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New Projects - New Casting Platforms - COVID Updates & Reopening - Awards Season

By Sean Gregory, March 30, 2021

We hope everyone has been enjoying a taste of some spring weather this past week, it was a lovely weekend here in NYC (capped off with a cleansing rainy Sunday, can't have the sun without a little drizzle 🌧). I loved seeing everyone's #WorldTheatreDay posts on Saturday; I'm slowly getting more and more excited about our triumphant return to the stage, and it sounds like everyone else is ready to step back into costume here sooner than later. 🤞

We have our last March event coming up this week with Actors Connection! We'll be chatting with the AC team tomorrow about booking work on your own, regardless of whether or not you currently have representation! Register today!

Lots of good stuff in this week's email, check everything out and then go enjoy some of this spring sunshine ☀️

Award Season Rolls On 🏆

The long march spring award season continued this week with the Producer's Guild of America Awards being presented last Wednesday, crowning Chloé Zhao’s NOMADLAND with top honors in the best picture category, leading many to speculate about an impending Oscar win for the Frances McDormand-led juggernaut in late April. Other fan favs taking home prizes included SOUL, SCHITT'S CREEK and THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT. Check out the full list of winners here!

The 52nd annual NAACP Image Awards crowned their winners last week as well, with INSECURE and BLACK-ISH each taking home a handful of awards, along with teams from HBO's POWER BOOK II: GHOST and I MAY DESTROY YOU. BRIDGERTON breakout star Regé-Jean Page took home the award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series, remarking "It is the highest  honor to represent us in our glamour, in our royalty." Read the list of nominees and winners here!

With the 93th Academy Awards just around the corner, studios and producers are gearing up for another COVID-abbreviated showing, with an unexpected twist from the Oscar reps. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) informed nominees last week that all acceptance speeches would be required to be given in-person at the event location in downtown Los Angeles in April. The news has left studios, agents, and publicists with clients around the world scrambling for answers, as an in-person attendance would require any nominee to quarantine for 10 days prior to the event, racking up considerable hotel and travel expenses for their sponsoring companies. Might wanna reconsider this one, AMPAS. 👀

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association continues to take heat for its startling lack of diversity with literary agency Verge standing up as the first agency in Hollywood to make a statement condemning the lack of Black representation on their 87-member voting panel, adding further pressure on the HFPA to make swift changes to their internal structure. "For true change, reform should not be corrective, but organic," Verge wrote in a statement, noting that they did not step up to the plate in the same way that the Oscars did over the past year in making actionable advancements for representation among their ranks. The HFPA received word that they did secure a victory last week in an ongoing antitrust lawsuit filed by a group of journalists from Spain and Norway, which claimed that the organization did not give them a fair shot at joining the voter panel and were subsequently locked out of access to top Hollywood talent.

Movie Theatres Keeping Eyes on the Prize

The LA movie scene continues to receive good news with the announcement that arthouse cinema chain Laemmle Theatres will reopen six of eight locations on April 9th. "If you had asked me in March of 2020 whether we could survive being closed for over a year, I would probably say that it would not be possible. And yet, here we are," owner Greg Laemmle wrote. NYC will also welcome back a sorely missed cinema staple with the reopening of Film at Lincoln Center on April 16th, which will include the Walter Reade Theater and Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center. "After 400 days of darkened screens and empty seats, we are excited to fire up our state-of-the-art projectors and reopen our theater doors."

Theaters are continuing to grapple with the COVID-inspired PVOD fallout for films over the past year, as many chains look to strike deals with studios that will get films back into reopening cinemas before being released to audiences at home. Global theater network Cineworld announced a new multi-year deal with Warner Bros. that would bring their theatrical and HBO Max offerings to Regal theaters in the US, a move that Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidnger hopes will pave the way for further theater-friendly deals with other studios in the coming months. "We trust and believe at the end of the day that theatrical exclusivity is of interest to all sides... As long as theatrical exclusivity is kept in a way, we are going to do well and people will still run to movies in the cinemas."

COVID Updates & Reopening

Despite everything and the kitchen sink being thrown at them over the last year, performing arts students in both high school and college are keeping their hopes high for a future in the industry. 69% of students surveyed in a report from college admission counseling firm ArtsBridge in February said that they were not considered a career shift, while 46% of parents surveyed expressed some level of concern with the kids' job prospects. Keep your head up, kid. Better days are ahead. 🌄

Members of the San Francisco artistic community will be receiving some much needed financial support in the coming months, as a new pilot program will allot for 130 artists in the city to receive $1,000 a month for the next six months. SF Mayor London Breed spoke about the initiative last week: "There are people living in challenging circumstances right now. We want to move as quickly as we can to get them the resources they need." The grants will be made available primarily to individuals "whose artistic practice is rooted in a historically marginalized community."

