Shout Out to Kneepads!

In the past few months, I've used my kneepads a ton!

My awesome soft kneepads

1) for the Big Driver shoot

2) when I played a dog for the UWAC 36 Hour Playfestival/SF Safehouse Benefit

3) leant them to a summer camp student

4) during the Foolsfury sponsored Mary Overlie workshop

This doesn't include all of the times that I threw my kneepads into my bag 'just in case' for auditions, readings, etc. where I didn't know what the physical work would entail.

I bought these kneepads probably 5 or more years ago from a nondescript martial arts store on Mission street near the Armory.  They were sold per kneepad and I think they were $5 or $6 each. 

They are soft, so they don't make too big of a lumpy shape under pants, like a harder kneepad might.  They have no logos/words on them, so you're not unconsciously advertising anything when you wear them under light colored clothing.

And, most importantly, they keep my knees safer from bruises, bumps, other injuries, allowing this easy bruising actor to leap into highly physical acting related antics with confidence.

Not bad. Not bad at all.


Yes this is a kneepad selfie

Thanks kneepads!!

On Practicing what you Preach

Recent teaching work has gotten me thinking about how I talk about and model gender parity while wearing my teaching artist hat.

This is still evolving, but here are a few thoughts:

1) if a girl brings in a monologue for a male character, a boy brings in a monologue for a female character - no judgement.  If they've read and understand the circumstances of the monologue and the play it's from, and the language speaks to them - do it & work on it - understand that this may not fly elsewhere, but the boy who brought in Tilly from  Gamma Rays and the girl who brought Charlie from Perks of Being a Wallflower - go! (although technically I said bring in monologues from plays not movies)

2) when I'm assigning scenes or monologues - check myself on writer gender parity.  For a program that ended with students doing 2 and 3 person scenes from published plays, I notice that for 8 scenes, I have 3 female writers, 6 male writers (one of the pieces was co-written by two women).  So I need to do better on this one - continue to educate myself on the women writers out there, so that I can assign, share, promote women writers.

What are other ways that we can bring gender parity to our teaching work?

And, if anyone's got suggestions for plays for teens by women writers, throw those into the comments section too!

Side note: Bay Area folks, if you don't already know about it, I strongly encourage you to check out worksbywomensf.wordpress.com, like Works by Women SF on facebook, and/or join the Works by Women SF group on meetup.com - we've got a few great outings planned to attend shows and support women making theater in the region - it'd be great to see you there, Bay Area.

Counting Actors May 2013

A huge thank you to DivaFest and everyone who came out for last weekend's Symposium event!  Though nothing specific is on the books, I'm sure that more events like this one will be forthcoming, and I'll share them when I have more info.

In a slightly different vein, the Union Women Actors Coalition (UWAC) is presenting a 36 Hour Playfest/Benefit on June 24th, 8pm curtain.  UWAC was formed to both draw attention to lack of gender parity for Equity women and to showcase the Equity women of the Bay Area.  The 36 Hour Playfest will feature over 30 Equity women as actors, directors and writers in new plays written specifically for the Playfest.  All proceeds from the event will benefit the extraordinary non-profit San Francisco Safehouse, a unique 18 month residential program for homeless women leaving prostitution.  There's more info here, and you can (and should!) purchase tickets here.  The event has limited seating and will probably sell out.  I'm excited to be acting in this event.

Since June 2011, the Counting Actors project has now counted 273 shows!  For more info on the  project, visit this blog's Counting Actors page.

