EPAs

1560 Broadway, New York City
February 20, 2014, 7:30 am
NYC temp 18˚ F,  -7˚ C

There are approximately 80 people, mostly Equity members, some EMC, some non-union, all lined up and waiting for AEA's Audition Center to open.  At least it's warm in here.  Two years previously, before the current construction of the Equity building, we would all have been lined up along West 46th street, smelling the sickly sweet aroma of bags of restaurant garbage.  Some have coffee and bagels; some newspapers, headphones attached to iPods.  It is stock season, and we are participating in a daily ritual.  I have already figured the optimal time to schedule the auditions upstairs because in addition to these two, there are two more shows that many of us are interested in being seen for at different venues in the city.

The various types and experience levels vary like the EKG of an A-Fib patient.  There are newbies - one who literally disembarked at Port Authority Bus Terminal this morning.  One guy, a nodding acquaintance of mine for years now, has done at least four Broadway shows that I know of. There are a few former leading ladies who are in process of morphing into a new type - what ever that is.  "Type" of course, being a marketing word that agents use which does not serve the scope or depth of what we do.  Reading a paper up the line from me is a rather unremarkable looking woman who I recognize from a call yesterday.  She has a rolling drag-bag, the kind that adds to the precariousness of walking in this city.  Inside this pink coffer printed with purple flowers she has all the wherewithal to perform wonders.  Once she plies her necromancy she will morph, larva-like, into a magnificent butterfly.

The energy vampire is here.  He talks endlessly and seems to suck all the life and concentration out of the room.  He knows everything and wants to tell you about it.  There are at least a dozen that I have worked with personally.  To see a cross section of the acting community in New York, come have coffee with us here one early morning.

I have been going to EPAs literally for decades.  Like many here, I have my arsenal at the ready.  I have around 30 speeches of varying lengths from 20 seconds to two minutes that I keep well-oiled.  I have as many 16-32 bar cuts in my book of songs that I stay up on.  I can pretty well jump into any EPA, tailor my material toward the role that might be right for me, and present myself well.  This is a skill set that I have honed over many years.

EPAs scare some of us.  And not everyone has or wants to develop this type of EPA skill set.  There is nothing lacking in them.  We simply approach EPAs differently.  I am not necessarily a better actor just in this case, more adaptable vis-a-vis these types of auditions.  Some feel uncomfortable about "not being invited to the party" as one is in an agent appointment audition.  The feeling there is that at an agent audition, someone in a position of hiring has picked you.  EPAs smack of ones being pushy and insinuating oneself upon the casting director.

That's right - decades of EPAs.  

Equity Principal Auditions (EPAs) were started to provide access for the many actors who do not have agent representation, though there are many represented actors here.  All Equity agreements have mandated EPAs.  Being required, people ask, are they not taken seriously by the auditors?  Do they not resent being here - a resentment which sets them immediately at an adversarial relationship with whomever comes before them? Not according to Tara Rubin, Bernie Telsey and James Calleri in a recent edition of Theatre Talk where they discuss how much they rely on EPAs.

It's not necessarily a one-for-one proposition. Getting the job for which you audition is not the only possible outcome of an EPA.   Some CDs do all their casting from these calls.  Some less.  Very often, EPAs are but one arrow in the casting director's quiver.  Very often they are used as screening auditions.  Think on it:  A casting director, who is doing what we're doing, (i.e. going from job to job) is paid to bring to his or her bosses some possible candidates for a role.  These actors must be right for the role and pleasant to work with.  (The latter often being more important than the former.)  Bringing someone in who is neither will make this the last job this CD does for this producer.  So if a casting director does not know you, an EPA can serve as a first date, so to speak, and if it goes well - perhaps a second.  The casting director puts trust in the actor that that actor will make the CD look good.

Most casting directors have hundreds of actors rolling around in their brains.  Getting to the top of his or her mind is the trick.  So, your agent did not get you an audition for this play.  Your attendance at the EPA might jog the CD's memory enough to get you called in to a subsequent audition. Very often I have been called in for an unrelated project because I had met or re-met a CD at an EPA for something else. Every theatre CD in New York at least knows my name, and many because I had initial contact at an EPA.

