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Show Transcript
I’m Paul Cram. For anyone outside of the Twin Cities or anyone here that hasn’t heard of it before. World is happening right now this weekend. Art-a-Whirl. I’m just going to actually read directly from their website Art-a-Whirl is the largest open studio tour in the country, which happens annually throughout Northeast Minneapolis, the third weekend of May. Over 1000 NIMA, which I believe is Northeast Minneapolis Artists Association member artists, NEMA member artists, galleries, and businesses participate across all of Northeast Minneapolis at over 60 locations.
00;00;44;02 – 00;01;13;21
Paul
Art-a-whirl. It’s a fantastic way to connect with artists in their own spaces, enjoy demonstrations and interactive activities, listen to live music and enjoy local restaurants and breweries. Art oil is free and open to the public I wound up going to the Casket Arts Building with a friend of mine, Matt. He spoke really highly of his visit there a couple of years ago, so it just made sense to to choose that that space, that spot.-a
00;01;14;20 – 00;01;40;24
Paul
So picture this walking through a warehouse that has been converted to art studios. You know, there’s hardwood floors everywhere, creaking kind of as everyone’s walking around you know, there’s a lot of people wandering, talking, looking at art. You know, there’s a fairly festive atmosphere even out on the streets outside you know, there’s just a lot of people milling about.
00;01;41;07 – 00;02;05;19
Paul
It’s it’s it reminds me a little bit of if you’ve ever been to like a parade or any kind of an event like that that just has that kind of a vibe specifically to this to Art-a-Whirl. The artists are in their spaces along with the art that they’re showing This is challenging to me because some of the pieces are just laughable in a way.
00;02;06;21 – 00;02;28;04
Paul
Not in a good way. I mean, there’s there’s some that are laughable in a good way because I think that’s the artist’s intent. But specifically, there was this one huge piece Imagine you’re walking along, you go into one of the studios and there’s the artist standing, you know, off to the side. And he says, Hi, welcome, you know, welcomes you into the space.
00;02;28;15 – 00;02;47;26
Paul
And I couldn’t see his pieces, really. So I had to, like, walk into the space and then turn and look and see them. And, you know, I said hi and and I turn around and there’s this huge piece. His pieces were like the size of a wall, like huge. And this piece looked like a penis. And it was actually an amaranth.
00;02;47;26 – 00;02;56;01
Paul
This for I think it’s amaranth. This Agapanthus Amaranth, this one of those flowers that it’s very phallic if you look it up, it’s very, very phallic.
00;02;58;07 – 00;03;24;06
Paul
Specifically, though, the way that the artist used it and then painted it and stuff, it really look like. Hmm. It looked like a comment on an anus and a penis. It was really hard to look at with him standing there next to me, kind of gauging my reaction to it. And if you’re anything like me, you know that like every thought and emotion that you have, like, washes across your face.
00;03;24;06 – 00;03;29;20
Paul
And no matter how hard you try to stop it, people can tell what you’re thinking At least that’s kind of been my life.
00;03;32;12 – 00;03;55;13
Paul
There is a part of me, there’s a snarky side to this. There’s a part of me that wonders if that was the point. Like, if the artist was, I would love it if he had like a hidden camera and was recording people’s reactions as they looked at this huge wall sized penis flower. And but with him just standing there watching, you know, I don’t know, it just seemed like we were getting punked or.
00;03;55;19 – 00;04;23;04
Paul
Hi, you’re on Candid Camera. I don’t know. It just it’s funny, the level of awkwardness to it was just so awkward. That’s actually that that’s what I think he should name it. If it is some kind of like a candid camera reality experience, it should be called, like, the level of awkwardness. I don’t know. One of the reasons that I enjoy, like, art crawls and art exhibits like this is, is really seen how the artists how they think and what they’re interested in.
00;04;23;18 – 00;04;49;26
Paul
I did see a few pieces that, gosh, if I had more money, I would buy and I want to mention them one of them was there was this really cool metal table by a metal smith named Tiny Proctor. It had like these metal. I want to say they’re almost like they almost they’re almost like the size of a I don’t know, like if you had a coffee mug or something like that, almost like a coaster, like a circular coaster.
00;04;49;26 – 00;05;11;00
Paul
But it’s made out of metal and they’re all soldered together to make a coffee table. And because they’re circular and they’re solder together, there’s a really cool pattern that when light shines through the ice in between these metal circles, it creates like a diamond pattern on the floor. It was just really it was clever and it was cool Yeah.
00;05;11;00 – 00;05;44;05
Paul
You can find you can actually find his work. This medal Smith named Tony Proctor. It’s super easy. Just at Tiny Proctor, dot com. There was another piece. This was a this was just a visual art piece. That was it was pen and watercolor by artist. Margot McCreery. And it just had this really fun, sort of almost like a like somebody was doodling, you know, like they’re having a dream and doodling what they see And it just was really it was fun, playful, yet it was really balanced.
00;05;45;04 – 00;06;12;23
Paul
You can find her at Margo McCreery Dicom M.C. C, r r White, Margot McCreery, The last piece that I would have that I would have purchased again, it was an oil painting of I think it was oil, actually. I would have to double check but there was it was an oil painting of birch trees. And it had like this really sort of soft, impressionistic vibe to it.
