You already know Backstage is the go-to for any and all information pertaining to your craft. But now, you have the chance to get in on the action with the Backstage Community Forum. Here, you can engage with others in your industry, as well as teachers, experts, and, yep, even agents and casting directors. Below are some of this week’s most interesting new topics; drop a reply or post a new thread. Either way, fire up that keyboard and get involved right here!
Answering the “Do you have piercings?” question?
“So, I’ve come across the ‘do you have piercings?’ question on various casting sites and I’m hoping someone can clear something up for me. Does this include the typical (especially for females) earlobe piercings?
“I’m always unsure as to whether to select yes or no, since the only piercings I have are earlobe piercings (one on each lobe) and I’m not given space to specify. I don’t want to be automatically set aside for roles or background work due to that question, [which is actually] targeted more towards a ‘punk’ style, or the like. But, I realize—technically— the answer would be yes.
“TL;DR: does the ‘do you have piercings?’ question entail traditional earlobe piercings (based on industry standard)?” —smashbash
Production/payroll sent wrong check:
“Received a check for background work on Friday. Like most actors, I’m pretty broke so I cashed it immediately. Fast forward to a few hours later, I received what I’m assuming was a mass email as I was bcc’d on it. It was from production, saying there was an issue with the check and it has already been canceled and a new one has already been sent out. After looking at everything, I was overpaid $20 an hour, and I’m assuming this happened to other nonunion actors. I replied to the email stating that I had already cashed the check, I did call the payroll company but they referred me back to production. I haven’t heard back from production, and I’m not sure if I will since it was possibly a dead email address used to send out mass messages. My question is, will I have to pay back the extra amount? I think it’s about $30. Could I face legal issues? I cashed the check about four hours before the email was sent out but did not receive a receipt. Will they blacklist me from working for them again? It’s obviously an error on their end but could I suffer from it? Not sure if this has happened to anyone before and if there’s even a protocol. I’m not going to cash the second check.” —Singingmama
Standard rate/time of replies to applications?
“So I’m very new to all of this, so I’m not familiar with how everything works. I’ve applied to maybe 12 roles in the past couple days, and have received a response from one (which responded within an hour). Is this normal? How long does it generally take to hear back? Is that a reasonable rate of response or am I maybe doing something wrong? Just curious of the standard. Thanks for any info you can offer!” —Greenie
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