Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Wittels Wachs.
Stephanie, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
As a very young child, I didn’t care for toys. All I wanted to do was put on plays in the living room. My parents enrolled me in my first acting class at 4 years old, and it stuck! I went on to graduate from The High School for Performing and Visual Arts and received a BFA in Drama with a concentration in directing from New York University Tisch School of the Arts.
After living (see: struggling) in New York City for six years, I decided to take a short break and head back to Houston for a few months to regroup. When I got here, I started doing tons of anime voice over work and acting in various plays around town. I was invited to teach a class and direct a play at HSPVA, and then a few more, and before I knew it, I was hired to be the full-time acting teacher in the theatre department.
In February 2015, I lost my brother, Harris Wittels, a revered comedian and TV writer, to a heroin overdose. This took an enormous emotional toll on me. The only thing that kept me going was my one-year old daughter, Iris, who would only nap in the car. So, I would sit there with her in the driveway or in parking lots for hours on end, and occupy my time by pouring all of my thoughts into my iPhone notes app. It was like exorcising demons.
At some point, my husband suggested that I turn the notes into an essay and publish it online. On Medium, to be specific. I called it “The New Normal,” and in it, I sugarcoated nothing and was brutally honest about the gut-wrenching experience of losing my only brother. I wasn’t sure who would read it, but I figured, at the very least, it would explain to my friends and family why I wasn’t responding to text messages or taking more than one shower a week. What ended up happening was truly unexpected and sort of magical. Once I put my story out there, this massive community of people who had walked a similar path came out of internet woodwork to share their own stories.
One of the people who reached out was a literary agent who asked if I had any desire to turn the essay into a memoir, and I said yes because writing was proving to be immensely therapeutic. And as I wrote my story, I started to heal bit by bit until I got to a point where I could get out of bed, direct a play, genuinely laugh, and after about a year of all but wanting to die, ultimately decide I wanted to live and that I only had one chance to do it. So, I made some major life changes.
While I loved teaching my incredible, gifted students, I found it nearly impossible to make art and teach art simultaneously. So, after eight years as a teacher, I quit my job and opened Rec Room in downtown Houston. A few months later, I co-founded and became Executive Director of Rec Room Arts, a non-profit arts organization committed to developing innovative live performance of every discipline. In February 2018, I published a memoir called Everything Is Horrible and Wonderful: A Tragicomic Memoir of Genius, Heroin, Love and Loss. In May, we welcomed our second child: a baby boy named Harrison, after my beloved brother, Harris.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
Over the years, I have focused my creative energy on a variety of different artistic roles and mediums. Sometimes, I’m an actor; others, a director. Sometimes I’m both. These days, I’m a writer and public speaker. In whatever medium I’m working, honesty and authenticity is key. Showing a truthful version of what it is to be a human being–the struggle and the triumph–is important. When I put myself out there in a truly authentic way, the audience (whether it be readers or viewers) responds in kind and with gratitude. Honesty connects people. It builds a genuine sense of community. It’s the only way to be. These days, my message tends to be that hardship is universal, but on the flip side, growth is inevitable.
Any advice for aspiring or new artists?
Allows things to happen organically. I’ve often found that when I’m pushing too hard on an artistic endeavor (or really any facet of life), it doesn’t ultimately pan out or feel particularly fulfilling. The projects that have been most successful both commercially and in terms of my own personal success barometer have been those that felt effortless. The stories that I HAD to tell. The ones that were knocking at my guts and heart and soul to come out of me. So, tune in to yourself and listen to what is really motivating and inspiring you. Take that bait. Act on that impulse. And do it with honesty and authenticity. Don’t do it the way someone else does it. Do it the way YOU do it. And, finally, know that you won’t make art if you don’t want to make art. When someone says, “Oh I’ve had this idea for a book for 10 years,” my first thought is usually, “Oh, that book isn’t ever getting written!” Because if you really wanted to write it, you would have! If you want to write, write! Just do it. Take 15 minutes a day when you usually scroll through Twitter, and do it. Think of each 15 minutes as a brick. At the end of a month, year, decade, you’ll eventually have a wall.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
My theatrical work happens at Rec Room in downtown Houston. Comedic musings on parenting (and life) can be heard on my weekly podcast, “Hands Off Parents.” My book Everything is Horrible and Wonderful is available on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, and various independent book sellers. Writing can be found on Vox, Longform, Huffington Post, Fatherly, Mamamia, Babble, and Medium.
Contact Info:
- Address: Rec Room Arts 100 Jackson St.
Houston, TX 77002 - Website: www.recroomarts.org
- Phone: 713-344-1291
- Email: stephanie@recroomhtx.com
- Instagram: @recroomhtx
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/recroomhtx/
- Twitter: @wittelstephanie
- Other: https://medium.com/@stephaniewittelswachs
Image Credit:
Annie Mulligan, Natasha Gorel, NBC.
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