I've tried to write a post on this concept and how it holds actors back several times over the past year, but once again, Bonnie Gillespie hits the nail on the head in a way better way than I ever could.
Go read ya'll.
And then set aside some time to wade through the archives - she's one of the best resources out there for an on-camera actor.
And Bay Area folks - have you taken a look at Apple Box Studios Films yet? A new by artists for artists company with a video creation focus - they shoot auditions, edit reels, and put together websites - I haven't had a chance to take advantage of their services yet, but I'm sure I will soon!
Showing posts with label San Francisco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label San Francisco. Show all posts
Monday, May 13, 2013
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Counting Actors and the local/non-local issue
When I first envisioned the Counting Actors project, I added the question of whether actors were local or not partly because I was afraid that 'just' tracking gender wouldn't get enough people interested.
Fast forward just under two years, and it turns out many many people are interested in tracking gender of actors, writers and directors. Theatre Bay Area magazine has even published an article about my findings, focused on the gender portion of this study.
In this post, I'm taking the exact same plays used for the TBA article, listed here, and looking at the numbers in regards to local and non-local hires.
I include 235 plays in this count, rather than the full 236. There was one play that I couldn't find out what kind of union contract it had used, even after a conversation with the LA Equity office, who had to admit that the show had slipped through their fingers.
Here's what I found in table format, broken down by type of contract, with totals at the bottom.
235 plays used 1829 actors, and 677 (37%) of those actors were union members. Of that same total, 200 actors or 11% of the total were non-local. The line that probably holds the most interest for the union actors reading this is the line that breaks out contracts with health weeks. Those 132 shows employed 1074 actors, 588 (55%) of them members of AEA. 188 of the actors working on those shows with the high level contracts were from out of town. They made up 18% of the actors who worked on these shows, and 32% of the actors who worked on contracts with health weeks in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Fast forward just under two years, and it turns out many many people are interested in tracking gender of actors, writers and directors. Theatre Bay Area magazine has even published an article about my findings, focused on the gender portion of this study.
In this post, I'm taking the exact same plays used for the TBA article, listed here, and looking at the numbers in regards to local and non-local hires.
I include 235 plays in this count, rather than the full 236. There was one play that I couldn't find out what kind of union contract it had used, even after a conversation with the LA Equity office, who had to admit that the show had slipped through their fingers.
Here's what I found in table format, broken down by type of contract, with totals at the bottom.
Type of contract
|
Number of Plays (% of total)
|
Total actors (% of total)
|
Total union actors (% of total)
|
Total non-local actors (% of total)
|
Non-local actors as % of total actors
|
Non-local actors as % of union actors
|
No contract
|
58 (25%)
|
406 (22%)
|
0 (0%)
|
5 (3%)
|
1%
|
NA
|
BAPP
|
21 (9%)
|
122 (7%)
|
46 (7%)
|
1 (>1%)
|
>1%
|
2%
|
Contracts without health weeks
|
24 (10%)
|
227 (12%)
|
43 (6%)
|
6 (3%)
|
3%
|
14%
|
Contracts with health weeks
|
132 (56%)
|
1074 (59%)
|
588 (87%)
|
188 (94%)
|
18%
|
32%
|
TOTALS
|
235 (100%)
|
1829 (100%)
|
677 (100%)
|
200 (100%)
|
11%
|
29%
|
235 plays used 1829 actors, and 677 (37%) of those actors were union members. Of that same total, 200 actors or 11% of the total were non-local. The line that probably holds the most interest for the union actors reading this is the line that breaks out contracts with health weeks. Those 132 shows employed 1074 actors, 588 (55%) of them members of AEA. 188 of the actors working on those shows with the high level contracts were from out of town. They made up 18% of the actors who worked on these shows, and 32% of the actors who worked on contracts with health weeks in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
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!
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!
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Works by Women San Francisco
I'm part of a new group that's forming here in SF. Taking a page from a NY based group, Works by Women, we're starting regularly monthly events to see shows that feature women in writing, directing, design positions and/or have a gender equal or majority female cast. And a blog/website rolls out very soon as well - I'll update with that info when it's available.
You can find out more about the group here.
And, if you're available on Thursday, please consider joining us for our first event, Golden Thread's ReOrient.
You can find out more about the group here.
And, if you're available on Thursday, please consider joining us for our first event, Golden Thread's ReOrient.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Batting Average
A lot of times I don't pay much attention to sports. It took me 3 years of college at UCLA to figure out that the big building that often had huge crowd out front getting in my way when I was late to rehearsal was Pauley Pavilion (for the non-sports minded, some amazing college basketball has happened there). True. Story.
