Meet Eevin Hartsough | Writer, Producer, Actor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Eevin Hartsough and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Eevin, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I grew up reading a lot of fiction and especially fantasy, and I absorbed a lot of the idealism that’s typical in that genre around bravery and risk taking. Heroes take risks!

But as much as I believed in taking risks and daring greatly (and still do), I think it’s easy to misunderstand what that looks like in real life. As a younger person, I took a bunch of stupid risks – risks for risk’s sake; big gestures to get attention rather than to move towards a goal. Those kinds of risks advanced neither my career nor my artistry; at best they were ineffective and at worst they made life harder. But the life of an artist is hard enough. Frankly, just owning up to wanting to work as an actor or writer is a risk. It’s vulnerable to let people know you’re trying to achieve these very difficult things. And yet, I think it’s the necessary first risk. And one that you have to keep taking, maybe longer than you would expect or wish.

These days, I try to do as Flaubert advised and be regular and orderly in my life so I can be violent and original in my work. I aim to take risks with intention; risks that are meaningfully aligned with my goals – whether that’s risking time and/or money developing a project I’m passionate about, risking making a connection, or risking speaking my truth when that truth might be unlikable to some.

But it’s clear to me that if I’m going to succeed in the way I want, I’m going to have to be brave with my choices and be okay taking risks.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Although I spent many years acting (and still act here and there, most notably as an audio book narrator – a favorite job!), these days most of my work energy goes into writing and independent filmmaking.

Although I write shorts, half-hour, hour, and feature length scripts, all of my work has a few things in common. I like to write grounded, realistic characters living in the “real” world but dealing with one BIG twist. In my first web series, the main character, Gemma, goes to sleep and is replaced by The Bear – a totally other character who acts as a kind of problematic guardian angel. I like to use genre (sci-fi, fantasy, magical realism) to talk about gender and social justice issues, although sometimes I opt to turn up the volume on naturalism so far that it becomes absurd. Overall, I’m passionate about portraying a diverse range of characters and about always having something to say as well as being entertaining.

When I became a parent, I knew that independent theater, which had been where I was doing my creative work, wasn’t going to be a good fit for at least a few years, but a fellow theater company member reached out wanting to collaborate and I suggested a web series. We made a show called Gemma & The Bear! (You can watch the first season on YouTube.)

In the process of making that web series, I completely fell in love with screenwriting. Gemma & The Bear! was an official selection of the New York Television Festival and, attending panels and meeting with executives at the festival, I began to envision a path for myself as a screenwriter. So I really threw myself into that and, ultimately, ended up enrolling in a TV Writing MFA program with the goal of speeding up my trajectory by giving a lot of focused energy to catching up on the basics and then really working on my craft.

Along the way, I have continued to produce my own short-form serialized content. Right now I have three digital series: my first web series, Gemma & The Bear!, a series of satirical sketches called Beckys Through History that is about to be released (later than planned due to the pandemic) and Wherever You Go which I shot right before the pandemic and which I expect to release this fall! I’m excited to share the two latest projects with a wider audience and, once they’re out in the world, to start cooking up the next thing!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I don’t live in LA but some of my favorite places to visit when I’ve been in town are: The Huntington
The Getty
I had a tasty and memorable meal at the Inn Of The Seventh Ray in Topanga Canyon; I’d love to go back there.
And, next time I’m in town, I hope to visit Barnsdall Art Park and Frankly Loyd Wright’s Hollyhock House where my friend is a docent!

If you came to New York, I’d insist you visit:
Casellula a wine & cheese bar in Hell’s Kitchen,
The MoMA (where you should absolutely have lunch in their 2nd floor cafe)
The Kraine Theater in the East Village – home to my old theater company, The New York Neo-Futurists
And, after you saw a show at the Kraine, I’d encourage you to visit Burp Castle – a Belgian beer bar where if the noise level gets too high, the bartenders SHUSH the whole room. (So great to be out and hear what your friend is saying!)
The Signature Theater is another favorite – pretty much everything they do is great.
And, if the season is right, you’d be a fool not to spend a day visiting Governors Island.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I have to shoutout the New York Neo-Futurists. Joining them as a company member was the first real, intentional step on my journey to becoming a writer.

The Neos are a group of experimental theater artists who all write and perform short plays for a weekly show in which thirty plays are performed in sixty minutes. Neo-Futurism started in Chicago roughly 35 years ago with a show called Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind. About seventeen years ago, a sister company was established in New York and about eight years ago a company was established in San Francisco. All three companies now perform a show called The Infinite Wrench (look it up!).

I was an active member of the New York Neo-Futurists for about six years. During that time I performed in the signature show roughly 26 weeks out of the year. Each week, a group of performers would gather to pitch, select and rehearse short plays to fold into a thirty-play menu in that week’s performances. The show was always changing and I was constantly generating new material to bring in.

Working in the weekly show gave me the opportunity to develop a process, find my voice as an artist, and experiment! I created lots of plays that I’m really proud of, that people loved; sometimes I wrote pieces that just didn’t work and that was a great education. I’m eternally grateful for my time with the group.

One of the other huge gifts the Neos gave me was the opportunity to develop full-length plays within the Neo-Futurist aesthetic. My first show was crazy ambitious – A multi-media weaving of four personal stories of major life turning points. I stumbled my way through creating the script with the other performers, figuring out the tech, sourcing and fabricating our set (including projection screens and a giant TV and media cart I got donated and had to push across town because it was too big for a taxi!), creating marketing materials. It was a crash course but it paid off. People still remember that show and we won an award for Best Ensemble!!

Even more than awards, that crazy first show gave me the confidence to take more risks, making more shows and eventually my first web series which launched me into the screenwriting journey I’m on now.

Website: EevinHartsough.com & MyCarl.org

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUC2kNylGiU&list=PLxJTB9oYs2LkjGTvMJvAIMz9KSYB9J82G (Gemma & The Bear! Season 1)