We recently connected with Elizabeth Conway & Frankie Maclaughlin and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Elizabeth Conway & Frankie MacLaughlin, thanks for joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?
This question is really interesting, because we both work two full-time jobs; our jobs as creatives and our day jobs. If there’s anything we’ve learned in the past seven years of creating together, your full time job as an artist is trying to find a balance between making the art you want and making your rent. You’re always going to be working a million jobs to make ends meet, you’re constantly going to be searching for the perfect balance between flexible/financially sustainable, and you’re inevitably going to be working nonstop, all hours, for very little money to make the film/show/sketch/content you want to! It never stops, and there’s never a perfect solution! It’s literally all about somehow making it work – we often think about Michael Scott’s self-help book “Somehow I Manage;” any creative can boil their life down to that titular phrase. If you love it enough, you’ll always figure it out! Everyone goes through periods of feeling like you’re really striking it hot as an artist, and then feeling like you’re leaning into your day job. It’s totally okay (and necessary!) to need to take time to focus on making a living and making ends meet. It always comes together in the end, and working a day job – and needing to sustain yourself- does not EVER make you less of an artist. We frequently remark how lucky we feel to have passions outside of the 9-5 life, and dreams beyond a day job. We have big goals and are always willing to roll up our sleeves, work around schedules, and do whatever we need to do to make it all work. We Zoom in the mornings at 7 AM before work, and often dedicate nights, lunch hours, and weekends to getting our creative work accomplished. Somehow, we manage, and if you love what you’re creating, you will manage, too.
Elizabeth Conway & Frankie MacLaughlin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
All good friendships start by meeting in the bathroom! Elizabeth was auditioning for a musical that Frankie wrote back in the spring of 2018; she was running a little late, took the bus, and was slightly intimidated when she came face to face with Frankie in the Broadwater restroom that Sunday morning. Elizabeth sang a Lady Gaga song and walked out, having had fun but not expecting to get the part. Frankie called Elizabeth and offered her a role the week later, and they enjoyed their first collaboration together, 2018’s SUGAR! in the Hollywood Fringe Festival. After that production, Elizabeth and Frankie continued to collaborate together, and since then, have created plays, TV pilots, films, and musicals. Our first film, CLEAN UP CREW had a successful festival run (Big Apple Film Festival, NoHo Cinefest, and KINO Film Festival were highlights!) their show #CANCELLED won several awards as both a Hollywood Fringe show and as a pilot, and we recently wrapped our latest musical, WHY THE BAND BROKE UP! at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. We’re currently in post for another short film, PRINCESS PARTY P.I., starring Allison Dunbar, Jake Robards, Mia Frampton, and Elizabeth Conway, with a release slated for 2025. In 2024, Elizabeth and Frankie opened their production company, Less Precious Productions LLC, a full service production company with an exciting slate for 2025. As co-CEOs of Less Precious Productions, we’re able to flourish in our respective creative passions through our projects: Frankie directs, Elizabeth acts, and they both write and produce. The name “Less Precious Productions” comes from their creative philosophy: when we’re less precious about our ideas, we’re more inspired to create. We employ a “no bad ideas” ethos, and we’ll try anything once. We’re champions of ours and others’ works, and you can catch us somewhere in Hollywood, cheering you on.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
In June 2019, We created a play called #CANCELLED for the Hollywood Fringe Festival that did exceedingly well, and even received an encore award with additional show dates added. Riding off that success, we decided it would be worthwhile to adapt this play into a pilot episode for a television show. It was our first time shooting anything, so there was a lot that we didn’t know and a multitude of things we needed to learn in order to pull this off. We had fundraised enough by February 2020 to effectively plan for an April shoot – little did we know the global pandemic would hit, decimating this opportunity we had so diligently planned and prepared for. While we waited for the pandemic to end, we continued to develop #CANCELLED together. Eventually, the pilot script got to a place we were incredibly proud of, but didn’t have enough resources to honor the production this script now required. Still eager to shoot something, especially since we had funds in tact that were ready to be spent on something creative, we pivoted – that’s how our first film CLEAN UP CREW was born. We shot that in November 2021, and the film released early 2023. We always look back on this specific moment as a reminder of our resilience and malleability – both art and entrepreneurship require so much flexibility. Because of our willingness to adapt and change our plans, we ended up with a beautifully crafted pilot that is being shopped around by our agent, and a short film that aligned with the resources we had available to us at the time. Because of our ability to pivot, we learned so many valuable lessons that influenced our next short film, PRINCESS PARTY P.I. (which will start its festival circuit this September)!
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
Being a creative is actually very similar to being a Doctor or a Lawyer. Like Doctors and Lawyers, many hours and years are spent simply learning how to be an expert at it. Creative success does not come overnight – it comes from hard work, dedication, and commitment. Working on our company and our projects for the last 7 years has only made us stronger and more prepared for when our big moment comes looking for us. This experience has also taught us that we wouldn’t have been ready for that big moment 7 years ago – just like a Doctor wouldn’t be ready for open-heart surgery on their first day of med school. But we’re ready now because we’re closer to mastering our toolbox. The thing that makes being an artist so difficult is the unknown. There’s no ladder to climb, and there’s no obvious way in. The best thing you can do on this path is find other people like you and celebrate their wins – they’re your wins too because this is your community and the jobs and opportunities come from within this community. If you continue to tell the world that you are an artist, the world will see you that way. There are going to be people who certainly don’t understand, or think your energy is better spent elsewhere. There are going to be days where you even think that. But like anything, the only path to success is commitment and consistency.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lessprecious.com/
- Instagram: lessprecious_productions
Image Credits
Anysia Deák (other 2 photos)
Less Precious Productions, LLC (for featured photo, cancelled photo, clean up crew photo, bowing photo from the play and flom photo)