11 shows counted:
Magic/Terminus
Indra's Net/Copenhagen
Douglas Morrison/Eurydice  (all 3 Stones played by women; usual casting is 2m, 1w)
Center REP/Pilgrims Shari and Musa in the New World
Center REP/Sweet Charity (male music director, female director, 3 credited writers - 2 men for boo & music, one woman for lyrics)
Shotgun/By and By
DivaFest/You're Going to Bleed
Butterfield 8/Salome
Central Works/Medea Hypothesis
ACT/Black Watch (all Scottish cast are counted as union actors, although not members of AEA, they are appearing with AEA's permission)
SF Playhouse/Abigail's Party
 
The stats:
7 male directors, 5 female directors
8 male writers, 5 female writers
76 total actors
41 men, 35 women
33 union, 43 non-union
23 union men, 10 union women
64 local, 12 non local

Thank you so much for those who've shared stats for May! This group includes audience and cast members like Alisha Erlich, Carol Lashof, Patricia Milton, Susan Shay, and Phoebe Moyer. 

I've got a few stats already for shows that won't open until June, given to me by folks working on them - I'm always happy to accept stats for shows happening in the future, but don't accept them for shows from the previous month.  It takes just 5 minutes to send the email - so if you're working on a show or see a show with performances in June, please visit the Counting Actors page for instructions on how to share the data.

As always, please share and talk about these numbers with others. 

Books I'm Reading

Give and Take by Adam Grant is subtitled 'A revolutionary approach to success' - I became interested in the book after reading about Grant in the NY Times.  Grant is a professor at The Wharton School and has done extensive research on people's relationship, networking, negotiation and leadership styles, and found that in our interactions with others, people tend to operate as either givers, takers or matchers.  And while some givers burn out, many incredibly successful people in many fields are also givers. 

This book highlights the key differences between burning out and achieving success, and has introduced me to some of my new favorite concepts:

1) pronoia - it's the opposite of paranoia and can be defined as "the delusionial belief that other people are plotting your well-being or saying nice things about you behind your back" - sounds like a great attitude to bring into any casting situation to me.

2) expeditional behavior, a term from the National Outdoor Leadership School, which trains NASA astronauts, among others, and means putting the group's goals and missions first and showing the same amount of concern for others as you do for yourself.  This is the exact name for what I'm trying to cultivate in any group of students who are working on a show together - we put the play and the story we are trying to tell first. 

There's even more interesting and helpful thinking in this book - ideas about how to process the successes of peers or co-workers, and lots of ideas about networking and cultivating relationships - two big keys for any theater professional.

On a totally different track, for theatermakers and others who want an in depth look at the women of the War of the Roses, Blood Sisters by Sarah Gristwood shines a light on the lives of Marguerite of Anjou (the wife of Henry VI), Elizabeth of York (mother of the 'Princes in the Tower') and 5 other women from both Team York and Team Lancaster.  If you're heading into production on a Shakespeare history play, learning more about the details of the day to day lives of these women and how they leveraged their limited power in their relationships with powerful men is pretty fascinating reading.

I'm also very excited about a project that is coming up at the end of June.  I'm part of an event that will not only showcase approximately 30 women theater artists, the majority of them members of Actors' Equity, but will also raise money for a non-profit called SF Safehouse, who provide 18 months of housing as well as lots of other varied support and resources for homeless women leaving prostitution.  The public portion of the event is an evening of short original plays, and takes place on Monday June 24th.  Ticket info is here and you can also find event details on Facebook. 

Counting Actors April 2013

Before you read this month's list - a few places to get even more Counting Actors.
1) the May/June issue of Theatre Bay Area magazine - yours truly has an article on p.20, with cumulative data for over 230 shows, as well as reactions from members of the local theater community to put the whole thing in context.  No online link yet, but I'll share when I've got it.
2) DIVAFest - on May 25 from 3-6, DIVAFest hosts a two part symposium event where I'll be talking about findings and patterns in the Counting Actors project along side other artists who are looking at ways to address gender parity.  I would love to see you there!

April's Counting Actors features 15 shows and brings the total count to 262.  This project began in June 2011, and all past posts relating to the topic - the monthly totals, the posts w/aggregated information - as well as info on how to contribute info on a show you've seen or been part of can be found at the Counting Actors Page.

