Some actors say they provide an invaluable education, and others say they've never learned a thing from attending one. Some are thrilled with the opportunity to meet a casting director, while others are appalled that there's money involved. Whatever your stance on the matter, it's clear that casting director workshops are still cause for controversy in the Los Angeles acting community.
Of course the debate is nothing new. For years, opponents of the workshops have said the sessions are basically paid auditions, an opportunity to buy your way into the hallowed space of a casting director's office. On the flipside, some say they're like any other class, and that CDs, like other teachers, deserve to be compensated for their time.
"[The Screen Actors Guild's] official position is that actors should not have to pay for workshops, but in the membership at large, there is a division," said SAG spokesperson Ilyanne Morden Kichaven. "Some people think that it's legitimate for performers to pay for the opportunity to seek casting, whereas others say the burden should never be on the performer. If there's an education and a class component to it, to further one's career by honing your craft...then perhaps that's more acceptable in terms of a payment."
What's the Problem?
Some quick background for the uninitiated: Workshops are offered by a variety of companies and come in several formats. Some are one-shot, two-hour sessions in which the CD talks about her background and how she runs her office, and then each actor gives a read, receiving feedback and criticism from the CD. Others are more intensive, multiweek courses. They vary in price but seem to range from $40 to $50 per session; many companies also offer package deals, which include several workshops at a discounted price. For the one-night workshops, CDs are usually paid about $150–200.
The "paid auditions" idea comes from the argument that some CDs use these workshops to cast talent, or that paying to read for a CD is the only way into that CD's office. "Watching actors do scenes--24 actors in a two- or two-and-a-half-hour workshop where every actor gets up and does scenes and they get minimal feedback--that's not a class; that's a paid showcase," said CD Billy DaMota, founder of the website www.donotpay.org.
Others don't see it that way. "I don't expect that I'm going to get an audition out of it; it's not an audition situation," said actor Ken Wiley, who has attended workshops for about two years. "Everybody gives acting workshops, and the fact that some of the people doing it are casting directors, all of a sudden, that's a bozo no-no." Wiley thinks that's unfair. "If the casting director is going in and it is a teaching workshop and they give you something, you get some feedback and you do get some learning out of it, then it's a positive thing."
In 2002 the controversy over workshops led the California Department of Industrial Relations' Division of Labor Standards Enforcement to issue a list of guidelines for the workshops. It provides that workshops must be educational in nature, that they may not be used to conduct auditions or job interviews, and that a disclaimer saying as much must be used in all workshop advertising. "The guidelines were basically the result of three or four mass meetings with actors, workshops, AFTRA, SAG, Casting Society of America... [They were] kind of the culmination of getting input from everybody and working together and trying to come up with something," said Anne Stevason, chief counsel for the DLSE. Workshop owners then signed off on these guidelines to bring the workshops into compliance with Section 450 of California's Labor Code, which sets forth that an employer may not charge a fee for a job interview.
"What we tried to do with the guidelines is provide that there be an education proponent to the workshops and in fact that be the only purpose of the workshop: that [actors] learn how to audition, or they learn how to do the scene for their own benefit," said Stevason. She said she remembered at least one complaint the DLSE received since the guidelines were passed that was followed-up on via writing and talking to the workshop in question. She said there have been other emails alleging problems with different workshops, but the DLSE hasn't been able to follow up on them because it lacked the manpower. She added that the department hasn't received many complaints recently. "I guess the hope is that the casting society and the studios and the individuals would be trying to enforce it themselves or working together to enforce it," she said.
Actors who see violations of these guidelines may send a letter to the DLSE: 320 W. 4th St., Ste. 430, Los Angeles, CA 90013. Stevason said there would then be an attempt to follow up by calling the workshop to determine whether the complaint is legitimate, and the workshop owner would be talked to about changing workshop practices to comply with the guidelines.
CSA did not respond to BSW's request for comment by press time.
Class or Audition?
Still, even with these guidelines in place, actors' experiences with workshops are mixed. A key factor seems to be whether the workshops include the state-mandated educational component. Are the workshops offering actors important knowledge they can apply to their craft and careers, or are actors merely paying for valuable access to a CD who might hire them later?
"I didn't feel it was a teaching mechanism," said "Claire," an actor who has participated in workshops and would prefer not to use her real name. "It wasn't something that people went, 'Wow, I learned a lot in that class.' These aren't classes. If anything, this is just run in, do a cold read, [and] you receive very little criticism."
Actor Monique McIntyre also said she hasn't observed much in the way of an educational component at the workshops she's attended. She described one situation from a workshop she attended about a year and a half ago, in which she asked a CD for feedback and was taken aback by his answer. "I asked for him to give me more information about what he wanted from me in the read, and he gave me a CD's answer that I should be more confident about my read," she said. "I stopped cold in my tracks. I thought to myself, 'The only reason I'm asking you is because this is supposed to be a class and not a work situation. That's why I paid $200 to see you over a period of a month--not just because I like throwing $200 down the garbage chute.' He may have decided that I was insecure over that moment, so I made the choice that from then on, unless they said so, that CD workshops were no different from auditions--except that I had to pay to get in one."
DaMota thinks the purpose of workshops is simple: "Everybody knows why they're there; it's like the emperor's new clothes. Nobody wants to say it, because actors are too embarrassed to admit that they pay to meet a casting director, and casting directors are too embarrassed to admit that they take $50, $100, $200 from an actor to meet with them."