Universal Television is in hot water after a new lawsuit claiming a crew member was fired from production on a comedy series after a COVID diagnosis. Chief rigging technician William Pavlu was hospitalized in mid-December while battling the virus and received notice that he would not be returning to set once the production resumed after receiving assurance from the team that he would not be let go. "I was in the hospital, and they fired me while I was in the hospital," Pavlu said in an interview, noting that a second production he was working on at the time, MYTHIC QUEST on Apple TV+, kept him onboard through his illness and welcomed him back to set without issue.

Exciting vaccination news rang through the streets of New York last week with the announcement that a site run by and specifically dedicated for members of the entertainment community will be constructed in the theater district in the next few weeks, along with a mobile unit for Off-Broadway theaters and pop-up testing sites for other performances venues. While these sites will still follow the state-mandated guidelines on eligibility, Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed that they will be operational by President Biden's May 1st deadline to make the vaccine available for all adults in the US. Broadway vets André de Shields and Telly Leung were on hand for the mayor's press conference last week, where they both shared their excitement for the return of Broadway in 2021: "We help heal the soul… Artists will be essential in how we heal from this."

New York also introduced a new virtual pass that will allow users to carry proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID test in their pockets. The Excelsior Pass will securely store proof of a user's vaccination or testing status, which can then be scanned via a QR code by corresponding venues like businesses and event venues to allow entrance to the area. The app is free and completely voluntary; several major venues including Madison Square Garden and the Times Union Center in Albany have already announced plans to use the app, with a further expansion to smaller venues available this Friday.

I Think I Feel A Change in the Wind, Says I

A new casting model currently being workshopped by producers on SURVIVING THE CARTEL is drawing ire from SAG-AFTRA for its suspect structure. Touted as a "hybrid casting" program, the process allows for actors to submit for the 33 roles being offered in the production, which can then be voted on by anyone other than the actor for $3.50 per vote, up to 50 times. Whoever is the first to receive 1,150 for each role will be cast, with the expected $130,000 in voting funds going toward the production. 1265 Films, the team behind the series, is defending the seemingly pay-to-play scheme: "Our mission is to empower great actors, unseen talents who have been forgotten by the Hollywood system, ignored by casting directors, agents, or managers, and who have been unfairly cut by the casting politics that goes most of the time behind the curtain. This platform makes it easier for actors to jump-start their careers – while offering to the audience the fun experience of noticing the birth of future movie stars." SAG-AFTRA has since barred its actors from working on the project.

New casting process? How about a new casting platform? Ahab, spearheaded by Penguin Random House Audio has launched to join the fray of the ever-expanding voiceover industry, already accruing more than 9,000 users from 67 countries. The site allows content creators to search, message, and book talent for any type of VO project - and it's free for actors! Have you been building your voiceover wheelhouse over the last year? Well then do I-hab the platform for you! (Terrible Tuesday jokes, you're welcome 🤪)

If you've been strolling through audition notices over the past week, you may have noticed an interesting twist from PHANTOM OF THE OPERA: Tara Rubin Casting is currently accepting open call video submissions for Christine Dáae, noting that the character may be cast as "Black, Latine, MENASA, API, Indigenous, or white." Peter Van Dam of TR Casting noted that while nothing can replace the energy of an in-person audition, the office felt it was important to pivot toward this virtual platform for the time being: "One of the most exciting and gratifying aspects of our job is meeting and encouraging young and upcoming performers of all backgrounds. Holding open calls is key to discovering the next generation of artists." In particular, the casting call's wording that specifies the aforementioned communities is an important piece of the representation puzzle. "We have to come to realize that stating 'all ethnicities' is not deliberate enough," Van Dam remarked. "By spelling it out, we hope that performers who might not have thought they were right for a particular role can see that they will be seriously considered."

Three big changes in the casting world, it seems. What else does the industry have waiting in the wings? Only time will tell. 🎭

Industry Intel

West Hollywood mainstay CBS Television City is receiving an influx of $1.25 billion from Hackman Capital, which will allow for the creation of more soundstages and dozens of much needed upgrades to the nearly 70-year-old lot. The project will add up to 1.13 million square feet to the studio, which is currently home to shows like AMERICAN IDOL, DANCING WITH THE STARS, and THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH JAMES CORDEN.