15 shows counted:
Shotgun/Shipwreck (actors for this piece incl. 2 boys alternating a role - both are included in the count)
TheatreWorks/Being Earnest (2 m writers included in the count - one book/lyrics, one libretto/lyrics. m director and m music director incl. in director count)
Theatre of Yugen/Sorya 2013 (show is several Japanese Kyogen pieces, which are traditionally performed by an all-male ensemble.  This company is all female, so women play both male and female characters)
Ragged Wing/Time Sensitive (writer and director for this project are same person. F actor plays M role of 'Clockmaker')
Intersection for the Arts & Campo Santo/The River (M musician not included in this count. F stage manager also came onstage and spoke about 5 lines)
Custom Made/Eurydice
ACT/Stuck Elevator (m director, f music director, m composer, m librettist, also 2m 1 f understudy who are not included in count)
Berkeley Rep/Pericles (8 actors play multiple roles in this piece, incl. women playing male characters incl. Gower)
Symmetry Theater/Language Rooms
Center REP/39 Steps (2 m actors on this piece play many roles incl. both male and female characters)
Aurora/Arsonists (1 f in 'firefighter chorus' a traditionally all male group)
San Jose Stage/Persuasion
Magic/The Happy Ones
MTC/The Whipping Man
Crowded Fire/The Bereaved

The Stats
11 male directors, 6 female directors
12 male writers, 5 female writers
112 total actors
68 male actors, 45 female actors
57 total union actors, 55 total non-union actors
36 union male actors, 21 union female actors
99 total local actors, 13 total non-local actors

Thank you to everyone who contributed statistics for this month's count.  If you are in a show or see a show with performances in May that hasn't been counted yet, please go to the Counting Actors page for directions on how to submit the info.  Contributors for this month include audience members, cast members, writers.  Thank you to Phoebe Moyer, Pidge Meade, Sheila Devitt, Annie Paladino, Amy Clare Tasker, Lily Tung Crystal, Tiiu Eva Rebane, Martha Richards, Anne Hallinan and Jenn LeBlanc. 

Thank you for sharing and talking and posting about what you're reading here - please talk in the green room, dressing room, audition room and post-show bar, and share, tweet, update, comment, like, + on any social media of your choice. #femtheatre is a great twitter hashtag to use/search as well.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gender Parity Reading List: TACTICS, Howlround, Carey P on HuffPo

This is a great week for reading about gender parity in the blogosphere.

Check the Works by Women SF TACTICS interview series here.  I'm proud to be one of the women theatermaker/advocates included in these interviews. Each interview ends with a suggestion of a simple action that will work toward gender parity.

Howlround has a fantastic series of interviews and essays running this week, including Julia Jordan, Lydia Diamond, Lauren Gunderson and Carey Perloff.  Theatre Bay Area is the curator of this series, as a lead-up to Monday's Annual Conference.

And Carey's also on HuffPo with a response to  Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In.

I know that people are responding to these writings on their own blogs. I've seen a few of those here and here.  Anything else that people should be reading that I've missed?  Add them to the comments.

Check the blogroll updates!

I've made a few tweaks and changes to the blogroll over there in that right hand column. 

I've deleted a few things that were no longer active, and added blogs that are newish or that are personal recent discoveries.

In particular, check out Melissa Hillman's Bitter Gertrude if you haven't already for an Artistic Director's perspective on the theater world, and both the Works by Women and Works by Women SF sites for interviews and other resources for women theater makers. 

Works by Women and Works by Women SF are also meetup groups with regular opportunities to see shows where women theatremakers are prominently featured.

As a co-host of WWSF, it's been really terrific to be able to support and learn more about what women theater makers are doing in the region.  Our next event is this Sunday, and it would be great to see you there!