CD Michael Donovan, who participates in workshops, counters, "I'm there to teach what I believe is expected of you at an audition with my observations, my passions, my experience, what my personal opinions are about how the process should go, and how I can hopefully lift that veil that I think a lot of casting people and producers hide behind, that make the process difficult, which I've never understood. I'm there to try to make you understand the best way to come across at an audition, to understand what a professional audition is, to understand how to act in a professional manner, to be prepared, to make choices. To understand from the moment you walk into the lobby to the moment you leave to understand what that process is and how to handle yourself."
Added CD Dori Zuckerman, who teaches four-week sessions, "I'm in support of [workshops] because I think that they are really educational, and nobody else can teach them. There's no other way to learn this without learning how to cold read in front of a casting person and be able to hear the notes, and when you do it [with] a whole class, the whole class can go, 'Yeah, I see that now.' There's no other way--you don't get this kind of experience any other way, except going in on an audition. But this isn't an audition; it's how-to."
Even if the actor isn't auditioning at the workshop, what about getting called in to a CD's office after the fact? "I have called people in from workshops because I thought that they were appropriate," said Zuckerman. "But most of the time, they were submitted just like everybody else, and their pictures were in the same big pile as everybody else. [I didn't pick them] because they took my workshop--it was because they were right."
As for whether CDs use the workshops to look for talent, Donovan noted, "My job is to always look for talent.... It's not for a particular project, but that's just something I'm never not doing. [If] I'm just at a party, somebody introduces me and they go, 'By the way, he's an actor....' That's something that never, ever stops. So of course I am, at some level, but that's not the only reason I'm there."
Lessons Learned
Some actors described positive workshop experiences, in which they took away some important lessons. "If I didn't feel like I was getting an education--if I felt like I was walking in and just paying for somebody to see me--I don't think I would be doing it very often," said "Kate," an actor who attends workshops regularly. "I'm still studying with a teacher, but I feel like, if somebody handed me copy of just about anything, if I got on a set and I was told that my intention was supposed to be completely shifted in a scene, I could do it like that. I think that's a valuable education for an actor."
Like many actors who are in favor of workshops, Kate participates in them for two reasons: She finds the education valuable, but she also enjoys the opportunity to show a CD what she can do. She said attending workshops hasn't landed her any specific roles, but in some cases it's helped her get in the door. "I feel like the best calling card that I have is not just a great picture but is also my skill, my talent," she said. "When you send your picture randomly and ask for a general with a casting director, it's pretty hard for them to really get a sense of what you are, unless your essence is so strong. But how do they know the level of your range or your talent or anything else?"
Wiley also sees a dual purpose in the workshops. "I do get a lot of feedback on things I'm doing wrong and things I'm doing right. So, from a training standpoint, I get a lot of good feedback that you normally wouldn't get if you were in an audition. And you learn a little bit about the casting director, too, which can't hurt you down the road."
Fees or Free?
The other key point of contention is the fee the CD receives. Is attending a workshop another part of scouting for talent, a CD's job, or extra work for which a CD should be paid?
"I don't think CDs should be paid for this at all," said Claire. "I think they should volunteer. We're a gift to them."
DaMota concurs. "Sure, it's a very convenient way for casting directors to see 20 actors in two hours, but I don't think that they should ever be paid to do the job that they're already paid for by the studio or the networks or the production company," he said. "What happens is, the chasm between the casting community and the acting community is not diminished by workshops; it's actually made greater, because now the only way you can unlock that door into a casting director's office is if you've got a check for 35 or 40 or 50 or 75 dollars."
Claire added that she still attends workshops and feels they're becoming a necessary evil when it comes to meeting CDs. "I've asked at workshops, 'Do you attend theatre?' And [the CDs] say, 'No, we don't have time.' They don't have time to see theatre, and yet they have time to do two and three workshops a week. I find that weird."
Still, CDs who participate in workshops say they deserve to be paid for the work they put in and that workshops aren't the only place they look for talent. "I know a lot of actors feel that the casting director should be going out, shouldn't be paid, and all this stuff, and it's like, 'Well, wait a minute. So the casting director should put in....a 10-hour day, drive 45 minutes to an hour to whatever workshop this is, put in another two hours, and that should be free?'" said Donovan. "There are those of us who do attend all the other possibilities in which [we] can see actors. I saw 67 plays last year. I go to screenings, I go to standup, I go to improv, I go to workshops, I go to showcases. I do my best to do what I can, and yet I still hear about, 'Well, you didn't see my show.' I say, 'Well wait a minute. I can't see everything, but I'm out there trying to see a lot of stuff.'"
Added Zuckerman, "Why is our time not as valuable as anybody else's? We as casting directors are probably some of the hardest-working people in this industry and have no union or anything until we join the Teamsters. We don't have pension, welfare, or health care. Everything comes out of our pockets...Nobody pays our overhead, nobody pays our phones. Why is our time not as valuable as anybody else teaching a class?"
One thing most seem able to agree on: The Casting Access Project, a joint effort from the Screen Actors Guild Foundation and SAG's Member Education Department, has been a positive addition to the scene. The program offers regularly scheduled sessions in which SAG members can have interaction with CDs. It is funded by a grant from the Industry Advancement Cooperative Fund. "The catalyst of SAG developing its own casting access project is to address these issues of providing access to members with bona fide casting directors," said Kichaven. "The casting director is paid for their time, knowledge, and expertise, but is not at the expense of actors.... The producers are able to meet their obligation [to provide access to casting directors] that's outlined in [our] collective bargaining agreement, and it also broadens the work opportunities for our members, so it accomplishes quite a few goals for us."
Kichaven said the program, which was launched last year as a pilot program in Hollywood, has been very successful thus far, and SAG hopes to take it to a national level.
For more information on the Casting Access Project, go to www.sagfoundation.org.