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  • All Blogs/ Entertainment Industry Insights: Oct. 27 2020 | Up-To-Date Actor

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New Projects - Bye Bye Quibi - New TV Tech Frontier - Regional Closures

By Sean Gregory, October 27, 2020

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Hey all you cool ghosts and ghouls 👻

If you couldn't already tell, I love Halloween. Fall and cooler weather and crunchy leaves and lots of candles and pumpkins and scary stories, make me want to curl up and watch THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW on repeat for days. 🍁

Thank you to everyone who came out to our live tutorial for UTD Actor last Friday. We had a great time answering your questions and showing you the in's and out's of how to navigate the site! If you missed the tutorial and would like to check it out, log in and use the main navigation to go to "Workshops" There you will find last weeks tutorial as well as other tutorials and prior workshops. If you want to view our brief pre-recorded tutorials click on "Video Tutorials" from the main navigation. Enjoy!

As always, if you have any questions on a specific feature or even a suggestion on a new one, please don't hesitate to contact us - info@uptodateactor.com.

With Election Day officially one week away, we'd like to remind everyone to get out there and vote if you haven't already! Early voting has already begun in many states (including New York!) and it's already shaping up to be one for the record books. Nothing cooler than an actor who votes! 🗳

And with that, let's talk news!

Tech Takes the Lead During COVID

It wouldn't be a stretch to say nearly every person in the entertainment industry has needed to pivot in some form over the past seven months, most of which has involved some form of digitizing our lives and how we interact with each other. Variety gathered the heads of some of the country's biggest networks earlier this month to discuss how they are dealing with productions resuming, safety on set and in offices, expansion of their digital platforms, and much more.

"I think for us it's just we learn so much more about this pandemic every day, and I think for us moving forward it's taking those learnings and making the shows better and better, and giving the viewers more of an escape from everything that's going on in the world," Rob Mills, head of alternative series, late-night and specials at ABC Entertainment said. And while networks are focusing on how to best deliver new, relevant content to viewers at home, many are also recognizing the importance of capturing this moment in history.

"We don't want to sugarcoat things," says Jenny Wall, chief marketing officer at Nickelodeon. The kids' network went dark for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in early June, in acknowledgment of the murder of George Floyd on May 25th. "If we want to talk about an issue that we think kids should know about — whether that's the election, whether that's Black Lives Matter, whether that's about gender, whether that's about disabilities — we want to make sure that we are talking to kids in a way that it can resonate with them and it can have the most impact as possible."

Quibi's Final Bow

The industry giveth, and the industry taketh away, I suppose. Quibi has officially announced its plans to wind down operations, after a much maligned launch in the face of COVID last spring. Founder Jeffery Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman penned a somber note to Medium last week, apologizing to investors and early adopters and thanking everyone who saw the mobile-first platform through to the end. "We continue to believe that there is an attractive market for premium, short-form content. Over the coming months we will be working hard to find buyers for these valuable assets who can leverage them to their full potential," the pair wrote.

Having raised over $1.75 billion from top-tier investors like Disney, NBCUniversal, and Time Warner, the demise of Quibi can be seen as a case study of the already oversaturated streaming market. Even after nabbing 10 Emmy nominations in their short-form categories and a handful of victories, the elusiveness of truly eye-catching content remained for the fledging streamer. As the news of the shutdown rippled through the airways last week, the cast and crew of the company's Ukraine-based political drama THIS IS CLICKBAIT continued to film in Kiev, despite being told to can production and come home. The production hopes to stream together enough footage to land a final product. But, with the company planning to cease operations entirely on December 1st, the project is quickly joining the list of assets hanging in the balance of Quibi's short future.

All Quibi productions in NYC, LA, and Canada have been canceled. Some will likely be shopped to other networks but specifics are still unknown.

SAG-AFTRA and AEA Disputes Continue

As more and more theatre companies continue to workshop the idea of filming their productions for a wider audience to enjoy during the COVID era, representatives from SAG-AFTRA and AEA have yet to reach a firm agreement on whose jurisdiction these productions fall under. Some have pointed to the 2017 Steppenwolf production of Antoinette Nwandu's PASS OVER, where actors were originally employed under Equity agreements for the stage run, then switched to SAG-contracted days for shooting, as well as ongoing rights and residuals for the Spike Lee-directed film adaptation for Amazon Prime. However, with many theatre companies turning to Zoom productions or film-only presentations, the gray area, along with lingering discrepancies between the two unions, continues to grow.

& JULIET and DEAR EVAN HANSEN Lead UK's Olivier Awards

The 2020 Olivier Award recipients were announced last evening, with DEAR EVAN HANSEN and & JULIET each taking home three titles, including Best New Musical, Best Actor in a Musical and Best Score for DEH and Best Actress in a Musical, along with Best Actor and Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical. The show, filmed mostly in the days leading up to the ceremony, also featured a spotlight on the Theatre Artists Fund by Sam Mendes and HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, highlighting the important work the group has been doing to advocate for aid and recovery of the industry during COVID-19.

