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New Projects - TV Trends - Film Festivals - Juneteenth - Pride - Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

By Sean Gregory, June 15, 2021

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We're halfway through June already? What? Time flies when you're reopening an industry I suppose 😎

Quick reminder of our upcoming workshops with Actors Connection later in June and July! And for anyone attending tonight's Actors Launchpad event, we can't wait to see you there!

Let's talk news!

Inside the Industry: Actors on Acting

With the onslaught of new sci-fi and fantasy projects popping up with almost monthly regularity, it's no secret that more is being asked of actors and their imaginations than ever before. THE MANDALORIAN's Giancarlo Esposito, no stranger to the stage or screen, took a methodical, academic approach to his work as a Moff Gideon, commenting that he allowed every part of his wardrobe and environment to inform him more and allow him to be "graceful, eloquent and ferocious, but physical as well. Those are kind of the steps [he] took to really feel like [he] existed in that world."

If you're a STAR WARS fan (like me), Variety gave us plenty to dive into with its latest installation of ACTORS ON ACTORS, sitting down with Ewan McGregor and Pedro Pascal to chat about their experiences playing opposite Yoda and Baby Yoda on screen in their separate turns in the SW universe. "I couldn’t believe I was acting with Yoda," McGregor said. "There’s so many people operating him, and the stage is lifted up so they’re underneath the floor and we were literally walking next to each other — and he’s alive." Are all those years of pretending I'm a Jedi going to pay off someday? Here's to hoping 🤞

McGregor's slate has heated up in a big way in the last year or two, and with the release of his new Netflix series HALSTON, the Scottish actor had the opportunity to open up about his sobriety and how it came to inform the work that he did as the eccentric fashion designer. "[W]hen I’m looking at characters who are addicts, I look at it through a different lens of understanding it more," he said of his more than 20 years of being sober. "An everyday part in my life is being sober. But at the same time, it’s quite an important part because it’s given me such joy and happiness and peace in a way I didn’t have before I was sober."

Have we all seen IN THE HEIGHTS yet? Are we all in love? As one of my favorite musicals of all time, I've been counting down the days for the film's eventual release, and I just can't believe how perfectly it turned out. As is the case with most Hollywood stories, the road to opening night was plagued with plenty of roadblocks, and Lin-Manuel Miranda is not shy about admitting it. "I still don’t understand how we went from being the Tony-winning show that everyone couldn’t wait to adapt to international telling everyone, 'We can’t make the movie at this number, you don’t have a star, and unless you get this international recording artist to basically lose money by doing this movie because they’re all on world tours, you can’t make this movie!'" Check out the full interview with Miranda, it's filled with plenty of predictable Hollywood red tape, but, like the resiliency of the beloved ITH characters, Miranda and Co found a way, and we're all so grateful that they did. 💯

Congrats to Katori Hall on being the recipient of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her work on THE HOT WING KING, originally premiering Off-Broadway in February 2020 before having its run at the Signature Theatre cut short from COVID. Hall is currently up for the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for TINA: THE TINA TURNER STORY.

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Broadway Celebrates Juneteenth

The Broadway League is set to commemorate Juneteenth with a special Times Square performance featuring performances from Ben Vereen, Lilias White, and a host of Black performers from current Broadway shows. BROADWAY CELEBRATES JUNETEENTH, sponsored by BCEFA, MAC Cosmetics, and the Times Square Alliance will begin at noon on Saturday between 43rd and 44th Streets in Times Square and is free to the public. "This will be the first year that Juneteenth will be an official holiday in New York State. We are proud to be honoring and celebrating this important day together as a community," Broadway League president Charlotte St. Martin said. "We will be reflecting on the incredible contributions that the Black members of our community have made and continue to contribute to Broadway. As the industry prepares to reopen this fall, we welcome this opportunity to join together in looking forward to a better Broadway, one that comes back stronger, more diverse, more equitable, more inclusive, and more united."