00;06;14;02 – 00;06;33;02
Paul
Like it didn’t look like the artist labored over it. It’s like, oh, just something pretty. And it had an ease to it. It was by artists Katie Kelley known and I looked up, I looked at other pieces that she’s had, you know, in the studio. But the one with the birch trees I really liked. She does like this really interesting thing, too.
00;06;33;02 – 00;07;05;16
Paul
That’s kind of it seems like layers of almost like iridescent washes of paint that kind of build up on each other. And it makes this really cool kind of pearl pearl lesson type thing. It was cool. Yeah. So you can find her at Katie Kelley noun dot com There. Actually, there’s one more too. I thought her work was cool because a friend of mine, my little bestie and my best friend, she took a recently took a printing class.
00;07;05;16 – 00;07;44;20
Paul
And so there’s this artist has nothing to do with my bestie but her name is has Kendra GABA and she does like woodblock printing, which is obviously a little bit different than just a printing class. So forgive my little digression there, but Kendra Darby she does all these woodblock printing things that are how do I describe them? It’s kind of like if you if you took like rice paper paper that that, you know, like kind of like a really heavy, heavy artistic paper and you would do a woodblock on it and then you she made them into lights, like she actually put light bulbs in them and wrap the paper so they would stand up
00;07;44;20 – 00;08;08;21
Paul
on their own. And it was just really beautiful. Like if you want to turn the light on and you have like print printing of like again, trees, nature, that kind of a vibe. But with the light behind it, it just they were very pretty, very cool. So you can find her at Kendra Gharbeia dot com. And if you have any trouble spelling these everybody now check the show notes.
00;08;08;21 – 00;08;27;25
Paul
I will include links. There is also an artist I wanted to mention actually there’s a couple more I wanted to just mention that stood out to me. One of them was Kim Heitkamp. She does like these paper structural pieces she has kind of a lot of thought to them. I think there’s some some of the art I saw today, I was like, oh, that’s really pretty.
00;08;27;25 – 00;08;51;03
Paul
You know, it’s it’s something that would be really beautiful to just hang on your wall and. Well, I like that kind of decorative art. Like, I do lean towards that quite a bit. What I thought was interesting about Kim’s is that while her paper structural pieces like they’re really beautiful and they’re pretty and they look great, like as a, as a piece in someone’s home, she has like a she put some thought behind it.
00;08;51;03 – 00;09;06;15
Paul
And you can see it in the pieces. Like it’s not just pretty, you know, you know what I’m saying? It’s not just decorative. She was she was talking to me and Matt a little bit about a piece that she has. It’s huge. Like most of her works that were there today would fit like just on a living room wall.
00;09;06;27 – 00;09;33;29
Paul
But she has this one piece that is just monstrous. And it’s all this white paper finely cut. And it’s at the American Swedish Institute right now for a little while. And it has to do with kind of the inspiration underlying it was like the Scandinavian mythology that like, the gods are among us, but they’re sleeping like they’re you know, and it’s a really cool I get the reference.
00;09;33;29 – 00;09;54;04
Paul
If anybody’s watched Hilda on Netflix or read the Hilda graphic novels, you’ll know what that kind of is referring to. Yeah, but you can find her at Kim Heitkamp dot com. You can see some of what she’s been up to now. I do want to I’m going to wrap this up here, but I wanted to mention not everything was beautiful and pretty and great.
00;09;54;04 – 00;10;23;25
Paul
There was actually and I do appreciate this, I, I walked into another, another space and there was a, it was like a vinyl. It was obviously a printed vinyl signage piece that was used probably recently within the past couple of years as a social commentary piece on the racial injustice that has happened. And it and it juxtaposed two things.
00;10;23;25 – 00;10;50;16
Paul
It had a photo, a black and white photo that was shot in Duluth, Minnesota, in the early 1900s when a group of white men lynched a black man and it’s a I’ve seen the photo over the course of time and it’s very sad but it’s very poignant I think too. And they had that coupled up against a photograph of the officer that murdered George Floyd.
00;10;51;02 – 00;11;23;05
Paul
And they wrote in the middle of that they wrote Minnesota nice for over a hundred years or it was it was something along those lines and I thought it was a powerful thing like I was like that is I get why that exists I get kind of why it’s here and I appreciated it. So I just wanted to mention that I don’t I didn’t see a name associated with it, but yeah, whoever whoever that whoever did that, thank you.
00;11;23;09 – 00;11;46;23
Paul
It was it gave me pause and it made me think and I appreciated that it was in the space there was also lastly, there was a troubling one to me, somewhat like I still am just like, huh? I walked into a studio and there was it was I at first I was intrigued as like, oh, what is this?
00;11;46;23 – 00;12;08;17
Paul
You know? And there’s like all of these huge portraits. They look like they looked like photographic portraits of animals that were dressed up in like regal costumes. You know, think think of like, old world oil paintings of, like, aristocracy. And it’s but, but turn it on its head and it’s animals. And I was like, oh, that’s interesting. And then I slowly dawned on me.