Schumer: Save Our Stages or Bust

Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) continues to do everything he can to advocate for COVID relief for the entertainment industry, once again presenting the Save Our Stages Act as a part of a new bill on the floor of the Senate last week. The Heroes Small Business Lifeline Act aims at providing key support to small businesses hardest hit by the pandemic, including theatre owners, producers and other live event venues, frequently regarded as some of the most vulnerable small businesses in the current socio-economic climate. "Our live entertainment venues are the beating hearts of every community and in need of dedicated assistance," Schumer said in his proposal. The act would target businesses who have lost 90% or more of their revenue within its first two weeks of implementation, followed by businesses at 70% or greater loss in its second two weeks, with any remaining funds going to other eligible entities.

Off-Broadway Collective Sues NY-Gov. Cuomo

A coalition of eight Off-Broadway theatres and comedy clubs have filed a lawsuit against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio for keeping their venues closed during the pandemic. The complaint was submitted to Manhattan’s Federal District Court October 23 and requests that the executive order restricting indoor performances be nulled.

Listed as plaintiffs are Theater Center, the Players Theater, Actors Temple Theater, SoHo Playhouse, the Gene Frankel Theater, the Triad, Broadway Comedy Club, and New York Comedy Club.

The suit says that while schools, gyms, and other recreational spaces—including rehearsal studios and TV sets like Saturday Night Live—they’ve been forced to remain closed, which the plaintiffs view as infringing upon "the right to work, right to contract, and right to engage in commerce."

Regional Theatre Postponements & Closures

Two of Cincinnati's biggest theatre venues have officially pushed their in-person seasons back to Fall 2021, the latest in a long string of playhouses nationwide to do so. Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and Cincinnati Shakespeare Company (CSC) shared a joint statement last week, canceling their upcoming holiday shows and announcing a host of new virtual content that audiences will be able to enjoy from the safety and comfort of home. "We plan to be very busy bringing our community virtual and socially distanced ways to experience live theatre in the coming months," the companies wrote in their release.

After 46 years of operation, longtime dinner theatre Westchester Broadway Theatre has made the difficult decision to shut their doors as a direct result of COVID-19. Once playing host to Broadway names like Will Swenson, Rob Marshall, and Susan Stroman, theatre co-founders Bob Funking and Bill Stutler estimate that over six million audience members have passed through the building in it's near half a century of operations. The National Dinner Theatre Association now numbers just 21 theatres nationwide, most of which have put their operations on hold indefinitely as a result of the pandemic.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Television

UCLA has released the second half of their Hollywood Diversity Report last week, detailing the study of major TV over the last two seasons. Chiefly among the findings, studio execs continue to be overwhelmingly white and male, with only 32% of studio heads and CEO positions belonging to women, with only 8% of them being held by persons of color. Less than a quarter of all credited writers were found to be POC at 24%, and 22% of all TV episodes were directed by POC. The news was less grim in front of the camera however, with 35% of lead roles going to POC characters and 44.8% to women in scripted cable shows. These findings do point to the disparity in predominantly white writer's rooms continuing to create shows for non-white ensembles, underscoring the continual need for diversity in writer's rooms to bolster authenticity in on-screen voices in TV.

In the aftermath of GLOW's cancellation by Netflix, the show's lead actors of color took aim at the company's startling lack of diversity and authenticity in a series of posts on Instagram, after sending a letter to producers and creators earlier this year. "We can no longer be quiet about the pain this has caused us and the harm it has done in perpetuating the representation of people of color as sidekicks to elevate white leads," the cast wrote in their statement, mirroring their main complaint that most (if not all) of the characters of color lacked depth, truth, and importance in their storytelling. "[O]ur storylines are relegated to the sidelines in dealing with this conflict or have left us feeling like checkboxes on a list." Netflix and showrunners for GLOW have yet to respond to the cast's statements and concerns.

PARKS AND REC and THE OFFICE star Rashida Jones recently sat down with Variety to discuss where the Oscars stand in their quest for diversity, where she's drawn her inspiration from as an actor and writer, and the importance of continuing to push the needle in 2020: "Hollywood is just a microcosm for this country and a reflection — sometimes a poor reflection, sometimes an aspirational reflection. Many things have to line up to make this dream come true."

Theatre

With the much needed upswing in activism and actionable change in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter movement resurgence this spring and summer, many theatre organizations have been holding the magnifying glass to their processes and established ideologies and having the necessary, difficult conversations on how to move their institutions in the right direction.

