Healing Through Art: Adrian Miranda's Journey

In this episode, Adrian Miranda shares his journey as a physical therapist turned filmmaker and theater creator. He discusses the founding of Gross Anatomy Studios and Uptown Actors, emphasizing the importance of community and the arts in Washington Heights. Adrian elaborates on his immersive theater project, Uptown Books, and the creative process behind it, highlighting the challenges and rewards of producing art in a community setting. He reflects on his personal experiences with trauma and healing, and how they influence his work. The conversation also touches on the significance of scrappiness in filmmaking and the desire to create meaningful stories that resonate with audiences.

Takeaways
Adrian Miranda is a physical therapist and filmmaker.
He founded Gross Anatomy Studios to combine education and entertainment.
Uptown Actors aims to create theater opportunities in Washington Heights.
Adrian's work is influenced by his personal experiences and community needs.
He emphasizes the importance of immersive theater in engaging audiences.
Adrian believes in using available resources to create art.
He reflects on the changing dynamics of Washington Heights.
Dance plays a significant role in Adrian's artistic expression.
He aims to create a supportive community for artists.
Adrian's ultimate goal is to heal through storytelling.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Uptown Voices and Adrian Miranda
01:47 Adrian's Journey: From Physical Therapy to Filmmaking
04:53 Creating Gross Anatomy Studios and Uptown Actors
07:17 The Impact of Community and Local Arts
10:28 Uptown Books: An Immersive Theater Experience
13:32 The Process of Writing and Directing
16:27 Rehearsals and Audience Engagement
19:24 Reflections on Returning to Washington Heights
22:13 Bridging Community Gaps Through Art
30:28 Exploring the Roots of Dance and Community
36:01 The Journey from Dance to Theater
41:50 The Intersection of Healing and Performance
47:26 Navigating the Creative Process
54:25 The Art of Scrappiness in Filmmaking

Creators and Guests

Host

Led Black

Host

Octavio Blanco

What is Uptown Voices?

A podcast focused on the Uptown neighborhoods of Inwood, Washington Heights and Harlem. Our neighborhoods have a voice and we want to be heard and felt. We love Uptown.

Each episode will elevate the people here who are making a difference in the life of this community. We’re also committed to “real talk” that seeks solutions that improve the quality of life in our beautiful Uptown neighborhoods.

Adrian Miranda (00:00)
I grew up on Audubon in the 90s. It was not fun. It was trauma. It was violent. was, I couldn't, I came back here and I was so depressed. And I was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm going back.

When I came back, I had a lot of healing that happened and I met actors. I had my old church when I was a kid, they let me use it. And I realized I could make stuff and I saw the need in the community and I was like, all right, maybe I came back to help the community in the arts.

Led Black (00:16)
Right.

what's up y'all? It's Let Black. Welcome to another episode of Uptown Voices. I'm here with my brother, Octavio Blanco. We're like on our 30 plus episode now. Before we go any further, I just want to remind y'all, please subscribe to our channel. Super duper important. It helps us out and it's free. But today we have a special guest, Adrian Miranda, who's the co- the founder of Gross Anatomy Studios as well as Uptown Axe.

this agent brother how you doing man

Adrian Miranda (00:51)
I'm good, thank you so much for having me on, I appreciate it.

Led Black (00:55)
You got it. Octavio, what's up, brother? How you doing?

Octavio Blanco (00:58)
I'm doing good. I'm glad to have Adrian on. You know, I was, ⁓ we talked a few months back and it sounds like you're a busy guy. You've got a lot going on, ⁓ but I'm happy to have you here and happy to be able to support. And also because we're such big lovers of the arts and of the moving image up here, ⁓ we love it that you could join us.

Adrian Miranda (01:20)
Yeah,

no, I appreciate it.

Led Black (01:21)
What's the dog's name by the way

AJ, so tell me about Gross Anatomy Studios and Uptown Actors. What are the two? What are you doing? What does that mean?

Adrian Miranda (01:23)
Yeah.

Yeah, so alright, so I'm gonna give you the long version like interrupt me ask questions because it's it's a long journey This is this is Adrian gross anatomy up to natural is after a decade maybe even more So I'm a physical therapist, you know right now for the past year. I've been

Led Black (01:33)
No, we good. Go ahead, brother.

Adrian Miranda (01:47)
a physical therapist for Broadway shows and actors. ⁓ Before that I was just kind of in general orthopedic area, sports, and then, but rewind to when I graduated grad school, and I remember there was a class and we took it in with surgery, that was the name of the course, and I left, it was like the last semester of my program.

And I said, this has to be on TV and I'm gonna be on TV. And my goal was to become a really good physical therapist for like four or five years. I just studied orthopedics and everything I could for medicine, right? Cause I didn't want to be a liar, be a quack or kind of say, you know, wrong things. I wanted like to know as much as I could before I started making this TV show that was, you know, entertainment, but educational. So I wanted to make the next scrubs of television and the next, the Raisinatti.

I want to be more comedic. So after a few... Yeah.

Led Black (02:43)
So wait a minute, hold on, hold on. So you

did the studying to do that. That's pretty amazing. So that was the thinking going in. I'm doing this for that.

Adrian Miranda (02:49)
So.

I mean it was later so like physical therapy school for me was four years of undergrad and then a year and a half of graduate school where it's most people it's four years of undergrad then three years of grad school so I kind of went through a little bit of an accelerated program so my fifth year my final year was when the light bulb went off and said I got to be on TV and I want to make this for TV because it was just education my profession is really just teaching people about their bodies and so for four years I studied physical therapy advanced physical therapy

Led Black (03:11)
Gotcha.

Adrian Miranda (03:23)
I did a residency I started a PhD. didn't finish it, but I got all the dissertation Mentored with fellows like experts like just just was stupid crazy obsessed with it After four years I said I'm ready to learn filmmaking now And that's what I happen to meet this documentary filmmaker told me about brick arts media in Brooklyn Where you take adults can take residents in Brooklyn? lived in Brooklyn at the time residents can take filmmaking courses for like 20 $30 40 $50 $90 where NYU or SP?

It will charge you like $3,000 so that plus YouTube a lot of YouTube and I see a lot of my college friends at the time and filmmakers I met just for advice I was just Constantly trying to learn stay up all night and fast forward I learned everything I learned editing, you know filmmaking Writing I learned color correction and I'm colorblind. I'm partially colorblind I learned after effects. I got into 3d most

motion

capture, Unreal Engine. So I got into almost every part of it. I started doing 2D animation, but I got so bored with it. just, I'm not that type of personality. You gotta be like very detail oriented and patient. And so I was making little sketches. know, Gross Anatomy was like what I brand. had a logo since 2017. So I started making these comedic sketches and it was all narrative. So my whole goal was like, I'm going to teach you lead about your shoulder. And it's going to be this creative person.

He has a family and he can't lift up his newborn baby, but is he's so he's busy and something comedic happenes So it never was like hi, my name is Adrian. I'm gonna teach you by your shoulder. It never was that I tried that and I was terrible at it So I did that and then pandemic and I moved back to Washington Heights So this is kind of like the the the hobbit kind of story. They're the rings your journey and they came back and lo and behold things just happened and I was able to make my web series but you know like

I won't lie to you, I grew up on Audubon in the 90s. It was not fun. It was trauma. It was violent. was, I couldn't, I came back here and I was so depressed. And I was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm going back.

