Blog Stage - Acting in Film, TV, Theatre - Backstage

CSA Appoints 2008 Board of Directors

The Casting Society of America (CSA) announced the appointment of its newly-elected Board of Directors last month.

"My hope is that I can be an integral part in facilitating the promotion of the outstanding achievements of our members," said Pam Dixon, CSA President. "It is my greatest desire, not only as President, but also as a working casting director, to gain the long overdue recognition for our untiring efforts."

To qualify as a CSA member, a casting director must have have two years of main title credit and be recommended for membership by two other members in good standing. Seven of the 14 board seats become vacant each year.  Members are free to nominate themselves or another member to fill those seats; an election is then held where the entire membership votes. With more than 375 members, CSA has representation in the U.S., Canada, England, and Australia.

The 2008 CSA Board of Directors includes:

Officers:    
Pam Dixon, President    
Howard Meltzer, Vice President    
Sharon Lieblein, Treasurer    
Rebecca Mangieri, Secretary

Board of Directors:
Laura Adler
Eyde Belasco    
Chemin Bernard    
Shawn Dawson    
Liz Dean    
Felicia Fasano    
Jeremy Gordon (Associate CD)    
Tara-Anne Johnson    
Lora Kennedy    
Gary Zuckerbrod    

New York:    
Bernie Telsey (Vice President), James Calleri, Amelia Rasche (Associate CD), Tara Rubin, and Cindy Tolan

-- Daniel Lehman

'Rent' Postpones Eviction

Bloomberg.com reported yesterday that the long-running Broadway musical Rent, which was set to close June 1, has been extended to Sept. 7.

"We've been gratified by the strong demand,'' Jeffrey Seller, one of the show's producers, said in an interview. Seller said the producers "realized that thousands of fans of the show are students in school. We decided to stay open long enough for them to make their plans to see Rent before it closes in September.''

Bloomberg reports:

Theatergoers who bought tickets for the final week of performances at the Nederlander Theatre on West 41st Street can exchange their tickets for a later date. Those who purchased tickets to the June 1 performance can exchange them for the new final show, provided they were bought before March 15.

The rock musical opened on Broadway in April 1996, after a run downtown at the New York Theatre Workshop. Since then, the show has grossed over $600 million on Broadway and in productions around the world, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony Award for Best Musical, and the New York Drama Critics Circle award.

-- Daniel Lehman

L.A. Auditions at a Glance

Culled from the hundreds of casting and job notices listed daily on BackStage.com, below are this week's audition highlights for the West Coast, organized by the day the auditions are being held.

To find the full details for each of these projects -- including the audition times, locations, requirements, and alternate submission methods -- simply locate the project using the BackStage.com Casting & Jobs Search Engine, and then open the notice to view all of the info.

When searching, try any of the following: (1) Run a search for all the categories and countries you're interested in, and then sort the results based upon the date of the auditions by clicking on the triangular arrows found near the top of the "Audition Dates" column on every page of the search results; (2) Try an "exact phrase" Keyword search using one of the project titles/casting notice headlines listed below (hint: put the project title, audition headline, production company, or casting director name in "quotation marks" to get the best results); (3)  try an "exact phrase" Keyword searches using dates such as Nov. 28, Dec. 5, and so on, to discover other opportunities that have audition dates, performance dates, and deadlines for the date you specify. See the Casting FAQ for additional search hints.

