The Queued4Christ Show with Steven C. Little "Jean Porter Legacy"-"From Stage To Surrender"

What happens when a fast-rising creative career collides with a calling to surrender the spotlight? We sit with playwright, actor, and producer Steven Little—CEO of Jean Porter Legacy Productions—to unpack how sold-out shows, hard lessons, and spiritual obedience reshaped his art and his leadership. From opening for major R&B artists to directing plays that fill opera houses, Steven’s journey turns when he realizes momentum without God-centered purpose can stall. The reset costs numbers but births a clear mission: make work that blesses people, not just impresses them.

Steven walks us through the craft that supports that mission. He shares how he studies scripts, travels to watch top-tier productions, and absorbs notes from mentors like Robert John Connor and Javon Johnson. We talk set design that feels lived-in, emotional beats that land, and why every rehearsal is a classroom. The culture at JPL comes alive too—cast members who show up for each other offstage, a family ethos that lowers real-world conflict, and community outreach that includes senior-home singing and arts support for schools.

Then comes the surprise turn: a brand-new musical he never planned to write, poured onto the page in a single day. Steven explains how listening changed his writing, how a single word like “access” expanded into a scene with spiritual weight, and how a strategic rollout—trailers, member spotlights, and timed ticket drops—serves a deeper goal. The throughline is consistent and compelling: professionalism matters, service matters, and creative excellence grows when it’s accountable to something bigger than applause. If you’re an actor or writer, you’ll leave with a practical blueprint for reels, submissions, and daily discipline—and a challenge to align your gift with a purpose that outlasts trends.

If this conversation moved you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs courage, and leave a review telling us how you’ll put your gift to work this week.

Transcript

Welcome, Worship, And Setup

SPEAKER_03 1:51

It's a new baby with a new way. Praise the father for I just to blast my guys to the guy is the dopest. Salute respect to the woman that got the Keanu. My girl, she give hope to the hopeless.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

You can be gone with Hey, hey, hey, everyone. This Kiana, your creator, and the host of Q for Christ. And I'm super excited, y'all. I'm let me tell y'all, this week has been a week for your girl. Like, literally, I'm telling you, this is um, you know, this asthma wanna start bothering me, but you know what? I am going to try them regardless. So, anyways, I'm super excited that you are here. As you know, this is the Cute for Christ show. And I tell you, I take this very seriously about being a vessel for Christ. It's something that we have to continue to always do. We have to push through and be consistent. And so I'm super excited to be up here. Make sure you are going and sharing this with someone because I guarantee you that it is going to bless someone, okay, on today. And so I'm super excited about this. Make sure you're going to the website at www.cuforchrist.com. Um, I am going to have a masterclass coming up later on, okay. Tomorrow, I am going to introduce all the guests from next week. And I tell you, you do not want to miss the live series. Uh, you are going to be blessed by these individuals. I'm super, I'm super

Meet Steven Little And His Journey

SPEAKER_00 3:30

excited. So, so, anyways, as you know, this is the cue for Christ show, right? This is where we are going to be cued. This is your hour to be cued by um my special guest, and I'm super excited to have him on today. He is a busy man, y'all, and I done got him. I done got the man, y'all. So, anyways, I'm super excited to bring my guest in today. I have none other than Steven Little on here. How are you, Steve?

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Doing great. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

That's good, man. I'm telling, like I said, you are a busy man, like for real. And I was super excited. Look how I was telling him earlier, I said, I feel like a proud auntie. You know, people don't know. We we we started this thing when we were little, like yeah, you know me and kicking people ankles, being bad.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

You know me.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Right. And uh, and you I just every time I think about it, be like you and my brother, my little baby brother, y'all was uh y'all used to be in the front singing in y'all Corleeas, like, man, it's so amazing. Uh, and like I said, I'm just super proud of everything that you're doing. Now I want you, because I can I can introduce you and I can tell everything, but I want you to be able to tell everybody and let everybody know who Steve Little is and what you got going on.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Uh yeah, man. Um just uh the CEO of Gene Porter Legacy Productions, um, which started in 2014. It started out as Creative Elite Productions, but we changed it in 2019. My mom passed and named it after her Gene Porter Legacy Productions, um and been acting since 2009. Uh, been doing my own thing, like I said, since 2014. I mean, right now, just pretty much uh determined to make this full-time is is my thing. And with with being full-time with it, you know, it's like it's it's it's exciting, right? You know, it's hard at the same time. It takes a lot of work. So um, but I mean that's that's the biggest thing. I and I just acting and and I play for churches, uh play the for church. Uh that's pretty much it, man. I'm I'm a they say I'm a jack of all trades, but I mean, hey, I just I just I just kind of go with the gifts that God giving me and try to see how I can make people happy and smile from the gifts that He's giving me.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Right, right. And and like you say, you're a jack of all trade because you know your acting skills is incredible. Like I was able to um experience one of your first play. Well, not one of your first plays, it was my first play, being able to be able to see it live, and and it was just incredible to see and and you wrote that, you know what I'm saying? Like, you know, just the talent um behind that is just incredible. Like, I'm you know, I'm super, I'm super excited. Yeah, look, y'all go, y'all finna hear how he's been cued, right? I'm so excited. So, um, what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna say a quick prayer, and um, and then we'll we'll just go into seeing how you have been, you know, able to just stay cute, cute Christ. All right, so dear Heavenly Father, God, I say thank you. I say thank you for this time that you have carved out for us to be able to um share our message with someone, God. We thank you for what you are doing in our life, God. We know that you are touching him, God, touching Steve, going with his family, going with his children, his wife, God. We thank you now for the time that he dedicated to your people, God, and being able to make them smile, God, being able to give them a message that