When I came back, I had a lot of healing that happened and I met actors. I had my old church when I was a kid, they let me use it. And I realized I could make stuff and I saw the need in the community and I was like, all right, maybe I came back to help the community in the arts. Because I've always seen entertainment as money. People are like, you're broke artist. I'm like, bro, I'm looking at Bad Bunny. I'm looking at Sabrina Carpenter. Looking at Enrique Iglesias back in the day. I'm looking at John Leguizamo I'm like...

Led Black (05:42)
Right.

Adrian Miranda (06:04)
where the arts is there, there's the broke part, but there's also a lot of money in there. And I was like, right, so I did study like the business of show business. And so in 2021, 2022, I made my web series, which was my dream. So you want my YouTube or my Instagram, you see clips, but my web series is five episodes long. And I used people in the community that met. I joined the gym and I think I met one person who was in it, but just people I met in the neighborhood and knew even from before then, and including my mom.

my mom at she's never acted before and she's like the hit of the web series like all the comments i get random comments on linkedin ⁓

Led Black (06:36)
That's so cool.

Adrian Miranda (06:42)
Your mom

and your character remind me of my mom in my life. So there's a relatability to that But anyways, just using people I knew in my community and the web series is five episodes long and it's doing pretty well.

So after that, kept trying to promote it. had meeting with people who sold their films to Netflix, Amazon producers, but just nothing clicked. And I was like, OK, I thought I would make this web series and someone would discover me. So 20, 24 last year, I was.

Octavio Blanco (07:14)
Overnight

success?

Adrian Miranda (07:17)
Right,

yeah. But I mean, even at that point, that was, I guess I started really learning 2010. So that would have been 10 years already, right? And so last year, I was kind of having a tough time. I said, man, this physical therapy, educational narrative stuff isn't working. And I'm like, one of the few people that can do everything, like storytelling and the technical aspect, right? And I kind of said, you know what? Let me give up this physical therapy part and let me just make whatever I want. So that's when Uptown Act

started and I put up flyers, I put up 20 flyers around the train stations 175th, 181st, and 168th and I said I was like God give me a sign if this is meant to be give me more than four sign ups

Led Black (07:47)
Mmm.

Adrian Miranda (08:04)
Mind you, right before, a week before that, I was like really depressed. I was crazy depressed. I had built a mobile video game ⁓ about anatomy. Like you could play it on your Android device. And I was like, I'm gonna get so many people asking for this and me helping them and I'll make bank, I'll get an investor. I got like two people ask me for the link. And I had 12, at the time I had 10,000 followers on LinkedIn. And I was like.

Wow. I said, if this Uptown Actors performing thing is for me, give me more than four. Right? So the mobile game, said, let me have 10 people. Just 10 people hit me up. And I'd be like, this is the right move. I got two people, only one person actually used it. And then with the Uptown Actors, just black and white, nothing fancy. I got seven people emailed me. And then I got 14 the next week. Now there's 50 people. There's 50 people.

Led Black (08:53)
What? Nice.

Octavio Blanco (08:55)
And what was the

flyer saying? What did the flyer say?

Adrian Miranda (08:58)
Well,

it said, it said, if you're sick and tired of going downtown to audition and perform and you want to make theater and film uptown, scan this QR code. And it was like a Google form. It was just like an email and like first and last name. And that was it. That was it black and white. There was nothing fancy about it. And it went to the form.

Led Black (09:13)
And so.

So is this the first production

of, is the Uptown Books the first production now from Uptown Actors?

Adrian Miranda (09:22)
no, we've made 12 microfilms. ⁓ Yeah, yeah, so I just released one today. If go to my Instagram, you'll see a story. It's called Pops. It's a hip hip hoppera If you go to my LinkedIn, it's there. No, we've made 12. We have one more. No, we've made 12 so far and then so 13 total. 13 total. One has to be edited. One is like in post-production, but the other two are literally just edited, finished today. ⁓ yeah, so it was ⁓ up. So after the 10-5,

This is like in, I think in ⁓ July or August. I said, right, we've done the film thing. I have a system and a process and how to do it. We're ready for the stage. then we were going to ⁓ Latino film market who Aralyn Martinez-Cora is the founder of who you should get on the show as well. Latina, she wants to get into film distribution and she has a screening series and she was doing that recirculation. Now at the time Octavio,

I had met with you and I said I'm working on the In the Heights movie parody, right? So.

Octavio Blanco (10:27)
I remember that,

Adrian Miranda (10:28)
I

was debating the movie and I was gonna do the stage play still, right? So I walk in to see this place called Recirculation. I'd seen my friends, I do open mics there and I was like, let me just stop by a week before the movie screening to check it out. As soon as I walked in, every idea of a stage play I had went out the window. And I said, let me make an immersive play out of the bookstore. And at that point, you know, it just came to me. I can't even tell you why. I said in an interview with a CUNY journalism student,

Led Black (10:49)
Mmm.

Adrian Miranda (10:58)
in this morning and I like I just I wrote the play within 10 minutes of walking into the place where I had the whole setup yeah and the In The Heights thing we kind of went out the window and it's still in my mind you know like it's so it's still being planned and developed and it's already kind of been started

Led Black (11:03)
Wow.

Adrian Miranda (11:13)
But yeah, the idea was, I was myself, I'm a swing dancer. I perform as a swing dancer and I still audition. And my patients, a lot of them are on Broadway and they live right here. Literally, they live near both of you. And I'm like, wait, why do I have to go downtown every time I wanna go see live theater or anything, right? Or I have to perform to everything downtown, but a lot of us live uptown.

So the idea was to make this, you know, because I wanted to, really the idea was when I walked in, it was during the Trump DEI grants kind of removal. I said, all right, the idea came to me. There's this bookstore, an amazing space. I have an idea for a story. The story kind of happened right away. And I was like, I wonder if we could sell tickets and be a fundraiser, which I don't really advertise as too much, but a portion of it goes to the bookstore because it's a nonprofit. Right. And it was a way to kind of like offset, hey, why are we always

you know, receiving help. We're always like, give me, give me, give me money from the government. Why can't we create an economy within ourselves and the community? Have people come uptown to party, uptown to see theater, uptown to film, attend little audition. So that was kind of the beginning of it. And, ⁓ you know, I have, I'm also working on my own musical, a rock musical. My father died of AIDS in 97, and I just found out two years ago. So it's really about kind of like family secrets and how do you deal with grief.

And we're human, right? you know, there are things that we've, know, both of you probably been around long enough to be like, Tia said, what? You know, Abuela, what? Why are you copying this? Right? So, the idea is to kind of create theater that's not also, not a stage reading. It's a full-on production. You know, you can take your family, can take yourself. This is like PG-13, so it's not really, it's a couple of curse words, but it's some deep material in the show. But yeah, what if,

Led Black (12:46)
Yeah, for real, yeah, for sure, for sure.

Adrian Miranda (13:08)
every weekend there was some kind of theater to go. If your family's visiting or, you know, one of the ways to keep it fresh is that we're gonna change the actors. So I'm not gonna be playing Pucci in Uptown Books the whole time. ⁓ You know, the ⁓ Frank, the ex-firefighter, ⁓ someone else's, there's an understudy. So I always wanna be kind of moving in and out of the roles and you can come back in and leave. But what if there is a show that you can go every weekend? You know, I'm kind of using like the Tyler Perry model of theater in these communities.

Led Black (13:32)
So.

So, right.

Adrian Miranda (13:38)
And then eventually having the film kind of feed off of each other and my buddy also asked, ⁓ you're gonna make a movie out of it to play. And I was like, I guess so, we could, right?

Led Black (13:50)
Why not, right?

Octavio Blanco (13:52)
Hahaha.