LOS ANGELES AREA AUDITIONS

Wed., Mar. 26
Hot Model Extras (Union/Nonunion TV Video)
Life Insurance Industrial (Commercials & Industrials)
'Buddy,' Dancers (Union Chorus Calls)
LJP 2008 Season (Union/Nonunion Stage)
SMC, 'Poodles' (Nonunion Stage)
Ice House, Wednesday Open Mic (Comedy & Improv)
Nous Models & Actors (Modeling)

Thurs., Mar. 27
CSDH, 'Campus Security' (Student Films)
CSDH, Child Car Safety PSA (Student Films)
CSDH, Teen Depression PSA (Student Films)
Joico/Iso Photo Shoot (Modeling)

Fri., Mar. 28
'Project Runway' Season Five (Reality TV & Documentary)
Three Stunt Shows (Theme Parks)
IL, Alterna, Pureology, and Redken Shows (Outside CA - Modeling)

Sat., Mar. 29
'America's Next Top Model' (Reality TV)
'Oliver!' (Union/Nonunion Musicals)
'The Light in the Piazza' (Union/Nonunion Musicals)
'Intimate Apparel' (Nonunion Stage)
'It's Only Make Believe' (Nonunion Musicals)

Sun., Mar. 30
'Under Papa's Picture' (Nonunion Stage)
49ers Gold Rush Cheerleaders (Northern CA - Dancers & Choreographers)

Mon., Mar. 31
'Altar Boyz' (Union/Nonunion Musicals)
'Altar Boyz' (Nonunion Musicals)
'Anything Goes' (Nonunion Musicals)
'Best of Broadway" (Nonunion Musicals)
CD Workshop, Meg Morman (Groups & Workshops)
NV, Poet Theatricals (Outside CA - Cruise Lines)

Tues., Apr. 1
"Urban Death" (Nonunion Stage)
The Laugh Factory, Tuesday Open Mic (Comedy & Improv)
'Indiana Jones: Summer of Hidden Mysteries' (Theme Parks)
IL, 'Project Runway' Season Five (Outside CA - Reality TV & Documentary)
TX, "The Music Man" (Outside CA - Nonunion Musicals)

Wed., Apr. 2
'Playhouse Disney: Live on Stage!' (Theme Parks)

Thurs., Apr. 3
Joico/Iso Beauty Fashion/Hair Show (Northern CA - Modeling)
UT, 'So You Think You Can Dance' Season Four (Outside CA - Reality TV)

Fri., Apr. 4
Paul Mitchell Beauty Fashion/Hair Show (Northern CA - Modeling)
Schwarzkopf Beauty Fashion/Hair Show (Northern CA - Modeling)
NV, 'It's Only Make Believe' (Outside CA - Nonunion Musicals)

Sat., Apr. 5
"The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" (Nonunion Stage)
'The Music Man' (Nonunion Musicals)

Sun., Apr. 6
'Urban Viking: Los Angeles' (Nonunion TV/Video)
'Welcome to the Moon' (Union/Nonunion Stage)
'Metamorphoses' (Nonunion Stage)

Mon., Apr. 7
'Over There/Over Here' (Nonunion Stage)
'Kismet' (Nonunion Musicals)
'High School Musical 2: School's Out' (Theme Parks)
'Toy Story, the Musical' (Cruise Lines)
'Twelfth Night' and 'Hamlet' (Northern CA - Nonunion Stage)

Tues., Apr. 8
'Ruthless, the Musical' (Nonunion Musicals)
CO, 'The Music Man' (Outside CA - Union/Nonunion Musicals)

Wed., Apr. 9
'Bye Bye Birdie' (Union/Nonunion Musicals)
'Flower Drum Song,' Dancers (Northern CA - Union Chorus Calls)
'Flower Drum Song' (Northern CA - Union/Nonunion Musicals)

Film Review:"Chapter 27"

“I always knew I was going to do something really big,” a virtually unrecognizable Jared Leto says in Mark David Chapman’s scratchy Southern whisper. “I just didn’t know if it would be good or bad.” Based on the three days Chapman spent staking out the Dakota apartment building in New York to kill beloved purveyor of peace John Lennon, Chapter 27 likens itself to the nonexistent final chapter of J.D. Salinger’s 26-chapter The Catcher in the Rye—in which Chapman wrote, “This is my statement,” in explanation for murdering the former Beatle on Dec. 8, 1980. Ultimately, the film makes no more sense of a senseless crime.