00;12;08;17 – 00;12;39;28
Paul
I was like, Wait a minute, those animals are real. Those aren’t like fake. And then I looked around the studio and I was like, Oh, my gosh, there’s taxidermied animals everywhere in here. Like, there was a flamingo and a lion and a dog and a house dog looking dog. And like animals of all sorts, they all were taxidermied, which which on one hand, taxidermy is kind of like, I get it like it’s not really my jam, but it’s like, oh, OK.
00;12;39;28 – 00;13;16;23
Paul
Like, you know. Yeah, for some reason, fish taxidermy and like, trophy taxidermy is what I’m more used to I’m not accustomed to seeing taxidermy, actually, even trophy animals, I’m not really they’re not really around a lot, but what I what was I can’t totally put my finger on it, so I’m just going to talk over, shoot from the hip, I guess it was a little unsettling, like seeing the textured animals for one, and then to see the taxidermy and animals all dressed up I was like, OK.
00;13;17;09 – 00;13;39;28
Paul
But then to see like these photographs where there were they’re taking the animals and like putting them into these scenarios and scenes and it’s it’s it just made me look at them and I was like, I don’t understand maybe what’s going on here. And I’m not sure that I want to like there’s just something about it that’s disconcerting to me.
00;13;40;07 – 00;14;09;09
Paul
I wasn’t really sure what the intent was behind it. Like, I, I didn’t really get it, I guess because to me it just seemed grotesque in a way. And I, yeah, I don’t know, it wasn’t something that I enjoyed, but I don’t know. Yeah. Anyways, I, I hope that you guys are getting out and enjoying some of what art overall has to offer.
00;14;09;13 – 00;14;31;04
Paul
I loved there was, there’s lots of food, lots of food trucks. I bought a little blueberry pie, which is tasty. I got some, I got some cookies. They had some fresh baked cookie cookies. There’s actually a church, Antioch church, in northeast Minneapolis, and they were baking cookies and giving them out to people, which I thought was a nice touch there.
00;14;31;11 – 00;14;48;10
Paul
I hope people are enjoying art, a world and yeah, if you want to know any more information about me, you can always go to my website, which is Paul Cram, actor dot com. I always love hearing from you guys and people and everybody. So feel free to reach out to me there if you want or give me a shout out on social media.
00;14;48;27 – 00;14;52;07
Paul
And yeah, let’s keep being kind to each other.
Book lover Paul Cram talks about his latest read and gives his thoughts and perspective on this Book #2 in the Dublin Murder Squad Series
Alyssa Szarkowski is a mother, actor & voice artist – turned Kundalini Yogini. After working in the acting industry for over a decade, she found herself further drawn to exploring deep authenticity, on the spiritual level, so that she could bring that into her creative projects and beyond. Through yoga & meditation, she has tapped into the codes to embody this true essence of being.
http://www.AlyssaVoiceOver.com
http://www.EarthsRoot.org
Twin Cities actor Casey E. Lewis and Paul Cram talk together about Casey’s experiences living in Los Angeles for 15 years and the SAG-AFTRA Foundation educational offerings that are available to Union and Pre-Union performers.
Learn more online: www.SAGAFTRA.Foundation
Educational videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/SAGAFTRAFoundation
Find out more about Casey online https://www.CaseyELewis.com/
Transcript
Paul Cram: I’m Paul Cram. Joined today by Casey E. Lewis.
Casey E. Lewis: And not blinking there at the end of the line because the editor can’t use that shot because the actors closed his eyes um it’s just those little things that an actor would go what and then once you’re once you’re introduced to that that perspective it’s like oh wow this is a whole new world.
Paul: Casey relocated to the Twin Cities from Los Angeles, where he lived for 15 years. During that time he worked on USA network’s Colony, Showtime’s Masters of Sex, Transparent on Amazon, and YouTube Red’s Do You Want To See a Dead Body as well as multiple independent short films and features in addition to voicing characters in video games and web radio and tv spots. Casey has appeared on camera in commercials for Nissan, Chevrolet, and Best Buy. Casey’s Twin Cities theater credits include working with the Guthrie Theater, History Theater, Yellow Tree Theater, Theater De La June Loon, Frank Theater, and Park Square Theater. We’re going to dive in today to some of the things that Casey knows about The SAG-AFTRA Foundation. Here we go.
