By Andrew R. Stephens Dear Reader, I remember as a very young kid I would take my parents' tape recorder without them knowing. I’d go down the street to get with my cousins and neighborhood friends to film skits about a McDonald’s worker quitting over a minor inconvenience, short stories about misfit kids on the run from the law, and documentaries about finding Bigfoot. One year we got to show my extended family some of what we had made. I remember looking at their faces to see what they thought of it. I’d see them laughing, leaning in, looking over at the “cast” & “crew” of it, puzzled, clapping, hooting and hollering, and even my parents crying. That right there is what it’s all about. My passion for making people feel something from the stories I help tell, drives me. Seeing their faces, their eyes. It’s like when you’re with a loved one and there is a moment where you just look at them. I mean really look at them, and their eyes just tell you everything you need to know. For a long time I didn’t view it as a career path or as a future job. I truly just saw it as a form of expression that I will do for the rest of my life.  Flash forward to my second year of college at Northern Kentucky University. There, I saw an opportunity to audition to get the chance to audition for the SETC in Louisville. I remember very well, I did my first audition at the school and was allowed to audition for the main one in Louisville. I drove down from Cincinnati and was placed in a holding area with other performers. I remember I went up and I just got in the zone. I let go and did it. This may sound lame but.. It’s this feeling where instinct takes over and you just get lost in it. Like when playing your favorite piano piece you know so well, your muscles take over and just do it. You don’t think to yourself, “Okay, I will now raise my voice to show meaning in what I’m about to say” or “Now point when you say that one line”. It is just natural. Instinctual. I finished and ended up being over the time limit (Going over the time limit makes your points go way down automatically). There was a kid there who said he was sorry about me going over time but I didn’t care. Truly. I knew I did my best, and that it was believable. I was content that I brought some justice to that piece and that mattered to me more than getting to go to the next stage. Realizing how I reacted to the situation like that, I knew 100% that this is what I’m passionate about. That no matter the stakes, I care about the art. Knowing this made me more confident in my work than anything else. Afterwards, other performers were telling me how they enjoyed it and how real it felt. I strongly remember the gentleman Peter Allen Stone spoke with me. He was the impartial judge behind the 3 judges to take notes. He was a very nice man. He asked me, “What were you looking at? It was like you were really looking at someone.” I don’t know what my answer was but because he said that, I knew someone felt something. Which was important to me.   My career goals are to be able to keep telling stories. Stories that challenge me and let me work with people who love this stuff as much as I do. I hope to make my own one day. Between auditions, I can’t stop thinking about this stuff. My creative juices are wanting to explode. In response to that, during dry periods I write and film my own stuff with others. Instead of waiting for opportunities I made my own. My passion for acting has evolved into a love for all aspects of film making and theater. Aka. storytelling in general. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this. Please do take care. Sincerely, Andrew Riley Stephens