I find this preferable to paying for a "class," which puts the casting director in the position of teaching me as a "student."  With an EPA, we are on an even plane.  There are many casting directors who teach great classes and are both knowledgeable as well as excellent teachers.  There are informative and valuable seminars, classes and one-on-ones.  But if you are trying just to get access, go to an EPA.

Two sugars

"Who's in there?" is a frequent question among actors at EPAs. Many are angry that after waking up early, waiting in line, warming up and preparing for an audition they enter the room and only to find the coffee boy sitting behind the table.  Most of our contracts say that EPAs...

"...shall be conducted by the director and/or Producer (or designated representative); any such representative shall have the authority to set up a subsequent audition and to share in casting recommendations..." 
     --- AEA Off-Broadway Contract, Rule 4 (D) (12)

There's the rub - casting authority.  We all know that sometimes we do, in fact, get the coffee girl or boy to audition for.  But I can enumerate any number of big time CDs who were, once upon a time, assistants to the assistant. Though I may be thrust into a state of high dudgeon at such an occurrence, it's a small business and casting personnel migrate from job to job and though my audition may be between coffee runs today, I am making an impression that might pay off down the line.

EPAs are not for everyone.  For some, these calls are too frenetic; too crowded. There are also those who have never been to an EPA due to some perceived idea that those who attend these calls are inexperienced, boorish, low-class or other epithets.  Not all who go to EPAs are unrepresented, either.  Some signed clients of agencies use EPAs, too.  Agents don't always submit us for things that we are perfect for, or do not realize that something in our experience and talent could give us an upper hand in a given role.  Some agents don't have clout with certain casting directors.

EPAs have improved over the years.  There are two main reasons for this: Equity has been enforcing the EPA clauses in the contracts and AEA members have been upping their game and showing up prepared, professional and for the appropriate roles.

If you have not been taking advantage of this marvelous opportunity - I urge you to.  People are getting work.

Unemployment Insurance Is A Right, Not Charity!

Unemployment Insurance – Get Your Money

By Buzz Roddy
Membership Education Committee

“Unemployment insurance is not charity – it is a right,” I hectored Members who attended AEA’s New York City seminar, “Unemployment Insurance – Get Your Money.” 
Many of us do not realize that while we are employed and drawing a paycheck, the employer is obliged to make contributions based on those earnings to the state Unemployment Insurance Fund from which U/I benefits are paid. To get it, all we have to do is put in a claim.

We are indeed entitled to this money, but how to navigate the byzantine protocols of the various states’ departments of labor?  What to do when Department of Labor claims specialists, unfamiliar with our category of employment, miscalculate or even deny our claims?

The October 7, 2013 seminar was hosted by the Membership Education committee. On hand was Unemployment Insurance (UI) expert Brian Curtis, Supervisor of Labor Disputes for the NY State Department of Labor.  Mr. Curtis walked us through eligibility, filing a claim, and getting ones benefit rate correct.  Possessing 36 years of experience and a gift of clarity, Curtis succeeded in delivering information in bite-sized chunks and answered members’ questions.  (In other hands, these two hours might have been a snore-fest, but the discussion was lively and enlightening.)  The seminar left Members empowered and even smiling with the knowledge that opening and managing an Unemployment Insurance claim is fully within their capabilities.

Some insights and advice:

•  UI is not charity.  It is a right.
•  UI applies to W-2 wages, not 1099 jobs
•  Your UI benefit rate is based on your past earnings
•  You can apply for UI benefits in the state that you live or in the states where you have worked
•  Keep good records (paystubs, W-2s, etc)
•  Can I work while collecting UI? (Answer: Yes—in certain circumstances)
•  Never send original documents to prove a claim
•  Learn the time constraints in opening or appealing a claim
•  Know your benefit rate to the penny before you file
•  If your benefits are denied – appeal. Never give up

So many actors who ask me about UI are either intimidated or ashamed about collecting.  There is no reason to be either.  Learning your states’ UI system and eligibility criteria, though daunting is not impossible.  And you, as a dues-paying member have help—and she has a name: Valerie LaVarco, Equity Business Representative for Unemployment/Worker's Compensation. She is your go-to unemployment insurance specialist. If you have a problem or question, contact her atvlavarco@actorsequity.org or at 212-869-8530.

