The advent of the Internet and the availability of high tech photographic equipment and software at affordable prices have created an explosion of creative content across the virtual landscape. In addition to our ongoing series spotlighting independent producers of film and theater, we at US Townhall wanted to recognize some of the best of what we're calling "Entertainment Entrepreneurs" – those creative individuals who choose to work outside the traditional corporate studio system in order to create and develop their own projects that they can bring to life in a vision wholly their own, undiluted by Hollywood committees and focus groups.
We introduce to you Kai Soremekun, an established actress living in Hollywood who has decided to chart her own course and create her first ongoing web series, simply entitled Chick. Chick follows the journey of Lisa, played by Ms. Soremekun, a person much like you or anyone you could know: bright, funny, insecure, determined, complex, contradictory, and hopeful. However, Lisa has one tiny little quirk that sets her apart from the average boy or girl next door:
She wants to become a superhero.
And, fashioning a costume for herself and naming herself Fantastica, she sets out to do just that.
As the series creator herself puts it, Chick "uses the superhero as a metaphor for exploring human potential." Can Lisa be successful in her pursuit? Will she give up and just go back to her philandering boyfriend? And what are the underlying root causes of Lisa's desire to pursue such a seemingly off-kilter goal?
Read the no-holds-barred interview below to gain more insight into both Chick's creator, Kai Soremekun, and her character, Lisa. After which, we're sure you'll catch the chickspirit and want to follow Kai's ongoing project, the innovative new web series, Chick.
ABOUT KAI SOREMEKUN
USTOWNHALL: Tell us about your background: where were you born, and where did you grow up? KAI SOREMEKUN: I was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and moved to Toronto when I was 6 months old where I grew up until I moved to New York to pursue dancing and acting.
USTH: When did you develop an interest in acting and performing? KS: My mom is a nurse and my dad a doctor so I prepped myself through high school to follow in my parents' footsteps and go to medical school. But I struggled with math and physics and hated it even though I was smart enough to do well at it if I put my mind to it. Then it hit me that I didn't really want to be a doctor; I was doing it to please my father. So I took a year off after I graduated from high school to figure out what I really wanted to do. This kind of freaked my parents out because they feared I wouldn't go back to school and get a degree after my hiatus. But I felt it made more sense to figure out what I wanted to do than waste my parents' money doing something I may not follow through with. I had been taking dance classes for a couple of years at this point and really loved it. I explored that even though as a performer I was often terrified. At the time, I worked at a performing arts center called the O'Keefe Center as a concession stand employee. Posted in the Artists' Entrance was a notice about auditions coming up for entrance into a performing arts academy in New York called the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. So, on a whim and to push myself, I decided to audition. I sang "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music, and I was pretty bad. But despite this, they invited me to attend the school. I had also been accepted into Simon Frasier University in British Columbia. So it was a moment of truth...University or Performing Arts Academy? I was having a hard time letting go of the belief that you have to go to University in order to make something of yourself. My mom was the deciding factor. She told me I should go to New York because if I didn't I would always wonder what if? And so, I went to New York, attended AMDA for two years, and have never looked back.
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