Led Black (13:52)
But tell us, know, I'm kind of fascinated by the idea of you going to recirculation. And I know the feeling, recirculation is, ⁓ I love the place. Like it really is kind of special, you know what mean? But tell us a little bit more about that. Like, so what is Uptown Books about and how was it inspired by recirculation?

Adrian Miranda (14:09)
Yeah, I mean...

I think the space just lends itself to be an immersive play with several characters. like the Log line is a quirky mix of strangers meet and find connection in unexpected ways. Right? And so really I kind of, I got into even like Word Up, the Amsterdam bookstore, I bought stuff from there before. And you know, you meet people and hear the conversations, you listen, you you eavesdrop on them, you can't help to hear what they're talking about, what books they're reading, also what's going on in their face.

families or issues that are happening in community. So it's just like every barber shop, right? You go to the barber shop, the owner fulano de tal is saying something over there and you're talking to your barber and also you like laugh because you heard something what they said over there. That's just a normal thing. And I made it bilingual without any, you know, I debate, I'm debating and debated whether to have like a leaflet that has a translation. But I said, if you're on the subway and you're hearing people speak French, right?

You can still kind of understand the tone and that's the immersive part. That's the reality of it. But yeah, so sorry. So the idea was like, you know, a dramedy, like it's comedic at first, but then there's like, you know, one of the things that... ⁓

Led Black (15:15)
Right.

Octavio Blanco (15:16)
Well, out.

Adrian Miranda (15:26)
I discuss about in the Heights and I think a bunch of us who grew up here is like in the Heights made it pretty, know, gentrification sure. No, there's way more than just gentrification to deal with. was homelessness, drugs, violence, guns, abuse. Like it was, it was a nightmare, right? So I had to, wanted to put in a really dark part, which is an alcoholic that come the town drunk comes in and he's having one of the worst days of his life. And he has, you know, he has grief. He has a

mourned over the loss of somebody I won't tell you who it is but it's dramatic. What do mean? The play in the play.

Octavio Blanco (16:00)
comes into recirculation into the bookstore. This is

the, in the play, yeah.

Adrian Miranda (16:08)
Yeah, in the play Uptown Books, ⁓ So yeah, so I kind of brought the reality of life that, you know, life isn't all pretty and it's not a musical, it's not theater. There's some real dark elements into our community. And it's also, you might know of somebody, you know, but you never talk to them, but you know who the guy is on the corner that dresses up with pink all the time, and you know who he is and you've heard of him, but you never actually get a conversation. In this play, now you're having a conversation with that dude that's drunk all the time, and you realize why is he self-medicating?

Led Black (16:27)
Right.

Octavio Blanco (16:39)
What exactly is an immersive play? Am I just walking around the bookstore and there's different scenes that are being played out in different parts of the bookstore? Or is there a path that I'm supposed to take and it's taking me to different parts of the bookstore? Or can I just walk around wherever I'm going?

Adrian Miranda (17:01)
That's a great question. So usually in the regular play or theatrical, there's a stage and then you're sitting in the audience, right? In immersive, you're kind of on the stage with the actors. So in recirculation...

I will guide your eyes to a certain part of the bookstore where there's a scene. Then that scene kind of ends and then someone's yelling over there and your eyes turn this way. Then there's a musician playing music and you're so it's not all at the same time. Like you can't really choose your own adventure. It's just more of like you are a fly on the wall. That's what it is. So all of a sudden, like if you walked into recirculation right now and it's packed right as an event, a mixer, and also you hear people yelling at each other and cursing at each other, what are you going to

Led Black (17:37)
That's a man.

Adrian Miranda (17:45)
do? So that was the idea is like what if I can get you to feel like this tension is right over there and you have to look over and you can't like you can't escape so that's the immersive part.

Led Black (17:46)
Right.

Octavio Blanco (17:58)
And

is it scripted? Is it scripted? like there's a script and did you write the script or do you have a partner or do you work with or what's the process there like? Because, you know, is it similar to writing a script for like a movie and how long is this like ⁓ experience? How long do you commit to it as an audience member?

Led Black (18:00)
That's fascinating.

Adrian Miranda (18:02)
Yep.

Led Black (18:06)
you

Adrian Miranda (18:23)
Yeah.

Yeah, so it's a one act play. So it's between 35 and 45 minutes. So it just depends on kind of like the flow. We've gone between like 35 to 39 minutes when we've done it. I wrote it myself. The whole we call it a book and then the music and lyrics. Right. So the book is like the script and the dialogue. The music. One of the things I wanted to do is promote local musicians or local artists. So it's an immersive play with music. So Nicola Vasquez is a local singer songwriter, has an extensive career. And I asked to use

some of her songs. There's four songs in it because she is you know licenses music and she has a show going potentially going to Broadway or in the works. I can only use two of them so I wrote the other two. The other two were from my musical my rock musical that I kind of flipped a bit and gave it to Kelsey Mcdonald who's the the narrator musician and then her voice sounds amazing it just sounds way different even though it's a rock song originally. So yeah I wrote two of the songs. Nicole wrote two of the songs.

that were already like published. She'd already done it I think in like early 2000s and the rest I wrote. I wrote, produced, directed everything. I'm in it. So pretty much everything you can...

Led Black (19:33)
⁓ You're wearing a

lot of hats, brother. You were telling me before that you've been practicing, know, ⁓ rehearsing at NOMAA Studios. How's rehearsal, right? This is so mind-blowing of a concept. How have the rehearsals been? How are they going so far?

Octavio Blanco (19:37)
Yeah, you are.

Adrian Miranda (19:38)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, so, there's a business to it, So, you you want to save as much money.

but also have good quality production. You also realize that you're not getting paid a ton of money or at all for the rehearsal. So I had to write it in a way that if, let you wanted to act in it, you could have one rehearsal for two hours and be in the show and come visit the space and then come and be in the show. So I wrote it purposefully for that. ⁓ And yeah, the rehearsals have been, you know, we've only had two rehearsals, I think. Yeah. And then like I've had one-on-one rehearsals like the two with, ⁓

the two different sets of actors, like it's like a couple, it's like coupling. ⁓ And then we had one recently this weekend at recirculation and then we'll have one more. So it's only been, I think one full rehearsal at NOMAA, one partial rehearsal at NOMAA. ⁓

two two resources for her so that my apartment no one rehearsal in my apartment we had a stage reading an amt theater in midtown and then ⁓ we'll have like one more at NOMAA next ⁓ december it was great so as a writer ⁓ as a writer director you i'm watching for you know led's eyebrows to go up

Octavio Blanco (21:01)
How did that reading go? How was that reading?

Adrian Miranda (21:13)
I'm watching for lead to smirk and look away or to cry or to sniffle or to fall asleep or be deadpan. So in the stage reading, I'm focused on acting and the words and I'm like listening so hard to see if people laugh, people chuckle, people say any mother-stuffing and almost everything's really like a test. Almost like, right, this line, I want to, okay, cool, it landed. This line, oh wow.

I didn't expect them to laugh. Oh wow, they asked these questions about this. So everything I wanted to happen happened except for the last song. The last song was a little bit too rough. Like the lyrics were like, oh my gosh, like thin skin and rough. I know, it just rough words. So I changed it and then we just ran it last week and it sounds way better. I just changed the words, know, just gentler words and things like that.

Led Black (22:05)
Bye.

Octavio Blanco (22:08)
And who's the audience that was listening to the reading? Is there an audience there? there a table read? What's that? How is that? I don't know what that looks like.

Adrian Miranda (22:13)
yeah, there was an audience. Yeah.

