New UTDA Feature - New Projects - Actors on Acting - Disney Under Fire - Awards Season Continues

By Abigail Hardin, March 15, 2022

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Today is a big day here at UTDA. We are so excited to announce the launch of a brand new feature — Resources! It might not sound too sexy, but we have been this is something we get asked about a lot in our workshops. We have been working on a tiered structure to provide you with examples, tips, and advice on how to best develop some of the most essential marketing tools.

The Up-To-Date Actor Resources Section is a 3-tiered accessibility structure that provides you career insights at each level.

Tier 1 (Trial Subscription)

Detailed overview of Marketing Tools, Resumes, Cover Letters, Follow-Ups from Annie's forthcoming career-building book
List of companies providing reel services
Industry FAQs (coming soon)

Tier 2 (Paid Subscription)

All of Tier 1
Resume credits categories & role definitions
One real-world example of resume, agent submission cover letter, casting director submission cover letter, and follow-up cover letter
Suggested wording example of various follow-up note scenarios

Tier 3 (Annie's Clients)

All of Tier 1 & 2
Headshot Photographer, Acting School, and Private Coaching recommendations
Over 30 real-world examples of resumes, agent submission cover letters, casting director submission cover letters, and follow-up cover letters

You can find this new feature from the main navigation in the upper left corner as well as our comprehensive nationwide database of 15,000+ industry contacts. We hope you find this new feature informative and helpful! And as with any Up-To-Date Actor feature, if you have a suggestion please don't hesitate to reach out via email info@uptodateactor.com

Create a great week!!

Actors on Acting

We've been so excited by the incredible soaring success that UTD client Dominique Fishback has been enjoying over the last few years, and the release of THE LAST DAYS OF PTOLEMY GREY is the latest in an impressive line of accomplishments that Dom has put under her belt. Coming off her awesome work as Deborah Johnson in JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH, Dom is now starring opposite Samuel L. Jackson in the newly launched Apple TV+ limited series, an opportunity that she wanted to hit the ground running with from the start. "[W]ith this particular role, I was like, am I prepared to go there? Because any project that I do, I wanna make sure that I'm prepared to go there, that I don't leave any stone unturned." Congrats Dom!

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is set to release another historic interview from its vaults, this time featuring a vintage Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince. The duo discusses their work on A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, COMPANY, and more, marking the first time the interview will stream for viewing outside of the NYPL network. Tune in next Tuesday at 5:30 PM EST!

For any HALO fans out there, the star of the game's upcoming live-action adaptation Pablo Schreiber wants you to know he's doing his best to honor the two-decade-old character's beloved, yet widely anonymous origin. "There's this expectation because a huge portion of the audience has played the game believing they are the Master Chief," Schreiber said. "And now here I am, attempting to play it." The series star spoke with IndieWire about both the artistic and physical demands of the role, noting that the character's iconic suit, meant to make him "superhuman", is really just "50 pounds of plastic" being carried around on set. The magic of Hollywood at its finest! ✨

Disney Under Fire

The House of Mouse continues to cover its tracks after news of the company's support of anti-LGBTQ+ politicians in Florida came to light last week, adding more fuel to the fire as the state moves forward with its horrendous "Don't Say Gay" bill. CEO Bob Chapek backtracked on his original statement last week that taking a stance on the bill may prove "counterproductive," as thousands of employees and folks across the internet took him to task for not taking a stronger stance against the legislation. Chapek later admitted that he should have been "a stronger ally" to the community, which gained some support from the Disney acting trenches, but a critical lens remains on the company in the weeks ahead. Disney officials continue to explore additional sanctions against Russia in support of Ukraine, a move supported by many in the industry amid growing calls for organizations around the world to do the same, but the company's botched response to the Florida legislation still hangs heavy in the minds of fans and employees alike.

Award Season: Critics Choices, BAFTA's Name Winners

It was a busy weekend in the awards landscape, as both the Critics Choice and BAFTA's crowned their winners across film and TV. Jane Campion's THE POWER OF THE DOG continued its tear with two more trips to the podium for Best Picture at each ceremony, after securing a win for Theatrical Feature Film Prize at the DGA Awards last week. TED LASSO and SUCCESSION won big on the BAFTA side with four and three wins, respectfully, and DUNE scooped up five wins in the Critics Choice craft categories. While many nominees did not attend every ceremony this year, it's starting to feel slightly back to normal in the awards landscape these days. With less than two weeks until Oscars night, the industry lies in wait to see who will come up big on March 27th 👀🏆

Industry Intel

One of the bright spots in the long and difficult road to Broadway reopening has been the outpouring of love and support for understudies, swings, and covers by members of the industry. These roles have always been known to us as the backbone of any live performance, and with so many across the Great White Way going on in their lead roles over the last few months, it's about time those outside the theatre bubble come to understand just how much work these artists put in to keep shows running. Check out these behind-the-scenes stories, from Broadway and beyond, just to get a taste for the crazy, exciting, and challenging world of understudies and swings.