Pride Month Round-Up

It's been so wonderful watching all of the various Pride events happening throughout the country this June, particularly among the entertainment industry as live events return and we're able to celebrate the history of the LGBTQIA+ community together again. LA Confidential Magazine held its fourth "Portraits of Pride" event last week in Los Angeles, honoring members of the community in the entertainment world and celebrating the ability to come together again after nearly two years.

Looking for some more Pride viewing? Check out these 10 LGBTQ Documentaries Streaming on Amazon Prime

Laverne Cox has long been the face of LGBTQIA+ activism in the media at large, and has most recently been taking on the slew of anti-trans legislation passing through the halls of Congress, dealing with issues ranging from trans girls in sports to gender-affirming health care. "What they’re trying to do is to dehumanize these children, which is so heartbreaking," Cox said in a recent interview. While Hollywood continues to check itself in calling for progress in authentic LGBTQIA+ storytelling, Cox says she is no stranger to watching the thinly-veiled bureaucracy at work. "[C]hecking all these boxes to maintain the same oppressive systems that are there in place doesn't necessarily change the material conditions of working class trans people. We are interested in real liberation."

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Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

A new study from the USC Annenberg Institute found that Muslim characters have only accounted for 1.1% of roles in the top 100 grossing movies from 2017-2019, an abysmal figure on its own, let alone when considering that nearly one in four of the world population is Muslim. The study went on to postulate that the dearth of Muslim characters and their continued portrayals as "foreigners and threatening outsiders" may be in part to blame for the rise in hate crimes against the community. "While the causes of such violence are complex, one arena that may exacerbate biased views of the Muslim community is the mass media."

As the fight for authentic representation for women both on-screen and behind the camera continues, a promising group of shows and movies from the past year have been a beacon of hope in the turning tide of female-led content. "They’re taking ownership of themselves and their voices and where they stand in who they are," DICKINSON's Hailee Steinfeld said. "I really do feel a part of that cultural shift and I feel inspired by it." Perhaps most ironically, period piece shows like DICKINSON, along with Netflix' BRIDGERTON and THE CROWN, are taking a stand against the male-dominated historical lens and showing the power of the female protagonist that has, up until this point, been either woefully minimized or discarded altogether.

Cynthia Erivo's incredible performance as the iconic Aretha Franklin for Nat Geo's GENIUS: ARETHA has been a headliner in this new wave of storytelling, showcasing female-led performances and behind-the-camera leadership. "When women’s stories are told from a male point of view, they tend to tell such weird slices of the story," Roxane Gay wrote of the importance of revisiting stories like Franklin's through a different lens. And with the industry continuing to make good on its promise of gender parity, anyway that it can - Chris Rock recently told Variety that he has fired people from his sets that don't listen to women - the march toward true equality will hopefully only continue to speed up.

Coming Together, a new organization spearheaded by The Dramatists Guild and American Theatre Wing, has launched an initiative to support and develop long-term studies focused on disability, gender, and race in the theatre community, with plans to disseminate the information industry-wide. The database will feature information sourced from creators from across a wide range of disciplines, in an effort to create lasting change in theaters' equity and inclusion practices.

Another newly-minted initiative in the theatre community is set to provide financial assistance and professional development specifically to theaters of color, specifically Black and Indigenous organizations. THRIVE!, created by Theatre Communications Group, will seek to remove barriers to creation for historically underfunded arts groups through the support of a $1.635 million gift from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. "We believe that when these barriers are removed, and BIPOC have equitable access to fully realize their potential, our field will truly thrive." says TCG exec Teresa Eyring.

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Festival Watch

With many of the big name festivals pushing ahead with their plans to run at least part of this year's events in person, organizers are banking on a lingering love of in-person cinema to put them back on the map to where they were pre-COVID. Distributors and sales agents are eager to get back to real-time feedback of movies searching for a full green light to worldwide distribution, though plenty of the top names - Cannes, Tribeca - will be allowing virtual viewings to keep audience numbers high. People are willing and enthusiastic to return to movie theaters," one media exec said. "It’s all really good for Tribeca, in terms of buyers’ mental state."

