that in February. Yeah. So I remember when we first talked, and in our first episode, he was saying how you got started acting like in church, and he was like, four or five, right? Unknown Speaker 7:19 Yeah. And I said, Man, because I look back and it had to be about that, because I can remember being taught my speeches. It's what they were, it was a performance because you're standing up on that little spot up in front of the church by yourself and you speaking something that you've learned that performance, you know, so yeah, I was probably four or five and I don't even think I was reading, reading it myself. When I first started. I think I was just being told what to say you don't like one or two lines, whatever. And you do it. Yeah. We we did that in our church, man. Sam Prince 7:58 That's great. That's great. So flashback to now you feel money agent out there to the world. But you said you're 64 right now right Unknown Speaker 8:08 Zags right there. I'll be 65 Sam Prince 8:11 by April so see, Unknown Speaker 8:13 you put it out there man. I'm glad to be able to sit here and hear that Sam Prince 8:20 Amen row a bit. So we're talking 60 years of acting, wow, performing. At you've done you know, on and off, you know, yeah. So man, what what kind of advice when would you give to someone out there who who also wants to be out in the game for 60 years and and still be doing it? Unknown Speaker 8:47 It's a you don't wait and like I wish I could take credit for all 60 years as a performer but that's just where I got the introduction you know, from family you know, singing in tradition and church being church goers and participants and those serve you know, Easter and Christmas. But I guess what I would have to say is it's a love man it's a it's a kind of a Saito, my first I'm gonna call him an icon person looked up to him I'm calling my icon out of love got out of like, because I didn't really I didn't really like Cedric worth that much at first, you know, but there was always a love and and respect for him. Yeah, and we we had, you know, once we got to know each other, I quickly liked him as well. It was just that he was the kind of director that he would look at you tell you exactly what you are, what he thought what he saw. And you know, everybody can't take that. But he always said that acting is a sadomasochists endeavor. You know, if you want to do it, you got to be able to want to be out there, but you also got to be able to take some butt kicking, as far as criticism and people not liking you, not accepting you and not accepting what you're saying, even if it's a good performance, they don't like it. So you gotta gotta have a, you got to you do it, it's got to be when I think about it, you don't you, you want to be out there because you have a gift. And you know, you have a gift. But you also, you know, you want some affirmation, and you don't always get it. So you got to be willing to accept that, but kicking that you go and get So sure, it's one of those things that and it has to be both. So it has to be a love, it has to be something that you got to have thick skin for, it's something that you got to have a real persistent Oh, God, I don't even know what to call it, you got to you got to be willing to give up a lot. As far as if you want to really do? Well, when you're on stage, you got to it's a dedication, that's probably the word I wanted to look for. Yeah, it's got to be a persistent and consistent dedication to to a craft to, because you got to know you got to work to the place that you want to say I want to do it perfectly. I want to get each and every word that I'm supposed to say. And I want it to be said effectively enough that everybody gets something out of each and every word that I say, or that you say as a character. So it's a love, it's something that you got to not only want to do, but know that you can do well. And I'm not saying I'm not saying that there's only a certain few people that could do it. Because I see people acted all the time, every single day in some form, you know, oh, there's a willingness. So I would just say if there's a love and an interest in data, get in it in acting, get in it. And I think once you do, I don't even know that that's anything that I could give as advice to make you stay there, you're just gonna stay there, you're not if it bites you, if it makes you right, you're gonna stay cuz it's gonna drag you back, it'll draw you back. Sam Prince 12:13 I want to help every single one of you achieve your dreams. Whether it's acting, screenwriting, play, writing, play