No one can accuse Leto of having a lack of self-discipline or ambition. Tackling his most challenging role yet, after playing a skeletal junkie in 2000’s Requiem for a Dream and the eponymous real-life runner in 1997’s Prefontaine, Leto sinks his teeth into the notorious Chapman with his signature intensity. Leto, who also receives an executive-producer credit on the film, gained nearly 70 pounds for the role and wound up dealing with gout when he had to immediately lose the weight for another project. Unfortunately for Leto’s taste for vanity projects, the story is as thin as Chapman is fat. There’s just nothing extraordinary about the murderer the surviving Beatles still refer to as “the man whose name must never be mentioned,” whom Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, calls “the subject.”

As the film unfolds at a slovenly pace, Leto’s Chapman mouth-breathes through every frame and manages to simultaneously bore and creep out every person he comes in contact with, from doormen to fellow fans to cab drivers. Two such characters are played by Lindsay Lohan and Judah Friedlander. Here, Friedlander dons his standup-comedy armor to play the real-life photographer who tussles with and later snaps a picture of Chapman getting a record autographed by Lennon just before the assassination. Lohan is adequate as aptly named Jude, a fan so conveniently connected she’s pals with Lennon’s personal assistant, son, and nanny. One wonders if she was but a figment of Chapman’s obsessive and delusional imagination. There’s just not enough chemistry between Leto and Lohan to explain why Jude would accept Chapman’s one awkward lunch invitation.

The rare audience member seeking any shred of sympathy and understanding in Leto’s portrayal will leave the theatre angry and baffled at the existence of a film that puts an undeserved spotlight on one of the world’s most loathed criminals. Even 27 years later, it still seems too soon. Chapman is so boring he spends the time not engaged in stalking Lennon “disappearing into the ink” of Catcher by re-creating moments from its main character’s three-day escapade in Manhattan.

Leto does what he can with the role. It must be a challenge for an actor to find his motivation playing a “Nowhere Man” who had no fascinating or logical motivation for bringing such a violent end to a peaceful musician. The film is much like the crime: a big, sad waste.

-- Cassie Carpenter 

Listen to the Ziff

I spent a good portion of yesterday at the HRTS panel discussion Andrew blogged about earlier today. Though the heavy hitter panelists--including Fox President Kevin Reilly and The Office showrunner Greg Daniels--proffered some interesting ideas about the radically changing TV business, the possibility of a SAG strike didn't come up much.

When moderator, producer Jordan Levin, asked if anyone was worried about a possible SAG strike, the panelists kept their mouths shut and squirmed in their seats a bit. But attorney Ken Ziffren, who represented the DGA in their last negotiation AND is currently representing AFTRA, spoke up.

“If the parties involved in the negotiations stay in the room instead of going to the press, we'll get it done and we'll get it done well," he said to a great big round of applause from the audience comprised mostly of important-looking execs.

Obviously, press blackouts make for slower (and less fun) news days for reporters like me, but Ziffren had a good point. As their talks got more heated, then broke off, the WGA and AMPTP traded barbs every day in the press -- I'm still archiving daily press releases from both sides in my Inbox. Perhaps if both sides had kept it inside the boardroom and focused on solutions, the strike wouldn't have lasted as long -- or could have been averted altogether.

Ziffren's brethren on the panel may have kept mum about SAG and AFTRA on the stage, but at least two of them were pretty chatty about it backstage. Sandra Stern, COO of Lionsgate (producers of Mad Men, the new Crash pilot, and the untitled Ted L. Nancy pilot created by Jerry Seinfeld), said they're "praying" there won't be an actors' strike and are doing their best to prepare. But unlike a writers' strike, there's not much you can do to prepare for an actors' walk-out.

Stern said, "There’s just so much you can do.... You can’t bankroll on actors. We are getting started early on our production… but the truth is if there’s a strike July 1st, we will not finish our season. There’s not much we can do about that.”

