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New Projects Casting - Pilot Upfronts - Production Revs Up - Reopening is Here

By Sean Gregory, May 04, 2021

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Happy May, UTD!

Have y'all been enjoying some of this wonderful summer-like weather the past few days? I know I've definitely been capitalizing on NYC's spring thaw and doing some much needed cleaning, organizing, and getting myself ready for what will hopefully shape up to be an exciting summer. Truth be told, April has always been my least favorite month (sorry to my Aries and Taurus readers) - just something about the daily 30-degree temperature shifts, allergies, beginnings of humidity, and oh man how old do I sound... Anyways, very thankful to be welcoming some sunnier May days ☀️ How has everyone been? What are some projects you've undertaken these last few weeks?

Our next networking event is coming up this week! We'll be presenting our popular Seeking Representation 101 workshop with our friends at The Growing Studio this Thursday, 5/6 at 7 PM. Come chat with us about the best ways to approach representation as the industry continues to open back up and agents are updating their rosters!

Quick reminder: We will be taking a break from networking events here through the remainder of May into early summer, but keep your eyes open for some more virtual programming later in June and beyond 👀

Taking the rain with the sun this week, let's enjoy it ✌️

COVID Reopening

Film and TV COVID safety guidelines are here to stay, for the time being at least. Several production studios and unions have agreed to extend the current COVID health and safety protocols on Hollywood sets through at least June 30th, as infection rates in LA County continue to decrease and sets reap the benefits of an increasingly safer filming environment. While the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers protocols do not currently require vaccinations from anyone working onset, health officials continue to debate the feasibility of mandating jabs for production workers in the months ahead, with one industry insider familiar with the extension talks noting that "To mandate [vaccinations] at this point may be premature" 💉

Brooklyn theatergoers, rejoice! Downtown Brooklyn's Alamo Drafthouse is set to reopen its doors this Friday, joining 15 other locations around the country scheduled to open in May. Following strong box office debuts from MORTAL KOMBAT and DEMON SLAYER, which both raked in over $20 million in their opening weekends, CEO Shelli Taylor remains confident that the chain's continued reopening strategy will support what she hopes will be "a colossal season of big movies." Alamo is planning to bring a mix of new and classic titles to their locations in the coming months, already having announced plans to show MAMMA MIA, GOODFELLAS, and - wait for it - THE LORD OF THE RINGS 😍

Theaters are currently navigating an interesting gamut of obstacles in the race to get open and remain open. With NYC capacity limits currently set at 33%, movie houses are hedging their bets on strong audience numbers to keep them afloat until more seats are made available. And while in-person screenings are undoubtedly their bread and butter, some institutions' pivot to virtual screenings over the past year might be here to stay. "I don't think anyone would say that virtual cinema is blowing the doors off," Brooklyn Academy of Music Programmer Jesse Trussell said. "But it’s less about being a revenue driver than this value of access, so we can still reach people who can’t come to BAM."

Broadway can sympathize. While NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio detailed his ambitious plan to lift all COVID restrictions in the city on July 1st, he later clarified (even though all us weathered, salty theater folk already came to this conclusion on our own 😒) that the announcement most likely excluded any Broadway productions, which are still gearing up for a likely fall reopening. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo didn't mince words when commenting on de Blasio's reopening plan, saying the plan was "irresponsible" and that he plans to continue to make reopening decisions for the state "by the science, by the data." 'Til then, I'll stick to my couch and current SUCCESSION re-binge, take the Playbill Pledge to return to a theater as soon as I can, and dream of the days when my butt is in a Broadway seat laugh-crying with the rest of New York 🤞

UPDATE: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday that state-mandated capacity restrictions in New York City will be lifted May 19, including Broadway theaters. However it is expected that Broadway will stick to a late-Summer/early-Fall opening schedule.

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Revival of the Regional Theater

There's no question that regional theaters have been dealt a particularly devastating blow over the past 14 months, with many already operating on modest production budgets being forced to make incredibly difficult decisions on how to stay lean and stay afloat until the day that we can all return to the audience. But a new era may be on the horizon. A fledgling streaming venture from Broadway on Demand, ACT, Irish Rep, and Woolly Mammoth Theater Company will allow regional houses to broadcast their productions for viewers around the world, potentially opening up an entirely new source of interest and revenue for participating companies. "With great disruption comes great opportunity," Broadway Licensing President and CEO Sean Cercone said. The first performance will debut next Saturday, May 15th, a co-presentation of The Bushwick Starr's ANIMAL WISDOM from ACT and Woolly Mammoth. Come on now, virtual theater 👏

