Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicholas Fox Robbins.
Nicholas, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
The Barelight Bears is a writer’s community that meets every week and is dedicated to the development of new work and the creative and professional growth of the writers creating that work. We have met every week for the past two years and are about to celebrate our two year anniversary.
The Barelight Bears are an eclectic group of writers with their own styles and interests but who all share a willingness to shine a light on the tenderness of humanity (Barelight) and a tenacity and ferociousness in our pursuit of creative storytelling (Bears).
The Bears are wild. We live fast and write hard. We party together, meet new writers, spread the love of our craft, and we also challenge each other to reach new creative and professional heights. We are a support group, first and foremost.
Has it been a smooth road?
Meeting every week for two years straight is not an easy task. It requires dedication, commitment, and focus. The same can be said for pursuing a career as screenwriters and playwrights. It is not easy to put your best effort into writing a project and then hearing your fellow Bears tell you that it can be better. It is not easy to submit your work and face many rejections. No, it has not been a smooth road, but it is the road that we are committed to. When we fail, we fail upward. The reason we are Bears is because of our unyielding dedication to the development of our craft and our careers.
What else should we know about The Barelight Bears?
A rising tide lifts all boats. A rising Bear lifts all Bears. Our individual success is our collective success and we support our members to pursue their careers in a way that is personal to them and also puts them in a position to prosper. We educate, nurture, and challenge one another to be the strongest storytellers we can possibly be.
The Barelight Bears are comprised of Ellen Steves, David Aguilar, John Everett Allis, Ashley Rose Wellman, and Nicholas Fox Robbins.
We have created unique processes that hone in on developing our craft in specific ways.
We have a special challenge that we call “Bear Baiting”, where the member writers must complete a new script in a single week. It is a wild marathon where nothing else matters but writing, writing, writing. Most recently, the Bears were challenged to write new television pilots in one week. Once they were written, we helped one another refine the work, then we cast a group of talented actors and held public readings at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica to share the work, celebrate the process, and build our brand. After another round of refinement, we’ll be developing pitch decks for these projects and sending them to managers, agents, and producers.
We go beyond our own members to support the work of guest writers in what we call our “Three Hour Residency.” Guest writers are invited to join us for a Three Hour Residency where we dive into their work and creative process in whatever way is most helpful to them, whether it be setting up a reading with actors to hear the work out loud or workshopping the story structure in a smaller group.
The Bears are sharp-minded and critical but also kind and supportive. And we always party.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Television continues to trend toward great writing and storytelling. It’s been said that it’s the playwright’s medium, and what is meant by that is that writers who focus on strong character development, sharp dialogue, and finely crafted story structure are continually finding their home as television writers. With streaming and binge-watching taking over, this will only become more prevalent. There will be a lot of bad stories produced, but people will never stop appreciating good storytelling.
Movies are sort of going in the opposite direction. It’s a producer’s medium focused on spectacle. That being said, we love spectacle and will continue to write feature scripts, however, our collective focus seems to be on writing for television and the stage.
Pricing:
- Three Hour Residencies are FREE. All that is required is dedication to your craft and a willingness to grow (and patience because our calendar gets full).
- Barelight Membership moves at a slow pace.
- Our public readings are also free. We will make our money as television writers. In the meantime, we want to share our work with everyone.
Contact Info:
- Phone: 213 308 3039
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @TheBarelightBears
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Barelight-Bears-444735879666501/?view_public_for=444735879666501
Image Credit:
Photos by Philip King
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