NYWIFT Blog

By Maura Garnett

Welcome to NYWIFT Gabrielle Fox!

Gabrielle Fox was born into show business as the daughter of an actress and a businessman, immersing herself in rehearsals with her mother and learning business skills from her father.

She delved into producing shows and leveraging her networking and marketing expertise, culminating in the creation of her own website. Gabrielle’s life journey advocates embracing dreams whenever they arise and relentlessly pursuing them.

She believes that time is going to pass whether you take a risk, or create the project or not. Let that time pass by being creative. Create, create, create and then do it again.

Read more about Gabrielle’s amazing stories from the set and upcoming adventures here!

NYWIFT Member Gabrielle Fox

Tell us about yourself – give us your elevator pitch!

Gabrielle Fox is creative to the core, a writer with a vision who can see any project from the first kernel of an idea/dream to its premiere on stage or screen.

Your work spans across film and theater. How do you approach storytelling differently in these mediums?

My approach to storytelling is the same for both theatre and film, there’s got to be a structure in place that reveals character through struggle, secrets, and obstacles. I like to show, not tell a story. I LOVE both mediums for different reasons. I love the immediacy of theater and the process of presenting something live that brings a different experience each night. There is electricity with live performance.

For film I love the collaboration and the different sets of tools that can elevate a story into something that can cross over time and place with ease. I also like that there is something that remains after all of the work is finished.

I created a short play/short film festival because both mediums are so magical and offer so much! Why choose when you can do both! Creators and audiences get to experience the uniqueness of each medium all at the same time!

Gabrielle Fox at a rehearsal for a theatre production.

How do you approach collaborating with actors, crew members, or other creatives to bring your vision to life while maintaining a collaborative atmosphere?

Collaboration is where the magic happens and a story that was in my hands takes on a life of its own. There’s nothing I like more than hearing and incorporating ideas that collaborators see in the story that I did not. All ideas are welcome and I think that the environment for collaboration needs to be created right at the beginning, usually over food! If there is a safe space, even a so-called “bad idea” can lead a story to something new, conversations and ideas need to happen and that happens by building community.

As someone accomplished in multiple facets of the creative process, what challenges do you face when wearing different hats in a single project (writing, directing, producing), and how do you navigate those challenges?

The biggest challenge is the race against time, all aspects of it. Finding time to do projects, juggling other people’s time, is the story relevant to the time, and do we have the time to make it in time for deadlines. We all need more time! I navigate the challenges by working as hard as I can and respecting other people’s time. But…a time crunch can lead to even more creativity. It’s all magic.

Gabrielle Fox at Theatre Revolution’s Film Festival at Bedford Playhouse.

What’s your creative process like when conceptualizing a new project?

Conceptualizing new projects…inception to execution: New ideas that are good usually keep nagging my thoughts for days and weeks, they won’t leave me alone. Then they start developing in my head and become too big to live there anymore and need to be written down. At that point I just get into it and start writing whatever and whenever I can. Once I have what I think is a solid script, I have it read either by actor friends or in a writer’s group or both. I make sure to have past collaborators involved as there is a level of trust there. They know they can be critical and that we can disagree and still respect each other’s talent and perspective. Then it’s rewriting and more rewriting.

Once I feel like the script is ready it’s finding the right collaborators. Through the years, I’ve learned to reach out to people that I want to collaborate with so that I can learn and grow and that’s been an incredible experience. It’s what led me to NYWIFT. Ultimately, the script will keep changing, in rehearsals, on stage and in the editing room. It’s got a life of its own at some point and that’s a wonderful place to be in as an artist.

Gabrielle Fox (right) at Theatre Revolution Film Festival with NYWIFT Presidents Circle Member Annetta Marion.

Connect with Gabrielle Fox on her website www.gabriellefoxwrites.com

Connect with Theatre Revolution on Instagram at @theatrerevolution , on Facebook, and on their website www.theatrerevolution.org