Uh so you and i just so people have a reference point like uh you and i are both members of sega after but our conversation today we are not speaking on behalf of sega after we’re speaking be speaking on behalf of ourselves as actors uh with some experiences who we happen to be members certainly yeah uh and and it’s been a good couple of years working with you uh you know with on sag after stuff and things like that but for our conversation today i just wanted to dive in um can you tell me a little bit uh you moved to la and you lived there how long yeah i moved there in 2002 and back here moved there from here in 20 uh 2002 and came back at the end of 2017 so i was there 17 15 years awesome awesome i bet you have a lot of stories about all of that yes uh at what point for for the purposes of our conversation here uh correct me did you how did you get connected into the seg after foundation did you actually what did that look like for you i was uh i was in los angeles both uh my wife and i were there uh pursuing acting terry deaver is her name and um we’d been there i don’t know how many years not that long and we heard about the sag foundation as it was then prior to merger heard about the sag foundation and uh their casting access program that’s the program where they have uh casting directors come in for a workshop and it’s like 15 to 20 actors and you get a chance to do the q a find out here how their office works demystify the whole process of that you get the opportunity to read uh with them or with another actor in front of them and show them what you got because because casting offices are different than what they used to be where actors could could be seen more easily so this kind of uh again demystified the process and allowed actors to be seen by casting directors so i had heard about that program first and then um start started attending their events and heard about their conversations events where they where they’ll do uh uh sometimes a screening and then a conversation with um an actor or two afterwards uh or they’ll have just like a two-hour conversation with an established actor about their uh career um and various other programs so i attended those for years and um one day out of the blue uh got a call from the uh executive director asking for an interview um i had attended enough uh events where i knew the program directors by name
um and so my uh my resume and name made it to the executive director when they were actually looking to fill a position and uh did an interview and got hired uh as their uh director of special projects and that meant everything didn’t fall under a category already fell to me and um yeah that’s how i got uh that’s how i got uh uh employed there and how i started attending their event so i attended when i was in los angeles i attended sac foundation events uh prior to being employed during uh the time i was employed and then even after i was employed there and then even after yeah so back it up for me just for one smidge because uh we’re in the twin cities and uh we’re both members of sega afghan so you what that looked like is a little bit different than than my experience with them which is cool uh but how did you you so you heard about them did you like how did you go to these were these i’m assuming these were all in person events at that time yeah yeah in in los angeles uh they uh uh they actually didn’t have a home proper they shared offices uh in the in the uh what people refer to as the sag after building now but uh museum square was what it was at the time and uh they shared offices with um uh sag and uh they had uh they would do events at different different places uh depending on what the event was like a school there was a there was a film school um there on la brea oh my gosh where where uh as a conservatory where they had the casting events um but yeah they were they were live events and they’ve since uh because of technology and because of code they’ve since been able to um uh end because the the change in the industry everything is virtual now i don’t want to get rid of a conversation but now they do events virtually but yeah they were uh back then they were in la in person and this was before they were doing events in new york and that’s i’m i’m sure most actors that are listening are probably you know drooling as i am because i mean to be able to do specifically like you had mentioned the casting access with a casting director in person like how cool is that to get your feet into there into that world yeah yeah it’s it’s it’s a great um uh it’s it’s it is an incredible opportunity to see uh how the industry works um from the casting director’s perspective but because uh their involvement in production uh sees so much in the in the pre-production aspect of it um because they see so much and and how projects come together it’s an incredible opportunity for actors to see um a perspective that they just don’t get the opportunity to see um and find out you know just in the simple question you know why doesn’t an actor get cast why don’t i get the job will i ever here if i don’t get the job they can just give you the realities of those situations and so it’s if if anything you can walk away from it as an actor saying okay if i didn’t get the job i at least know it’s not because i’m a bad actor it might be because i’m taller than the lead there you go right yeah so it helps you understand how how the casting process works and the actors involvement this is specific to casting access and the actors involvement in the casting process what their responsibility what their job is going to a casting director’s office whether it be brick and mortar or virtually what their expectations are um and what their expectations are after that you know with if you don’t get a call you don’t get a call it’s not because they didn’t like you it’s because you just weren’t right for this this role whether it be the casting director’s decision or the show runner’s decision or the writer or the director whomever is up that chain of command who’s that yeah and i mean we’re touching a lot on the casting access piece uh yeah what are some of the in addition to that like i know there i i believe if i’m not mistaken because i have taken i’ve i’ve taken in the last couple of months a lot of the offerings but you would be able to speak to this way more than i because you worked worked there as the director of sp director of special events