However, given the amount of baseball I've been watching in the past week or so, I've been thinking about acting, auditions and stepping up to the plate.
The more sports minded can skip the next bit and tune back in in about a paragraph or so. Cause I'm going to explain what I know about batting average. Batting average in baseball is calculated as the number of times a player hits a ball divided by the number of times he is up at bat. Excellent batting averages are anything above .300. A batting average above .400 is next to impossible, over a lifetime. Occasionally someone goes above .400 for a season, but it's pretty rare.
What these numbers mean: an excellent hitter in baseball connects 3 times out of every 10 times at bat. Or, an excellent hitter in baseball doesn't connect 7 out of every 10 times at bat. Professional people, who get paid insane amounts of money to hit a ball with a stick only manage to execute that part of their job 30% of the time!
What these numbers tell me is that what these guys get paid to do isn't actually to hit balls with sticks. Rather, their job is to be ready, should all the other circumstances line up, to hit a ball with a stick. And ready means they prepare mentally and physically prior to the event, they learn about the people who are going to challenge their ability to hit a ball with a stick and anticipate what might happen, and to ultimately, when the time comes and they are called to the plate, they get out of their own way mentally and allow their bodies to do what they've prepped for, and still 70% of the time, they won't actually hit the ball.
It's amazing each time I watch the intense level of commitment and concentration of a batter at the plate. How all the training & preparation lives in that moment, how so much is out of their control, yet they know what they have control over.
Little acting lessons. Each time.
However, given the amount of baseball I've been watching in the past week or so, I've been thinking about acting, auditions and stepping up to the plate.
The more sports minded can skip the next bit and tune back in in about a paragraph or so. Cause I'm going to explain what I know about batting average. Batting average in baseball is calculated as the number of times a player hits a ball divided by the number of times he is up at bat. Excellent batting averages are anything above .300. A batting average above .400 is next to impossible, over a lifetime. Occasionally someone goes above .400 for a season, but it's pretty rare.
What these numbers mean: an excellent hitter in baseball connects 3 times out of every 10 times at bat. Or, an excellent hitter in baseball doesn't connect 7 out of every 10 times at bat. Professional people, who get paid insane amounts of money to hit a ball with a stick only manage to execute that part of their job 30% of the time!
What these numbers tell me is that what these guys get paid to do isn't actually to hit balls with sticks. Rather, their job is to be ready, should all the other circumstances line up, to hit a ball with a stick. And ready means they prepare mentally and physically prior to the event, they learn about the people who are going to challenge their ability to hit a ball with a stick and anticipate what might happen, and to ultimately, when the time comes and they are called to the plate, they get out of their own way mentally and allow their bodies to do what they've prepped for, and still 70% of the time, they won't actually hit the ball.
It's amazing each time I watch the intense level of commitment and concentration of a batter at the plate. How all the training & preparation lives in that moment, how so much is out of their control, yet they know what they have control over.
Little acting lessons. Each time.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Parklet!
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.
Friday, July 6, 2012
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!
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
I am not anonymous!
A few weeks ago, a directing colleague shot me an email to ask if I was (or knew) the anonymous source who sent an email to many Bay Area artistic directors with diversity statistics from local theaters. It wasn't me, and I don't know who it was.
I have not seen a copy of this email (I sure would like to if anyone has it and can forward to countingactors (at) gmail (dot) com), so I don't want to comment on content. I understand the impulse to share this information anonymously - an individual artist who may also be seeking work at these companies may not want to point fingers publicly. The Guerilla Girls are a fantastic example of folks who solved this conundrum with creativity, humor and style.
In the meantime, there's Counting Actors. One full year now of adding up and sharing numbers from shows that myself and others have seen or worked on. June results in the next week, so send me stats now. Don't know what I'm talking about? Go here to read more!
I have not seen a copy of this email (I sure would like to if anyone has it and can forward to countingactors (at) gmail (dot) com), so I don't want to comment on content. I understand the impulse to share this information anonymously - an individual artist who may also be seeking work at these companies may not want to point fingers publicly. The Guerilla Girls are a fantastic example of folks who solved this conundrum with creativity, humor and style.
In the meantime, there's Counting Actors. One full year now of adding up and sharing numbers from shows that myself and others have seen or worked on. June results in the next week, so send me stats now. Don't know what I'm talking about? Go here to read more!
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Tom Ross responds to Carol's open letter
Still working on my TBA Conference wrap up! In the meantime, I'm very pleased that Tom Ross of the Aurora has allowed me to post his response to playwright Carol Lashof's open letter.