You know, AMT theater promoted it. Ivan Goris is a he's an interim director of New Works. I think that's his title. And there's people I didn't know there. There were some of my coworkers were there, some friends from the neighborhood were there. Like Frank Nibs was there. I'm sure you're familiar with Frank Nibs, ⁓ who Frank is understudying one of the roles, Carlos's role. And ⁓ there's random people there, too. And, you know, somebody messaged me as well online. I was like, I loved your show. Good job. It made me really think about

Led Black (22:36)
That's my brother, Frank.

Adrian Miranda (22:49)
stuff. And then my younger sister was there. My sister doesn't filter anything. And she was like, something was crying next to me. And was like. And then another person was sniffling downstairs. It was like a balcony downstairs. So it was just like half like random people. And I looked down to the audience. I didn't recognize about half the people in the other half I did recognize. ⁓ So it was was cool. And so if if I can get a friend or a family member to feel something.

Octavio Blanco (22:56)
Wow.

Led Black (22:56)
Wow, that's

amazing.

Adrian Miranda (23:17)
And you know some friends are critical, some friends are like nice to you, and other ones are like you can just tell if they're lying to you and some will just tell you flat out it sucked. So when you get the right feedback, and after a while of doing this you can just tell. I can tell the second you say a good job that you did not like it and I should give up. So I had that sixth sense, but it went well. Except for the last song, everything else was like exactly what I wanted. So I had little work to

Led Black (23:35)
Hahaha

Adrian Miranda (23:47)
after that. It was just like directing with the actors. That was it.

Led Black (23:51)
So Adrian, before we go any further, Adrian, you gotta tell us the date, when is this happening, how can they buy tickets?

Octavio Blanco (23:51)
That's great.

Adrian Miranda (23:59)
Yeah, my Instagram at GrossAnatomyStudios. I'm posting every day with the ticket links and just kind of tap and you'll take it to the ticket links. Again, it's a collaboration with Recirculation, Word Up Bookstore, a community bookshop. And the dates are December 13th, 4.15 PM at 6 PM, and then December 14th, that's a Sunday, at 2 PM. So it's just three shows. Yeah, correct.

Led Black (24:22)
three shows or two on Saturday, one on Sunday.

Octavio Blanco (24:22)
Great.

That's a great, that's great. ⁓ I'm intrigued by something that you said ⁓ in terms of like your return to Washington Heights. ⁓ You were...

Adrian Miranda (24:31)
Mm-hmm.

Octavio Blanco (24:39)
you say you were not excited to come back to the Heights. Now, know, me and Led, we love the Heights, but we understand that the Heights, you know, it's got its issues and you probably, being that you're raised in the Heights, you you probably remember those issues and you came back, you weren't too excited. But now tell me, has that changed? Are you glad that you came back to the Heights? What kind of community have you been able to grow here through this work

which sounds like you've been doing a lot of work in the arts here, especially trying to get uptown artists to collaborate with you. So how are you feeling now that you came back to the Heights? How do you feel about the Heights now?

Adrian Miranda (25:26)
Yeah, you know, it's something I've been thinking about the past month because, you know, all of a sudden I have, in the past year, 14 microfilms. know, I wasn't in all of them. wasn't in a lot of them.

You know, I was, you know, again, I grew up in Audubon. So when I say Audubon, are like, no, they're like, okay, 176. Like, and you know, was, it was my building specifically was, you know, I didn't know if I was going be able to cross the street, you know, ⁓ and make it. So that was since I was seven years old. So when I came back, I think, you know, it got safer to be frank with you. Got a little bit safer. I started meeting people. went to, I started going to a gym called Uptown Movement now and started meeting a lot of actors.

and people in the arts and I was like, wait, y'all live here? I had no idea. And then, you know, interestingly enough, when I put up the flyer, one of the first people was Frank Nibbs and he had told me about this artist collective 15 years ago that this started and no longer exists. And I was like, wait, what happened? And so in a sense, there's a sense of, you know, I could never tell you, I'll be frank with you, that I love Washington Heights that I'm proud of being from here, you know?

I'm still here and it's almost like I want to help make it a place to be proud of, you know, because I still deal with that trauma and I still deal with all that stuff that happened and you know, I remember the first time I shot a gun, I got my belt was wrong, you know, then realize I had that trauma, you know, I had to go outside and I froze for like three minutes and luckily the instructor kind of understood, you know, and

Octavio Blanco (27:06)
I was gonna ask,

where did you shoot a gun?

Adrian Miranda (27:08)
in South

Carolina, in South, I was in South, visiting my sister, right? And I got over it, it was fine, but there was moments of like, wow, there was stuff that happened here that really affected me internally, but I didn't realize. ⁓ But now it's almost like, I call it like, I don't know.

like a puppy you find on your corner that you take in and you really care about it, you know, and then you develop this love for it and this care for it. And I want to be part of changing the neighborhood for good, but then not just here, but other neighborhoods too, you know? So like, you know, eventually Brownsville and places in the Bronx and then maybe one day in Chicago and, know, so kind of want to start here as kind of a beginning and then see if I can do the same thing in other places. That'd be my, my dream and my vision.

Octavio Blanco (27:52)
nice.

Adrian Miranda (27:54)
So yeah, so like, you know, the feelings are kind of changing and there's a care for it and I'm still working on that love, you know, because you can, you know, have different experiences, different blocks, right? Different avenues. You know, my siblings, like they don't like coming here. They don't, they try not to. my, you know, even the family of my sister's husband's family, they grew up in the first floor, you know, they don't have happy memories here. They don't come back. You know, they put their doorbell numbers as like the

Led Black (28:04)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Adrian Miranda (28:24)
building or passwords as like the streets, but it doesn't mean that they want to come back here and enjoy the time here. So, and I understand it. You know, I definitely was there too. Yeah. Right.

Octavio Blanco (28:31)
Yeah. complicated feelings. Complicated feelings. Yeah. That's

Led Black (28:34)
Right. For real. Yeah, for sure.

Octavio Blanco (28:38)
real.

Adrian Miranda (28:40)
Right, so it's like a grief kind of thing. My rock musical talks about it from my dad's perspective, but the way I'm writing that musical is grief about anything. It could be a father or son, which is my story. It could be mother, daughter, mother, son. It could be friends. could be a business that you started and you're bankrupt or a co-founder in a business that you straight from each other. So it could be any one of those things that there's this kind of chasm that pulls you apart.

Led Black (28:40)
for sure.

Adrian Miranda (29:10)
bridge that together. So Uptown Books is not much much unlike that, you know. I put topics of housing, you know, that one of the characters is getting kicked out of her apartment because rent is jacked up and meets a lawyer who can't help her because he's a pet influencer agent. But then, yeah.

Led Black (29:26)
Hahaha!

Octavio Blanco (29:26)
Hahaha.

Adrian Miranda (29:27)
But then

it happens to be that the city council members new aid is there and helps her out, right? So it's like, how do you bridge these chasms that happen, this brokenness, right? This is a broken community historically, broken families, broken economy, broken things. And, but I also, I've also, you know, learned that not everybody had that. Some people have very strong family units and being Latino in this neighborhood.

I didn't quite have that, right? So there's different stories that I have to represent. And just like in my play, I have white dudes, white people in it, right? So yeah, so.

That's kind of like the relationship I have. It's kind of building. ⁓ It's growing into more care, you know, than anything else. Because yeah, I want to see the next generation, even this generation now, and even our parents' generation, to be able to enjoy it, you know, and be proud of it in a different way, you know? Because I think there's cultural and there's also like the energy of it, you know? Is it a positive, safe care?