Power agent and Endeavor partner Richard Weitz said his company is cutting expenses in anticipation. But, like the studios, there's not much agencies can do. “We’re on a wait and see basis. There’s very little that we can do unlike in the writers strike [when] writers had material," he said.

I'm in wait-and-see mode, too -- waiting to see what comes out of the big SAG-AFTRA joint board meeting on Saturday. I hope it's a date to begin negotiations with the AMPTP and a resolve to stick together in order to get the best possible deal for actors. If not, well, I hope they announce plans to buy me a pony. That'd be good, too.

--Lauren Horwitch

Broadway Cares Upcoming Events

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has announced spring events including The 22nd annual Easter Bonnet Competition April 28-29 at the Minskoff Theatre and a special performance of Pamela's First Musical at Town Hall May 18.

The Easter Bonnet Competition features the companies of more than 20 Broadway, Off-Broadway and touring productions singing, dancing, and donning original Easter bonnets. The company that raises the largest amount of money for BC/EFA wins the competition. A second award will be given to the company with the best bonnet design and presentation, and additional awards will be granted to the Broadway play, national tour and Off-Broadway production raising the most money. The competition follows six weeks of fundraising that bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Pamela's First Musical is a new one-act musical based on Wendy Wasserstein's 1996 children's book that tells the story of a young girl from the suburbs who spends a birthday with her aunt attending a Broadway production. The production features music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by David Zippel, book by Wasserstein and direction by Graciela Daniele. A reception at Sardi's will follow the performance, and proceeds will benefit BC/EFA and Theatre Development Fund's Open Doors Program, which Wasserstein founded.

Donna Murphy will lead the cast as Pamela's Aunt Louise. Other performers will be Lynn Ahrens, Christian Borle, Carolee Carmello, Sandy Duncan, Gregg Edelman, Christine Ebersole, Stephen Flaherty, Kathie Lee Gifford, Adam Heller, Richard Kind, Robert Klein, Tommy Tune and many others. Special guest David Garrison makes an appearance as Producer Bernie S. Gerry. The role of "Pamela" will be announced shortly.

Ticket prices for the Easter Bonnet Competition range from $20-$350. Ticket packages for Pamela's First Musical range from $60-$1,000. Tickets for both events may be purchased by calling BC/EFA at (212) 840-0770 x: 268 or online by visiting www.broadwaycares.org.

--Ronni Reich

NYC Auditions at a Glance

Culled from the hundreds of casting and job notices listed daily on BackStage.com, below are this week's audition highlights for the East Coast, organized by the day the auditions are being held.

To find the full details for each of these projects -- including the audition times, locations, requirements, and alternate submission methods -- simply locate the project using the BackStage.com Casting & Jobs Search Engine, and then open the notice to view all of the info.

When searching, try any of the following: (1) Run a search for all the categories and countries you're interested in, and then sort the results based upon the date of the auditions by clicking on the triangular arrows found near the top of the "Audition Dates" column on every page of the search results; (2) Try an "exact phrase" Keyword search using one of the project titles/casting notice headlines listed below (hint: put the project title, audition headline, production company, or casting director name in "quotation marks" to get the best results); (3)  try an "exact phrase" Keyword searches using dates such as Nov. 28, Dec. 5, and so on, to discover other opportunities that have audition dates, performance dates, and deadlines for the date you specify. See the Casting FAQ for additional search hints.

NEW YORK CITY AREA AUDITIONS

Thu. March 27
'Love Song'
'Angels,' B'way
Maine State Music Thr., ME
Untitled Gershwin Project, B'way
'Beauty & the Beast,' PA
'Brigadoon,' B'way, Dancers
'Little House on the Prairie,' MN
'How to Succeed in…,' WI
'The Color Purple,' Nat'l Tour
'Forbidden City West'
'Bending Towards the Light'
MA, Reagle Players Season

