Donna Benedicto: A New Generation of Actors
Focusing outside of yourself helps you thrive in this industry and helps you deal with so much and all the obstacles we face. https://media.blubrry.com/firstonlinewithfran/content.blubrry.com/firstonlinewithfran/Donna_Benedicto_Podcast.mp3 I'm a Filipina-Canadian singer-turned-actress who switched careers in order to champion Asian representation in film. I want to challenge the status quo and show the next generation of ethnically diverse artists that they can dream bigger than what the world tells them they can do. Donna Benedicto is a Filipina Canadian actress and singer born and raised in Vancouver, BC. Growing up as an ethnic minority, Donna decided to make a switch from full-time singing to pursue acting in 2013 because she saw a gap in Asian representation. Since then, she has gone on to become the first Filipina lead in multiple TV movies, including Incendo's Farmer Seeking Love, as well as guest starring on NBC's The Good Doctor, and booking recurring roles on CW's Supergirl and ABC's A Million Little Things. In addition to acting, Donna is currently working on her first original album and recently released two singles that appear in the Lifetime original movie Wrath. She is also an avid boxer and kickboxer, having trained for 4 years at various MMA gyms in metro Vancouver. Mustering the courage to be true to their own feelings, no matter what types of emotional and mental obstacles they face in their lives, can be a … [Read More...]
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Avra Sidiropoulou: Addressing an Age of Upheaval
Karen [Malpede’s] use of the play [Troy Too] happens in a most amazing and in a structurally brilliant way. She puts two goddesses that appear to teach us a lesson about how lives need to be re-configured. She also uses the story of The Trojan Women, a story of one nation turned against another, to […]
Theresa Chaze: Feisty Filmmaker
The [marginalized] community doesn’t want special treatment. They just want equality — to be who they are, to be respected for who they are. ~Theresa Chaze Telling stories that activate emotions helps audiences be open to new ideas. People can only change themselves. But until they experience the new they will remain stuck in the […]
Pamela S.K. Glasner: Fighting for Fairness
Pamela S. K. Glasner is a critically acclaimed published author of fiction and non-fiction, a filmmaker, a playwright, a social advocate. She is also a proud member of the Writer’s Guild of America, the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, the Connecticut Historical Society and Grace Episcopal Church. Additionally, she is a Registered […]
BAB On 3 Productions: Acknowledging Our Authentic Selves
We can acknowledge that we’re all damaged, we’re all broken. That doesn’t mean that we’re destroyed because beautiful things can grow out of damage. ~ Gina Dobson I’m exploring a me that I would have never known before. Women wear so many hats. How about wearing the hat that I want to wear! ~ Carla […]
The First 100 Stories Campaign
First Online With Fran: The First 100 Stories Campaign National Arts in Education Week, September 8 -14. In July 2010, Congress designated the second week of September as National Arts In Education Week to promote and showcase the immense role arts education has in producing engaged, successful, and college and career-ready students. To that end, First Online with Fran is launching The First 100 Stories Campaign. The Arts continue to be cut from school curriculums across the nation. Despite arts advocacy groups’ efforts to prevent the decline of arts inclusion, the budgetary solution remains to be that the arts are perceived as extra-curricular and disposable. In Chris Cleave’s novel Little Bee, the central character decided to right a wrong by collecting stories: “One story makes you weak. But as soon as we have one-hundred stories, you will be strong.” Similarly, we can do the same for the Arts. Here’s how: Let’s hear it from you: Teachers! Students! Graduates! Parents! … Submit Your Testimonial...
First Online with Fran 
Naomi McDougall Jones: Defying Gravity
I truly believe we are in an apocalyptic culture shift ; truly, an historical, multi-century, multi-millennial shift and in the last gasp of the white-supremacist patriarchal society. We are living through that moment…So, what I focus on these days more than railing against what has been, we had to tear the scales from people’s eyes: […]