Milo Adorno was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and has a bachelors degree in Communications from the University of Puerto Rico. He studied drama and creative writing at the Tish School of the Arts, at the University of New York. He currently resides in New York City. He is the well known author of inspirational poetry anthology "33". You can find Milo at http://miloadorno.com
I have been acting since I was eight years old. Basically developing myself as a professional actor has been something that I've been working on my whole life. With that goal in mind, I went to NYU Tish School of the Arts to study drama. I took my craft very seriously and I gave the best of myself to excel. Even though I completed all of my drama credits, because of personal circumstances, I had to return to Puerto Rico before completing my degree. I was a little bit upset but I was determined not to give up and to continue my acting journey. At the University of Puerto Rico, I studied journalism and film because I needed more credits to complete my degree. At the same time I continued my career as an actor working on stage, commercials and local films.
Then in 2007, I was given the opportunity to have a small role in an American film that was being shot on the island. This is how I earned my Screen Actors Guild's card. For those of you who are not actors, being a member of the Screen Actors Guild is a milestone in any actor's career. Young aspiring actors would kill to have the chance to have that small role that will lead them to the guild membership. Basically once you are a member of the guild, you are part of the community of serious screen actors. The card allows you to audition for serious roles in serious films. Once you are a member, casting directors could consider you for real roles, not just "man at the cafeteria 3" types. (We call them feature extras) The guild also sets a standard for minimum salary and takes care of the actors while they are on the set. (They have to pay you a lot if you work extra hours and you have the right to have a trailer, food etc, on the set.)
This is why I decided to return to the mainland in late 2007. After briefly experimenting with L.A. (only one week) I decided that New York fit me the best. I was familiarized with the city, plus I didn't need a car to go to auditions. But it wasn't that easy. It took me a whole year to settle down, find a job, save money for my first head shots and once I had them, another exhausting journey to find an agent. Finally in the spring of 2009, I had my first audition for a Nintendo commerical. I got a call back but I didn't get the role. Then I had to wait for two months for another audition, this time a Rachel Adams/Harrison Ford flick that was being shot in the city.
After not getting the role (such is an actor's life), I had to wait for another three months for another casting. This is when I realized something... Maybe being SAG isn't that cool! Let me explain to you that there is a Golden Rule at the screen actors guild. Once you are SAG there is no turning back. In other words, once you are a members of the guild, you cannot accept work with producers that have not signed a screen actors guild's agreement. Non union work is not allowed. They want to make sure that actors receive the best working conditions, and one way to enforce this is not allowing their actors to work in productions that haven't committed with the guild to provide the minimum standards for their actors. Now this may sound great, but unfortunately much of the work for actors (who are not stars yet) is non union. This means that for SAG actors, time may pass between one audition and the other.
I got bored and depressed. I had too many hours free during the day. I was teaching ESL in the mornings and in the evening, but during the afternoon I was on my own. this was the time I was supposed to be auditioning, but wasn't. Instead I was stuck at the bookstore, reading and reading. This is when I rediscovered self help/inspirational/spiritual books. I has experimented briefly with them when I was in my early twenties. At the time I wasn't prepared to apply their knowledge in my daily life and they became a passing fancy. But I think this time the soil was fertile.
One book in particular made a difference. "The Artist Way" by Julie Cameron. The book encourages readers to explore all the different possibilities that they could create, through their creative energy. Through a series of exercises, I got in touch with my hidden talents, one of them a gift I had always neglected; writing. This is how I began writing inspirational poetry. Through the use of one exercise in particular, "stream of consciousness," I let my hands run free. The idea behind the exercise is not to think about what I was writing. You have to let it flow. Your creative energy, your divine energy, will do the rest. I began writing daily in my journal. When I started reading what I've written I liked it and this is how I began posting my writings on my Face book profile. Then, because of the acceptance my notes were having, I was advised to create a blog and to post my work there. I opened a fan page on Face book, so people that were not my friends could enjoy my work and later on a Twitter account. More people started to read my poems and short stories and soon without even knowing it , word of moutn gave my work more recognition than what I ever had as an actor. What began in late 2009 as notes on my profile became a blog, eventually the blog (plus new material) became in 2011 a book. Something I would never have thought to do!
I think that through this process, I learned two things:
First: Sometime we are so focused on achieving something that we forget that we are skilled with other talents. In my case I was very aware that I was gifted with the gift of words. Earlier in my twenties, I had even co written the script for a puertorican film. But I was so obsessed with my acting career that I didn't care too much about other skills. I wanted to be a working actor, that's it. No room for other choices. I didn't know back then that maybe my real calling was hidden beneath that obsession. I wonder how many people are so obsessed in achieving something, that they are blind to seeing the other possibilities that they have right in front of their eyes! It's true that we have to visualize what we want, but it is also true that we must be aware of alternative paths that could even bring us more satisfaction that that elusive goal that we are pursuing.
Second: All that "wasted time" between waking hours actually became very productive. Sometimes in life, we face situations that we think are the worst that could ever happen to us. But sometimes, those episodes are there to lead us to great discoveries about ourselves and our lives. It is up to us how we use those experiences, for our own benefit. Had I decided to go home and sleep durning those dead hours, I wouldn't have read all those books that changed my life. So, the next time you know all about yourself, think about it. There may be gold hidden under your bed!
Next time you think life sucks.....think about it!
