UPCOMING EVENTS

Saturday, January 3
Shawn Tolleson
Design a Breakthrough 2009!

Most of us have goals we want to accomplish in the coming year. We have new year’s resolutions, dreams, and practical results we want to create.

One mistake people often make is that they don't put in place a meaningful and effective structure for fulfillment - literally, a structure to support the accomplishment of their dreams and goals.

Join Shawn Tolleson, filmmaker and career strategist, in a workshop on designing a breakthrough 2009. She has coached writers to securing TV staff writing jobs, directors to attaching star actors to their projects, and producers to securing financing and enrolling high-level producing partners for their projects, to name just a few accomplishments.

Come prepared to share the goals you are passionate about and you’ll leave with tangible tools for accomplishing them!

Shawn Tolleson Bio

Writer/Director/GRIT Founder. 2005 was a banner year for Shawn. In the August, she sold her romantic comedy pitch Down, Boy! to Warner Independent Pictures. 2005 also marked the beginning of her collaboration with actor Martin Sheen, who signed on to play the role of King Henry in Shawn’s screen adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry IV. Shawn will direct the film this year. In July, Shawn met with Oscar-nominated actress Sophie Okonedo who agreed to play the lead role in Shawn’s original screenplay, Yazoo Cryin'. Also while in London, Shawn met with actor/director Kenneth Branagh, who has been gracious enough to advise her on Shakespeare’s Henry IV. In 2004, Shawn directed three plays, two of them at the renowned MET Theatre in Los Angeles-- Joshua Rebell’s Black Tie Affairs, and the world premiere of Sam Shepard’s world premiere one act play, It Wasn’t Proust. Shawn was also invited to attended the Sundance Producer’s Conference, where she met producer Meta Valentic.

In 2003, she was participated in a runner-up (top 5 from over 500) for the ABC/DGA Episodic Directing Fellowship. Shawn began her formal training at the North Carolina School of the Arts School of Drama as an actor and director, performing in more than seventy plays before turning to directing. As a theater director she has staged productions of Shakespeare’s King Henry IV, Part 1, and Howard Korder’s Boys’ Life, and adapted to the stage and directed the Tennessee Williams short story In Memory of An Aristocrat. She also has written and directed three short films that have played internationally in over 20 film festivals including Brussels and Brno. Shawn also wrote and directed thirteen episodes of Dean Devlin’s The Visitor.com, the first show on the worldwide web created parallel to a network television show.

Shawn’s IMDB link:  http://pro.imdb.com/name/nm0866122/

Shawn’s GRIT web site: http://www.gritfilm.org