Read below.
Dear Ms. Lashof,
Yes, you are right that next season we do not have any women playwrights represented in our roster of five plays. That was certainly not my aim nor is it something I am proud of. As a playwright, I would imagine that you understand that a theatre’s seasons come together in more of an organic way than simply saying that we are going to do plays xy&z and then obtaining the rights to plays xy&z. This is particularly true when you are a small 150-seat theatre like Aurora. Playwrights and their agents, both woman and men alike, like to give permission to produce their work to the larger houses so they can make larger royalties. In preparation for this season, I tried to obtain the rights to five plays written by women and in all instances was rejected.
I certainly have no prejudice against plays by women. We recently closed the Bay Area premiere of Annie Baker’s play, “Body Awareness” to great critical and financial success. Last season, both our world premiere of Allison Moore’s play “Collapse” and Alice Childress’ infrequently performed “Trouble in Mind” were big successes. Additionally this season, we commissioned Margret Schaefer to translate a new version of Schnitzler’s “Anatol.”
As far as Aurora theatre going backwards, that is actually incorrect. There have been huge strides in diversity at Aurora in all ways since I became Artistic Director 8 years ago. I am not going to get into statistics but I have produced far more plays written by women in my 8 seasons than our founding artistic director did in her 12. Additionally, in those same 8 years, 23 Aurora productions have been directed by women and 17 by men.
Sexual diversity goes well beyond playwriting and directing here. We hire many women set, lighting, costume designers, electricians and scenic artists who work with us regularly. Muriel Maffre, the former prima ballerina of the SF Ballet initiated, conceived and co-directed a version of Stravinsky’s “The Soldier’s Tale” here last year utilizing Mary Chun as our music director/pianist and featuring alternating female violinists who appeared onstage.
I appreciate your passion and how hard it is for anyone in theatre, whether they are playwrights, actors or designers, to have their work appear on stages. I understand that women and racially diverse playwrights are produced less than Caucasian males. I have devoted my life to producing and creating the best work I can and am proud of the strides we are making here at Aurora to represent a diverse group of people behind the scenes and on our stage.
I am supplying a link to an article (its 2 ½ years old) by Robert Hurwitt in the San Francisco Chronicle about the production of female playwrights in the Bay Area Theatre you may find of interest.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/13/PKRL1APUD5.DTL
Sincerely,
Tom Ross
Artistic Director
PS Alas, we do not receive any state or federal funding.
Read below.
Dear Ms. Lashof,
Yes, you are right that next season we do not have any women playwrights represented in our roster of five plays. That was certainly not my aim nor is it something I am proud of. As a playwright, I would imagine that you understand that a theatre’s seasons come together in more of an organic way than simply saying that we are going to do plays xy&z and then obtaining the rights to plays xy&z. This is particularly true when you are a small 150-seat theatre like Aurora. Playwrights and their agents, both woman and men alike, like to give permission to produce their work to the larger houses so they can make larger royalties. In preparation for this season, I tried to obtain the rights to five plays written by women and in all instances was rejected.
I certainly have no prejudice against plays by women. We recently closed the Bay Area premiere of Annie Baker’s play, “Body Awareness” to great critical and financial success. Last season, both our world premiere of Allison Moore’s play “Collapse” and Alice Childress’ infrequently performed “Trouble in Mind” were big successes. Additionally this season, we commissioned Margret Schaefer to translate a new version of Schnitzler’s “Anatol.”
As far as Aurora theatre going backwards, that is actually incorrect. There have been huge strides in diversity at Aurora in all ways since I became Artistic Director 8 years ago. I am not going to get into statistics but I have produced far more plays written by women in my 8 seasons than our founding artistic director did in her 12. Additionally, in those same 8 years, 23 Aurora productions have been directed by women and 17 by men.
Sexual diversity goes well beyond playwriting and directing here. We hire many women set, lighting, costume designers, electricians and scenic artists who work with us regularly. Muriel Maffre, the former prima ballerina of the SF Ballet initiated, conceived and co-directed a version of Stravinsky’s “The Soldier’s Tale” here last year utilizing Mary Chun as our music director/pianist and featuring alternating female violinists who appeared onstage.
I appreciate your passion and how hard it is for anyone in theatre, whether they are playwrights, actors or designers, to have their work appear on stages. I understand that women and racially diverse playwrights are produced less than Caucasian males. I have devoted my life to producing and creating the best work I can and am proud of the strides we are making here at Aurora to represent a diverse group of people behind the scenes and on our stage.
