MKTG 3800 Theater Speaker Su21

Summary

In this episode of Entertainment Marketing, Tyra Burton revisits with Rivka, who shares her vast experience in theater and film. Rivka delves into her journey from struggling in school to becoming a successful theater professional, balancing various roles at the Shakespeare Tavern, and navigating the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. She emphasizes the importance of multifaceted skills in the arts and discusses her involvement with the Ren Fest over the years. Rivka also offers advice to aspiring theater professionals and highlights the adaptability shown by the arts community during unprecedented times.

Highlights

• Rivka's theater journey began as a teenager and led her through education and work in Syracuse and SCAD. 🎓
• She found unique opportunities at Shakespeare Tavern, allowing her to graduate and directly step into a job. 🚀
• Her union membership provided 16 years of continuous health insurance, a significant boon for any actor. 🏥
• Rivka manages several roles at the Shakespeare Tavern, including grant writing, acting, and music directing. 🎼
• Navigating the pandemic, Shakespeare Tavern maintained its staff insurance despite financial strain. 💼
• The Ren Festival, a significant part of Rivka's career, saw 26 years of her music direction. 🎪
• In reopening efforts, Shakespeare Tavern is enhancing safety with touchless systems and advanced air treatment. 🌬️
• Rivka's adaptability also saw her learning new technical skills during pandemic downtime. 💻

Key Takeaways

• Rivka's journey started as a teenager exploring theater as a way to find herself. 🎭
• She highlights the importance of wearing multiple hats in small organizations for career sustainability. 🎩
• Rivka emphasizes the value of union membership for actors, especially for health insurance. 🩺
• The Shakespeare Tavern successfully navigated the pandemic due to a well-timed strategic reserve plan. 💡
• Rivka's versatility in music, acting, and administration showcases the need for diverse skills in the arts. 🎶
• She notes the meticulous COVID-19 protocols in Atlanta's film industry resumption. 🎬
• Training never stops in the arts, and adaptability is key for continuous growth. 📚

Overview

Rivka's journey in theater began as a wayward teenager seeking a creative outlet, leading her to an undergraduate degree in musical theater and a graduate degree in media and performing arts. Her education, coupled with her work at Shakespeare Tavern, bolstered her career in acting, music, and administration. Rivka's career highlights the importance of versatility, demonstrating how her multifaceted skills have secured her numerous opportunities in the arts.

At the Shakespeare Tavern, Rivka wears many hats—from acting and music directing to grant writing. Her experience underscores the indispensable role of diverse skill sets in theater, enabling her to adapt and thrive in various situations. Her work with the Ren Festival and her tenure in union-backed productions showcase her dedication and the benefits of professional affiliations.