NYTimes: In Performance

I'm really digging this new video series the NYT is running.  Called 'In Performance', it's stripped down closeups of actors performing monologues and songs from shows that are currently running in New York (or at least they were when the video was made).  Some recent additions are Tina Packer with an excerpt from her Shakespeare's Women, and a number from Hands on a Hardbody.  There's about 20 videos up at this point, all are brief, and it's a cool way to get a glimpse of a new performer, a new piece of writing or music, without paying for a plane ticket.

One of my favorites is Elizabeth Marvel's monologue from Picnic, but you can find all of them here.

And in what's Valerie up to news:  I'm playing a Fury in a reading at Symmetry Theatre on 4/21 of Carol Lashof's Just Deserts.  Info here.  Also, I'm super excited to be playing the lead in the upcoming film adaptation of Steven King's Big Driver.  This film is currently doing some pre-production fundraising, and you can find more about it here.

Thoughts on Changing Agents

Monday night I taught my 'Navigating the Actor's Career Path' class for the Theatre Bay Area ATLAS program.   I promised the folks who attended that I'd answer additional questions from the class via my blog.   This is one we didn't get to.

How do you leave your current agency and move to a new one?

Sidebar: agency representation in the SF Bay Area is way different than in other cities.  Agents don't represent actors for live theater (like NYC), and you don't sign with multiple agents for different types of work (like LA).  Here, one agency can represent you for on-camera work both industrial/commercial and film & tv, and also for voiceover work and modeling.  Some agencies don't have all of those divisions, but if your agency does, then you're repped for all those things.

Full disclosure: while I've wondered if I would get better treatment or more audition opportunities if I changed agents, I haven't navigated the change myself.

But here's what I think: the first thing is to assess why you want to make the move - articulate for yourself why you are unhappy with the current situation.  It might be that you want to do voiceover and your current agency doesn't submit for voiceover.  In that case, you've got a legitimate reason to move agencies.  You can check in with your current agency, break up with them, and start the process of trying to get an agent all over again, targeting agencies that do what you want.

What if what you're unhappy about is something that could be solved at your current agency?  They don't submit me enough is I think a common complaint.  Set up a meeting and figure out how to work together more effectively with your current agent - it might be that your agency has a new person booking auditions who doesn't know you yet.  Maybe your headshot doesn't represent you effectively and a different image would get you more of what you want.

I met with my agents in December, and I think they were surprised by the meeting.  I came in asking them questions like 'how am I doing?' 'what can I do better in the way we communicate and interact?' 'I'd like to go on more calls for film projects - how can I help you accomplish that for me?'  I think that often actors approach this conversation with more of a  'why don't you send me out more?' or 'my friend got this audition, why didn't you get me that audition too?'  This framing sets up a blaming/adversarial relationship instead of a partnering one.  Agents only make money when the talent make money.  It's a tough job.

If it seems like your agency is unable or unwilling to partner with you after you meet with them, then maybe it is time to move on.  Thank the current agency for their time and assistance with your career, and start working your way towards representation elsewhere.

Like I said above, I haven't tried to switch agencies - so if anyone reading has a story about how they successfully navigated this transition, please post in the comments.

News Round-Up

International: The Guardian UK has been running a thoughtful, articulate and passionate series of articles this week on representation of women on British stages.  There are infographics, data analysis articles, a feature, an opinion piece, and a second infographic that focuses specifically on the gender breakdown in Shakespeare.  It was interesting to me to see how similar the British data was to what I've been finding with the Counting Actors project: especially at the higher budget levels, the ratio of representation male to female is roughly 2:1.

Local: Theatre Bay Area's Chatterbox blog has new content relating to last week's Diversity Symposium.  Staff member Dale Albright has a wrap-up post that includes suggestions for taking action.   And several attendees share their reactions, thoughts and reflections in this blog post (and a few mentions of the Counting Actors project there as well!).  Finally, today, there's a post from me on the TBA site as well, which should be cross-posted to the Works by Women SF site very soon as well.

Launch!! WBWSF blogsite

I'm so thrilled to be a part of this new project that has both an online presence and a real world monthly meetup event!!