Here's a bit of nostalgia for you: Scholastic is teaming up with representatives of ABC's ABBOTT ELEMENTARY to bring free book fairs to schools this week! Students at underfunded schools around the country will receive free books, and teachers will be provided with supplies, books, and merch from the show. Oh to be back in elementary school and racing down the hall to grab the latest Captain Underpants novel.... 📚

Honestly, I've been thinking this ever since the last season of GAME OF THRONES aired in 2019, and I'm so glad someone is finally talking about it: Why are shows and movies so DARK now? Variety took a deep dive and came up with a few solutions: firstly, how you're viewing content at home matters. TV's smoothing and brightness capabilities have increased exponentially in the last 10 years, and not always to the credit of the content, according to one visual editor. Other times, it's truly the artistic vision of the film crew: The cinematographer that shot the night battle scenes in GOT final scene has previously weighed in on the topic, saying that the darkness was necessary (apart from, you know, it being nighttime) in order to differentiate from other points in the series. I don't know, I'm just trying to watch shows and movies without pulling all the curtains in the middle of the day 🤷‍♀️

After a years-long hiatus, another theatre mainstay will officially make its triumphant return: The Broadway Bares/Equity Fights AIDS red buckets! Broadway and Off-Broadway shows will join forces with tours around the country to raise donations for BCEFA through the end of April. Proceeds will help provide housing, meals, health care, and more to The Actors Fund and other service groups. So happy to see those red buckets back at the theatre 🤩

Hollywood remembered the life of cameraman John Lindley last week, who tragically passed away 25 years ago in a car accident after falling asleep at the wheel at the end of a 19-hour work shift - having already worked four 15 hour days earlier that week. Lindley's death cause an uproar in Hollywood, leading to a petition to mandate shorter workdays that gained over 10,000 signatures. The unfortunate reality: Long days on set have not become a thing of the past since Lindley's death in 1996, with the most recent IATSE strike focusing in part on creating a more manageable workday for union members moving forward.

In lieu of an Oscars party this year, talent agency WME will instead opt to donate $1 million to UNICEF, in an effort to support the humanitarian crisis currently being faced by families in Ukraine and other areas of the world affected by war. The group has a slew of clients in the Oscar race this year, including Denzel Washington, Guillermo del Toro, and Kenneth Branagh.

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Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Following the advancement of a handful of disturbing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Florida and other states around the country in the last few weeks, advocacy group GLAAD has announced it will begin grading studios on their political donations and other involvement in LGBTA+ support and content development. "Corporations need to be held accountable for funding politicians that harm LGBTQ people, including their own employees, and for inaction on legislation that they can help defeat," GLAAD CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said. The new metric will be added to the group's Studio Responsibility Index, which analyzes each major studio's overall representation of the LGBTQ+ community year-over-year. The 2022 report is set to be released this summer.

Actors' Equity has released its newest DEI hiring bias report, which catalogs the job landscape demographic for Equity actors and stage managers, along with their pay rates in 2020. The results? Not promising. Men are still out-earning women for the same work volume, contracts for members of underrepresented communities only increased a few percentage points, since 2016, and white members are still earning the most across the union. "We are disappointed by the realities of the data," AEA president Kate Shindle said of the findings. "While there was some incremental progress here and there in 2020, the theatre fell far short of fulfilling its promises of diverse and inclusive hiring.

Over the weekend, Broadway on Demand streamed the 2022 National Deaf High School Theatre Festival, which featured entries from nearly a dozen schools from across the country. The festival allowed young Deaf theatre artists to perform their pieces and receive feedback for their work in a national arena, as a part of the in-person festival held in Salt Lake City March 10-13th.

Dominique Morisseau's latest endeavor CONFEDERATES, set to open at the Signature Theater later this month, sets two parallel storylines 160 years apart from each other, tied together by one question: "What does freedom look like now?" The prolific playwright, most recently known for her work on SKELETON CREW, spoke about the way her latest play juxtaposes the evolution of racism in the United States, tracking how micro and macro aggressions, while presenting in different forms, all lead to the same ending: "Eventually, all of these are harmful and deadly," Morisseau told NYT.

After a turnover of leadership in 2020, NYC's newly renamed Flea Collective is on a mission to turn what was once a tumultuous, notably unwelcoming space to Black actors and creatives into an organization focused on developing works focused on experiences of underrepresented communities. Formerly the Flea Theater, the group underwent a massive overhaul in 2020, after multiple accusations of mistreatment of Black members by the group's past leadership, as well as handfuls of stories of overworked, underpaid (or completely unpaid) hours at the theater, creating a culture of allowing only the privileged few that could afford to work for free to be welcomed at the theater. Now, the Collective's new manifesto will focus on work - created by paid actors - celebrating stories from "Black, brown and queer artists."

A new crop of writers has been selected for this year's Fox Writers Incubator program, which aims to develop and support voices from underrepresented communities in drama, comedy, and animation. The initiative provides the four chosen writers with a three-month workshop series, focusing on mentorship, industry development, and writing feedback. The Fellows may then receive the opportunity to work within the Fox Entertainment network after the completion of the program. Congrats to this year's class!

Quick Bites

A viral social media video of a Ukrainian girl singing "Let It Go" from a bomb shelter in the country caught the attention of Idina Menzel - "We see you. We really, really see you" the actress wrote in a repost of the video. The original post wrote: "[E]veryone put their business aside and listen[ed] to a song by this girl who was just beaming light." 💙💛

New spring openings on Broadway mean new Playbill covers! Check out the newcomers to 42nd Street 🎭

We got our first look at renderings for the updated David Geffen hall last week, which is slated to open in October (ahead of schedule, might we add!). The Geffen is mainly home to the New York Philharmonic and serves as an event space for dozens of artists and performances each year. Take a look at what's ahead for the newest revitalization project at Lincoln Center

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