From Music And Design To Acting

SPEAKER_00 7:20

that can help them. Um, and so we thank you now, God. We thank you now for anything that his hands touch, it turns into gold, God. We thank you now for even um going and showing it to millions and millions, God, and we thank you for allowing us to be able to display his talent, God. God, we just thank you now for the people that are tuning in on tonight. God, touch them now from the crown of their head to the sole of their feet. Allow them to hear something that would that they would do and want to be saved or want to be cued or want to be able to be different and be transformed, and so we thank you for everything that you're doing in the lives of your people, God. We just thank you now, God, for for life, health, and strength, God, on today. And so we love you, we honor you, God, and we cherish you. It's in Jesus' name that I pray. Amen. Amen. So I'm super excited now. Uh, when when you started this journey, I know a lot of people, they often say, Oh, well, I'm gonna do this, this, this, this. Did you ever think that this is where you would be or what you would be doing or ending up doing?

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Not at all. Um, as people that's been around me, I want to say starting since 2006, I have been some of everything. Uh started as an RB artist, um, got pretty far with that, was opened up for major artists like Tank and Monica. And I thought I made I was like, hey, I'm here, I was well off, getting paid well, but that ain't what God had planned. So a little thing and that ended. And uh God, I was an interior decorator.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Um okay, no, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

I I had because I love HG TV. I love me some HG TV and decorating. Uh I did that for a little while, food catering. So I this right here, I had no intentions on, and I didn't plan on acting. It's just uh Diane Hollis, God rest her soul, came to me when I was at New Orleans and she was like, You funny. I said, Uh, what you mean, funny? She's like, Right, hold on.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

What do you mean?

SPEAKER_01 9:25

I said, Oh, thank you. She was like, Yeah, she was like, Have you ever acted? I said, No, I never acted. So I started with her, and yeah, I like the the response that was coming from me being who I really was as a goofy person. So uh I still didn't see this, and it's even since 2021, I want to say, where I am now, I didn't see this happening the past four years at any point. God is really taking it to where there's nothing else we're supposed to be doing, and even here recently in the past three months, he's elevated me even more, not only just me, but my company. Um, and it's like he's showing me some stuff now and saying, okay, now it's time. And with this next show we got coming, it kind of shows that it's like nothing I've never done before. And it's truly God saying, Okay, here we go. Uh, you weren't ready for this before this moment, but now here you go. And this next production is a task, not a show. Right and I feel like it's a task, and something's supposed to come out of this, not for me, but for the his people. Um, so is it I I didn't see it. And and even to this day, I'm still seeing stuff that I didn't see happening or coming to fluition, you know, being on stage with with famous people, you know, known people, you know, Javon Johnson with with the oval, and you know, being with different RB artists. So I mean, it's just I didn't see it, but I I I'm just rolling with it, and I'm at the point now where I'm just listening. My ears are wide open, and so I'm just listening with right, right.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

That's man, I'm telling you, I remember I miss Hollis. I actually did a play with her uh years ago. Um, oh my gosh, I can't even remember. It was what 2016, I think, or 2015. Um, and and she, you know, for her to be able to see something in you that is that's that's special, you know what I'm saying? And for her to point that out to you. So how did when when you got that quickening and saying, you know what, let me start writing my own. And you know, because once you get that quickening, it's like, okay, you know what, now I got to do something. So how did that look when you was like, you know what, now it's my time to take over and start writing my own plays?