producing, whatever it is, I just want to help you. So go to Sambre dot productions, that's Sambre dot productions, sh M, br and click on available classes and you'll see every single possible classes you can take to fulfill your needs. And if I can help you achieve your dream. How cool is that? Remember Sambre dot productions. See you there Yeah, Unknown Speaker 13:02 I don't I don't know if this was on the last one or not. But it just was a nice segue from being an athlete from sports to stage for me because yeah, that practice and you know, consistency that you work for you work for action as an athlete, not just a what do you wait, work to be the best you can but in your mind, you want to do whatever it is perfectly. That's That's true. That's how you succeed as an athlete, but the same thing and for performance, you know, you work for and you don't always get there. You think they're very rarely do you get there, you probably don't. It's just that it comes out. It comes out well for whoever is perceiving it or watching it or being entertained by it. So there's just a love, man. It's no, you know, there's no advice or suggestion. You can give anybody when you get out there and you like it, and you'd love it. And you don't you've had some success with it. You can go back and do it again. Yeah, that's, I guess, Sam Prince 14:06 my advice. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's all great advice. You know, I mean, this is some what you set up? I mean, you gotta have to love first, you know, or else. Don't do it. No, no, sure. You got that? Yeah, yeah. And then make sure you can take your licks and criticisms, Unknown Speaker 14:29 that thick skin, get a quick to you gotta watch it. Ah, it's funny. Whenever I do shows with people that haven't done it before. And that's the beauty of community theater, too. You get a lot of those people that have never stepped on stage before, or even knowing what a rehearsal process looks like. But you see those people depending on who the director is, they're not going to, they're not gonna sugarcoat anything for him. They're not gonna make those blows any less just because it's your first time they might say, I know it's your first time but that's You got to do that. You got to do that. I got to be able to, you know, you got to understand what you're trying to say. So that's the beauty of it. And you got to get that thick skin fast to be able to take stuff like that. You don't want to be that kind of criticism. Yeah. Sam Prince 15:16 Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure. And there's gonna be a lot of nose. Oh, Unknown Speaker 15:22 there's so many knows that you? It doesn't they stop stinging after a while, right, right. Or maybe they don't stop stinging, they stopped hurting. You know, you get to know. And it's like, oh, shoot, I wanted that. And then you got to go on. You got to move on. Yeah, go Sam Prince 15:37 on. Exactly. Exactly. And then the last thing you said is just the persistence, man for persistence to perfection. I mean, that you got to have that too. Because if you're not, you're not trying to get good. Ain't nobody gonna catch you. Unknown Speaker 15:55 If you're not trying to get better. I mean, it's done. He was good. You probably start off good. You know why other people do good. But if you call himself an actor or performer, you you don't want to just be good. You want to be exceptional? And I don't know. Yeah, that's ego. I know that's ego driven. But it's also if you have that in you, that means that it's a gift that you were blessed with something to make you want to do that. So you go to shoot for the best you can good. People roll out of bed and do good, you know, right? Exactly. You want to do better and better and better and better and better. Yeah, Sam Prince 16:36 yep. Yep. Exactly. Well, great, man. Thank you for that. That is some good stuff. So now we're gonna play a little game as you gave me your eight favorite actors. Unknown Speaker 16:51 I hope I remember. I said it before, man. So let's have fluid. Listen. It's like actors are actors are easier than if you'd asked me my eight favorite shows. Ah, man, I couldn't have done it. I can't. If you give me a genre, I might be able to cut it down to like eight but Sam Prince 17:12 Right, right. Yeah, no, I know. I know. And that's why I tell every guest that this list definitely will probably change tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah, it never changed. But we're gonna do a low final eight. And we're gonna see who's your favorite actor actors? today. Unknown Speaker 17:32 Okay, all right. All right. Sam Prince 17:35 Sorry. So first, first round we got Delroy lindo. Again, Samuel Jackson. Unknown Speaker 17:44 Oh my God, why would you put up you'd like to people on the boys, man, you can put your best. Okay, what do Sam Prince 17:55 you get? You got to tell you. What was your favorite? Unknown Speaker 17:57 My favorite? My favorite out of those two? I guess. Okay, can I qualify why I'm gonna choose Delroy course. Okay, cuz he's not as well. No. He's not as a I don't want to say as well. No, he will be the underdog. And you don't mind? