ZBS WHOLE SELF PORTRAIT SERIES
An ongoing project to gather the faces and voices of the unique ensemble of actors in the ZBS community.
The project will be a look behind the curtain at the struggles and the joys of living an artistic life.
The life tools gained through the pursuit of truth in the work. An honest look at the ZBS Actors process.
What is unique about “The Whole Self” approach is that students are challenged to not only dive deeper in their work but also themselves as human beings.
RIVER GALLO
ZBS MASTER STUDENT
“Acting has saved my life. I don’t mean that lightly. My work as an actress, artist and also an intersex activist, which ZBS has helped me cultivate, teaches me the power of change, freedom, and what it means to be both flawed and beautiful. My work as an artist constantly surprises me, catches me off guard, and knocks me on my ass, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Acting teaches me about the deepest scariest parts of me, but also about my light, my connection to other beings and to God. Making art is the one addiction I’ll always have. I create out of a need to bring audiences into higher states of consciousness in their hearts and minds.”
VICTORIA MOROLES
ZBS MASTER STUDENT
“Learning more about the connection we all share as human beings is a door to pure compassion for me. Compassion for other beings as-well as for myself. Something I’ve discovered within in that is, it’s just as important to creatively feel being whole within yourself as it is to feel and practice your medium or craft. Like the famous notion Art reflects Life, I believe the art is to just be.”
ALANNA FOX
ZBS MASTER STUDENT
“I’ve been acting since I was six years old, but for some reason, in the last year, I stopped trusting myself. I started looking for my answers from my friends and family and jobs, which got me really out of touch with myself. Slowly, with the help of Zak’s class, I’m starting to find my own true voice again. And it feels so damn good!”
ELISE SILVA
ZBS MASTER STUDENT
“I think that acting, more than anything else has really opened my entire world up. My heart and my relationships and my psyche and my intellect. It’s really challenged everything. Acting is really responsible for how I view the world now. Rather than just existing blind without that reflection. There are parts of myself that I’ve recognized needed work after exploring a character. It can be like a mirror. I feel like the roles are most similar to me, can be the hardest to play. Seeing yourself clearly through someone else’s words can be so difficult but so liberating.”
PHOTOS BY MILES SZANTO
Miles Szanto is an actor, photographer, and filmmaker based in LA. Having worked as an actor since he was a child, Miles began developing his passion for storytelling from the other side of the lens almost ten years ago.
In 2010 Miles was granted funding through the Australian government to write and direct a short film, which ultimately became ‘The Alien Boy’, a lo-fi Speilberg-esque story. He’s been steadily directing music videos for a number of artists since moving to LA and in 2016 wrote and directed the Huffington Post distributed docu-series ‘Facing Addiction Across America’.
His photographs have been featured in numerous publications including Forbes Magazine and Playboy’s website.