did it change yeah uh well then two questions can you give me kind of a little bit of a scope of like what what are their offerings and then also how did that change and what did that continue on with your story yeah yeah um so uh the sag foundation sag after foundation i should say when i worked for them they were the sag foundation after merger after i had a foundation sag had a foundation they finally merged those after the sag after merger so now it is the sag foundation i’m going to refer to them in the rest of this conversation as the foundation so the foundation has lots of uh programming and benefits for actors not just industry educational specific with casting access with their uh the business what they call it uh which is basically uh subjects on the business of acting whether it be how to do your resume how to do your headshot how to market yourself how to understand your type and your branding those types of classes self taping um they also have a voiceover lab um which are physical locations in los angeles and new york but sag after actors can also reach out to those physical locations and get tips and assistance on their home recording setup um yeah and and obviously with the world the way it is you can participate in these events virtually um what else oh the conversations program which is um again sometimes they’ll do a screening of a television show or a an episode of a like a pilot episode or a season one episode and then they’ll have a conversation with some of the actors uh uh one two maybe even the director or writer will come in or they’ll do a screening of a film and do a similar type of conversation afterwards um uh and then also in that conversations program if i remember correctly if they still classify all this as conversations um they’ll bring in an actor like anthony hopkins to do a career retrospective or um uh uh um you know kate blanchett oh yeah absolutely do like a two-hour conversation and not to interrupt this part this part of the discussion but i do want to say before i forget anybody out there listening you can find the uh sag-aftra channel on youtube yes and whether or not you are a member of sag-aftra this information is accessible to you you can see the archived events that they’ve posted to their their uh their youtube channel and take advantage of what has been said in the past um and and grow and learn from that well no i just was gonna kind of reiterate because i what you’re talking about like those conversations and things like that i’ve dived into them and it’s it’s wonderful that they’re available to everyone uh because not only is it interviews with um you know really established actors and performers there’s panels where it’s agents talking about how do you get an agent and how does that work and things like that and i love it because it’s it’s all available right now on youtube and you can go and watch it yeah thanks for thanks for mentioning the panel discussions i i missed that um they do have panel discussions with casting directors with agents and managers where they all talk about you know how you can be seen by them what’s the best way to reach out to them what are the things you need to focus on with your career and let’s say if it’s auditioning or self-taping or whatever they do have wonderful panel discussions but i will say yeah in regards to those panel discussions you are going to get information from industry working industry professionals who are directly involved in the business in either los angeles or new york so they are at the heart of this they do this every day they have their finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the industry so you’re going to be getting uh um some very candid information when you’re watching oh yeah this programming you’re going to pro listeners viewers will probably get some information will they go oh well that was kind of harsh but when you are in a competitive market like los angeles or new york and quite frankly now that we have a tax incentive where films will be enticed to come to minnesota and we will be able to uh uh hopefully compete for those roles we will be competing with actors from los angeles new york georgia chicago right um um so uh it’s it’s it going back and watching these archived events is a good uh education and preparation for twin cities actors to understand what they’re up against and the level at which they need to be uh presenting and um auditioning themselves uh whether it’s through their headshots and resumes or through their actual uh audition techniques and understanding that process and the expectations that casting directors will have from them watching these types of events they’re going to understand what those expectations are so they can live up to them so they can neces you know up their game to to be able to compete at that level if they want to seriously be in contention for those types of roles that come to town yeah oh absolutely absolutely it’s that it’s reminding me of that that age-old actor thing like ah they didn’t cast me and it’s like well they didn’t cast you because maybe you didn’t know what you were doing possibly yeah possibly or or they’ve been cast because you’re 6’5 and they you know all those all those things but yeah uh there there’s uh correct me if i’m wrong there’s somewhat of a scope and sequence to the educational offerings
um what i mean by that is it’s it’s like there’s like we’re listing a lot of different things that are offered but uh there’s a logic to it there isn’t just it’s not it’s not just random yeah it’s not just random um uh i know in particular to the uh casting access events there is a scope there there are uh events that are uh tailored for the beginning level the intermediate level and the more advanced level um there are uh like if you want to take a video editing class it’s kind of the same there’s an intro and there’s i believe there’s an intermediate and a more advanced so it is it is tailored for actors who um uh you know now that now that self-taping is is is is the way of the industry before before the pandemic yeah something that they did in los angeles in new york and it was slowly filtering its way to the midwest now everybody needs to be able to do that they have editing video editing uh classes that you can do for those actors performers who it is completely foreign to them how do i uh how do i get how do i record the the audition what are the expectations of of the quality of the room i’m in how do i get it to there how do i get it how do i get it in the computer how to get it to the timeline all those very basic steps they’ve got you know class for that and then more advanced type stuff or they’ll touch on the advanced type stuff later in that same session well and there’s uh um
there’s some of the classes and some of the class offerings that i’ve noticed too i was like this would be handy i’m not a broadcaster i don’t work in broadcast but i’m assuming that some of this would actually tap into oh definitely to that as well yeah definitely um i actually had a conversation recently with an old a colleague of mine uh who’s still there and heads the performer uh programs um about that very subject and and the this the foundation does not just does not only have opportunities for performer members they also they also have uh some of the some of the um some of the non-performer non-performance related uh pro uh benefits that they offer is emergency assistance uh they also have a scholarship program um uh uh when the foundations merged the uh uh scholarship program that after had and the scholarship program that sag uh sorry i should say after foundation and the sac foundation uh scholarship programs now they have two scholarship programs so uh yes members can take advantage of that so uh frankly uh broadcasters can take advantage of emergency assist assistance the scholarship program and if they’re in a situation where you know they need to uh up their game or make improvements to their uh recording uh systems that they use um at home or in the field they can reach out to the voice over uh lab uh helpline and talk to them about those opportunities you know with right with uh uh getting their uh you know mic options getting uh the analog to digital done uh doing the recording itself working with the uh the software that they that they use they can also take advantage of broadcasters can also take advantage of that um