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Sam Prince 18:21 I mean, Jack to everybody knows. Unknown Speaker 18:23 Everybody knows who he is. He's everywhere. You say Delroy lindo. And there's a there's probably only about 75% of the people that would even have say, I've heard that name before. But maybe not know his work. You know? Exactly. Sam Prince 18:35 Yeah. Right. Or though? They'll see him on the screen, right? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I know. Unknown Speaker 18:43 Yeah, he's good. You don't say? Yeah, I know who he is. No, that's a boy. He's got one of my favorite lines of all time. Okay, he was he was frustrating. Satchel page. He was he was the he did set to pay. Yeah. And you don't hear God knows. And they called him up finally to to the pros to I don't want to say the pros because he was playing he really he was amazing. Forever. But he was probably, you know, early. He was like 50. And he finally got to pitch it a major league game. And coach asked me said he said are you warmed up? Satchel looked at me say I never cooled off. That is that is one of my favorite lines. Sam Prince 19:35 of work. That's great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that was a great movie. Unknown Speaker 19:45 Yes, it was. Sam Prince 19:46 I forgot that he played I forgot he played that to page. Yeah. Unknown Speaker 19:49 Yeah, yep. Yeah. He's asking, man, he's awesome. Go. Sam Prince 19:55 Yes. All right. Next bracket. Will Smith Denzel Washington to other Duffy's. Unknown Speaker 20:04 Oh my god, you send up some Yeah, well, this dude's oh man is Denzel just because of his craft his stage? Yes. When you when you get seen, I Will Smith did fall on acting. It was always in him. You could tell that. But you know, he was a musician. He was a rapper. So he got some note of some fame and notoriety through that first. Oh, yeah. But you don't exhausted his stuff on stage. Man. When you do that, that means that you've got the background and you've you've been intentional in virtue studies. And you you know, you learned your craft. You know, you weren't just, you weren't just good at your craft. You know, you learned it you studied in and you got all the intricacies of how to do it. So I got a vantage point. I definitely have to say, I do love. I do love well, he plays some powerful Sam Prince 21:05 roles. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. All right. All right. Next Unknown Speaker 21:10 one. Hey, wait. I can't I can't wait. I can't wait to see him again. Richard. You know what? Sam Prince 21:17 Yeah, right. Yeah. previews for that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, looks good. Yeah. All right. Now we got two ladies. Viola Davis, and Meryl Streep. Unknown Speaker 21:35 Okay. You can the I notice is going out to everybody, but I'm gonna say it anyway. I got a I'm gonna I think, I think do all this Millstreet for longevity. I'll put it like that. Okay. But I gotta say, I gotta say Viola Davis cuz she's black. She understands me. You know, I understand her. You know, but, and they're both great. Don't get me wrong. I'd have to say Moreau just because of her. Her credits, you know? Don't hurt her. Sam Prince 22:20 She'd been around. She'd been around a long time doing a lot of stuff. Unknown Speaker 22:24 Yeah, and Viola, Viola, once again, that stage they want you want you to do stand back. And but Meryl did too. So. I guess just because of longevity. I'd say that. Right. Sam Prince 22:38 Right. Because Viola just kind of came on the scene. Right. I mean, she. Polina just so you know, me. Unknown Speaker 22:46 Wow. She had been doing she'd been doing theater for a long time, man, you know, as I started, I think she started as, as a teenager, if I'm not mistaken. And I think I think she has at a theatrical educational background as well. Okay. Yeah. Those people, those people on that craft, man, they didn't, they