Up-Fronts Are Back, Nature is Healing 🌱

'Tis the May season, which means - in the before times - studios would be a hotbed of anxiety and late night pitching in the midst of chaotic TV "Upfront" presentations, jockeying for position on who will be landing ad space on what shows and at what times. For the second year in a row, however, all festivities are set to take place virtually, which proved to be a surprisingly tidy, streamlined process. May 17th is currently set as the week when everything will go down, but some networks like The CW are opting for non-traditional strategies like press conferences and other online formats to break the mold and present their wares for the 2021-22 season. Upfronts, as they are called, are how the networks decide which pilots and series will move forward and which will not move forward. Lastly, streaming services are similarly holding virtual "NewFronts" with Amazon joining for the first time for its newer ad-supported streaming service IMDb TV. All in all, look for major commitments and cancel announcements in the coming weeks.

Hot tip 🔥 Now is a great time to begin paying attention to which shows have been renewed for another season that film in your area. Start planning to get in front of the right casting directors when they begin searching for new talent in the months ahead. Target these shows on The Up-To-Date Actor and stay in the loop with casting folks before production starts late-Summer/early-Fall 😉

As networks begin the laborious process of deciding which shows to keep and which to show the door, network ratings become an increasingly important factor in the special sauce that may (or may not) keep a show on the air. A host of networks have raised questions in recent weeks about how Nielsen's changes in methodology led to potentially inaccurate or undercounted viewership at the height of the pandemic this past year, the ripple effects of which could color how ad space is distributed during this year's up-front presentations. In the words of one NBCUniversal exec: "Marketers don’t buy ratings. They buy results." Interesting days in the media ether are ahead, folks 🌄

Dawn of the New Productions

Apple has recommitted billions in investment capital for its upcoming slate of shows on AppleTV+, announcing that dozens of productions are set to begin filming in 20 states over the next few years. The $430 billion initiative will reportedly create thousands of jobs across the country, with 20,000 new positions expected to be hired in the US by 2023. Sooo.... more TED LASSO, please? 🥺

International

International production numbers are shooting back up as well. The Czech Film Commission is expecting filming volume to return to its 2019 pre-pandemic heights this year, when the country enjoyed a $420 million influx in foreign investment. Amazon and Netflix have currently set up shop on a handful of productions that are in various stages of production, including THE WHEEL OF TIME and CARNIVAL ROW for Amazon and ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT for Netflix. "[W]e are once again seeing huge demand for filming in the Czech Republic," director of the Czech Film Fund Helena Bezdek Frankova said. "The audiovisual industry has an extraordinarily strong capacity to adapt and recover rapidly, so it is also the perfect tool to jumpstart employment and entrepreneurship in the post-coronavirus period." With the 2021 award season now officially in the books, I guess it's never too early for studios to start building out content for the fall Emmys 👀

Netflix has also announced the creation of a new production office in Stockholm, Sweden, which the streaming giant says will serve as a base camp for its projects in the area. Netflix Director of Acquisitions and Co-Productions shared that the company "has always felt at home in the Nordics. It was one of the first places outside of the US where we started making local original shows, and over the past nine years we’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the most brilliant creative talent in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland." The hub, scheduled to open later in 2021, will join Netflix's growing European presence in cities like Amsterdam, Brussels, Madrid, and Paris.

Not to be outdone by its older streaming brother in the international market, HBO Max is joining Netflix in the fray of diversifying its content worldwide by bolstering its Latin American slate with over 100 original content offerings in the next two years, with the first third of the programs already in production. With Latinx audiences accounting for some of the most robust viewing in the US, it's no surprise that the rapidly growing streamer is setting its sights on a healthy blend of English and Spanish viewing in the coming years, as the service also plans to become available in Latin America and the Caribbean in June.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

In partnership with the Ford Foundation and MacArthur Foundation, MTV Entertainment Studios will produce a one-night-only event to address the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in the US. SEE US UNITE FOR CHANGE, hosted by Ken Jeong, will broadcast on May 21st on all of MTV parent company ViacomCBS' channels, as well as their Facebook page. The event will feature music, comedy specials, film shorts, and more, all with the aim of celebrating the work of Asian-American creatives and their impact throughout US history, as well as highlighting resources that we can all use to support AAPI individuals in our community.

A new initiative aimed at empowering up-and-coming writers of color has named its inaugural round of participants for the 2020-21 cycle. Mentorship Matters, founded by a host of executive producers and showrunners from projects like VAMPIRE DIARIES and TRUE BLOOD, will connect 23 writers with industry mentors to develop their writing, discuss networking opportunities and receive guidance on navigating the industry. "With writers rooms getting smaller – when we hire a staff, we naturally turn to our showrunner colleagues for referrals," panelist Raelle Tucker (TRUE BLOOD, SACRED LIES) noted. "But for BIPOC writers without access to those connections or the opportunity to foster those relationships... This program is a way for showrunners to use our circles of influence, our experience, and our own writers rooms to help address a systemic problem."