Take a look at my post in the 'Perspectives' section titled 'I Believe in You'.  And join us in the MeetUp group for our December 8th 2pm meetup to see 3GirlsTheater's holiday short plays festival 3 Girls Squared!

Panelist!

Theatre Bay Area is holding a Diversity Symposium on Monday December 3rd from 2-6 at Berkeley's Aurora Theater.

I will be on a panel discussing diversity issues and the individual artist.  I

It's a free event, but you need to RSVP in advance, which you can do here.

I hope to see you there!

Parklet!

In honor of their 30th anniversary, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival is running an ambitious and fun project they're calling 'Free Shakespeare in the Parklet'  They're doing 30 stagings of scenes from Shakespeare in parklets and other open spaces throughout the city.

It's kind of like a Shakespeare flash mob or pop-up.  It's really cool to see how the audiences respond, and to think of how San Francisco and the stories of Shakespeare fit together - putting the Macbeths' in the shadow of the Transamerica Pyramid, or Kate and Petruchio in a playground with a water feature.

Tomorrow, I'm playing Adriana in a scene from Comedy of Errors.  We're at 5:30 in the Fisherman's Wharf area - specific location tbd by end of today.  I'm so excited to reunite w/castmates from the production we did a few years ago.

The facebook listing is here.  You can and should follow/friend SF Shakes on Twitter and Facebook for info on the rest of these FREE performances.

Mixed Relief: A benefit for The Actors Fund on July 23

I'm so excited to be playing one of my personal heroes, Hallie Flanagan, the head of the 1930's Federal Theater Project in this staged reading.  Mixed Relief is a play about government funding and women artists, and uses interview and verbatim text to tell its story.

The project is produced by the Bay Area Advisory Committee (BAAC) of Actors' Equity, as a benefit for The Actors' Fund.  It's also a featured event of Laborfest, the Bay Area's annual July programming commemorating the General Strike of 1934, and the history of organized labor in the Bay.

The reading will take place at the Lorraine Hansberry Theater on July 23 at 7:30pm.  Equity has a little more info here.

A Facebook invite to the event is here.  To reserve a seat, call 1-877- 232-1913 Box # 874, and leave a message.  


Hope to see you on the 23rd!

#TBACON

No, it's not a delicious new breakfast meat (that was my first thought anyway), it's the Theatre Bay Area Annual Conference!

It's happening next Monday, May 14th and has speakers, a vendor faire, breakout sessions and all kinds of info for all kinds of theatermakers.  You can go for the full day, or just for the evening 'after hours' sessions.  And, if you've got the time but not the money, they still need volunteers.

I'm super excited to be moderating a breakout session on gender parity for the conference.  Here's the program description of the panel:
Research tells us that women make up the majority of ticket buyers and theatre attendees. Yet, the issue remains that work of, for and with women make up a disproportionately smaller percentage of programming field-wide. Join this discussion as we look at how this issue affects the Bay Area theatre scene and what the future might look like.
This panel happens from 3-4pm - come on by and say hi!

For info on TBACON, including registration and a preview of the conference program, go here.

This Guy!!!

Who has two thumbs and a lot of recent press time?  um, see the title of this post!

1) My article Equity: Year One is now available on the Theatre Bay Area website.  If you didn't already read it in the print edition of the magazine, let me know what you think!

2) Rachel Swan of the East Bay Express quotes me in last week's cover story, The Shrinking Stage, and mentions the Counting Actor's project in an article from a few weeks ago, that you can read here.

3) Playwright Lauren Gunderson has an article on onstage gender equity in the Huffington Post, and includes a shout-out to Counting Actors as well!  Take a look!

Thanks to the writers and publications for including me and the blog in their writing!

My new favorite organizer and some news!

I am loving workflowy.com!  It's a way to put all of your lists in one place as a master list and sub-lists.  Super easy to click through and manage.  Set up is fast and it's really easy to learn and use.  Check it out!