SPEAKER_01 11:45

And let me tell you, that's that's and that's a story I tell not often, but uh when people do ask, it's one that I kind of smile about because I wrote it and I had given it to one person. I said, Hey, you know, I wrote this, check it out, let me know what you think. And they said, Okay, cool, I'll get to it. I check it out. You know, I'm not gonna harass nobody. That's just me. I'm not gonna mess you three, four, five times. I'm not that guy. If I message you and I know you saw it, Facebook's gonna tell me you saw it. So I saw you see my message. I saw you see me. So I gave it to them, then I gave it to another guy. I was like, Hey, yeah, well, when I finish this one, I'm definitely gonna get to it. They finished it, okay. Well, let me do this one more. I'm like, okay, then somebody told me, It's like, why don't you just do it yourself? I said, I'm an actor, I don't direct, so I don't know how to do it. It was like, you're a people person, so just try it.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

And I tried it, didn't have the final script written. I just said, Hey, I'm gonna do a play June 15th. And I

First Plays, Fast Growth, And Humbling

SPEAKER_01 12:45

talked to the Douglass, and they said, Here's what it costs to get it. I said, Okay, cool. And when I posted it, we sold out in 12 days. Wow, put it in 40 tickets into it. I said, wait a minute, this ain't wait a minute. Well, I don't even I ain't even showed them nothing. I just put the picture out there and said, I'm doing a play, and here it is. And then the pressure came, but then the show happened, and it was just a thing of okay, I guess this is what I'm supposed to be doing, and it grew very fast. By the time I got to my third play, we were the first local production independent that sold out the Grand Opera House, which is 1500 seats. Wow. We sold it out, and I was like, Whoa, here it is. And this is where this part comes in, I got it, I did it, I figured it out. I, I, I, I, and God said, give me that. Wow, right, and he humbled me and took me back down and said, Let's start this over, because you didn't you didn't you getting ahead of yourself. And he looked like he it went from 1500 tickets to 225 because I went away from what he had planned. Right, right. And I said, And at the time I didn't figure out what in the world, what was happening. But over time I said, that's what it was, and that's why now it's with this one that he just giving me is a okay, here we go. Now we're back here again. Now, what you gonna do with it? I ain't I bet you I won't do that no more. This is all you. I ain't putting no me, no word now. This is all you glorifying you the entire hour and 45 days. I ain't messing this up this time, so that's what started it initially, and it just grew from then on, and it's just I this is it, this is the one.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

And man, I love how you, you know, when you said that now, because God would literally humble you and say, okay, you know what, I need this. And one of the one of the things that I admire about the the play that you just put on is how you glorify God, even in the midst of like what was going on. Like, you know, y'all missing it. It was it was so um creative, you know what I'm saying? Um, for the most part. And um, so were there anybody that you just kind of united with that kind of helped you get that, or that just kind of flow from you know, from God just saying, you know what, let's let's let me get this creative juice.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Honestly, I feel it was who God surrounded me with. Right. And throughout these years, God is surrounding me with certain individuals and people and started making me realize the difference between branches and roots. And I had too many, I'm trying to make roots in this, and he's I'm not elevating you yet. Because I my my father just told me something a couple of weeks ago. He said a lot of times, and I explained to him about some stuff, and I was like, you know, relationships and how okay, well, why is this? Why did that happen? He said, People always say different devils at different levels. He said, but it's also different grace at different levels, and everybody can't go to the grace on that level. And I'm like, and I said, I got you. He said the natural man has the, but what did I do wrong? And guys like asked for this, so I'm gonna do what I have to do to make sure. So even from the cast, this cast that I have now, and it ain't because I know they probably gonna watch this, they are so amazing. And the people we we preach family now. Is it was about let's put on a show, but now we end every practice with family on three, JPL on six. And if you ask anybody, the first thing they say is it's a family environment, it's family, you know, not just at practice, but if you got a flat tire at two o'clock in the morning, you can call somebody in that cast chat and they show up, which has happened. Like they I don't even know you, like, but you showed up to change my tire. It was a lady who broke down. One of the cast member guys got out of his bed and went and helped. So it's just things, you know, a lady who was uh in a relationship with a guy that was with us, and she said, I had to come see what was happening because he kept coming home so happy and excited. Like, and I'm like, Why are you so happy? She said, I'm not gonna lie, I'm thinking one thing at first. She said, Now I'm here, she said, now I and I can't go. He passed away, and she's still that. She's like, Please don't let me go. I said, Girl, no, you're here. But that's it. And she was like, Because they made a statement to us, and it was so touching to this day. And it explains the ministry part of what I people I've been told my entire life I was gonna be a preacher, right? Just because my mom's a preacher and I played a keyboard, you think that? But it was like, uh, this is my preaching, this is my ministry here. And she was like, You all don't know this, but me and my husband used to argue every day. He said, Once we joined JPL, our arguments went down drastically. She's like, marriage. And then I'm sitting there, oh, that's great. Thank you. I got in the car and just lost it. I broke because for somebody to say, like, you saved our marriage, like y'all company say because the the the atmosphere of this right here was translated home, and that's just the purpose, and that's what keeps me going. I know that's part of my last uh determination, but that's what keeps me going. It's okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