Octavio Blanco (30:25)
Yeah.

Led Black (30:28)
Yeah.

Adrian Miranda (30:36)
environment, you know, when you walk out the street, you know.

Led Black (30:39)
I mean,

I love the idea of like that you're doing this kind of experiential immersive theater uptown. I love that idea. And also kind of working through your own issues because you're right with Washington Heights. It's block to block. You know, it's it's it's different like your upbringing. You know what mean? What you went through. ⁓

But I have to ask you though, Lindy Hopper, where did that come from? That's like from the 30s, right? remember reading Malcolm X used to be a Lindy Hopper. How did you get into that? That's just fascinating to me.

Adrian Miranda (31:13)
Yeah, Long Story Short is a it was a after a breakup. lot of people kind of get into it through a partner. This was a breakup and you know, was I danced hip hop in college and I was dance dance hip hop even still not as much as performance wise, but got into it. Really enjoyed it actually. And you know, Long Story Short performing it and it's been it's been really great. And I actually got a grant to make a Lindy Hop movie. And one of the things that happened was I was at a con this

Led Black (31:40)
⁓ interesting.

Adrian Miranda (31:43)
It's like a dance camp. Make fun of me. It is a dance camp. This was like three years ago.

Led Black (31:47)
Hahaha!

Adrian Miranda (31:49)
in Boston and there was these OG dancers from like the era during 30s and 40s who were still alive and they were talking being interviewed and they said that ⁓ a lot of the Latinos from Washington, it came to Harlem to compete with us and dance with us and a lot of us went uptown to dance mambo and compete up there and I was like wait there was swing dance in Washington Heights I grew up here so

Led Black (32:12)
Wow, didn't I know that?

Adrian Miranda (32:14)
Me neither, right? So I was like, why is it that I have to leave my neighborhood for people to teach me about my neighborhood? Right and You know when I finished a movie and there's a there's someone who was part of that era and You know in the script it's like this hip-hop I made it like you got served and stuff like cheesy a little bit But there's some like, you know some deep moments The idea is like this young dancer is like 23 25 years old young dancer the hip-hop crew who I'm the leader

the crew and I'm a jerk. ⁓ You know that everything's hip-hop and it's our neighborhood and we should keep it here. ⁓ That swing dance is dead. But this character...

keeps getting barriers to doing swing dance. Whether it's me, whether it's the violence, there's a scene where there's a gunshot and he has to duck based on real life experiences. And then the other scene, he lives with his grandmother and both his parents passed away. And she's like, you know, what are you going to do if dance doesn't work out? he's like, well, there's no plan B. So he gets it from his hip hop crew leader, from the community, like just getting home safely, and then from his grandmother as well. And then he ends up doing it and meets another swing

dance if it's in his crew that teaches him and brings him into the community. So first it's just kind like an introduction of like well again swing dance where do we mostly dance swing dance and perform? Downtown you know south of 42nd street pretty much you know so even I started a swing dance social this summer at Five Flies Coffee we had it twice we're gonna keep doing it's just a little bit tough to with all my projects to kind of juggle it but we're gonna kind of try to continue with this Brandon's local

Led Black (33:52)
Right.

Adrian Miranda (33:55)
He up in Harlem, he's a swing dancer, also dances hip hop. He's the star in that film. But yeah, it's just salsa. How many times a week do y'all go out to dance salsa and merengue this past month?

Led Black (34:08)
Bye.

Octavio Blanco (34:09)
Yeah.

Led Black (34:10)
Bye.

Octavio Blanco (34:11)
Do you have a crew of people or a group? I don't want to say crew. I guess a group of people that come and swing dance with you uptown. What's that community like?

Adrian Miranda (34:20)
at five, yeah, we had

it. was on, it's on their social media, I think. And I posted videos of it. Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (34:25)
No, but I mean, mean like

how's that community? Like what are the, who are the people? Like how are they, how long do you, how many times have you done it? Like what I'm saying is like, like is that a, do you feel like a kinship with these folks? it, it, ⁓ yeah, yeah. What's that like? Like who, who, who, like.

Adrian Miranda (34:41)
yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah. I mean, it's not uptown, right?

Octavio Blanco (34:47)
Like, I guess what I want to know is like, describe that a little bit more, like what the swing dancing is like at Five Flies. Do you guys do it for the fun or is there an audience that watches you guys?

Adrian Miranda (35:02)
yeah, it's just for fun. know, it's really, it's only been twice. I'm trying to get it going, right? And I've admitted like, I don't want to organize this weekly. I just don't have the bandwidth, but I want to see if someone will take the, you know, take the baton and do it. ⁓ But you know, the swing dancing in New York City is pretty powerful. like some of the best swing dancing you'll see. have some of the best instructors and professionals here. I've learned from them. But again, it's mostly downtown. It's not really up here. A lot of us, like I'm part of a group called the Big Apple Lindy Hoppers.

Octavio Blanco (35:07)
huh.

Led Black (35:12)
Right.

Octavio Blanco (35:27)
Yeah.

Adrian Miranda (35:32)
think like half a third of us live uptown, like north of like 145th Street or 125th Street. But yeah, the rest of the time, like our rehearsals are on 34th Street, 42nd Street, Gibney, down on Wall Street.

Led Black (35:45)
Another question I have is, so then you've been doing the ⁓ short films, But was it always in the works that you wanted to actually do theater as well, that was part of it, or just like, let me do theater, just born out of that moment?

Octavio Blanco (35:46)
Yeah, yeah.

Adrian Miranda (36:01)
Wow.

So good question though, so it was always TV episodes. My goal was to be on NBC, prime time, Grey's Anatomy. That was always my dream. It still kind of is, but with streaming it's kind of changed a bit. So I danced in college, I started dancing hip hop. I didn't know I could dance that well. When I was 17 I put on Michael Jackson's MTV Music Awards and I could do every move. And I was like, oh I can do this. College I won a talent show and then I was like, oh I can dance. Then I went to a martial arts club.

and there was break dancers. The club was no longer and the break dancers were using the space and so I couldn't leave.

because I don't want to be rude. so I hung out with them. really cool. So I came back next week. I started learning break dancing and I found out that they were dancing in this performance. And I was like, well, guys dance. So I went to see them and it was really cool. And there was a bunch of girls like, it's like 60 girls. I was like, I'm going to audition. And I did, I got in, I got some pretty good numbers and it's surprising. So then, you know, I had a really good friend named Arlie who's still in New York city and kind of dragged me to all these workshops and master classes and I just got better and better. So after

Led Black (36:52)
haha

Adrian Miranda (37:10)
After grad school, I played soccer in grad school just for fun, but all the time. There was not dance for a year after I graduated undergrad. So when I moved to Brooklyn, I remember distinctly I was ordering a bed frame. I just moved in and I like, I missed dance, let me go find the crew, like a hip hop crew or something like that. I clicked the link, no joke, it was for hip hop crew auditions and then went to a play audition. And it's called Heights Players. So I was like, I've never acted, let me just try it. So I learned the monologue from Dank.

you

for smoking and I went and this is the time like early Google Maps I think I printed out I think it was like early Google Maps on your phone so it's in Brooklyn Brooklyn Heights so I'm walking and I get to the corner and I get to the corner of the place it's a church so basement of a church I walk in front of the entrance and like this is the place I was like what the hell am I doing no f that so I kept walking

Led Black (37:47)
Yeah, yeah.

