Six years ago,
Justice Woman was only a domain name. Growing up a fan of Batman and Wonder Woman, I figured Justice Woman would be a cool name for
my alter ego, a lawyer superhero. At the
time, I didn’t know what I was going to do with the domain name or with the rest of my life.
I had recently graduated law school and had a
judicial clerkship lined up, a position that most would feel lucky to have
straight out of law school, but I was miserable. I had given up on my dreams of being a
performer to pursue a path of so-called “success.” My spirit was slowly
dying. I reneged on my clerkship, but
being unemployed was not the best alternative so, I stuck it out as
a lawyer. Never one to take well to
authority and having an entrepreneurial spirit, I sought to find my own way as
a solo practitioner. It was then that I
experienced the genesis of Justice Woman. Without divulging specifics, hanging a
shingle was an eye opening experience as I got to see firsthand how our legal
system and the people in charge of it can work for both good and bad under the
guise of the law. I
wasn’t limited to the experiences of others; I too endured my share of
injustices and disappointments enough to want out of the practice of law and back
into acting.
While studying at the American Academy of
Dramatic Arts, I began writing short plays thanks to the encouragement of one
of my acting teachers, Pamela Scott. For
some reason, dialogue just seemed to flow easily out of my head and onto the
page (not sure what that says about me, but I think there’s a prescribed pill
for that). I quickly moved onto writing
screenplays, mostly out of necessity; I needed an actor reel to showcase myself. However, putting a reel together
proved strenuous as I found myself hounding down directors to get copies of
films I had performed in. I figured with
all the energy I was expending, I might as well write and film the story for Justice Woman, which had been percolating
in the back of my head this whole time.
As I wrote JusticeWoman, a series of tumultuous events were happening throughout the world
that fueled my desire to write not just on my behalf, but also on behalf of
others who had suffered some form of injustice. I began writing about the many unfair things
that exist in our society pertaining to discrimination, homophobia, immigration, double standards, sexual hypocrisy, class power, political
corruption and so forth. Those became
the issues that I wanted to tackle in JusticeWoman. However, I took to heart
Oscar Wilde’s saying that “if you want
to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you” and put
a humorist twist to my writing with remarkable results.
What had started out
solely as a domain name gradually took the form of a short screenplay that grew
to surpass the length of a feature film, which had to be parsed into a
series. A series that could go on into
infinity because “[a]s long as justice and injustice have not terminated
their ever renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human
beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the
other” –John Stuart Mill. If history
serves as a precedent, the battle for justice is ever ongoing.
As for directing, it became obvious that I needed
to direct the series because as the writer I already had a vividly clear vision
of how the story should unfold. Besides,
in the words of Woody Allen, “[t]his is not quantum
physics. If you’re the writer of the
story, you know what you want the audience to see because you’ve written it. It’s just common sense. It’s just storytelling, and you tell it.” However, directing and acting at the same
time is challenging. Therefore, I’ve
been very fortunate to rely on the support of collaborating directors who have helped
keep my vision of Justice Woman
intact.
Six years later and I have found more than a purpose for a domain name
in Justice Woman; I have found my
purpose. I am truly happy with the
incredible work the cast and crew have done on the series and eagerly look forward to sharing JusticeWoman with everyone when it premieres October 4, 2012 online at http://www.JusticeWoman.com
MAY JUSTICE PREVAIL!!!