It's okay. No, I mean the thing about it, you know, when you can have that influence on people, it's it's a it's amazing, you know what I'm saying? Because getting in in unity and getting around the right people, like-minded people, it helps, you know what I'm saying? Like, I don't care what nobody says, you know, when I started doing podcasting, at first it was like, you know, my family, they was like, oh, podcasting, what that is, but like you say, this is my ministry, this is different. I

Calling, Mentors, And Craft

SPEAKER_00 18:50

don't have to be a behind a pulpit, I don't have to be doing this. I'm I'm touching lives in my way, right? And it's and and I had to get around those like-minded people that were like, okay, you know what, podcasting is it, you know what I'm saying? And that is that is what we have to do in this day and time. And and the thing about it, you also have to add a little bit of education too. So, did you have to do any education when it came to like trying to figure out how to set the stage or how to get this or or whatever?

SPEAKER_01 19:24

I'm a um, I'm a researcher. I I played the keyboard not by sight. I can't read it to save my life. But you play it in front of me, I'll close my eyes and I'll figure it out in 30 seconds. So the film and putting stuff on sets is kind of the same thing. I'll just sit there and look and stare at the ceiling in the middle of the night. And I'm like, okay, that goes there, that goes there. Okay, let's format this. This is how this goes. It's kind of figuring it out on fly. And as I've gone through, I'm a researcher on, okay, let me go watch other plays. I'm I'm traveling to right because it's no knock on no nothing, us all us here local, but it was uh I know where the big wigs are up the road. So let me watch and see what y'all doing and see what I can bring back here with me. So just watch that, and um, even one of my mentors now, Robert John Connor from uh Atlanta, he does the Black Nativity show up there, and he just always told me, he was like, make sure you can cater to a lot of the people's emotions, right? You gotta make sure you're able to pull them into this world to where it looks real, even from the set and all that. And I used to didn't pay attention to that kind of stuff. Like my sex used to be real basic. So I start taking notes, you know, being classes under Javon, being in classes under Robert. I took those notes from them. Listen, I'm in their show, and it's not necessarily a class, but when they're talking, I'm right on it because you are exactly where I want to be. So I'm tuned in, somebody tapping me. I don't even feel you tapping me because I need to hear what they're saying. They could just be we're finna take a break in 15 minutes, y'all be back. But her mouth is open, I need to hear what you're saying. So, right, those two there has helped so tremendous towards uh building this production to what it is now, right?

SPEAKER_00 21:16

Right, and that and a lot of people don't understand that. When you around people, you should be taking notes, especially people that are doing stuff that you want that you're trying to get to, not hate on it. Exactly. Some people don't understand that the people that you around, or God done put the people around that you're supposed to be taking from them, but you you hating on them, and you you know, and that's how come Jesus couldn't do a lot of performing because they they was like, Oh, wait a minute, this ain't this the car for the sun, you know what I'm saying? Instead of just sitting there and getting the education that you need, getting the knowledge that you need, because I speak, I talk about education often, right? I feel like you have to, even if you do YouTube university, I know a lot of people, you know, y'all say that YouTube can teach you a lot, right? You know, and that is one of the things that I say go to YouTube, go to Google, go, you know, you have to be able to study this because if you or whatever God has called you to, because it'll be hard in the end for you to even understand it. And so when you get to get to that, after you get the education, you understand it. So when you understood everything that God had already called you to do, how did that look in that moment when you was like, Oh, I understand this now? This is gonna be, you know, now, especially now that God attached to you with this this this new play. How has that looked for you?

SPEAKER_01 22:43

I am I went from middle school to high school, so I I don't know it yet. Um I knew I knew middle school, but now it took me up to high school. Now I'm in a whole nother learning phase of what, you know, because this is not the route, I didn't plan on going musical route. Um I was gonna do the the you know traditional Tyler Perry play that looks you know the home stuff and the relationship. But it's when you hear musicals, you always think of musicals that that already existed since the 60s and 70s, right? So I'm tapping into something that I don't I still don't have down pat at all. So I'm still learning, I'm still in class, and I learned from Denzel Washington years ago, and I tell my cast this all the time. Till this day, he still takes acting classes.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 23:30

What can you teach Denzel? But he said, No, I go to the stage, and when I'm on stage and when I'm in that production, my director, I listen to them because they're helping me get better for these movies that y'all love to watch. So hearing that say, I always, I'm always gonna be a student, you know, and that that's something that even the show that I'm in Black Nativity that's in Atlanta, it's a cast full of known famous big wigs, LaShawn Pace and the Sunday Best when American Idol winner, and you got all the people to call it big people in this show. He always

