Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Thomas Cain.
Hi Michael, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
In college, I was a theatre major focusing on acting. I moved to New York City after that to pursue acting. Once in a while, I’d be cast in an Off Off Broadway production of a play, and I was on the soap opera As The World Turns once, but during that period of time, I mostly waited a lot of tables and hung out, exploring the city, but after 9/11 a lot of things changed, and I was starting to feel lost. I moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and Cleveland, Ohio for a few years. During my time in Atlanta and Cleveland, I started forgetting about the idea of acting and focusing more on writing. I wrote a lot, all kinds of thing, but because of my interest in the theatre, I start writing plays and decided to apply to graduate schools. I consider that time living back in Cleveland to be one of the most creatively productive times in my life. I did get accepted into graduate school and moved back to New York, where I earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing (Dramatic Writing). I’ve been writing plays ever since, and once in a while, they are produced. After graduate school, my playwriting and the production of those plays quickly lead me into directing as well. I’ve directed a lot of my own work, but I also direct productions that other people have written. Part of being an artist and pushing to get your voice, art, or work out there into the world for people to see or hear is generating your own opportunities, so I have a lot of experience with producing at this point as well. In the present, I actively pursue all three.
In 2014, after years of thinking about it, I decided to start a production company, Forgotten Artist Productions, which focuses on creating and producing projects and work for theatre and film. We started with a couple of theatre productions but quickly moved into producing films, and this has taken on a life of its own. Our first film was a short titled “Eliminated,” and since 2016, we’ve produced ten short films, most receiving recognition, screenings, and many nominations and awards at prominent international film festivals. Some I’ve written. Some other people have written. However, I’ve directed all of them. We’re still learning and improving, but I’m very proud of this work and these accomplishments, and while we are still occasionally producing a theatre piece, film, video, and media projects are becoming the central focus of Forgotten Artist Productions. Our latest short film that I wrote and directed is titled “Not Approved For Cancer Treatment.” This was an important story to tell, and it came together quite well. We have a couple of other short films in post-production, but we’ll be turning our attention to our first feature film in the near future. We continue to expand by building Forgotten Artist Full-Service Production Company and Forgotten Artist Studio and Education.
Through the years, I’ve met and worked with a lot of great people and artistic type of people. I’m thankful and grateful for this and to know them and to have worked with them. We all continue to evolve, and I’ve attempted to keep in touch with as many of them as I possibly can through the years. I value people and humanity and the up and downs that come with the human experience, and much of my work reflects this, attempting to get at some form of the truth. I would say that most of my creative work is more experimental or stylistic in nature, but it attempts to draw awareness or make a point about something important in relation to a person, group of people, or situation.
In addition to theatre and filmmaking, I’m also a visual artist and photographer. These are things that I’ve been less public about because, at the moment, I explore them for myself in order to feed by spirit and soul. I’m passionate and driven by anything that leads to visual storytelling. All of this work keeps me very busy, but for the last twelve years, I’ve also been an educator at the college level, and it’s been an honor and a privilege to help others realize their goals, ambitions, and dreams.
Finally, I’m most proud of my wife Kristy, dog Jordey, family, friends, and colleagues. Thank you to you all for being there and experiencing life’s journey with me.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
While I have had a lot of support through the years and am blessed in a lot of ways, my journey has not always been a smooth road. I’ve always considered myself a late bloomer. I think about things for a long time and work on them for a long time before I actually start to build some kind of traction. I’ll admit that I probably overthink things, and while I’m doing that, self-doubt and getting discouraged set in. There have been times when I’ve backed off from or quit passions because I wasn’t sure about my progress or which direction I wanted to go. I’ve probably tried to do more than I should, but there’s a lot that I want to do and accomplish. Some things I have let go of or adjusted along the way. As I get older, I’ve found myself prioritizing things that are important to me. I’ve found that it’s very difficult for me to let go of or leave things that give me life and that motivate me and drive me on a daily basis, so I do continue to stay stubbornly loyal to what I’m passionate about and when I see or find small successes along the way, I think back on all the times that I rested for a while or quit for a while and regret the time I wasted. However, I’ve kept going and striving for what drives me. My artistic endeavors are very important to me, and while I have a love-hate relationship with them, I can’t turn away.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’ve always followed my heart. I was a shy and probably an awkward kid and young adult. I still am, I guess, deep down. I’ve worked to overcome shyness. I do okay with it as an adult, but it takes work. Sometimes, people may think I’m strange or standoffish, but that’s just me attempting to navigate the social situation that I know is necessary. However, when I’m working on something creative, I feel normal and complete, and everything makes perfect sense. Creativity helps me process myself and the world around me, and that’s why it’s so important to me. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do with my life, but I had a strong interest in acting and movies and entertainment type of things. I went to a small college, and it took me a couple of years to work up the nerve to act on it, but I eventually, with the push of a friend, auditioned for one of the school’s plays and took an acting class. I got a part as an extra to decorate the stage, but I loved it, and I met so many great people that I became very good friends with, and these are people that I still know today, twenty-five plus years later. I understood them, and they understood me. I had found myself, and for the first time in my life, I felt like I belonged and that they accepted me. I had so much fun and went on to act in many plays there and became a theatre major. As nervous as I was when I took the stage, I relied on the rehearsal process and just went out there and got started, and I would lose myself into something else and a different place, and I liked it, and somehow the shyness went away, and I’ve never forgotten that feeling. People were actually very surprised when they saw me up there on the stage. They couldn’t believe it was me. I moved forward and never looked back. I found myself or my identity during that time and place. It was one of the best parts of my life, and I carry it with me and think about it all of the time. Not long after that, somebody, by chance, took me to see one of Eric Bogosian’s one-man shows, and I was absolutely floored by it. I had never seen or heard anything like it. It spoke to me in a way that nothing to that point had. It was amazing to me what he expressed and how he expressed it and that it was all very entertaining. I became a big fan of his work and went on to see or read everything I could. I remember going home that night thinking that guy really gets me. I get what he was expressing. I feel the same way, and more importantly, I didn’t really know or understand at the time that you could express yourself like that. I started writing everything down, thoughts, feelings, experiences, observations, etc. I have so many black and white composition books filled with stuff. I did that for several years. I still keep a journal to this day. Some of that writing has gone on to be formalized and has been performed in different capacities, but most of it will probably still be sitting around after I pass. While I continued to pursue acting for a few years, the idea of writing took on a life of its own, and I did eventually start to write plays and now screenplays. That’s evolved into me directing my own and other people’s work, to bring the words to life. I’ve always considered my work as artistic in nature. It’s not just for entertainment. I’ve always felt that what I attempt to express lives on the fringes of society or what people expect or what they’re willing to tolerate, but I’ve always been loyal to what I feel needs to be expressed. I do hope that people appreciate my expression or find some value in it, but either way, it’s a must for me.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
1. Don’t take what’s important to you for granted, whatever that may be.
2. Don’t be afraid to speak out against wrongs and injustices.
3. Just keep moving forward into the future while honoring your past and experiences.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.forgottenartistproductions.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forgotten_artist_productions/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michael.t.cain.12
- Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/forgartistprod
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGXarGYSKmE3fYpY64G50jA
- Other: https://filmfreeway.com/MichaelThomasCain