Unemployment Insurance is for most of us a necessary bridge between jobs which allows us to keep up that dance class; pay the rent; eat.  And this money has been set aside for your use.

Now - get your money!

Reprinted from the Actors' Equity Website, October 2013

My friend, the producer

[originally published 2008]


Many of us have a theatre from which we receive regular employment. Some of these regional theatres exist only because an actor or group of actors decided to make their own work, instead of relying solely on freelance employment. They don't fit the image of the evil blood-sucking producer that Equity was formed to deal with. They have titles like, "artistic director," "managing director," "producing artistic director," or other compound titles too numerous to enumerate.
I have a few theatres where I am a regular. The bosses of these theatres often have another title, at least as far as I am concerned, and that is: friend. Equity contracts give us a virtual armor that ensures that we have no dealings at all, so far as labor disputes are concerned, with management. "Familiarity," as the old saw goes, can "breed contempt."
I was deputy on a show where the artistic director, who was also acting on the stage with me announced, at half-hour, that there would be a video tape available of that night's performance and pointed to the camera in the balcony. The company looked at me, furtively, and then at the floor. I was in a quandary. One the one hand, I had a responsibility to make sure that the rule against taping was enforced, as per our contract. On the other, here was a man at whose wedding I gave a toast, and in whose house I was a frequent guest. Even if I went by the book and put the grievance through the stage manager, there would not be the normal anonymity of the Equity deputy. I was on the spot. I wasn't the only one. Everyone in the company had had a big sandbag of angst dropped on top of their heads, right before a show.
I took my friend/boss aside and said, "You know you're putting me in an awful situation."
"Oh, crap! You're not going to go all Equity on me now, are you?" he said.
I told him that even if he thought that our long friendship allowed him to presume that he could cause me to break the rules, that was one thing. But I was the company's deputy, and there were 6 other actors and a stage manager with whom I had only a three week relationship, and anyway, our long friendship had nothing to do with the contracts that they had all signed.
What could I do? I called an emergency meeting of the company (minus the artistic director, of course). I said that we were going to hold an illegal vote. I said that no provision in the contracts that we had signed allows us to vote away anything therein.
"There are two issues," I said, "One - whether to allow the taping or not. And, two - whether to turn the artistic director in to Equity for whatever action may be warranted."
This was all anyone needed right before a performance.
I continued, "This will have to be a unanimous vote. I know that if it goes one way, there is the possibility of retribution in the from of, 'You'll never work here again,' but this was thrown in our laps and we have to deal with this, and unless anyone has a better plan of action, let's vote on the first part now."
There was silence, so I handed out slips of paper. Everyone scribbled, folded and threw their ballots into a hat. It was unanimous. No taping.
The second ballot came back unanimously: no. There was to be no disciplinary action requested from the union against the producer.
Well, my friend the producer, was hopping mad that night. He was very vocal about how mad he was, too. I think they heard him in the lobby. He had to cancel a taping that he had paid a good chunk of money for and I am sure that it was non-refundable. That night's performance was not the most focused of the run. Some say the show never really recovered. We have stayed nominally friends, this artistic director and me, although the taping fracas cooled things considerably for a long time. I have not worked in his theatre since, though. Our friendship is such that I even mention the taping incident as the reason he hasn't had me back to his "rat-trap of a theatre." He says, jokingly that of course it is.
"That -and your lousy acting," he snipes, "But also there has not been a role available for you."
Has there been retribution for following the rules? I can't say with unwavering certainty. Would that vote have had the same outcome if we weren't united as a union? I doubt it. Human nature being what it is, despite the fact that I am a big union guy up and down the line, there is part of me that does not want to cause trouble and honestly, feared losing a possible source of future employment. My union brothers and sisters gave me the strength I didn't have on my own. (Thanks. You know who you are)

 

JJ and Lee Shubert