Family Culture And Ministry Through Art

SPEAKER_01 24:05

says, But everybody in this show is right here, so don't come in here acting like you're here. Right, right. Something going there. That's already my nature, anyway. Like, no, I'm I'm here to just look around and learn. That's all I want to see. And I repeat, I told him, I repeat a lot of stuff that he says because again, I'm learning. I'm still I'm always in class. I'm gonna stay in class. So no, well, every level, every day has different challenges, and you're gonna always run into stuff that you're not familiar with. So we're always gonna be learning. So that's part as important.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Right, right. And and that's man, I'm telling you, I I have committed myself to being a lifelong, a lifelong learner, right? Because I, you know, even even you know, doing this, you know, podcasting is it because it can be done so many different ways, you know what I'm saying? Like I sit up there and I be like, okay, let me look at other podcasts. And one of the things that I don't do and is I I cannot do is compare myself to others, but I am going to take what you got and I am going to add it to the make it fit me. Yeah. And um, but most of the time, you know, I'm I'm sitting here, I'm like, you know what? Let me what can I learn from here? What can I take from this? What can I do to enhance it? Because that is all that we are trying to do is when you learn it, you really enhancing with what all you have. And um, and so one of the things that I taught, like I said, you know, when I when we understand a thing, you know, we is it makes things look different, you know. You get so excited about what you're doing, you know what I'm saying? You can't, you can say, you know what, I'm you know, I'm like me, when I said I did I know my family, when I because at first I was like, okay, I'm still trying to learn this thing. And then it was hard to even talk about it because I wasn't as excited because I didn't understand it. But then when I started understanding it, I was excited. They was like, girl, you just talk about the podcast and and we'll, you know what I'm saying? Because I'm excited, you know what I'm saying? So now that you, you know, gotten a little bit more of the knowledge, how exciting is it for you to just be like, you know what, this is this is really, really happening.

SPEAKER_01 26:27

This is that's that's the everyday moment. Like, even now, I've uh I'm so excited about this next one. I haven't been this excited ever for. And I'm uh the way I'm describing her to people, and everybody around me is kind of grasping how I'm approaching it because I've never I got three boys, amazing boys, 10, 18, and 20. Amazing. But I've always wanted a little girl, always wanted, never had her. And at the end of my last show, I made the statement that I wasn't gonna do anything until probably next summer. I'll start writing then and blah blah blah. And my brother even made the statement. See, better.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

He was like, uh next year, yeah, or six months or something.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

Yeah, that was that was the plan. That was the plan. And then when God gave me this, from the moment he gave it to me, the next morning, I it was at one, two o'clock in the morning. I take I go to sleep late. I'm in bed, it's everything's off, but I don't go to sleep. I'm always staying up. So hit me, and I said, Whoa. And the name of it hit me. I was like, Whoa!

SPEAKER_02 27:33

Right.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

So I asked everybody, I said, which style of production would y'all want? This is me still questioning God at that moment, and everybody said the answer of what he already told me. I'm like, okay, so that's what everybody wants, cool. And as I started, I wrote it, started that morning at 727 because I looked at my phone and I finished writing the entire production by five o'clock.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

Like, whoa. And I read it, I said, Marcus, I got something. I said, I I I got he's like, Okay, what you got? I said, No, it ain't like that, it's different this time. And the excitement started because I've never written, and I'm around here every day spending time with my little girl. And even my wife even says, like, let me guess, you over there talking to your little girls. Like, yeah, I'm I'm over there playing with us. Yeah, Dylan, put her down. I let her sit for us. I'm sorry, okay, okay, I'm sorry. But everybody's like, How's she doing? She's good, she's so beautiful. I can't wait for y'all to meet her. And like, we have our table read this Sunday. I'm so ready for the cast to read it. A couple of people in the trailer, and they're just like, Steve, oh my god, this is uh I was like, I know, and it's not me. That's why everybody's responding the way they are. So, my excitement of I can't wait for y'all to see her take her first steps January 4th. We released the trailer. Like, that's her first steps. I can't wait for everybody to see it. So that the excitement now is higher than it's ever been, especially for me. And it's happening to people around me, even the cast, because they're like, Oh my god, I can't wait. You got us so anxious. I was like, I'm really not doing nothing, but God is excitement in them, and they don't even know what it is. But I think they see, okay, if you acting like this, it gotta be something. I'm real fun and like, okay, guys, this word give. It's a pretty good one. Let's make it what we can. But now I'm like, Okay, y'all, oh, I can't wait. I'm I'm talking about I'm anxious. Every I'm like, Oh, look at this, look at a little, look, look, look. Oh, that's dope. Yeah, nah, the folks say send it, so I'm not sending it because I don't want nobody to see it until it's time for it to be safe. Even like my best friend loves them alike. But he was like, send it to me. Uh, you gotta wait till you see me. I'll show it to you in person.