through the foundation no it’s fantastic i mean i’m loving loving all of it uh i do have i i do want specifically for you because i i’m curious so you had the the title director of special events and that morphed into what yeah director of special projects i i guess i was the goalie for any program that is not in any anything that came up that was not an established program i was i was kind of the ketchup yeah the catch-all guy okay but when not long after i uh i started there a woman who was tasked with the responsibility of overseeing the construction on uh the actors center and i’ll explain what that is in a sec she was pregnant and she could not be around a construction site because of you know hazards and such i would assume yeah and so uh somewhere in the mix uh or or in the process the executive director had identified in me skills that she felt i could apply to being a construction project manager of the actors center now the actors center uh i believe they’ve titled it different things now that after after my departure but the actors center at that time was a a screening room where we would hold our our live events the conversations and the life raft event but now it’s called the business um it was a computer lab um and also a uh the casting access room where the where the the classroom where the casting directors would do their workshops and then later on uh we added the don lafontaine voiceover lab so yeah so basically there was this space on the mezzanine level at the uh the sag after building um that um had just been vacant for so long um and uh the executive director at the time marcia smith had uh uh saw saw the deal that could be done in this space you know other people didn’t want it but she saw what we could do with it and we we uh went in and uh uh and and made it into a gem we turned uh uh uh sal’s ear into a silk purse and made a beautiful screening room uh and and like i said all all the other things and then later on uh uh when some uh voice over um uh uh performers came to us after don lafontaine had passed away um they came to us and said we’d like to do a uh uh a voiceover lab we’d we’d love to um help you if the sound if the foundation is interested we’d like to establish a a voice over lab for for uh voice over performers in don lafontaine’s name and there was a space that i knew of just on the other side of where our actor center ended that we turned into the don lafontaine voice over lab and then after that they built an actor’s center or a screening room and a voice over lab in the new york area but until then the sag foundation had not had a space all its own and i was uh happy to be uh an instrumental part in in making that making that happen giving them a giving them a home for their events no that’s really i mean it’s interesting the history of that and how that all came into play and i mean i’m i’m obviously impressed it’s it’s the skill set too i’m like okay so you’re working with construction crews and things to get that it was wise it was wild working with a lot of different uh our general contractor and the subcontractors plus the theater designer and then with the voiceover lab we had a we had a studio designer and basically you know with the the skills that i had the organizational skills and being able to look at a blueprint and knowing what that was and managing and organizing just saw it through and then after that i became the actor center director and and oversaw the space with staff of five wonderful people well that’s uh with on the actors center that’s so cool yeah well and and something that i wanted to say too specifically for us here in the twin cities like uh i want to say up to 2020 if i remember correctly uh the offerings through the foundation there were things that were happening you could you could you could access them but uh because of everything going so virtual in the last two years you know there’s so much available to me to you to everybody across any local actually through the foundation and and like i’m i’m i’m still envious though of that space that you’re describing it’s incredible it’s incredible um uh but as far as what’s available to actors now again i’ll stress uh people uh performers actors who and broadcasters if they’re interested as well who do not live on either the coast la new york can take advantage of the the youtube archived events on their yes after channel well and actually can we can you clarify for me like pretend i’m pretend i’m completely green and don’t know anything which sometimes i don’t uh can you explain to me what is available to like what do i have access to if i’m not if i’m pre-union and what do i have access to if i’m union like there is because we’re pointing towards a difference and can you explain like walk me through like even like how do i become how do i access if i’ve never accessed some of that okay so um uh just to get this out of the way anyone can access the information on their sag-aftra youtube channel both members and pre-members uh if you want to access current programming like take uh take a workshop on uh self-taping or how to do a a a you know a good competitive head shot um you need to be a member sag have to remember in good standing you should go to the sag-aftra uh website uh i believe it’s tag after dot foundation i’m not sure but uh uh search it in your in your in your google yes um so uh go go to the website you need to essentially register to take events uh uh to to to be able to access the calendar and sign up for events um and that’s as as simple as it is um uh they’ll go through they’ll they’ll you’ll go through a vetting process um uh uh and and then you will be able to to take those events those business events if you and and those are the ones that they offer uh online the virtual events that they offer the live events in new york and los angeles unless you’re actually out there once we get out of this pandemic situation and can gather safely in those areas um as a member um if you’re visiting either of those areas you could go to those events um uh you know just register for them online and go to those events with the casting access um events those are the again those are the casting directory events there’s uh uh you gotta go a little bit further to do that there’s a um an ex an extended process for that you actually have to um register for that separately and that’s an even further vetting process but that also entails uh submitting your headshot submitting your resume which you would not do for the initial setup of just attending the virtual events um and again those opportunities are available to sag after members in good standing and i just have to say this because i’ve done the i i’ve done one of those recently through the casting access and like it’s so worth those extra steps i guess or whatever because the casting director he looked at my headshot he gave me feedback and he was like you know you might want to think about blah blah and he glanced at my resume and he was like you know it was just it was really valuable valuable insight yeah i can see totally how that would be valuable because i mean you’ve you’ve you are an established actor here in the state of minnesota you’ve worked in minnesota when when jobs come to town uh paul cram will normally get an audition for it because you have yes hopefully you have you have the the experience to when they flip over your headshot and look at the resume or do it online they’re going to go up this guy’s this guy’s got some experience let’s see what he looks like he looks he looks like what we’re looking for i want to see this guy so for you an actor who has worked outside of minnesota but predominantly works in minnesota to be able to get the opportunity to hear what a georgia casting director new york or l.a casting director