Also, I'm really excited to have been chosen by Theatre Bay Area to represent their 35 Faces campaign!  It's a fantastic group of people chosen in honor of TBA's 35th birthday.  My profile is here.  And, I've also got an article in the March/April issue of Theatre Bay Area's magazine.  At this time, it's not available online, just in the print edition.  It's called 'Equity: Year One' and you can find it on pages 21-22.

books - biography & autobiography edition!

Roger Ebert's Life Itself - Ebert's memoirs are incredibly articulate and elegant, not only about the good times, but also the more recent and difficult ones.  If you haven't been following his story, after several surgeries related to cancer in his salivary glands, Roger Ebert was left with a disfigured face, and is unable to eat or speak.  Since 2006, Ebert has turned to writing and web-based communication for communication with the rest of the world.
My favorite bit of the memoir comes from when he was a young sports reporter in Urbana, Illinois.  A colleague who had a few more years experience than him watched him struggling to write a story, and said:

"One, don't wait for inspiration, just start the damned thing.  Two, once you begin, keep on until the end.  How do you know how the story should begin until you find out where it's going?"

Ebert goes on to say:

"These rules saved me half a career's worth of time and gained me a reputation as the fastest writer in town.  I'm not faster.  I just spend less time not writing."

Wendy and the Lost Boys: The Uncommon Life of Wendy Wasserstein by Julie Salamon felt a little bit sensationalistic at times - one of the major themes is that Wendy was a very secretive person, and that many of her secrets are in the book.  Really exciting to learn a few things though: Peter from Heidi Chronicles is partially based on her friendship w/Christopher Durang!  Wendy's nanny was in a little late night show about spelling bees that she'd made w/her friends, and Wendy saw it and then introduced her friends James Lapine and William Finn to the nanny and that became 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee! 
I'm also trying to imagine what it would've been like to be at Yale Drama School at the same time as Wendy, Christopher Durang, Sigourney Weaver and Meryl Streep. 
The ending of Wendy's life, and therefore also the last few chapters of this book, were a pretty tough slog.
I did come away though thinking that I'd love to see a revival of Uncommon Women and Others, Wendy's breakthrough play about college students at Mt. Holyoke in the late sixties grappling with mixed messages about feminism.


One other side thing: my website is finally on the other side of its major overhaul.  Take a look, won't you, and let me know what you think.  www.valerieweak.com

Reel Resources

Bonnie Gillespie answered some questions yesterday about actor reels in her terrific Showfax column, and linked to some great resources worth checking out - additional info as well as links to docs that actors can get filmmakers to sign to specify details about the copy they'll be providing.

I'm pretty happy w/my recently edited reels, which you should be able to see here.  The editor I worked with is Deva Blaisdell-Anderson.  I had a great time working w/her and she was very helpful, insightful and knowledgeable about the tech side of things.

My September Gig

In the mix of gigs and jobs this past month, I got asked to take on something new: I coached a kid actor in her first professional production.  The show is up now, and on reflection, this job had several really cool parts to it.

First,  it was a real hybrid of my skill sets - teaching artist, actor, and director.  Teaching artist me did some skill building, like theater vocabulary, cheating out, and projection/enunciation.  Actor me got to walk the role at a few rehearsals, exploring what my impulses might be in terms of stage movement and intention within those circumstances.  Director me got to work one on one with another actor to clarify moments and find keys to unlock the characters for an audience.

Something I hadn't thought of beforehand was that theater etiquette/professionalism was a big component of the process.  For someone who's never been in a professional production before, there's so much basic stuff to unpack! Signing in on the board, thanking your stage manager, having your pencil and script ready to go at your call time were all new concepts for this young actor.

Best of all though, was the point during tech week when the kid actor turned to her mom and said, "Do you think when this is over, instead of going back to my tennis class, I could maybe take an acting class instead?"