didn't just say I want to do this. They weren't like, meaning just jump up and say, oh, I want to act. You know, just so they can do it. Door. Yeah, Sam Prince 23:20 yeah. Yeah. I guess. I guess what I'm saying like, Violet. came into the movie screen. Right. Like it read more recently. You know, I mean, yeah, that's Yeah, very true. Yeah. I didn't know about her background in theater and all that stuff. That's, that's amazing. Yeah, that makes sense. Because she is amazing. Unknown Speaker 23:43 Yeah. Yeah. I think that the help was her biggest one and Sam Prince 23:48 can help 1000 babies. Yeah. Unknown Speaker 23:50 And what kind of about the it was one about the Catholic Church. She was the mother of a boy that had been molested. I can't remember the name of that. It was so good. But I think that might have been her actual first. Well, major film maybe wants to impart I know for sure. I can't remember the show. Sam Prince 24:15 Okay, alright. Alright, so the last one. We got glade Chadwick Boseman. And Michelle Ali Unknown Speaker 24:34 gotta go chat with Megan once again. When you play when you play real life characters and you you picture that person being you know that Chadwick kind of transforms it to that person. Yeah. You know, he did Jim Brown he did Jackie Robinson. Yeah, they did. Well, his his last one the last time show that he did with my rainy, my rainy that was he was a real live, you know, real live person that he portrayed there. And then oh, the lawyer guy. He's just done some iconic characters and nailed them, you know, and you don't even think about that. That's Chadwick Boseman. Doing it, you don't think about them as that character. Oh, the football other football player. Done. God was his name for the Cleveland Browns. Losing it or name today, but yeah, he's played some, some icons ban and put you in that mindset of you know the any footage that you've ever seen of these people? You know, he pulled that off. So yeah. I would have to go with I'd have to go with Chadwick. And it's not just us to move past stupid asleep. Sam Prince 25:57 Right. Right. Yeah. Unknown Speaker 26:02 See? That's why. That's why Sam Prince 26:05 every day. Yeah. Unknown Speaker 26:08 There we go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I'd have to get that book ticket. Sam Prince 26:14 Okay. All right. Cool. All right. So now we got the Final Four. We got Delroy lindo. Against Denzel Washington. Unknown Speaker 26:30 Got it, sir. Go ahead, Denzel man. And yeah. And you know, he's in that Sam Jackson thing to me. The whole world knows Denzel, but also didn't sell. Even just like we talked about before a band Denzel always does didn't sell but that's always good enough. He knocks parts out. He just knocks him out. And you you can't ever find a flaw. There was only one movie that I did not like. And it wasn't because of his performance. I just didn't like the movie and that when he played the archive, what was the name of that thing? He was the he seemed like he was I'm not. He's artistic. I'm pretty sure it was artistic. But he played a lawyer. Sam Prince 27:20 I Oh, oh, yeah. Yeah, I know. Yeah. Yeah. The Afro and Unknown Speaker 27:26 yeah. Yes. It was weird. It was just a weird. Yeah. Yeah. But other than that, other than that, I've never seen a bad movie that he played. So that's gonna that's kind of hard to say about anybody, you know, but I Sam Prince 27:43 can't remember the name of that movie. I'm trying to think of the name of that movie, too. I had a weird name. Yeah. Yeah, Unknown Speaker 27:53 some eyes. Yeah. Sam Prince 27:54 Yeah, right. Okay. All right. Unknown Speaker 27:57 I'll take I gotta take him over. Delroy on that one. Sam Prince 28:01 Okay. All right. Cool. So then the other side, we got Meryl Streep against Chadwick Boseman. Unknown Speaker 28:10 I'm going with the brother man. I gotta go. Forget the longevity pay $1 I like that brothers acted, man. Sam Prince 28:21 Yeah, I know. I read something that Unknown Speaker 28:25 James. He did James Brown too. So Brown. And make people believe that that it was him. Yeah, you good? Sam Prince 28:35 How in the heck do you practice man James Brown man. Seriously, I I would be so nervous. So there with that, how do you Unknown Speaker 28:47 fam with that when I lose it just thinking? Am I gonna have to dance like that? Dude, Sam Prince 28:52 that's what I'm saying. Unknown Speaker 28:56 I'm not gonna be able to sing anything about James Brown could sing. I mean, if you listen to his voice, he was a good singer. Oh, oh, yeah. You