Octavio Blanco (37:48)
You

Adrian Miranda (38:04)
Halfway down the block these two women come up like, are you here to audition? I was like, damn it. And I was like, yes, I'm here. And they're like, come here. But doesn't end there. So I did my model. I got them to laugh. And I was like, ⁓ So they asked. So I was like, I probably didn't get it. not an actor. I get a call back to come back. And I was like, whoa.

Octavio Blanco (38:10)
Hahaha!

Adrian Miranda (38:26)
So I'm sitting there, it starts at like 730, it's now nine o'clock. I had a scheduled for nine o'clock and I text her when I'm running late, let's do 930. She's like, okay.

It's 10 o'clock. I'm still running late. And I was like, oh my gosh. get, leave at 10. I'm in that an hour and a half late to my date. I told the stage manager, I like, I have a leak in my apartment. gotta go. So I leave thinking like, all right, this is not happening. I'm not gonna be in that. I'm not gonna be in this play. It's fine. Never was meant to be. I get a small part in the play. And I didn't even do the callback.

Led Black (38:58)
Wow.

Adrian Miranda (39:00)
Then during the play's ending and there's a show called Finnean's Rainbow and my buddy who I made friends with was like, know, asking everybody, are you auditioning for Finnean's Rainbow? was like, what's that? They're like, it's a musical. And I was like, I can dance. Let me audition for that. I get in. I can't sing at the time. I'm tone deaf, completely tone deaf. And I get a gospel ear to quartet and I get a part as a singer. And I'm like, what?

And mind you, so I did the show on tone deaf and I got comments after that and I almost quit the last show because I was like, why am I in this show? I literally can't sing. And I'm not saying, people say, you can't sing, but they can carry a tune. No, I was like flat and tone deaf. After that, I said, you know what, let me confront this. So I took voice lessons for a year, went to karaoke four nights a week for a year and I learned to sing.

Led Black (39:47)
Wow.

Adrian Miranda (39:48)
Yeah, I played Bernardo, what's that story? Pinball Wizard and Tommy. So then around four years into it, I started seeing my friends doing these cabarets at the duplex and doing their own shows. And I went and I was like, that's it?

Led Black (39:49)
That's amazing.

Adrian Miranda (40:02)
I can do that. So I wrote a one man show like John Leguizamo inspired and played four different characters myself and three patients of mine that each had like a story that they were battling a chronic pain all different ages and true patients too. And I had like a song and I performed it. Then I did it again, I had another song I did it again and didn't go so well and I just changed a little bit too much. And then I kind of came to a musical in 2022. I did a reading kind of caveat theater.

And it didn't work out. I was supposed to do a Hebrew Tabernacle in 2022 again and I got COVID and I canceled it and I was like, let me just table this.

So yeah, it would just kinda happen. I wasn't looking for theater. It just felt like easier than film in 2017, 2018. So that's why started doing the theater, because it was easier actually. It was just me. I had an accompanist. I didn't need one, but I was able to just get on stage, memorize my lines, and do it. I did like three theater festivals around 2018, 2019,

But yeah, theater was, wasn't, film at Kindle TV, I knew I wanted to do somehow. And then that kind of evolved and theater just happened and happened and I was like, I think I have a talent here, I think.

But yeah, so really it's performing. I love performing. That's what it is. I can entertain you. As a physical therapist, I'm all about healing people's physical problems. But over the years as a physical therapist and as a medical provider, you realize that there's a lot up here and a lot in here, and it's healing before your shoulder, your neck, your back can heal. So for me, entertainment is that healing kind of thing. And I call it healthcare entertainment. Now the buzzword is healing arts or arts and healing. And I call it healthcare entertainment because I want

Led Black (41:43)
You

Adrian Miranda (41:50)
want

you be entertained. I want you to be entertained and not think that I'm teaching you anything. I want you to leave and be like, I didn't really learn anything. And then a month later, you call me up and ask me about your back and you say, wait, didn't your show do this and that and that and this, you know? But now it's more healing about anything, mental health, alcohol, cancer, AIDS. So now it just kind of like expands and any kind of healing. And then I also make some stupid stuff too. It doesn't all have to be have a message.

Led Black (42:17)
Hahaha

Adrian Miranda (42:20)
ridiculous things. then, know, lastly, like the new concept I have, because there's a we're in an era of like vertical micro dramas. And ⁓ so if you've seen my website, it's like

Octavio Blanco (42:31)
I don't know what a vertical micro

drama is. Explain please.

Adrian Miranda (42:36)
Yeah, so it's these like two to three minute vertical like Netflix shows. They're Quibi was the original. Yeah. So you're on your phone. It's like they're usually like cheesy soft core porn. They're like cheesy romance and they're huge hit like China. It's like a multi-billion dollar industry. So in the vein, I wanted to kind of create something. We talked about it. So what I'm going to do next year is kind of a spin off of my web series, which is like the physical therapy teaching in the GED classroom.

Led Black (42:41)
just well.

Adrian Miranda (43:07)
Is to have this lawyer he's like a deadbeat lawyer and he's helping people in this in this community Saw their legal issues, but he doesn't want to do it. He's kind of an asshole But he always ends up helping them and I'm using Juan Pablo Duarte foundation I'm probably gonna use their office as a set and then I'm parting with open hands Which is a legal thing a faith-based legal not-for-profit that helps people with all sorts of things housing immigration custody

financial stuff so I'm taking real stories and just kind of turning into like a little bit of a dramedy so that'll be 2026 that I'm working on that.

Octavio Blanco (43:42)
that's cool. That's pretty

cool.

Adrian Miranda (43:45)
Yeah. And then the theater, know, uptown books, hopefully it kind of keeps running. That's the goal is it just happens January through March is like my goal. And then, you know, it kind of lives on maybe some theater, some university in the area, like Barikwar, or Palace, or an investor or producer wants to like put it on like a stage reading. But I'm happy if it saves every recirculation. That's the idea is like it's funding for recirculation to not have to always rely on an external source. They can kind of sell tickets and get.

income through the arts.

Led Black (44:19)
I I think it's funny. I didn't realize how many, like you said, the hats you wear, you wear a lot of hats, you have a lot of talent, right? You kind of figure it all out. How do you decide what to do next, right? Like, I'm going to do this, but I also, you know what mean? How does you bring it all together? What's that process like?

Adrian Miranda (44:25)
to the

Yeah, oh man, I mean, you this is one of things that I have trouble elaborating on it, because it just happens naturally. I don't have a choice, right? You're like your dad, right? How do you, you're dad, right? How many kids do you have? How do you do that? That's three.

Led Black (44:48)
Yeah, yeah, for sure, yeah. And with that, three daughters.

Adrian Miranda (44:55)
Just do it, right? You can't explain it. Write it down on a piece of paper. You wake up and someone wakes up cranky. What do you do? Will you do this? There's no instructions. But if I had to say, it's resources. So what places do I have? Who's available? Can I reduce the number of characters and actors? Because scheduling between four people who have a job is really challenging. Scheduling between nine people, that's even harder.

Led Black (44:56)
Yeah.

Right.

Adrian Miranda (45:25)
Sometimes scheduling two to three is actually much easier. So that's how I kind of decide what project is next and then I just kind of gauge, you know, the social media, the news, people who I meet. A lot of times like, you know, Octavio, you want to you want to play a professor? All right, let's do it. Let's write it. You know, what do we have access to? How can we make it work? So it really comes down to like how interested I am in it and what resources are available. But thankfully,

I busted my ass to learn so much that there's not really a barrier. You know, I have camera, I have lenses, have microphones. I can write, I can edit, I can fix stuff. I do VFX. can fight choreography, dance choreography, know, stunts. Stunts, I mean like just running, you know, down the street, running and chasing people. ⁓ So there's, ⁓ so I can do almost anything. I don't want to do everything, don't even wrong. That's not the point.