SPEAKER_00 29:37

Right.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

Excitement's very high.

SPEAKER_00 29:40

That man, I'm well, you give me crock. Because I remember when you put that out there, I was like, Yeah, that'll be tight, you know, like because you know, and and the thing about it, you know, the the way that the creative that comes to your mind and how you can write it like that, you know what I'm saying? Like you were, and I know because I'm a I'm a thinker, because I'm I'm at night trying to think about my, like I said earlier, my next move. You know

Lifelong Learning And New Musical Vision

SPEAKER_00 30:10

what I'm saying? Like, literally, because it's like, you know, especially when you are doing it and you're spearheading everything, it's like, oh, okay, I gotta stay excited, I gotta do this, I gotta stay, you know, because the thing about it, we we have to understand that when we are excited, now we determine. And so we have to, you know, because excitement brings that determination. So when you determine, now how now how does that is that gonna look now, especially when you got this new task, this new plane that God is like, nope, this is what you're gonna do. So how determined are you now to just say, you know what, this is this is this is happening?

SPEAKER_01 30:54

This um all that is higher than it's ever been. Um, because I am determined to make him proud of this production. And I just want God to look at it and smile. And I've never had that approach for a production. I'm always saying, oh, this line is gonna be tight, or this this tone gonna be smooth, or this. I'm thinking that way, but all the extra stuff that I've been getting, because I get a script, and then I be telling my brother, we better hurry up and do this show, because I'm gonna keep adding stuff. And I'm usually adding stuff, but now he's adding, and when I say adding so much of him, it's unreal. Like I'll write a line a certain way, and that's how I envisioned it. But now that he said, now go reread it again and now tell me what you get out of there. Whoa, off of one word access, right? When I said the word access, I just wrote it as in right. You open the door, you go in. But it says the way he put it to me, I'm like, oh no, that's not how I saw that. So now go on that for me. I got you. Now that part that was this big is now this big because he needs me to elaborate on the word access, right? Okay, it's those kind of things, and I'm so I'm listening. I'm literally when people ask me, so see, what's what you got? I'm just waiting for him to answer. This is me inside my body, right? Waiting if you said it, I'm not moving. And it's it, I promise you, and I'm not, I'm I'm not afraid to say it. I've never been like this uh towards any production spiritually that I've ever done. And not only is it gonna be a great production, but it has changed me as a person, you know, because God made the statement, he spanked me. He and I told my my uh Pastor Dave this at the church, he said God said to me, What if you did a production, but you tried it doing it with me? Oh, been doing that, and he's like, You got you got so many ears, but yet you don't talk about me enough. Wow, got you. All these lights and hearts and shares on Facebook and everybody ha ha ha ha and about. Well, you'll never get a ha ha or a heart about me. Right, you ain't gotta tell me again. That hurt. I'm like, Jesus, okay, I got you. And all that's just been happening, so it's just the the determination is on a thousand because I can't let him down, and I won't this time, you know. So it's just that's what's driving this now, and the drive of the cast along with it. Um, is just it got it. I'm so jittery, I'm so ready for the date. Like I was about to say the date just then. I'm so glad I caught myself because I gotta release the date on a certain way, but uh to happen. Don't give it away now, right? I was just about to say, I was waiting yeah, but we're releasing that uh next week of what day it is on next year. We're doing a show, so everything is strategic. The trailer, the date is released, the day that the tickets are sold, the date that we're releasing, what day we're doing everything is strategic. The 30-day calendar, every cast member getting a spotlight. If y'all look on my page, you see a spotlight of a cast member doing it every day. No role is small, everybody has their own personal day, and we're creating a calendar, and everybody get a calendar at the end of the day with their picture on their day that was there, you know, just everything is strategic this time. Um, and it's so different from things I've done in the past. So to know that it's him makes me even more determined.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

Right. I'm telling you, that had to have been a hard lesson, though, to hear. And God say, okay, you know what? I need you to center it around me. And I and that was one of the things that I when I started the podcast, I used to when I lived in California, I used to be able to get women together. And um, you know, we were do doing lunch every every other week, and I was getting people together and all that stuff. And so this time God said, okay, now center it around me. You know what I'm saying? And I was like, uh, okay, you know, and and and like you say, he was like, Well, I thought I was doing that, but and I know I wasn't, right? Because I I thought I was, but I know that it at the end of the day, it wasn't like God-centered, like how now you knew it.

SPEAKER_01 35:33

You knew it. Yep, that's the same thing with me. I knew it, but I'm I'm kind of like, yeah, I know I am, I promise. Right. I would. I feel you, I feel you.