"Acting theory suffers from what most curricula in the U.S. and even in the world suffers from, which is white supremacy and colonialism," writes Sharrell D. Luckett, assistant theatre professor at the University of Cincinnati and author of BLACK ACTING METHODS: CRITICAL APPROACHES. Luckett discusses the inherent difficulty many Black actors have in finding material that reflects who they are as artists while studying in programs with overwhelmingly white course material. And this is work that institutions must take on themselves, rather than phasing in through the work of their students. "We cannot continue to let generations of Black artists, Latinx artists, Asian American artists, and other BIPOC artists become fodder and experimentation while white faculty try to figure it out," noted Kaja Dunn, assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte's Department of Theatre.

Tyler Perry Reigns Supreme

If there's one industry player who has made the most of their time during COVID, it's Tyler Perry. Having completed production on four separate shows - BET's SISTAS and THE OVAL and BET+'s RUTHLESS and BRUH - Perry has plenty of plans to continue using his 330-acre Atlanta production studio to its full potential. "This wasn't inherited; he earned every dime. Every piece of that studio he bought with his dough," longtime friend and collaborator Whoopi Goldberg says. "I think the idea of letting people know that this wasn't a gift, this was hard-earned, [is important]."

It's no surprise that Perry was duly named Variety's 2020 Showman of the Year. His untiring work ethic, commitment to lifting Black voices, and recent distinction as one of the few Black billionaires in the world are just a small part of what makes Perry's rise to fame so important to so many in the US. "I don't know if people really realize how important it is for young Black and Brown children to be able to see examples of what it means to be successful outside of what they see in the neighborhoods," Perry said to Variety. These days, Perry is eyeing up the future of his empire with eyes on fresh talent. "We're super excited about the young, up-and-coming filmmakers and new writers that we're working with," president of production and development for Tyler Perry Studios Michelle Sneed said. "We're working on promoting, providing a platform and advocating for this new talent, both in front of and behind the camera."

Chadwick Boseman: In Memoriam

The entertainment world was shocked at the news of Chadwick Boseman's passing in late August, and now organizers from Boseman's last film MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM are set to campaign him posthumously for his role as lead actor. The adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning August Wilson play follows "Mother of the Blues" Ma Rainey, portrayed by Viola Davis, and her band's fight to gain control of her music from her white management team in 1920's Chicago. The film is set to release on Netflix, December 18th.

Halloween 🎃

They're creepy and they're kooky,
Mysterious and spooky,
They're altogether ooky,
And headed to TV?

The Addams Family may be making a comeback to the small screen, thanks in part to the always spooky ooky Tim Burton 👻 Sources at MGM Television are reporting that a new series about Gomez, Morticia, and co is in its final stages of negotiation with Burton and INTO THE BADLANDS writers Alfred Gough and Milles Millar. This would mark the latest jump into the wild world of the Addams Family, having first debuted as a comic strip in 1938.

SAG and AFTRA, 20 Years Later

Ready for a history lesson? 20 years ago last week, SAG (Screen Actors Guild) and AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) ended their 5 1/2 month long strike over an impending change to the ad industry's pay structure, where business were looking to move from Class A, or "pay-per-play" contracts, to quarterly lump sums for actors, igniting a fervent debate between the unions and ad businesses that resulted in a work stoppage through the summer and fall. 20 years later, many actors that were involved in the strike still hold onto the bitterness that widened the divide between the separate unions' approach to the negotiations. "The greatest take-away from the strike was not the gains that we made, but the losses that were created," said Sara Kreiger, who worked as strike captain in New York during the dispute. "Non-union people crossed the picket line, as advertisers learned how to get their jobs done without professional union talent."

The Rain in Spain...

Netflix is ramping up their productions in Spain over the next year, announcing last week that they would premiere seven new original shows and movies in 2021. Following the success of MONEY HEIST and ELITE, the streamer is hedging its best on a host of diverse new content, including historical dramas THE WANNINKHOF CASE and 800 METROS, spooky thriller THE BEAST and romantic comedy SPANISH AFFAIR.

It's a Brand New (Media) Day

Acclaimed Off-Broadway house Bedlam Theater is set to begin filming its new experimental mash-up of Shakespearean goodness for virtual audiences. BEDLAM: THE SERIES, the latest New Media foray from the company, has begun filming its eight-episode stint in NYC and New York Hudson Valley. Comprised of characters from classic Bard stores like KING LEAR and THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, Bedlam artistic director Eric Tucker is eager to share this new age of theatre with audiences. "As a theatre company, most immediately, we need to adapt to our current situation and find ways of staying alive," Tucker said in a recent interview.

Advice to the Players

Are you on the agent hunt these days? Our wonderful friend Colleen at Actors Connection wants you to review these tips to avoid slipping through the cracks!

Backstage sat down with two Emmy-Winning Casting Directors earlier this summer to get their perspective on what makes an actor stand out in the room, along with an inside look at everything that goes into landing the part in a major production. Take some time to hear what Avy Kaufman (SUCCESSION, DAMAGES, A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD) and Alexa L. Fogel (POSE, OZARK, THE POLITICIAN) have to say about the industry!

What to Watch & Read

Happy (and safe!) Haunting this week, UTD! 🎃