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InThe Sound of Music, Maria is clearly not an asset to the abbey, obviously destined for other things.

Barbara Nicolosi

"Many a thing you know you'd like to tell her," the Reverend Mother sings in "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" "Many a thing she ought to understand."

"But how do you make her stay and listen to all you say?" replies one of the nuns.

"How do you keep a wave upon the sand?" replies the Reverend Mother.

Barbara Nicolosi was once that "wave upon the sand." Young, eager, and strong-willed—much like Maria—Nicolosi thought she wanted to be a nun for life. But her out-of-the-box ideas weren't a great fit, and in the end, she was asked to leave the convent.

Initially distraught, Nicolosi finally found her calling—to Hollywood and, eventually, to teaching. In 1999, she founded Act One as a means of helping Christian scriptwriters hone their craft and find their way in the entertainment jungle.

According to its website, Act One was founded "to address the most serious problems reflected in the work of Christians who set out to write for mainstream entertainment: a sense of artistry, a commitment to professionalism, and a network with other industry professionals. In addition, Act One provides Christian writers with guidance in focusing and maintaining their spiritual growth, enabling them to better integrate faith with industry professionalism."

Act One alumni have gone on to secure jobs in TV and film—including one grad who helped write the script for Curious George, now in theaters. Act One also now mentors budding executives and is branching out to other specialties.

Nicolosi, the executive director, teamed with other Act One faculty to write Behind the Screen: Hollywood Insiders on Faith, Film, and Culture, a collection of essays that give us a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how Christians are making a difference in Hollywood.

We recently chatted with Nicolosi about the book—and about Act One, the definition of a "Christian movie," and about what's right, and wrong, with the industry.

How's this for a first question: You were really kicked out of a convent?

Barbara Nicolosi: Yeah.

How come?

Nicolosi: I think what it came down to was that I was arguing that we should be engaged in speaking to the broader culture, but the convent climate was very much about catechesis—you know, instructing the faithful. I was much more, I guess you could say, focused on evangelization. It finally came down to, "Well, that's not what we do." And I was like, "Well, that's what we should do." And then the superior said to me, "We think God's calling you somewhere else." So I came out and applied to film school.

You felt the lure to Hollywood?

Nicolosi: Not so much right away. I just went into survival mode when I got out of the convent. It's kind of like a divorce, only worse. Your whole life is focused, your future is all laid out—and all of a sudden everything is taken from you. I was 30 years old. I had no credit history. I couldn't rent an apartment, I couldn't get a loan, I couldn't open a checking account. So I wasn't thinking of saving the world; I was just trying to get my life going.

How would you define Act One and its purpose?

Nicolosi: The purpose has evolved as our understanding has grown. Right now, we're trying to create a community that would be creative. We figured out that the artist is not an isolated freak on the fringes of culture. I think artists have been told that they need to be isolated—like this freak on the fringe, bursting onto the public consciousness every few years with some real outlandish stuff. But I think it's insidious to tell young artists they have to be isolated, because they have really nothing to comment if they're isolated, other than their own innards and guts. And Lord, we've seen too much of that—all the dark things artists can think up because they're by themselves.

I think there is an isolation aspect to creativity that's crucial, but you have to draw them out and get them producing. Otherwise, their isolation will just eat them up and consume them with its loneliness and insufficiency; they're never good enough for their own vision. Also, they become socially freakish and unhappy. All their relationships become tests of, "Do you love me because I'm so weird?" It doesn't have to be that way.

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