Led Black (46:13)
Right, right.

Adrian Miranda (46:24)
The point is that one day I can walk into an office and there is a writer or two and then there's someone wants to direct this and then we'll take turns and you know all of this I want to just perform to be frank with you it's just if you wait on other people it just gets delayed so

Octavio Blanco (46:42)
Yeah.

Adrian Miranda (46:43)
I just want to act. So the only way I can act right away is to write my own things and produce my own things. You know, if I audition, like I was in the play in May for Royal Family Productions, it was great. But if I've been auditioning, you know, submitting on Actors Access, but I've gotten nothing, you know. So I'm able to keep producing and making stuff if I just do it myself with other people, not just alone, but myself, right?

Octavio Blanco (47:01)
It is challenging.

Led Black (47:04)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, my daughter's a filmmaker as well and an actress and I tell her all the time, you have to create your own vehicles, right? Because if not, you're gonna be there just waiting for it to happen, man. But it's amazing how busy you stay, how much work, do you wanna do a feature at some point or you wanna stay in this?

Adrian Miranda (47:15)
Yep.

You know, the reason I like theater and episodic, like TV shows, is because you have a chance to redo it quickly. A feature, it's like done. You can't really go back. You can do a director's cut, but it's like, it's there. It's like on the bookshelf and it just doesn't change. Versus a TV show, we could do, even if we do like the first season, or the first three episodes, or the first episode, y'all in this show, right? You could redo this show every time you have a guest.

But if you just plan for a one hour podcast, and several guests, you can't really, you don't have the opportunity to change it. It was just like one finalized thing, right? So the amount of work to put into an hour and a half, and the fact that it's static, it's done.

Led Black (48:03)
Right, right, right.

Adrian Miranda (48:11)
The episodics allow me, you know, my website is like, ⁓ man, I want to do a musical. I did a musical in episode five, right? If it was a feature, I have to go and redo, like, produce a whole feature. Theater is similar in that, like, every night, the word I say, you know, it's really hard to make money here in this bookstore. It's really hard to make money in this bookstore. It's really hard to make money in this, you know, like, every night I can change something. So it's never the same thing. So that's, yeah, right.

Led Black (48:39)
not static.

Adrian Miranda (48:41)
Exactly, so that's that is why I don't really care to make a feature of course if someone said make a feature here's funding when I say no of course not. If someone asked me to act in the feature I would do that but as far as producing writing directing even acting in the feature you know it depends on the role.

But I just love the chance to redo it and the opportunities to change it up and have new people come in and other actors and other people and writers. Episode four of the web series, Ryan wrote it. I didn't write it. I put the anatomy part, but he wrote the whole script. So I'm able and I want to give off different things and bring new people in. And that's why I like episodic.

Octavio Blanco (49:29)
so to me it sounds almost like you're Tarzan in the jungle swinging from vine to vine hoping that, and you're hoping that there's gonna be another vine to grab onto when you let go of the vine that you're currently working on. So one vine is one project, another vine is another project.

Adrian Miranda (49:37)
I'm honored. Did everybody hear that?

Octavio Blanco (49:53)
What do you need as a creator ⁓ so that you can have a little bit more control? Is it literally like financing or what is it that you're, as a creator, that you would love to have so that you could have more control? Or do you like this sort of like kind of ad hoc, I'm gonna do this, now I'm gonna do that now?

Adrian Miranda (50:11)
We have this.

No, it's my necessity. No, like, you know, it's also just testing things out. What sticks, what lands. ⁓ I have my visions. I know what it looks like. I kind of did it with the web series. It's just, you know, that needs funding. But as a creator, you don't need anything. You have a phone. Captures pretty good audio. You can buy a microphone if you want. Two microphones for two actors.

For 20 bucks nowadays and the light is like 30 bucks. You don't even need a light. You just go outside, you know, find the right time of day. So there is, I, like I said earlier, I just want to act, but no one's going to write me a script, you know? So I just gotta be, yeah, that's really what it is.

Octavio Blanco (50:59)
You're just scrappy, scrappy with it.

Led Black (51:00)
Like, yeah.

Octavio Blanco (51:06)
And are you still providing physical therapy? Is that work that you're still doing? Do you still work as a physical therapist? So as you're doing all these other things, you also have a job as a physical therapist. Wow.

Adrian Miranda (51:12)
Yeah, yeah, 100%. Yeah, three days a week, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. Yeah, correct.

Yeah. Yeah. And it's, you know, it's a blessing that my job is within the arts and Broadway, right? So it's kind of nice because I get to talk to people about, you know, physical because like I have to train my body too for these things. And I, for the actors, we did the action one just last month and I gave him like a warmup based on my physical therapy experience. And what I would do, I have to keep my body with a certain level of fitness to be able to even demonstrate these things to the actors or do it myself when I'm acting. But it's like, it's like, it's like a smoother transition.

Octavio Blanco (51:26)
Okay.

Adrian Miranda (51:51)
now, where before it like, you know, it's a bank. It's in the Upper West Side called Flyspace, Flyspace PT. it's on 81st and Broadway.

Octavio Blanco (51:52)
So where do you provide physical therapy?

Okay.

Adrian Miranda (52:02)
And most of the patients there live uptown too. So like, know, they probably see my flyers, they know about it, they're like, I might try to stop by. but yeah, that's so yeah. So I have a day job and I'm there three days a week. So the other two days I'm working on my business or trying to promote it and trying to, you know, market the shows and market the videos and look for funding. you know, I don't, I actually don't really submit to film festivals because of money.

The deal I give to everybody who works on any of the films or anything. This is yours So like Walter in the movie roots, he submitted to three film festivals and we got in all three You know, we got asked to be in the film festival in Texas for the chess movie that had kids in it So that's just I just finished it today. So it's been really exciting that other people I'm trying to push this on other people take take a leadership and write stories try to cast each other

Submit to film festivals. I don't I've only applied to like one grants two grants actually The LMCC grant and then one other one that's like in these spaces like a small little stipend But that's it. You know my goal is to build this community Finding come some other way the theater to generate revenue somehow But yeah, I've kind of limited myself to what I do and and film festivals cost money You know after a while 30 bucks 50 bucks adds up and also I

Octavio Blanco (53:28)
Yeah, yeah, of course.

Adrian Miranda (53:31)
It's

just not what I want to do and I'll go and network, you know, I mean I saw you at Latino Film Festival, right? You know, like I'll go and network but for me to screen my film, it's not my priority right now. If other people want to do it in the community, ⁓ I'm like, please do it. Cause I just, I wear many hats as you said earlier.

Led Black (53:39)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and I find it also very interesting, there's an art to scrappiness, you know, and it's funny because the director, Joel Vargas, who did Mad Bills to Pay, which is a great film, you know, he, it was so intentional, right? Because that's the thing that I find very interesting. You have to be intentional because you're right, you don't have unlimited funds. You don't have all the money in the world, right? Talk a little bit about that, like kind of finding those ways to, you know, to still come up with a good product.

but to make sure that you can do it within your means.

Adrian Miranda (54:25)
Yeah, mean, use what you have. You know, I've filmed three films here in this living room. You know, you can change the set, move things around. can use a, you know, I have one, for example, I wanted to make a really well produced film that's, you know, an important film, but I just want to do it in my bedroom. Like it was almost like a challenge, a self-challenge.

