We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Pamela Jayne Morgan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Pamela Jayne, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
Hard to point to a “first time” since Little Pamela had big dreams very early on. I took ballet, pointe, tap and jazz. Started buying 45 records (remember those?) when I was eight years old and listened to them over and over to learn the lyrics. I can still sing every song (and have ALL my 45s and albums). As an only child, I spent so much time listening to music, voraciously reading books and teleplays published in the now vintage Scholastic SCOPE Magazine, making up skits that I performed along with a group of kids for a paying audience (our family and friends), dressing up my cousins and lip synching to the currents hits of the day with our family as a thoroughly entertained audience… the list goes on. I was an entertainer from Day 1.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Again, I have to go back to my formative years to answer this question. I discovered the glory of theater as a teenager and was inducted into my high school’s Hall of Fame for Drama. From there, I got involved in community theater, voiced commercials for a local radio station, wrote a full-length stage musical (as an employee of the Fall River Office of Tourism, MA) about the history of my hometown, worked as a Media Communications Specialist for golf titans Titleist and Foot-Joy, developed into a multi-media producer and copywriter with a communications company, wrote (and directed) a script with elementary school students (“Purple Pancakes & Jam”), taught 2nd and 3rd graders the grand jazz moves of the Roaring 20s as part of a schoolwide arts theme, founded a theatrical dance and acting studio, co-founded and was a play director for a non-profit organization that stages musicals in elementary and middle schools, and finally got back onstage myself in 2009 before diving into the Boston film/TV/commercial/industrial scene and then the New York film and television market. As you can see, my route was somewhat circuitous, but I have always brought my creative energy to my work on- or offstage, and in front of or behind the camera. That’s the thread that runs through my career path and it’s one that continues to serve me well when it comes to script and story ideas, instilling a love of performing in young people, operating my acting career as a business, and bringing authenticity to every role I embody.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Actually, this current leg of my creative journey has been quite reliant on both social media connections and the online availability of classes, auditions and callbacks, keeping in touch with industry professionals, table reads, etc. This is a whole different world compared to when I first started acting, way before the internet, cell phones and their video capabilities were the norm. The communication, marketing, learning, socializing, job-hunting, etc., made possible by technological advances is truly incredible. The resources and access to them is limitless and it behooves us all, no matter our career path, to use them to their fullest. If you’re not computer savvy, level up, no matter what your age.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
I met Wendy Braun, founder of Actor Inspiration, in January 2020, and immediately signed up for her online program “Success Breakthrough Workshop,” which started that February. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic. Film and television production came to a standstill, auditions were nonexistent, and, as an actor trying to manage and grow my business, I was stuck like everybody else. Wendy’s program was a game changer for me. Not just for its acting-related content but, perhaps even more so, for its attention to and incorporation of MINDSET in my work and everyday life. I practiced silencing my inner critic, clearing out clutter in my life, trusting the Universe to give me what I can manage when I am ready, and preparing myself to receive abundance. This course, literally, changed my personal, spiritual and business lives.
When it comes to books, aside from the acting “bibles” by Tim Phillips (Audition for Your Career, Not the Job), Larry Moss (The Intent to Live), and Michael Shurtleff (Audition), I highly recommend The Art of Auditioning by Rob Decina, Bryan Cranston’s A Life in Parts, and The Actor’s Life by Jenna Fischer. And must reads, in my opinion, for any human include Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson, Mike Nichols: A Life by Mark Harris, and Malcolm Gladwell’s brilliant Outliers.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.PamelaJayneMorgan.com
- Instagram: @pamelajaynemorgan
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pamelajaynemorgan/
Image Credits
Headshot: Douglas Gorenstein