Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Evans.
In a way, I’m still just doing what I did as a kid: being anywhere, and finding myself playing ‘The Pretend Game’, only now it’s happening through the lens of one of my favorite plays, which was part of our curriculum in high school (Thank you Toronto Public School Drama Teachers!) ‘Waiting For Godot’ by Samuel Beckett.
I extrapolate on its major themes in a modern context, using a miniature film format; existential longing, consumer consciousness, delayed desires. It really all began quite effortlessly about four and a half years ago when I was waiting at a bistro on Franklin Ave. in Hollywood for a Casting Director who was running late. Really, really late.
At the time, Vine was somewhat new, and I had a love-hate relationship with it. I actually intended on deleting it but, as I sat waiting for the CD, it occurred to me quite simply, “Ha, look at me, waiting for this CD like Godot, like their arrival is going to somehow fix my life, career….”
This has been my oft favorite frame with which to reference anything occurring in real time throughout my life; as though Beckett’s work implanted an ‘App of Awareness’ as it were, which, once opened in HS, never really closed.
As I thought that I quite simply thought ‘Imagine if I made a vine-like it was ‘Waiting for Godot’ and so I pulled a cheque stub out of my purse, wrote ‘Waiting for Godot’ on it, slipped it into the Happy Hour Menu stand and began to capture a sequence of simple shots exemplifying the impatience and anxiety I was feeling.
I kinda liked it, and so did fellow artists whose opinion I respect, and here we are… Number 1191 at the time of writing.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Is it ever? To be frank, when it’s smooth, it’s truly effortless, and I’m often in awe of how serendipitously time and circumstance will align for the most exciting, unplanned moments to be captured and consequently be cut to sequences of music which I use as the narrative. I often joke that Beckett’s Ghost won’t leave me alone, and so I keep going, but it’s somewhat true.
There have been so many times that I’m so exhausted, uninspired, feeling defeated by loss of daylight or time and there’s this feeling I get to pull over, stop whatever I’m doing, and shoot. And some of it happens in a non-linear fashion. Things I capture will turn into insert shots which will then juxtapose perfectly with another bunch of footage, in a way I can never plan linearly. I’ve relaxed into the truth of my process being more of a quantum puzzle piece assembler than anything else.
The hardest part of it all has been the shifts in the technology; Vine is long gone, obviously, and that pushed me to have a more polished voice and create in a longer format. I’ve gone through some harsh learning curves over the years with editing apps getting outdated and having to learn new ones. I’m currently getting used to implementing glitch apps which I love because I see them as being able to exemplify multidimensional realities which is like overlaying the quantum Godot’s we are waiting for whilst here in 3D; but I digress, I prefer the audience to pick that up intuitively instead of me spelling it out like that. Oops.
Lastly, I am a classically trained Actor who graduated from ‘The Julliard’ of Canada. Notice I didn’t say Film School, but here I am being called a Filmmaker by people who get paid to make and win awards for having been Filmmakers. That’s been not so much a learning curve as a relief. It’s a relief to have creative control. To know as I’m Directing myself, why I need to shoot it a certain way and then almost exactly how I’m going to edit it.
We’d love to hear more about what you do.
Born in Toronto to African parents, Lauren began performing and training as an actor at the age of five. Following the inevitable trajectory of many Canadian Actors, she graduated from George Brown Theatre school in 2001.
Working immediately and consistently on both stage and screen in Canada for several years brought her to a self-reflective standstill, upon which she took a 2-year hiatus to live and work as a Monk teaching Shin Sun Do, Meditation and doing energy healing: all to take her Self and her art to greater depths.
Upon returning to stage and screen in 2006, Lauren had the fortune of being selected for admission into an actor’s summer intensive, taught by Alec Baldwin in NY. There she received the mentoring moment needed to follow the impulse she had as a child. So here she is in Los Angeles, waiting for Godot, traffic to move, and working on a lot of other people’s films.
What sets me apart from others is that in Hollywood, Actors are constantly being told to create their own content to build their brand. I heard that advice and rolled my eyes. It felt so disingenuous; the opposite of everything I aim to be on screen and stage. Then, organically, I found myself living out the very advice I had resisted so ardently.
It finally came from within me, sincerely. And I really do want people to find solace in this project; frame by frame, shot by shot. Solace that I’m waiting just as brazenly for the various Godot’s I create in my mind, moment to moment; just like them.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I’m only half kidding. My childhood was not a cakewalk. But, I’d say the first time I was put on stage to perform at age five for Willowbrook Elementary School’s Holiday Concert. They made me the MC. I remember feeling so amazed that the Teachers saw my innate ability to be on stage.
I remember that moment like “How did they know I love doing this type of stuff?” Of course looking back, I understand—it was written all over me; I was so outgoing and a natural leader.
Contact Info:
- Website: laurenevans.ca
- Instagram: @yeslaurenevans
- Twitter: @yeslaurenevans
Image Credit:
Roman France
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