that’s gold because that helps you up your game it helps me up my game it helps uh it helps i feel like it helps everybody like like i’ll use i’ll turn it on ukc you know like coming to this market and or you know returning to to minnesota and uh you know from la la is a different beast from the twin cities the twin cities is a different beast from georgia like i’ve had the pleasure of talking to a casting director in georgia and i was like oh that’s not really what i hear from la it’s just it’s they’re different markets and they’re different it’s a different beast so it’s really helpful to be able to tap into that and be like well what works for you know what is that casting director seeing when they’re looking at my headshot and they’re looking you know i’m interacting with them uh and it’s making me a better performer yeah and it’s it’s it’s uh uh i i can i can totally see that i and and completely understand it and it also helps actors i would expect it had this response to this uh uh uh you would you had this reaction that it helps you understand more how the business works so you as a as an industry professional can perform not just as an actor performing but as a participant in the industry perform with a greater uh opportunity for with a greater understanding but a greater opportunity for success yeah yeah yeah that’s that’s what i found uh the the foundation delivered for me when uh when i went to any of the events uh pre uh working there during my time there and then after and frankly after the uh i came back here at the end of 2017 um and uh uh didn’t attend any events until right at the beginning of the of the pandemic because i wanted to to keep in touch with um what was going on because everything was shut down i did a voiceover event at the beginning of the pandemic and then most recently um started attending some of the other events casting access events and did did another couple of the business events to find out as an actor who had lived in los angeles for 15 years and knew what what the tent what the uh um the uh uh what was current um as far as what you need to know if you know head shots were leaning this way if auditions were leaning that way um i started attending some more events to see after being gone four years three or four years to see what was current yes yes oh casey i love that so much because it’s that thing and i know that i’m guilty of this too where i get comfortable and i get it’s like well this is what i’ve always done this is what works and it’s like no no no no the last two just the last two years the way things are cast is different oh yeah this the virtual online uh the callbacks the you know that kind of thing so yeah yeah it’s exciting to me uh hearing you say that you that you you know you’re kind of it’s almost like you’re using the classes as a barometer in a way of like what’s going on where am i at yeah see this this this is my creative recording space uh for self tapes when when we moved to los angeles everything was analog back then you were still getting the auditions through uh the hard copy of backstage um uh those those that were open to folks um and gradually that got to digital but even when you could see the auditions online you still had to submit a paper copy of your audition so we experienced the change from analog to digital and in that there was self-taping um so i learned the ropes of self-taping in los angeles and knew what the expectations were that a casting director would have when they saw a self tape so i outfitted myself with that uh would uh record my own and then record some for friends and then started a business and then brought all of that equipment here when we moved and have self-taped sense and still record other people but one of those classes i took within the last month or so as you know we are stretching and yawning and now we’re getting out of this pandemic um wanted to get the pulse of okay how have self tapes changed since i was in los angeles and thankfully uh uh the change has been more people have needed to learn how to do it but um everything i’ve got as far as my system goes is is on par with with what uh with what with what an actor needs to accomplish with a self take actually even more so i’m i’m a bit of a of a of a nut that way i want to i want it to look good and sound good and and because there is the understanding that everybody needs to be able to do that casting directors are are and casting decision makers are so much more forgiving maybe than they used to be but essentially what it comes down to is you have to be seen you have to be heard and um and uh uh yeah i just wanted to see if my setup was still still delivered yeah what’s the baseline like yeah yeah what is what is that uh and i i recently took one with through casting access which was uh and i do mostly film and tv i i i have done theater but i haven’t done it for a while but and it was a monologue class and it was it was so fun because i was like all right let’s see where let’s see where this lands and stuff it’s so cool to be able to participate and see what other performers were doing and to see where i was landing again sort of like where do i fall in all this and it was it was heartening it was like oh okay good good good good and to get the feedback and things like that exactly um yeah so i i find it wildly and for wildly interesting i’m cutting off what we’re going to say no i was going to say oh i was going to say a couple of things my brain’s having a fight with itself um i would i would suggest um just because it comes to mind um oh one thing i was going to say is the casting director event that i did which i was surprised i was doing it through my computer as opposed to my virtual audition setup and i was kicking myself afterwards because in that casting director event the casting director was asking actors is this normally how you do your your virtual auditions because in addition to having the opportunity to read and get feedback on the choices that you’ve made in a redirect which is what you would get in a casting director’s office these uh casting directors or this particular casting director was taking the time with actors to say is this your is this your virtual recording setup you might want to try this or that um so you also get that gem of input but um for those uh what the thing the other thing that came to mind was there’s a guy that i was fortunate enough to know and we’re friends on facebook still and um i met him through his now wife he’s a he’s an editor so this is a good example of uh what actors can get through the foundation um to their programming he’s an editor his name is jordan goldman um uh uh and uh he’s won awards uh and has edited for shows that that people would recognize but um he wrote a book uh called how to avoid the cutting room floor uh i love that book i’ve read it it’s awesome it’s a short read and he uh he basically you know because his his uh his partner his wife is is an actor was an actor i don’t know if she’s still performing but um he knows actors and he saw a