Fri. March 28
'All Good Things,' CT
'Other Side of Newark,' NJ
'Altar Boyz'
Maine State Music Thr., ME
Untitled Gershwin Project, B'way
'Angels,' B'way, Singers & Dancers
'Babes in Arms,' NH
'Brigadoon,' B'way, Singers
'Little House on the Prairie,' MN
'How to Succeed…,' WI, Dancers
Musicals at Richter Season, CT

Sat. March 29
'Lysistrata,' Greek Speakers
Musicals at Richter Season, CT
MA, Reagle Players Season
CA, 'It's Only Make Believe'

Sun. March 30
'Big Brother 10'
'At A Party'
'Forbidden City West'
Musicals at Richter Season, CT
PA, Koresh Dance Company

Mon. March 31
'Macbeth,' ME
'Prisoner of the Crown'
Barnstormers Thr. Season, NH
'Legally Blonde,' Nat'l Tour
Weathervane Rep, NH
'Angels,' B'way, Singers & Dancers
'Dirty Dancing,' Tour, Dancers
Forestburgh Playhouse Season
'Forbidden City West'
'Oliver!,' Nat'l Tour
Prather Ent. Season, PA, FL & AZ
Sterling Renaissance Festival
The Chase Brock Experience
NV, Poet Theatricals
'Toy Story'
DC, Kennedy Center Theater

Tue. April 1
'Carousel'
Forestburgh Playhouse, EPAs
'Legally Blonde,' Nat'l Tour
Weathervane Rep, NH
'Brigadoon,' PA
'High School Mus'l 2,' GA, Dance
Untitlted Gershwin, B'way, Singers
'Altar Boyz'
'Carousel'
'Brigadoon,' PA
'Oliver!,' Nat'l Tour
Prather Ent. Season, PA, FL & AZ
'Wizard of Oz,' Tour, Ensemble
'West Side Story'
Singers Search/Open Mike
Mars 2112

Wed. April 2
'Brigadoon,' PA
Forestburgh Playhouse, EPAs
Untitlted Gershwin, B'way, Singers
Weathervane Rep, NH
'Shakespeare Marathon'
Prather Ent. Season, PA, FL & AZ
'Wizard of Oz,' Tour, Ensemble
FL, Poet Theatricals
'High School Musical'
Mars 2112
Toronto, 'Toy Story: The Musical'

Thu. April 3
Mars 2112
Toronto, 'Toy Story: The Musical'

Fri. April 4
'Voices of Swords'
'Eastburn Avenue,' PA
'Pure Country,' Dancers
'A Body of Water'
Mars 2112
NV, 'It's Only Make Believe'

Ian McKellen Blogs (er...E-Posts?)

Sir Ian McKellen responds today to some Lord of the Rings-themed questions in an E-Post (?) on his "official" website. Besides offering gracious responses to fan praise and refuting rumors that Viggo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom were a couple on set ("This gossip is all news to me. Elijah, Dominic and Orlando introduced me to their girlfriends during shooting... Probably the fevered imagination of slashers is to blame."), McKellen says that he intends to return to the Middle Earth as the wizard Gandalf if the opportunity arises:

"Yes I will, if Peter Jackson and I have anything to do with it, he being the producer and me being, on the whole, a very lucky actor.

I have to question the validity of the responses, and the website in general. Could this really be McKellen furiously typing his answers? Particularly baffling are candid and detailed responses about preparing for and shooting the film trilogy (McKellen loves to name-drop, apparently) and the reported tension between director/producer Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema's Bob Shaye:

"To me, business is personal; so it can be depressing when working colleagues have ambitions others than my own, e.g. financial rather than artistic, let's say.  I suspect that some of the troubles between New Line and Peter Jackson reflected the suspicion, not to say jealousy, of old Hollywood toward a newly flourishing film centre, like the one Peter has built up in New Zealand.

"Bob Shaye (Co-Chairman) and Michael Lynne (COO), formerly at New Line, have always been friendly and supportive to me in person, though I did feel the need to tweak the latter's nose once, when he seemed to be trying to diddle the cast of LOTR out of their well-earned share of the profits."