Reese Witherspoon's Reese's Book Club will also take up the torch of empowering underserved writers with her newly announced LitUp campaign, which will help "elevate, mentor and champion new authors with the mission of spotlighting more diverse stories." The program is open to any unpublished, unrepresented female writer from a diverse background, and is seeking a completed adult or YA fiction piece featuring a female lead character. Five fellows will be selected to receive mentoring and industry advice, as well as an all-expenses-paid writer's retreat and market prep course from a published writer. Applications are due May 30th!

A coalition of Broadway and other NYC theater producers, along with Black Theatre Coalition and Columbia's Prince Fellowship, have banded together to launch The Theatre Leadership Project, with the goal of creating a substantially more diverse landscape among commercial theatre leadership. "It is our belief that by focusing on one of the most marginalized groups of people, we will ultimately create space for professionals of all races and ethnicities," TLP writes on its website. "For this current pilot program, we will focus on Black applicants due to the extremity to which they are excluded." Applications will open in the fall to any US candidate interested in pursuing careers in commercial theater development and management.

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Union Renews Focus on Intimacy Coordinators

SAG-AFTRA is taking a firm stand against sexual harassment on film and TV sets. The union has created a new digital platform that will serve as a streamlined tool for reporting instances of misconduct and tracking individuals with multiple cataloged offenses. SAG-AFTRA Safe Place will accept both named and anonymous submissions, which will be reviewed by the union's Equity and Inclusion team to determine how to best handle the incident. The announcement of the platform was accompanied by new standards for training and empowering intimacy coordinators onset, as well as the creation of a registry for individuals who have taken on extra training in the field to be used by productions looking to hire for their projects. "Protecting the well-being, security, and dignity of our members is the reason that SAG-AFTRA exists," SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris said. "These professionals have proven to be effective in changing the culture while safeguarding the safety and security of our members as they work."

Actors Equity kept pace with SAG-AFTRA's commitment to eliminate harassment from productions at its first-ever convention - Equity: Solidarity in a New Era - in late April. Check out all of the union's revised and newly developed initiatives for a more inclusive performing landscape in our ever-evolving theatrical landscape!

Funds They Are A-Raisin'

The Actors' Fund raised a whopping $138,000 for their continued efforts at their recent Stage & Screen auction night, headlined by all-time entertainment queen Christine Baranski 👑 The sale featured a wide array of items from Hollywood, opera, dance, and theatre, all up for bidding from interested buyers around the world. A portion of the proceeds also went to the Costume Industry Coalition, a network of over 50 small costuming businesses in and around NYC.

Dogs! Theatre! What's not to love! This year's annual Broadway Barks event will once again stream virtually, featuring performances from dozens of Broadway names like Daveed Digs, Mandy Patinkin, Audra McDonald, Nathan Lane, and many more. The organization will be accepting donations for over 20 animal care facilities in the tri-state area and will showcase dozens of dogs in need of a good home. Sounds like a great chance for our favorite employee Abe to welcome a new furry friend into Abi's house! 🐶

Quick Bites

An exciting new art installation is set to open along the East River in Manhattan next month, as the city welcomes IMMERSIVE VAN GOGH, an interactive exhibit chronicling some of the artist's most beloved works. The original Italian creative team welcomed three-time Tony nominee David Kornis to share his scenic design expertise in making the most of the exhibit's temporary home at NYC's Pier 36. Tickets are on sale now!

Tribeca Film Festival - slated to debut as the first in-person festival in North America this year - has set the slate for its Tribeca X event on June 18th, which will focus on reconnecting and sharing "the power and importance of brand storytelling." Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, Roku CEO Anthony Wood, and Proctor & Gamble Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard will all speak at the day-long event in NYC, sharing their views on branding in the 21st century in a series of panels and breakout sessions.

Top Chinese actress Zheng Shuang is facing an investigation after reports that she received $24.6 million for her stint in the upcoming 50-episode series A CHINESE GHOST STORY, an amount far above the government-regulated salary limit for entertainers in the country. The total would make Zheng one of the highest-paid celebrities to date for a single project, topping the likes of Gal Gadot in WONDER WOMAN 1984 and Margot Robbie in BIRDS OF PREY, who both earned around $10 million for their respective projects.

MIGHTY DUCKS, assemble! ⛸ Some of the OG cast members of the iconic film series made their debut in last week's episode of the Disney+ reboot, making for plenty of moments of nostalgia on the ice. Many spoilers in the article ahead, but lots of 90's good vibes too. Love to see it 🦆

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