Discussing the pandemic's effects, Rivka shares how the Shakespeare Tavern managed to maintain operations by pivoting to digital performances and relying on a strategic reserve fund. Her insights into adapting to changing media landscapes and the focus on health and safety underscore the resilience of the theater community. The conversations encapsulate her advice to budding artists about continuous learning and the need for adaptability to sustain a career in the arts.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Introduction and Background The chapter begins with a warm welcome to a segment on entertainment marketing, specifically focusing on theater. The discussion will feature Rifka, who is associated with the Shakespeare Tavern and Renaissance Festival. It hints at an exciting conversation where Rifka will not only talk about theater but might also delve into the movie industry. Rifka is thanked for joining the session, and she is asked to share her intriguing background in theater. The chapter sets the stage for the sharing of her experiences and insights, highlighting her artistic journey and ties to prominent theatrical events.
• 01:30 - 04:00: Theater Journey and Early Career The narrator discusses their challenging teenage years, marked by struggles in school. Recognizing a need for her child to find a personal identity outside the academic environment, the narrator's mother encouraged them to pursue theater by setting up an audition for an all-teen theater group. This experience sparked a passion for theater. The narrator further pursued this interest academically, obtaining an undergraduate degree in musical theater from Syracuse University. A decade later, they also completed a graduate degree, building on their early interest and dedication to the craft.
• 04:00 - 07:00: Union Membership and Equity This chapter discusses the speaker's journey during a decade-long break between undergraduate and graduate studies, during which they worked as an actor and musician. They eventually pursued a graduate degree at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Media and Performing Arts. This program allowed them to start working in film, as it involved collaboration with film students who required actors for their projects.
• 07:00 - 12:00: Renaissance Festival Experience The narrator talks about their marvelous experience at the Renaissance Festival. They mention their long-time appreciation for the Shakespeare Tavern, having been a patron for nearly a decade before attending grad school. Initially, the narrator pursued graduate studies with the goal of teaching at the university level, which requires a master's degree. However, their path shifted in the midst of their educational journey.
• 12:00 - 18:00: Roles at Shakespeare Tavern The chapter titled 'Roles at Shakespeare Tavern' discusses the creation of a new department that required a writer. The narrator, who engages in writing among other activities, was on a winter break between academic years at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) when they had an interview. Despite the rarity of such occurrences, they gratefully secured a job offer while still in graduate school, highlighting a fortunate turn of events.
• 18:00 - 27:00: Impact of COVID-19 on Theater The chapter explores the impact of COVID-19 on theater. It touches on the diverse skills and talents required in theater, as illustrated by an individual named Rivka, who is both a performer and a musician. The conversation hints at the challenges and adaptability necessary for theater professionals during the pandemic, emphasizing the importance of versatility in fulfilling various roles within organizations or while auditioning.
• 27:00 - 36:00: Film Experience and COVID-19 Safety Measures the chapter discusses the value of multitasking and versatility within small organizations. It emphasizes that employees who can manage various roles, such as graphic design and patron management, are more valuable than those specialized in a single area. This adaptability enhances an employee's worth and contributes to organizational success.
• 36:00 - 39:00: Advice for Aspiring Actors This chapter discusses the dual roles that aspiring actors often have to play to sustain themselves. Besides performing as actors and musicians, they also engage in behind-the-scenes administrative work to support their career. The conversation highlights the importance of versatility and adaptability in the arts industry, especially in current times. It also points to the narrator's personal journey and experience in the acting field, spanning almost a decade, underscoring the necessity of wearing multiple hats to thrive as a working actor.
• 39:00 - 40:00: Conclusion The chapter titled 'Conclusion' reflects on the author's experiences over the past decade, particularly related to their involvement in community and semi-professional theater. It mentions how some of the theater companies they worked with no longer exist, such as the Neighborhood Playhouse, which might not resonate with the current generation. The author reflects on the impermanence of these institutions and the fleeting nature of their own theater journey. Overall, the chapter provides a reflective closure to their experiences and observations.