I met this ⁓ neighbor of mine lives down the street. I've seen her for a while. She's and she's a model. She's way I'm like she sticks out like a sore thumb and ⁓ I wanted to do like a ⁓ Like a couple, know, like a like a like a couple I've done it before about business and and based on My gosh, I'm more his cafe with a Vanna Hodges business. So it's based on her story

But I kind of wanted to make like a relationship, like a romantic relationship. So the idea was like, how can I make this as simple as possible?

Make sure that acting is top-notch and the production quality is good, but use my bedroom. So that's an imposed challenge So like we're gonna it's about pretty much like I I lost my significant other, know, and they're haunting me So in the movie you think that's it's a demon or it's like a ghost or it's bad But it's actually no at the end spoiler alert is that she comes back to tell me everything's okay that she forgives me for whatever happened It's not my fault any of the stuff like, know, it's like we had an argument and she died type of thing So instead of her haunting

Octavio Blanco (55:52)
Mm.

Adrian Miranda (55:53)
me which is like a scary kind of thing and eventually it turns out that she speaks and she's like stop I'm not here to torment you I'm just here to tell you how you know it's fine like I love you whatever so that was the idea so that's the goal is to do it in this in my my bedroom you know with it's not that fancy it's in the middle of the building you know so there's no natural sunlight but you know there's the movie The Room I think right they filmed it in the room right mean it's fate they have lights everywhere

Led Black (56:21)
Right.

Octavio Blanco (56:22)
Yeah.

Adrian Miranda (56:23)
But yeah, it's use what you have and you can use a kitchen. You know, don't need a lot of use your apartment. Most people have some place to live. Use the streets. The neighborhood. I've filmed outside. In the web series, I'm running up and down Wadsworth, you know, like a maniac just running up and down like 20 times. It's only, you know, 10 seconds.

Led Black (56:40)
Ha ha ha ha.

Adrian Miranda (56:44)
You know, we filmed in the park at J. Hood Wright Park. We filmed at Uptown Gaming. We filmed at Cafe Bloom. Just relationships I built. We're also gonna film at Academy of Arts and Letters. It's a Mission Impossible parody. It's called Empanada Protocol. There's toxic empanadas and they have a pharmaceutical, their, you know, corporation is taking over. So yeah, so it's just relationships, right? But like, eventually...

Led Black (56:57)
So that's beautiful.

Hahaha

Adrian Miranda (57:12)
You can build those but if you don't want to that's okay. Sometimes artists we can be introverted You know, we can be pretty quiet into ourselves and it's hard to ask favors. I think I'm just so hungry I'm just so hungry. I have no shame asking you for a favor. I asked you to act in a film. Remember that?

Led Black (57:29)
He did.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was surprised. I'm like, I'm not an actor. So I was like, huh? You want me to post about it? Yeah.

Adrian Miranda (57:33)
Yeah, I didn't even understand the question. was like, are you want me to post something? I was like, no, bro. I'm asking you.

But.

So it's just, it's also just, I'm hungry and I love it. You know, that's, that's what it comes down to. So you might have to ask for favors. Other times it's just, just do it yourself. You can make a film just about yourself, you know, make a character. You don't have to say a word. There are plenty of Subaru commercials that make you cry. And it's like no dialogue. It's like one person or two people. It's like a Charmin commercial, you know, or a Buick commercial. So there's like plenty examples that you don't need to have a whole cast and crew and lights.

Led Black (58:03)
Right.

Adrian Miranda (58:10)
and even the microphone, even the camera, you know, we're in an era where your camera is a thousand dollar thing in your pocket. And then the iPhone Pro 17 has professional level cinema settings. Like, stupid, like you don't need that. But it's happening, right? So just upgrade your phone and you'll be, you know, Netflix ready. I mean, it's an overstatement.

Octavio Blanco (58:18)
Yeah.

Yeah, bar

of entry is becoming more more achievable. ⁓ So we're running up against the clock here. ⁓

Adrian Miranda (58:38)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (58:41)
The fact that you're hungry for this and that you're working to get these things going and the fact that you're actually producing and putting them on. I watched one of the movies on your website ⁓ by an Italian, I think it was an Italian director that you acted in. ⁓ It was an interesting movie. was a guy with, I think he had some sort of mental health issues. I think it's really cool that all the things that you produce are sort of like healed.

related and that you're going towards a broader type of healing than just like healing your muscles or your bone structure. You're talking about mental health, you're talking about other aspects of health and I do see that that's like an important part of filmmaking and storytelling is to help us to heal. ⁓ being that you have so many things going on, know, let our audience know where to find each of your

different

channels. you've got ⁓ Gross Anatomy. Now that's a website, right? That's your main kind of like, ⁓ sort of where people can look and see your productions. Is that right?

Adrian Miranda (59:53)
No, so my website is adrianmaranda.com and you'll find the web series and just about me. But a lot of all my productions are on YouTube. So youtube.com slash gross anatomy. And then my Instagram is at gross anatomy studios. And that's where I put clips of things. I don't put the full things on there. then my bio right now is a ticket sales for the play. Usually you can find my YouTube channel on the thing on Amazon. My website is on Amazon Prime. Just look for a gross anatomy. And if you search my name, should pop up.

And then on LinkedIn is where you see everything. That's where I have my biggest following, I'm most engaged there. It's just you can see everything. Every sneeze I take on this film set, it's there. Every sock I use for whatever. ⁓ So LinkedIn is where I kind of do my most engagement and posting. Instagram, I'm there, but it's more of like the little snippets and the call to action.

Led Black (1:00:35)
Hahaha ⁓

Octavio Blanco (1:00:47)
and the theater, uptown

books. Tell us again, what are the dates and times?

Adrian Miranda (1:00:52)
Yeah, feel free to go to the events page on Wordup Books.

website you'll find the information there but Uptown Books the play is going to be December 13th at 4 15 p.m. and at 6 o'clock p.m. and December 14th at 6 p.m. and it's all going to be at recirculation on Riverside Drive not the other store in Amsterdam and the running time is about 35 to 45 minutes so you can come and watch it and go have dinner and go out and party on Saturday night and then Sunday you can have brunch and come see it or you can come see it and go have you know late lunch or late brunch

So that's Uptown Books to Play.

Led Black (1:01:29)
Nice.

Adrian, brother, thank you so much for being on the show. ⁓ Thank you so much. I'm looking forward to Uptown Books. I'm intrigued by the whole immersive experience. So let's see what happens, brother.

Octavio Blanco (1:01:38)
Yeah, me too. I'm definitely

gonna pick up some tickets.

Adrian Miranda (1:01:42)
I hope to see both of you. hope Black and Blanco are there at the same time. That would be amazing. I mean, think about it, right? People brought this up to you, Black and Blanco. Like, what are the odds that that's your both names?

Octavio Blanco (1:01:46)
Absolutely.

Led Black (1:01:46)
Black and Blanco, that's right.

Yeah, yeah,

it's weird. was a friend of his that went, he was like, black and blocko. That's kind of interesting. I was like, yeah, that's true.

Octavio Blanco (1:02:01)
you

should do something with that. was like, yeah, actually we should do something with that.

Adrian Miranda (1:02:04)
Yeah, think so. Well, I appreciate you both.

Led Black (1:02:05)
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Adrian, thanks so much,

Thanks so much, brother. Appreciate it.

Octavio Blanco (1:02:11)
Awesome. All right, have a good night. Bye bye.

Adrian Miranda (1:02:13)
Cool, thank you both.