I am supplying a link to an article (its 2 ½ years old) by Robert Hurwitt in the San Francisco Chronicle about the production of female playwrights in the Bay Area Theatre you may find of interest.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/13/PKRL1APUD5.DTL
Sincerely,
Tom Ross
Artistic Director
PS Alas, we do not receive any state or federal funding.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Open Letter to the Aurora
I know I need to write about the Gender Parity panel from Monday, but day jobs are getting in my way. It's coming soon, I promise.
In the meantime, I met playwright Carol Lashof on Monday, and she agreed to let me share her open letter to the Aurora Theatre with folks who read this blog.
This is an open letter to the
Aurora Theatre, which I am copying to the International Centre for Women
Playwrights, the Berkeley-based Play Cafe email list, and Gary Garrison of the
Dramatists Guild:
I am a playwright, librettist, and educator, living in
Berkeley, and I have been a fan of the Aurora Theatre since its inception.
In fact, I took an enthusiastic student group to see "Dear
Master" at the City Club before the Aurora formally existed as a theatre.
My husband and I were subscribers for many years but as our schedules got
busier and our budget tighter, we let our subscription lapse.
Nonetheless, I continue to attend the Aurora regularly and enjoy your
work, so when the season brochure arrived in the mail this morning, I was quick
to open it. And I said to myself: if women playwrights and
directors are well represented in the season, I will resubscribe because I have
been vowing to myself and my colleagues that I would start putting my money
where my mouth was to support equal representation of women theatre
professionals (especially playwrights, since I am one) on American stages.
Here's what I discovered when I opened the brochure:
Five plays. None written by women. One directed by a
woman--founding artistic director Barbara Oliver. What a long way the
Aurora has come--backwards--from its first production, which was co-created by
Dorothy Bryant and Barbara Oliver and was about the pioneering woman writer
George Sand.
Although I cannot bring myself to boycott any theatre as
excellent as the Aurora, I will not be subscribing this year. Maybe next
year?
Sincerely,
Carol S. Lashof
The Aurora's season announcement is here.
Stage 2 @ SF Playhouse
533 Sutter Street, upstairs
San Francisco, CA
Hosted by the Dramatists Guild. Free and open to the public.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Why Kneehigh?
Because you remember reading this post, but you'll see this show in the December count. And both shows are British in origin. Why is one outside the count, and the other one included? What's the difference?
Richard III was a commercial production on a national tour. There were no opportunities for local artists to participate artistically in the show, and there never would've been.
The Wild Bride is being produced at Berkeley Rep, a non-profit theater. A Bay Area based company, with its own performance spaces, administrative offices and staff all here. And this is why the show goes into the count.
Berkeley Rep often, but not always, works with local artists. Directors, designers, actors, and writers based here in the Bay Area. One of the many purposes of the Counting Actors project is to track what choices our local companies are making - when do they choose to hire local actors, and when do they hire actors from out of town.
The local artists/non-local artists issue is a huge one that I first became aware of when I heard actors make jokes about having to move to New York to get hired at XXX (large local regional company). As someone living in the SF Bay Area, I'd like to have opportunities to be hired by local companies. At the same time, productions using artists from other regions can be artistically exciting and challenge and inspire us to make richer work here in the region. I have been inspired by seeing SITI Company's Midsummer produced at San Jose Rep, the co-production of Time of Your Life at ACT directed by Chicago's Tina Landau and featuring actors from SF, Chicago and Seattle, and Tadashi Suzuki's Tale of Lear at Berkeley Rep, which featured actors from 4 different US regional theaters who had all gone to Japan to train, rehearse, and create their production of King Lear with the renowned Japanese director.
A big con of local food is that it lacks variety. People in Kansas wouldn't get to eat lobster, and no one in North America would get to have coffee, chocolate or bananas. You lose the opportunity to try new things and broaden your palate - like when I went to my favorite Burmese restaurant, and my favorite dish, the fermented tea leaf salad, was off the menu that week, because they hadn't been able to get any of the main ingredient in from the homeland. So, I appreciate artists from outside the region too. They broaden my artistic palate.
Here's what I'd like to see:
1) A greater awareness in the region of who the local artists are and what companies are using local artists - perhaps a symbol in the programs (like an Equity *) that means the artists live somewhere in the 9 county Bay Area, and have done so for at least 1 year. My grocery story puts a state of California icon next to items that come from within the state - it could be kind of like that.
2) A greater level of consciousness on the part of companies about their choices to hire folks from out of town - is that Florida strawberry going to be better quality than the one grown near Pescadero? Maybe, maybe not.
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