MKTG 3800 Theater Speaker Su21 Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 welcome to entertainment marketing today we're going to be re visiting with rifka who's with the shakespeare tavern and the ren fest and she's got some awesome stuff to share with us today about not just theater but we might get a little sneak peek into the movies as well so ripley thank you for joining us today can you tell the scent a little bit a little bit about your background because your background is just awesome i think for theater oh well thank you um my background is i got started in theater uh as
• 00:30 - 01:00 a teenager mostly because i was struggling in school and my mother knew that i needed something outside of school that i could where i could find find who i was so she set me up with an audition for an all-team theater um and uh i got bit by the bug yeah uh i got my undergraduate degree in musical theater from syracuse university and my grad degree 10 years later i took
• 01:00 - 01:30 a 10-year hiatus in between undergrad and grad where i worked as an actor and as a musician and then got my grad degree from scad in media and performing arts and that's where i got started working in film a little bit was um the media part of media and performing arts was that we got to work with a lot with the film department kids who were who needed actors to be in their films
• 01:30 - 02:00 and had a really marvelous experience with that um i had loved the shakespeare tavern as a patron for almost a decade um before i got to grad school and while i was in grad school with the intention of going to teach at university level that was actually what i was getting the degree to do i didn't know that yeah because that's you need a master's degree in order to teach at university um so that was the intention but just in the middle of that
• 02:00 - 02:30 um they created a department that required a writer which is something else that i do um and uh i interviewed while i was on winter break in between uh years at scad and was one of those rare and unfortunate uh rare and very fortunate individuals who um uh walked out of grad school with a job that's amazing i was offered the job in
• 02:30 - 03:00 april graduated in may started in august so man i got lucky you did and it's just an amazing background i didn't even i know rivka as a performing artist because she actually performed at my wedding so i of course know she's a musician but you have so many things that you bring to the table and i think with theater as an actor that's super important to be able to fulfill many roles uh with either an organization or just when you're auditioning for things
• 03:00 - 03:30 very true so the more hats you are capable of wearing especially if you work for a small organization the more uh the more hats they'll make you wear and the more valuable you are as an employee uh uh you know i do a little not i but if one does a little bit of graphic design and a little bit of you know patron management you are so much more valuable than just a very well educated graphic designer just by yourself so
• 03:30 - 04:00 absolutely because at the tavern during the normal times you would be performing as an actor as a musician but also doing that behind the scenes admin work as well and so i think that's a really you've crafted yourself to be able to support yourself as a working actor which i think is super amazing because that's one of the the difficulties i think now where all have you acted because almost 10 years i know you've
• 04:00 - 04:30 been someplace yeah um through a lot of those 10 years it was um a community theater or um semi-professional theater um some of those companies actually for whom i worked for several shows no longer exist so my mentioning them uh for for the generation to whom i'm speaking they wouldn't necessarily remember neighborhood playhouse um okay so indicator um i did a handful of
• 04:30 - 05:00 directing for a um a private school uh that did a musical with their girls every year so i did some uh directing there started working at the renfest um and uh just completed my 26th year working at the red fest yeah um so my entire adult life that's amazing yeah yeah and then you know now mostly shakespeare tavern
• 05:00 - 05:30 um but uh starting work during this pandemic you're doing a couple of zoom shows for other companies soul sights and that sort of thing yeah that's wonderful now and you were part of a union for actors i believe yes that's right um i uh i hooked up with an atlanta playwright um who needed a recording of the music for the musical he had just written uh and he had asked a good friend of mine to
• 05:30 - 06:00 uh produce that cd uh so he said hey do you know any women who can sing in this particular genre really good acting chops et cetera et cetera he said yeah yeah i've got somebody for you so i did that recording and then it ended up going to uh become a broadway workshop which is basically where they cast all broadway actors uh broadway director minimal costuming minimal set right and they essentially perform it
• 06:00 - 06:30 for financial backers and if they get the financial backing then it becomes a broadway show with lots of costumes and lots of set uh and he wrangled me and auditioned for that um in new york because he had been pleased with my work here in atlanta uh i got into the show and the first day of rehearsal uh they put a contract in my lap and they said here this is a union show your union now signed this so um uh for better or for worse i did not have to go through the usual
• 06:30 - 07:00 trajectory which is you collect points for every show that you do with equity actors even though you're not union you get to collect a point and after 50 points then you are eligible to become a member of the union uh i kind of got a door um back door deal of just like they put the contract in my lap and said here this is it because it was an equity show so everybody has to be right and i it was me and one other guy who got cast who were not already union
• 07:00 - 07:30 everybody else who was cast was already union and the union i think really helps you in terms of like particularly healthcare yes uh up until this april uh for the past 16 years i have been insured through the union um basically they require that you work 22 weeks a year and that includes your rehearsal time so you draw a paycheck for 22 weeks of the year and then you get a year's worth of health insurance um and