SPEAKER_00 35:45

Yeah, and so you know, we that that is, you know, that is one of the biggest things that you we have to understand is that when God give us that calling or he calls us, you know, we have to make sure that

Obedience, Strategy, And Centering God

SPEAKER_00 36:00

we are centered and around him and saying, you know what, God, this is for you, right? Um, but I just want to ask you uh, you know, one more question. Like, what is the most important lesson that you have learned thus far in your career? Now, what is one of the most important lessons that you can say, you know what, this is what I've learned, and this is what I want to give back to the world.

SPEAKER_01 36:27

From two, I guess it's a two-part question because I'm in two different positions from an actor standpoint is stay professional at all times. Um even when things don't seem like it's going right, stay professional, even if you're irritated. One thing you would never really see me is angry in public or irritated, unless something crazy happens, but people rarely see that on me.

SPEAKER_00 36:54

Right.

SPEAKER_01 36:54

And so I try to stay professional, and that's something I said, okay, stay that way regardless. Because I've seen the just last night, someone made a statement at a big production I was at and was like, we gotta fire them because they come in smelling like weed every day, and it's a gospel play, you know. Like, man, come on now, very talented, like it's so talented. But I'm like, especially if they already talked to you, your talent got two two talking twos, but your talent ain't gonna give you a third one, you know. So I'm like, I want to make sure at all times. Um and that uh Mr. Connor said that to me with last year, and that's what started it. When they called me on a Thursday morning and said, Hey, the main dude got uh got COVID. We need you to show up. And then a letter, like, okay, yeah, I haven't done it in practice, they haven't seen me do it, they heard me do the script, nothing. I showed up, I said, I just need to walk around the stage for a second. I'm nervous sweating my honor. The deodorant is gone. I'm the on that 2,000 people about to watch it, do that ain't practiced this show not one time. I just said and watched. But me, it happened, it went great, and he was just like, I have such a respect and of your professionalism, how you handled this show today. He said, I went from here to here. You are an amazing. I'm like, thank you. And that professionalism part, he kept saying it. I'm like, okay, so he is just in all aspects. Let's stay professional. So that's it from an actor standpoint, and then and from the director, producer, writer, I say the biggest one I learned is always take care of your people and stay keep an ear open. Because sometimes they be dealing with something. Now, you gotta understand, some people may try to take advantage of that, but it's a thing of okay, well, now what you going through? You good? Okay, like my friend Jill. You know, I have her talk to people all the time, like, hey, okay, listen, this person's dealing with this, let's go be there. Um, and only cast, but people in general. Like, we go to senior homes for Valentine's and Christmas every year, and we'll sing for them Christmas carols through the senior home, you know. That ain't nothing we videotaping, but that's the kind of stuff that means so much to me. Right. Um, like me working going to West Side, trying to get not West Side, but Southwest and giving back to their school. That's why I decided to do it there. Like, okay, let's put back into the education system, you know. He does that southwest. So now, hey, Howard, we did it here. You all want us to do it there? And this is what is to you all, you know what I'm saying? And just kind of building the the the interest of youth around here for the art. Um, so those two things there, just giving back and then also staying professional, the two things on both sides of those job titles that I have.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

That is so good. I you know, at the end of the day, giving back is just um it's incredible. And um, one of the things that you said about making sure you take care of your cast, um that's number one in business, right? Is taking care of your employees. I mean, you know, of course they. Your casting, not necessarily employees, but you know, that is number one business, making sure you take care of the people that are around you. You have to be able to notice what's going on. You have to make sure that you're staying sharp and making sure that you can have that discernment and say, you know what, something is off about them. Let's go and let's let's step back and let's see. And I think that that is pretty cool. Um, that you were able to do that, you know what I'm saying? And and I think that that is one of the reasons why everybody is just coming to you and saying, you know what, I want to be on this cast because you show it. It is it like when you know when I when I was there, it's just it was it was an incredible experience. Like I I haven't been, let's see, I haven't been to a play. Well, I went to a play last year, um, one of the plays in Atlanta with Amber, Amber Ty, I think.

SPEAKER_02 41:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 41:01

She was Amber Type. I don't know if you know her. But um, I went to uh Amber Type play and it was it was incredible, but you can the atmosphere was just on point there, you know. So I'm excited that you were here. Did you have any like advice that you want to just leave with someone that is trying to start their own um, you know, producing or acting career or anything like that? If you have any advice, and and then just let everybody know where they can contact you at, and then you you know you can pray us out.

