Actor Scott Poythress picked an unfortunate time to move from Atlanta to Los Angeles. He and his wife, Claire Bronson, arrived in the summer of 2007, he says. “Right after we got there, the [Writers Guild of America] strike hit, and the never-ending SAG-AFTRA negotiations. The economy tanked.”
But not long afterward, something unexpected happened: The Atlanta film market started booming. For Poythress, it turned out there was no place like home.
“We had no idea it was going to explode in 2009 the way it did,” he says of his hometown. “There is more production here in Atlanta now than crew to accommodate it!” Thanks to the state’s tax incentives in recent years, several TV and film projects are calling Georgia home, complicating the notion that working on the big or small screen means moving to Hollywood.
“There’s no illusion; they’re coming here to save money,” Poythress says. “But they can still pay to get some quality performances. And there’s a strong talent pool here.”
Drama Inc., the acting studio Poythress and Bronson co-founded with Catherine Dyer and Jason MacDonald, is fostering that talent pool. The studio—covering the range of professional acting for Atlanta-based performers at all experience levels—began in 2013, in part “to raise the bar for the market,” as Poythress says, but also because trained actors are often shortchanged when it comes to practical knowledge.
“Nobody teaches you the business of the business,” he explains. “You have all these great tools in your belt, and [then you] get out and have no idea what to do with this stuff. That’s what we wanted to focus on.” In addition to technical classes spanning dialects, improvisation, and even the Ivana Chubbuck technique, Drama Inc. offers one-on-one career counseling sessions, pairing each participant with a specific staff member. These sessions, says Poythress, emphasize “updating online actor profiles, demo reels, headshots, how to talk to your agent, which casting directors are working on what, how to put together a good-looking self-tape—pretty much everything.”
In fact, Drama Inc. is well aware of the proliferation of self-taping in the industry: Atlanta actors can make appointments at the studio to film their auditions in a professional setting, with the additional option of coaching. Meanwhile, among the studio’s upcoming events featuring both local and visiting industry pros are an improv workshop with Tara Ochs (“Selma”), a two-day intensive with Lindsay Frame of Anthony Meindl’s Actor Workshop, and a six-month Meisner training track with Erin Burns.
“Getting into a class is tantamount,” says Poythress, adding that early-career actors should think about teaming up with people with similar goals and interests—not unlike what he did with his Drama Inc. co-founders. “Start making your own stuff. Original content is free, and there are so many ways to disseminate it. There’s no better film school than getting on set with your friends and learning from your mistakes.”
As the Big Peach continues to thrive and become a destination for more and more actors, Poythress says it’s important to remember the Southeast market resembles any other big city with on-camera opportunities. “We’re actors who happen to be based in Atlanta,” he says. “We go where the work is. We’re not sitting here in Atlanta waiting for crumbs to fall off the table. Right now the work is here.”
For more information on Drama Inc., visit their official website.
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