• 07:30 - 08:00 of course 2020 was the first year uh that i did not get 22 weeks of work for fairly obvious reasons there was no work to be had um so uh i am again extremely fortunate my husband's work insures him and i was able to get on his insurance uh but yes usually for the past you know since i've been started at the tavern yeah i've been working um i've been doing
• 08:00 - 08:30 uh enough work as an actor to earn health insurance and pension through the actors union which is i think amazing i think it's one of the biggest benefits of the union is they're able to do those sort of things for actors because it is a profession where you can go a fair amount of time without work yeah and be between jobs and between paychecks and since it's not um television or movies where you could be getting royalties off of them you only earned when you're on the stage right so
• 08:30 - 09:00 it's made it very difficult but um it's good to know that we have union and equity here in atlanta in our theaters as well let's talk a little bit about the renfest because you have 26 years there and this year you were in charge of a lot of things um yes uh uh to a greater or lesser extent i am the music director um this year that there was less for me
• 09:00 - 09:30 to do a lot of what i'm in charge of as music director are the times when the entire music cast comes together to play all of us at the same time uh where people are congregated um this year because we even though we opened during pandemic times um we did not want people to congregate at the front gate and stand there next to each other we wanted them to get their tickets move
• 09:30 - 10:00 through and move into the larger space where they could socially distance um so we did away with that uh communal playing right um which meant that there really wasn't much for a music director to do um which is just fine um yeah but in in in typical years i'm part of the casting process um i'm part of the um just sort of strategizing who are we gonna put where on what stage
• 10:00 - 10:30 um who's gonna play at what particular time if uh there's a particular event going on um for example we a few years ago we started a pub crawl on site um because we now have three uh main sort of beer gardens um and three is the perfect number for a pub crawl so we we hired some pirate hosts and some marvelous hosts really just hugely
• 10:30 - 11:00 charismatic people um and the pirate hosts introduce people to the crawl at the first venue they hear some music they play a few drinking games they move all of the people who are part of the crawl to the next venue they hear some more music they play a few games etc etc um so organizing who's going to be the band for that particular event is a little more than we just need to fill the spot on the stage has to be a particular kind of
• 11:00 - 11:30 feel to the band or flavor uh so i i have some input in that although the final decision is obviously the entertainment directors absolutely well right we actually made it down there this year to the wren fest oh you did i'm sorry i missed you i know we looked for you and couldn't find you it was very sad i have i had a new band this year with a band name that unless you had read posts on facebook you wouldn't have heard so i read the post and got down there and
• 11:30 - 12:00 promptly forgot while i was looking at the schedule because we're like that but uh we went on the second day so it wasn't crazy crowded gotcha and i can't suggest enough if you haven't been to the renfest in atlanta you should go next year because it's a lot of fun and you should definitely find out where rivka's playing because she's amazing i'm so excited about you having a new band as well as i know that you've had several throughout the 26 years that you've been there yeah this one is the feedback we got was this one was one
• 12:00 - 12:30 of the best oh that's awesome yeah we got really good feedback well i know you were happy to be back there because the renfest didn't happen in uh 2020. so it was sad but we got 20 21. 2022 is going to be even better um yeah i want to talk for a few minutes about um the shakespeare tavern and in terms of what is your role there now i mean during normal times let's say that and then let's talk a little bit about what covid has done to try to shake things up there shall we say so
• 12:30 - 13:00 you talk about the before times first what's your what would when you were doing on a daily basis so i wear three primary hats you know and lots of little hats but three primary hats there my administrative job is i'm in title i am the development director right but what that means where i work versus what that means where most other people work is something very different
• 13:00 - 13:30 um my job in truth is closer to what you would call a grants manager at another job mostly i write the grant applications uh um i steward the the money through and uh do follow-up reports uh you know progress reports final reports uh and you know keep in communication with the people who give us grants um most of the other types of fundraising i am not involved in
• 13:30 - 14:00 uh a development director at a larger company would mostly be heading all of the financial support efforts um and i do not um so that's the primary one uh the secondary one is i'm a member of the acting company uh which means that um in a season where we have 12 to 14 plays i might be in five to eight of them
• 14:00 - 14:30 um my physical type uh and my skill set um is not required for every show uh it's required for probably about half of them so they utilize me when it's appropriate um and uh i music direct generally if i'm in a show i'm music directing it and most of the time uh even if i am not in
• 14:30 - 15:00 the show they will still ask me to music direct um yeah so uh those are the three primary hats that i wear you know a little bit here a little bit there i do a little bit of teaching uh of the apprentices and of the um yeah of the the teenagers who come for our summer camps um etc etc but you definitely should be teaching but i think the fact that you're able to do the grant writing is such a
• 15:00 - 15:30 key skill so i think if you're creative and you're going into theater think tremendously about taking a grant writing course because it's just it's not something that every actor or musician is going to have under their belt but if you get involved with a company like the shakespeare tavern grant writing is one of the things that helps support the arts and particularly the shakespeare tavern so key thing i think it's awesome that you do it because i think it makes you different and stand out um so actually can i can i talk a little bit more about that absolutely i would