Disney+ viewers will be seeing a slight uptick in their bills moving forward, as the streamer bumped its rates from $6.99 to $7.99 per month and from $69.99 to $79.99 per year. Hulu bundlers will also see a dollar increase to $13.99 per month. The service still remains among the cheapest streaming options on the market, considerably lower than Netflix ($13.99/month for the standard plan) and HBO Max at $14.99/month.

Legislators in the UK are pressuring streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon to pass along performance data of shows that originated in the country, in order to better inform how British content is fairing on the platforms. A group of lawmakers is advocating for legislation that would require the information from major streamers, as well as a provision to label content as coming from BBC, ITV, and other UK channels.

More Stories:

• Broadway Licensing Acquires Dramatists Play Service
• UTA Adds Fullscreen Duo Mahzad Babayan And Scarlett Perlman As Agents
• Scarlett Johansson Confronts Making Career out of Controversies

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Broadway and Hollywood members of the AAPI community joined a video from the Consortium of Asian American Theatres & Artists (CAATA) last week, calling for unity in the wake of anti-Asian violence in the US. The video follows weeks of action in support of the AAPI community, for which CAATA released a statement condemning the acts of hate around the country and announcing plans to hold workshops later in the year on bystander and anti-violence training with HowlRound Theatre Commons and Theatre Communications Group. SAG-AFTRA also put out a statement last week in support of the AAPI community, calling on union members to be agents of change and take up the torch in the fight against Asian-American violence: "We must speak louder than the voices of hate."

A new crop of writers is changing the narrative on portraying poverty in media, headlined by research from the Media Impact Project at the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center. Netflix's GENTEFIED showrunner Linda Yvette Chavez is one of several up-and-coming writers that has been thrilled with the response to seeing these narratives onscreen, namely from her own mother: "This is the first time I’ve seen something where I see working-class communities where it looks like us and it feels like us," Chavez' mother noted. "I could tell whoever made it wasn't afraid or ashamed of being poor, they weren’t ashamed of who they were, they weren’t ashamed of being Mexican, really Mexican." POSE showrunner Steven Canals echoed this sentiment: "There’s all this labor that we all have to do when we get into a room to convince folks that our stories have value, especially when those stories that we're pitching are also centering narratives of people who look just like us."

Washington D.C.'s Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company announced the first annual participants of the Miranda Family Fellowship Program, using funds from Lin-Manuel Miranda's Miranda Family Fund. Citlali Pizarro, Autumn J. Mitchell and Jeremy Pesigan will each receive early career training and guidance through the theatre company and its partners, along with a housing stipend, healthcare and a full salary, in support of the development of their new works. "[W]e have launched a pipeline for future arts administrators and technicians who have been time and time again excluded from the industry," Luis Miranda said in a statement. "We cannot wait to continue building the fellowship program to support even more behind-the-scenes artists."

For anyone who's seen Pixar's SOUL, considered by many to be a frontrunner for this year's Oscar for Best Animated Feature, the barbershop scene has become an iconic part of the film and a turning point in the plot itself. Writer Kemp Powers, who also penned the highly-praised ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI, recently shared how the scene came to be, and why its late addition to the film ended up being so vital to the story's success: "Joe is a Black man in New York, and part of your time you go through what I call 'authentic Black spaces,' where you’re around other people like yourself," Powers described. Production designer Steve Pilcher added: "When we were making it, we were thinking about tradition, which is very important in a barbershop. You have clientele coming back for years, probably since they were kids. There’s relationships that go on since those early days and you have to mirror that and respect that. The space allows group interaction and it’s a space where you can just chill."

Let's All Go to the Library 📖

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center is lending a hand to artists in need of tech support in our increasingly virtual industry. Their new program, "Tech Kits for Performing Artists," provides artists with access to an incredible array of at-home devices: an iPad Pro with cellular data, a USB mic, headphones, ring light, and access to a 32-key piano if needed. All for the price of a New York Public Library card (aka free for NY residents) 😯 That is truly amazing to me. I once spoke in front of the PA House of Representatives Education Committee about the importance of funding libraries in our schools, and it makes me so happy to see these institutions continuing to be such a powerful resource in the community. Fund our libraries! 📚

What to Watch & Read

• Off-Broadway Musical A LETTER TO HARVEY MILK Will Stream Online
• [WATCH] ‘Exterminate All The Brutes’ Trailer – HBO Series Out April 7
• The Best Books and Novels Set in Hollywood

That's all for this week, folks! Lots of interesting tales from the industry for sure; super excited to see where we go from here. Don't forget to register for our Actors Connection workshop tomorrow, we'd love to see you there!

Peace and love ️✌️