gap that kind of needed to be filled as far as the actor understanding the editor’s role to one improve their work but also improve the their work ending up in the final cut uh with tips that he has as far as what they can do and he he kind of breaks it down with um with acting terms yeah um and it’s a it’s such a simple read jordan is a great guy his book is out there uh hard copy or kindle as well but he lays it out so simply but the key a lot of the key things you find in there from the actor’s perspective is add to your performance or or help shape your performance to improve um uh the likelihood of a good take making it into the episode or film if even if it’s a matter of uh if you’ve got a blink and you’re delivering your last line and not blinking there at the end of the line because the editor can’t use that shot because the actors closed his eyes it’s just those little things that an actor would go what and then once you’re once you’re introduced to that that perspective it’s like oh wow this is a whole new world so for actors interested in being uh cast in on camera uh projects whether it’s episodic or or film hearing a person in that position speak to that subject for the actor to better understand how they can improve their odds is is is is a gold mine of of of of information and that’s just one subject the subject of editing that uh these types of conversations that the foundation offers actors which is which is it’s like you said it’s gold like that is ah and and it excites me too i mean uh we’ll we’ll we’ll wind this down and wrap it down but i just have to say like i’m so excited to think about this and think about the education that’s available for myself and for you and for everyone
i feel like as a film tv performer unlike stage film and tv there isn’t a ton of time to rehearse there’s not generally all those types of things and i’m like what i love about what we’re talking about and specifically the things that the foundation is offering is it is giving some space and some time and some attention to those things like what you’re talking about with his conversation about how to stay off the cutting room floor uh but what i love about it is it’s like it’s giving me spaces also to practice some of those things like okay i don’t i need to not blink at the end of this well okay that’s fine to do at home alone but it’s a whole nother game when i can do that with a casting director it’s exciting yeah a great i’ll add to that as an incredible point um having the opportunity to uh read for a casting director in a workshop setting mm-hmm um and i’m not just talking about one casting director i’m i’m talking about i i when i went recently back and looked at my account of the events that i had attended um uh i was i was shocked um at you know well over 100 maybe 150 i can’t remember a lot of those were casting director events and you you hear some information repeated you learn new information you learn specific information from this casting director but all of that adds up one two three four five ten casting erect director events you you are given the opportunity to be seen by the casting director there is no uh no opportunity it is not an opportunity to be hired it is an opportunity to to learn from this person but you can learn from this person in what would be for us in in the midwest in minnesota a virtual casting room you have the opportunity to learn in that casting room so you don’t make those mistakes in the classroom that you might make in the actual casting room yes so you get all of those errors out of the way and can as a professional a practicing professional um be able to deliver the goods more um uh the the possibility of you being able to deliver the goods effectively in the uh actual job opportunity scenario is uh is improved because you’ve got all of those mistakes out of the way you know to learn to look off this much of the camera as opposed to this much of the camera it’s just things like that but there’s a wealth of other stuff that you can learn in the classroom so you don’t make those mistakes on the job the job being the audition exactly exactly yeah i don’t have anything at the moment to add to that casey this has been really fun do you is there anything else that you want to people to know or to think about before we let them go i would just reiterate again go to the the gold mine that is the youtube channel that they offer um i know they have before before the internets they were doing their conversation events and simply recording them they actually went and looked at the the uh the the archive the the tape archive and digitized some of those so they’ve got some older events but they’ve got anything that we were doing in the actors center and uh uh um streaming events they’ve got that stuff any of the stuff that we’ve they had recorded uh uh going back to prior to my employment there and during that you know nine years that i was there and then after that they have a wealth of information yeah um so take advantage of that take advantage of that but then for those members out there members in good standing go to the sag-aftra foundation website uh register um so you can attend their virtual events keep an eye on their calendar go to the calendar what i used to do uh uh before i i was employed there and then even after um i would i would make it a point to go to the calendar and look at it at least once a week to see what’s listed there so you can find out oh wow is i can i attend this event is this open to a broader audience um uh make it up register uh start attending the events um register for casting access get your head shot go through that vetting process that takes a little bit longer uh get your headshot a current headshot on there get your resume on there start attending those casting uh directory events virtually and just take advantage of this opportunity because um uh it’s it’s before the before the pandemic and the and our industry changed to where it relies so much on on the virtual um uh the foundation was was more so a uh a coastal thing easter west coastal thing but um now their programming is virtual and it’s open to to uh members across the states and uh you would be foolish to not take advantage of that especially if you’re in a market that offers a tax incentive and has projects come through that you can actually be in the running form if anyone wants more information you can go to the seg after segafter.foundation their website you can also find out more information about casey online at casey e lewis.com i’m going to spell that for you c-a-s-e-y-e-l-e-w-i-s
dot com kce lewis dot com additionally if you want to find out more information about myself you can go to my website which is i am paulcramp.com thanks everyone let’s keep being kind to each other
Discussing the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Education here in the Twin Cities.
Learn more online: www.SAGAFTRA.Foundation Educational videos can be accessed on YouTube too by both Union and Pre-Union actors
Click here to see the SAG-AFTRA Foundation YouTube channel
Katherine Norland is a wife, a mother of 2 boys, an encouragement coach, author of 3 books, an actress who has appeared in more than 100 independent films, and is currently a series regular on the inspirational YouTube series “Dhar Mann”
Learn more about Katherine online at: www.KatherineNorland.com
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