Tribeca in particular is feeling the weighty excitement of entertaining audiences post-COVID. The festival originally premiered just a few months after 9/11 and sought to bring people together in remembrance of the events earlier in the year, while restoring some semblance of normalcy both to the film community and to the outside perception of New York at large. "It's a very similar situation," festival co-founder Robert De Niro said. "It's part of keeping the tradition going."

Out on the West Coast (where I'm currently coming to you from ☀️), the Santa Barbara Film Festival has announced its dates for next year's event, which will run in a completely live and in-person format from March 2-12, 2022. "SBIFF is chomping at the bit to welcome everyone back to Santa Barbara," festival director Roger Durling remarked. Bring it all back baby! 🎬

Reopen, Sesame 🚪

Come one, come all, doors to theaters and live event venues across the country are reopening, and by the looks of it, everyone is ready to take part. Take a look at how several theaters around the country are navigating welcoming patrons back after nearly a year and a half of closing their doors:

Broadway is on its way back, that can't be denied. Still haven't heard the status of your favorite show? BroadwayWorld has the inside scoop 👀

Carnegie Hall has also announced its upcoming 2021-2022 season, featuring a star-studded line-up of Broadway favorites like Norm Lewis, Laura Benati, and Jessica Vosk.

States are eager to welcome back film crews across the country, and nowhere has been more robust about their tax incentives than California and Oklahoma (yes, Oklahoma). Production companies looking to keep costs low and safety protocols high are doing their due diligence to stick the landing in an area that will best serve their production needs, and this has translated to a rush among states to compete for the upcoming boom in movies and TV shows. Start our engines 🚗

Like theatre? And football? How about theatre being broadcast like football? Pretty crazy, right.... except if it's not. Give this a read - as a die-hard Yankees and Penn State fan that has spent many hours of my life yelling at the TV during a game, what if we added in a few musical numbers to our weekday evening viewing schedule? Food for thought 🍿

TV Trends

More series. More streamers. More stories being told than ever before It's a blessing for sure, but one that comes with an entirely new set of challenges and considerations. Sitcom veterans Chuck Lorre and Bill Lawrence are no strangers to waxing and waning industry trends; their combined 50+ years of experience have helped see them through even the toughest months of the pandemic, and are more excited than ever for people to see where the upcoming seasons of shows like TED LASSO are headed, and how the industry at large as responded to calls for top-down change across the board. "It's getting out of the way, creating some room for other voices to speak" Lorre said."It's exciting to see what happens because stuff happens you could not anticipate."

And it's a change that we will hopefully continue to see across all networks. "I think basic stories are universal," Netflix UPSHAWS showrunner Regina Hicks said. "At the end of the day, the approach is different, but some stories resonate across the board." Topics like therapy are receiving real consideration and discussion from shows like the IN TREATMENT reboot, in the hopes of normalizing and highlighting the benefits of seeking professional help, as opposed to a few quick scenes for an easy laugh. "What we do as writers and storytellers is provide cultural mirrors, so we wanted society to see themselves being able to go to therapy and be comfortable with that," IT exec producer Yvette Lee Bowser said.

Comedies are also honing in on other traditionally taboo or "serious" topics: KENAN, UNITED STATES OF AL, and MRS MAYOR all touch on single dads navigating family life in a way that are equal turns authentic and approachable. "I personally like shows, even in comedies, that still feel like they’re about something," KENAN co-creator Jackie Clarke said, sharing that she brought some of her own real-life experience of being raised by a widowed father to the writers' room. I'm so excited to continue watching shows that deal with the stone-yet-unturned themes; let the screen mirror life, we all have a story to tell 📖

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What to Watch