But judge for yourself. Read the full E-Post Q&A here, read more E-Posts, check out McKellen's on-set diaries here and here, or visit (the somewhat amateurish and maybe not totally legit) www.mckellen.com.

-- Daniel Lehman

UPDATE: Now it seems like several other news outlets have jumped on this story, treating McKellen's email exchange with his fans as the new gospel of the future of The Hobbit.  Check out the stories on NY Mag's Vulture blog and the UK's The Guardian. Could it all be true after all?

L.A. Mayor Comes Late to Early-Talk Push

Though he is coming late to the party, add Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to the list of those who believe actors and producers should sit down at the table as soon as possible.

"I urge all involved to get the deals done expeditiously," Villaraigosa said in a news release Tuesday. "We must keep this town working and avoid devastating effects on the workers, businesses, residents, and economy of this great city."

Throughout the month of February, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the New York board of the Screen Actors Guild, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers called for talks to start as soon as possible.  AFTRA issued a statement yesterday that read, "AFTRA has long favored starting negotiations for the primetime TV contract as soon as possible, and we appreciate the mayor's support."

Read an AMPTP statement, in part: "We have always wanted to begin negotiations as soon as possible."

SAG president Alan Rosenberg and national executive director Doug Allen have been taking a more methodical approach, though the guild and AFTRA are having a second day of meetings today to hammer out a joint proposal to present to producers when talks commence, perhaps sometime next week.

One SAG insider who is not attending the joint meetings told Strike Watch that these proceedings are "pro forma." Although the two unions nearly ended their longtime joint negotiating agreement, known as Phase One, earlier this year, things appear to be calm. "I can't speak for AFTRA," said the source, who requested anonymity, "but there's a strong commitment on SAG's side to go through this negotiation under Phase One as it was originally written."

However, the source continued, there is strong pressure from "some quarters within SAG" (read: Rosenberg, Allen, and the L.A.-based party Membership First, which dominates the guild's Hollywood board) to have a "substantive conversation" about restructuring Phase One as soon as the unions get a new film and primetime TV contract, which expires June 30. Areas that guild members in L.A. would want to see changed involve contracts for work in basic cable and the voting process during negotiations.

"Whether that can be resolved before the commercial negotiation"--the contract with advertisers and advertising agencies expires at the end of October-"is highly doubtful," the insider said.

One union that has no problem of negotiating early, apparently, is the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. The below-the-line labor group, according to Daily Variety, will begin three days of talks with producers April 7 and hopes to have a deal by April 9, about 16 months before IATSE's current contract is set to expire.

There is concern throughout Hollywood that actors will strike, even though the town already took a substantial hit during the 100-day writers strike, which ended in mid-February and cost the L.A. economy about $880 million, according to FilmL.A., a nonprofit company that coordinates production. As a result, the economics and machinations of the television business have changed substantially, if not permanently, according to industry representatives who spoke Tuesday at the Hollywood Radio & Television Society's Newsmaker Luncheon. One area likely to be affected is the development-deal process.

"The pure development deals where someone is paid $1 million to write a pilot or two are, for the most part, over," said Richard Weitz, partner and head of the TV packaging department at the talent agency Endeavor.

--Andrew Salomon

'South Park' Online

Following on the heels of Hulu, South Park is now online. The South Park Studios site is live (in beta form) and features every episode (uncensored) from all 12 seasons of the Comedy Central cartoon. Apparently, when Trey Parker and Matt Stone renewed their contract with the cable network,  they stipulated that they would have full control of this multi-million dollar website redesign. Way to take charge, especially in the aftermath of that writer's strike that everyone is trying to forget about.

Fans can stream every episode, plus search and embed thousands of clips, play games, read news about the show, and spend way too much time re-watching the season 10 episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft" (instead of, you know, spending way too much time actually playing World of Warcraft).

Check out a preview of this Wednesday's new episode, which looks to be a tribute to 1981's animated Heavy Metal:

-- Daniel Lehman