• 15:30 - 16:00 love for you to um and if uh i would say if you are not a writer but are good with numbers whatever it is that your your skill lends itself toward um something that i loved about scads program is they are committed to you working in your field in some way shape or form when you graduate so it should not be hey i have this tremendous skill as a pottery artist and i have to support that by working in a restaurant
• 16:00 - 16:30 or i have to support that by working retail what they're interested in is i'm a painter and if no one is currently buying my work i am qualified to curate someone else's work i can be hired by a museum to oversee this department or this other department so the fact that i am writing a grant for a theater i'm still working in my field even if i'm not working in that moment
• 16:30 - 17:00 as an actor um and that is what is so incredibly valuable um about the jobs at shakespeare tavern since shakespeare tavern hires mostly actors who have admin skills um we have 22 full-time employees only four of whom are non-actors the others are all the other 18 are all actors who can you know uh
• 17:00 - 17:30 tally and and um uh uh uh do all of the arithmetic required for keeping the books who can um manage the scheduling for the building who can uh um administer our education programs that sort of thing so if you go into the arts and have an administrative skill you can probably find full-time work in your field even if you're not doing the art itself
• 17:30 - 18:00 right so he's connected to it and able to get you know a steady paycheck yes you know and i think that you don't have to be a barista unless that's something that really you're passionate about right it's great could be a barista please do because they have health care benefits yes they do but i think it's i think you're absolutely hit upon it if you're going to be in the arts being able to be multifunctional and having a diverse skill set
• 18:00 - 18:30 is so important and i'm glad to see that scout really focuses on that uh to make sure that you are a working artist because you know they always say star for your art no let's put food on the table with your art and the things connected to it right no more starving no no we don't want that um unfortunately this past year with covid has really hurt the arts i think tremendously and i think live theater particularly has been just wrecked um how has the
• 18:30 - 19:00 shakespeare tavern dealt with uh covet and where do you see you guys going in the future um we you know it's funny having this conversation i am just counting my fortunes over and over again uh between how i got my equity card to how we weathered the pandemic um we had just completed a 2.6 million dollar capital campaign that you probably got you know emails about and whatnot the
• 19:00 - 19:30 last portion the very last portion of that campaign was a 400 000 um strategic reserve well guess what that strategic reserve immediately paid for we had i mean literally we we completed the capital campaign a week of shutting down entirely that's amazing and so that 400 000 reserve paid for
• 19:30 - 20:00 um essentially upkeep on the building uh while we were shut down and had no income it paid for it paid for keeping uh the staff members who were on staff insurance insured even though they weren't drawing a paycheck everybody was furloughed right um but they but it wasn't fired it meant we have no work for you but we're not going to kick you off insurance
• 20:00 - 20:30 you know um some of the employees myself included if there was a grant to be written um then i still wrote that i tallied my hours and they ended up paying me an hourly rate for that work so i still had some uh earned income coming in um but we were exceedingly fortunate that we just we had that reserve that we immediately and turned
• 20:30 - 21:00 around and ended up using um we we were and still are entirely shut down to the public um there has been no art made live available to the public since march 17th of uh the previous year of 2020. um we did end up filming several of our education shows
• 21:00 - 21:30 uh and so um digital versions of the work were made available to classrooms and the instructors met over zoom with the classrooms so we were able to still fulfill some of our education contracts that's awesome um yeah and in fact ended up getting a few education contracts from people who were out of town and who did not have anybody local who was doing that programming so you know folks from alabama or tennessee said
• 21:30 - 22:00 hey i hear that you guys have digital programming available would you mind if we hopped in on that and we said absolutely um sure you know because we can meet with zoom over your kids just as easily as you know kids two blocks from us um so we ended up getting a few additional clients um we filmed two versions of uh full full-length shows um that were offered to our audience for
• 22:00 - 22:30 a very small fee um i would say that they were well acted but that in all honesty we are not a company accustomed to filming and equipped to do it in a way that competes with the met or you know the american shakespeare company where they already have a a methodology in place for filming
• 22:30 - 23:00 their work and making it available online the folks who studied the videography did a great job in terms of here's what we can do with the equipment that we have and here's what i can learn to do in a few months in terms of the editing of that and all of that i'm really very impressed with how much people learned in a few months but our lighting grid is not set up to light for film you know yeah it's just
• 23:00 - 23:30 different so it was nice to put that art out there but it it was not a viable um [Music] i judge that it was not a viable income generator for us moving forward right um we are currently having in-person summer camps the kids are camping masked they are going to unmask for their final performance which will be filmed and the version is what will be
• 23:30 - 24:00 available to the general audience so that we're not getting an audience in there right um post covid here's what our world here's what we anticipate our world looking like um we're doing two things that will make the theater safer in general either for covid or during flu season that comes about every year anyway right we have spent a great deal of money
• 24:00 - 24:30 uh to move to a touchless ticketing system so people will reserve tickets they will show a qr code on their phone they will scan that that code and it will put them on a waiting list so it is still first come first served in terms of your seating as soon as you check in at the desk um it puts you on the list on the next place on the list so we will still be called by name