SPEAKER_01 41:39

Um, I would say anybody that's looking to start a career in writing and directing, um go study. Go go pay attention to scripts, go pull scripts up on Google and see how they're formatted. Um, everybody has their different ways of that part, but my biggest part is just make sure when people leave your production, they got something from it. If you're everybody's not gospel, I know that. So if it's not a gospel, it's fine. But just make sure, okay, that has a message behind it. Even the short film that I'm about to do in the midst of practicing for this production, it has a message, and that's the kind of thing my mom told me before she passed, just make sure when people leave your thing, they are touched somehow. If it's one out of 500, that's all that matters. I was like, okay, got you. That

Professionalism, Service, And Community Impact

SPEAKER_01 42:30

makes sense. Um so just from that, man, just make sure you study it. Don't don't just throw something together. And if you're doing it because you need to make some money, it will not be good. Don't do it, it will not be good because the passion will show you. Can't fool folks. They will say straight through, you just threw some mess together and need to pay a bill so they can see that. So just make sure you're actually formatting it to where, okay, that was pretty good. Okay, and from an acting um standpoint, put yourself out there. You can't get dressed and get all pretty and do your makeup and get your hair done, perfect perfume, and sit on the couch and say, I know my man finna find me. He is not finna walk in your house and find you.

SPEAKER_00 43:16

That part.

SPEAKER_01 43:17

He's not about see how beautiful you are. So make get to IMDB pages, get all your reels. If you're serious about it and you Saturday, you shouldn't say, I ain't got nothing to do between nine and two o'clock. And you want to be an actor? You got six, seven hours to go make six, seven reels.

SPEAKER_00 43:38

I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

It's like, nah, I'm not finna sit there and like, okay, now if somebody that's why now I don't have to create reels no more. I just look at audition things and says, We're looking for a cop that's racist. Cool, got it already. I'm looking for an angry person, got it. I I am right from my bed at six o'clock in the morning. I just submit to a bunch of auditions to where at least um every month I got some kind of job because this is full time. So I got sure, okay. Here we go. Well, that's only paying 250. Yeah, but then I also got this other one the next day that's paying 250, and the one after that paying 250. So that's pretty cool for 750. Then we I figured next week out next week. So just making sure you're seen and you get it's not going to happen by itself, right? You gotta get out. So I advise that. So that's it. Um, I guess what five find me. Um, if you don't find me, don't search by my name, uh, search by my company name. Gene Porter Productions, uh, because I want her name to be called forever. So that's why I don't even put Stephen Little out there, I just put her name. Um, so Gene Porter Legacy Productions on social medias. Um, I mean you can inbox me on here if you want to be a part of the show. Uh, we always looking for extras. So inbox me on Facebook, uh, Instagram, Gene Porter Legacy Productions.

SPEAKER_00 44:55

Yes, I'm super excited. That that is um amazing. I'm and I'm so thankful. Uh and I'm not thankful, but um, I know you are grateful where you had that your mom, and she was able to be able to have that legacy and leave that legacy for you. That that's amazing. So you can go ahead on and pray us out, and and then we um and then I'll come back and and let everybody go.

SPEAKER_01 45:23

All right. Uh dearest Father, Lord, we thank you right now for this wonderful day that you've created and allowed us to see. God, I just ask right now that each individual that's under the sound of my voice, Lord, that you just give them the desires of their heart that is within your will, God. If they're looking for strength, give them the strength, Lord, the ones that's been strong that may be going through underneath, Lord. Give them that strength, but also that rest and that peace of mind that they need to continue to be strong, Lord. Lord, I just thank you right now, God, for this individual, Lord, that's just right here on this podcast. Lord, this thing here is a blessing, Lord. She is spreading your word through this podcast, Lord. I just thank you right now, God. Lord, I thank you for allowing me to be able to come on here to be able to just talk about the things that you've done in my life, Lord, showing that you are the number one reason that I am who I am and I am where I am, God. I just thank you right now, Lord. Continue to bless this podcast, Lord. Continue to bless each individual that's on here, Lord. And we just thank you right now. We just praise you and give you all the honor and every single thing that we do in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 46:22

Amen. Amen. I'm so thank you, thank you, thank you for being on here. I tell you to be in your presence because I know you are going to do great things. And I know you have done great things, and I know it's going to just go higher and higher and higher. And um look, I'm behind you. Like, you know, I'm always share your stuff. Like, that's just that's just me. I look, let me tell y'all, I'm a supporter, and you know, one thing I do and and I pride myself in it is that when I support people, I'm I'm not looking for support back. I'm doing it because I believe in the mission and I believe in everything that God has in that person. So I'm super excited that you were here. Thank you again for your time. Um, thank you all for tuning in. Um, like if you want to be a blessing in this ministry, you can always go to buy me a coffee at um Q for Christ. You can scan

Advice, Contacts, And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_00 47:30

this barcode and um be able to be able to put, you know, you know, go and support, you know, it's gonna go right on back to the podcast. I get I guarantee you, right? Um, and so, anyways, I thank you all again for being here and please, please, please just stay Q for Christ. All right, bye y'all.