may not understood what he was saying. But it was his voice. His voice was pretty amazing. Sam Prince 29:12 Yeah, yeah, he did. He did all that. Unknown Speaker 29:16 Yep. Yeah, he did all of it well, and the his you don't just as everyday Tonkin speaking voice heat now that to you don't when you see if you see James Brown on any interview, if you Google any interview that he's done, Bozeman Naka, he knocked him out. Sam Prince 29:37 Yeah. Yeah. All right. Okay, so then, here it is. The finals. They'd be down to the finals. We're down to the finals. We got Danzo. Unknown Speaker 29:54 Man, I would have I would have not wanted this to come out this way. But you know When you when you narrow it all down, you just got to do it, man. That's right. It's the best best against the best. He's gonna always be right there. So, like Lakers and Celtics? Yep. And 89 Yeah, yes, sir. I'd have to go with I gotta go with Denzel. Oh, man. All right. Yeah, he's what everybody aspires to. He's what everybody? Yeah, Sam Prince 30:29 for sure. For sure. All right. Joe is winner. Today. Unknown Speaker 30:34 You're the winner today great day by being somebody we talked about today. Sam Prince 30:44 So alright, so to wind this up, man, what's what's on your horizon now and creatively to do tomorrow. So what's what's what's happening? Unknown Speaker 30:57 Okay, there's, there's a couple of things. I know that I'm auditioning at Civic next season. And I can't. I mean, they just announced it yesterday. I think I wish this would the our recording of this would be by a two or three weeks from now when it's publicly announced, but I can't say, but I'm going to say I will be auditioning for Civic Theater next season. Right. Okay. And I will be auditioning for circle theater. They've got a few things coming up. They've got what's the name of it? Little Shop a horse. And I'll audition for that now. So have the Divas the diva show. And I don't know, I don't actually know if that's even been named. I don't know how to what if they give it a name to it. I think it's kind of a review. So I don't know that. There's those two. I want to audition for those too. So Sam Prince 31:58 alright, man. Yeah, Unknown Speaker 32:00 I wish I was. That was a if I was a younger man, I would throw my hat back in the ring for some on screen. You know, some major films. Yeah. Yeah. Because that was, that was a lot of fun when Michigan had that tax exemption for for movies to come here. That was a lot of fun. That little run under grant homes, watch as governor got to do three or four adults. We said something like that would come back or like I said, if I was younger, man, I might even pursue that. But I was that was too much that that's way too many notes for me. Sam knows no. Oh, Sam Prince 32:42 man. Right, right. That's all right, man. That's good. And you get the boat like and beautiful in February two. Unknown Speaker 32:51 Yeah, that's coming back. And people are still talking about one to pick that up. And if it does get picked up, I'll keep trying to. We'll probably keep trying to tweak it to to make it even better. Wherever we wherever whenever we do it. Yeah. All right, sir. Sam Prince 33:11 Well, listen, man, thanks so much for doing this with me. I appreciate it. Unknown Speaker 33:15 I love to sell. I like I like I like talking about being Sam Prince 33:23 right. favorite subject. Unknown Speaker 33:25 That's my favorite subject. Sam Prince 33:28 That's why I did this show. Because all actors like to talk about themselves. Unknown Speaker 33:33 And I hope I didn't talk too much. I hope you got no, you got enough of them. Maybe it's enough to get some out of Yeah, Sam Prince 33:44 exactly. That's that's the point. Good little tips. No. That's right. Yeah. Well, thank you, man again. And I appreciate y'all for listening. Thank you, Michael Travis. Welcome. He says Ben, it's been the creativity Torian podcast and like I like to end them off on the world stage. Hey, thank you for listening to the creativity Korean podcast. Again, my name is Sam Prince. And it is my honor to be your host and thank you so much for listening. I would also be honored if you could leave a review on Apple podcasts and say some nice things about what you just heard. And definitely please listen every week. We come out every Tuesday. Also, for more information about coaching classes, workshops, and upcoming productions, please check out our website Sambre dot productions. That's sh m b e r productions and you can also subscribe to our newsletter and remember all the words