• 24:30 - 25:00 into the theater to choose your seat um but no nobody will have to print out and hand you physical tickets i imagine for the same reason we're doing something digital with our uh playbill but i don't don't know specifically what that is right um and we have also over or are going to be overhauling the uh hvac system uh in the public spaces um there is a
• 25:00 - 25:30 way of treating air that comes into that system the intake air gets treated and cleansed uh passes through some uv lighting and in some other ways that i'm not bothered to educate myself magic there's some little imps inside there that blow up the air um and you know little demons or something um but whatever the air that gets recycled back into the room has been cleansed so that should
• 25:30 - 26:00 increase our ability to have full houses of unmasked people who are less likely to contract anything by being next to each other um and then to some extent it will just be on the heads of the people who attend to either be vaccinated or um [Music] if they are not vaccinated to take their
• 26:00 - 26:30 chances they have made the choice those who cannot be vaccinated because of health reasons aside that is an entirely separate issue it is uh and we will i imagine that we will find a way to accommodate those people we just don't know what that way is yet because we don't know where the virus is taking us yet right um but those people will not be shut out of a theatrical experience right the accommodations yeah
• 26:30 - 27:00 yeah but for the general populace if they have chosen not to be vaccinated and they chose choose to come to a public space then it is on their head so yeah that's how it's gonna be you could only do so much um do you guys have a projection for when you might be going live again we are hoping for august nothing is yeah nothing is final nothing is um official
• 27:00 - 27:30 um and i hope i am not speaking out of turn by even saying august uh don't take my word for it everything's in flux everything's in flux um but i think we are hoping for that and we are just taking it week by week by week until the cdc says it is safe to have what we don't want to do is we do not want to open a show for a 20 filled house
• 27:30 - 28:00 right because our payroll footprint shakespeare does large casts and so the amount of money we have to pay the actors and the technicians to do the craft requires a certain amount of money coming in via ticket sales well and those are all equity unions so there's going to be minimum pays right right so it we cannot viably
• 28:00 - 28:30 do the same art for a 20 house right um it's going to have to wait until we can do a 70 or 80 house uh filled to capacity is what i mean by that no that makes sense yeah that so that there is that money coming in from ticket sales and from beverage sales and you know concessions of all sorts to um to make that payroll
• 28:30 - 29:00 we're also looking at a season that is uh going to be a higher combination a higher ratio of um small cast shows whether that's our three-person um complete works of shakespeare abridged where three actors uh in a very uh kind of um uh intimate and and and humorous way work their way through the entire shakespearean canon uh or one-person shows like bronte where it
• 29:00 - 29:30 is just one woman on a stage being was it charlotte bronte or emily i can't remember which bronte sister it wasn't either uh right but one of the bronte sisters uh whichever one wrote jane eyre uh it's that one um uh you know so of course payroll footprint for that is two two or three technicians and one actor a much smaller uh ratio much smaller footprint so um it's probably going to be a larger
• 29:30 - 30:00 number of those kinds of shows um for a little while and hopefully some comedies because we need to laugh oh yeah oh yeah we're not opening with mcbee or you know everybody dies at hamlet where everybody dies at the end we do know that whatever what whenever we reopen our first show is going to be much ado about nothing being my favorite yeah that show was already rehearsed costumed and opened it got through its
• 30:00 - 30:30 opening weekend and then we shut down so it's all ready to go the the actress would need what maybe two or three brush up rehearsals at the most and they're ready to go right back in so um by virtue of the fact that a it's a popular comedy and it's already rehearsed it's already costumed it's already ready to go um that's going to be our first one out of the gate i will be there
• 30:30 - 31:00 good it's it is my favorite shakespeare ever it just warms my heart oh yeah well we have to direct that one did you oh well that makes complete sense oh thanks hey nani donny i cannot wait nice so i thought we'd close up here with just a little bit about your film experience particularly here in atlanta because i know that it's coming back like gangbusters thankfully getting filming open up but if you want to speak a little bit about your
• 31:00 - 31:30 experience and what you've done um what i've done have been um a handful of supporting roles in some uh fairly widely watched uh works i've done a couple of things that like i haven't even seen um like there was one there was one production called the greening of whitney brown which i think was an immediate um uh
• 31:30 - 32:00 like straight to straight to video film um uh my future boyfriend apparently gets recycled because i still get a residual check every once in a while when some um television company has bought it to show um uh the the two the two sort of biggest things where people say hey didn't i see you on uh were an episode of eastbound and down
• 32:00 - 32:30 where i got to be an opera singer um yeah and um joyful noise which starred queen latifah and dolly parton um and i was one of the primary in fact my face is the very first face you see in that film they the this the choir is singing and the camera sort of pans in on the choir kind of like focuses on my face for a second and then move straight to queen latifah
• 32:30 - 33:00 um and uh i have been very fortunate during covet time um especially in the past three months um to be getting a lot of film work my availability is you know quite a bit uh more than it usually is because i'm currently furloughed at from my full-time job right so when they call and say hey we've got this you know can
• 33:00 - 33:30 are you available for this state to take a kova test in the state to film um usually it's yes um they are handling the pandemic so well um they have it down to a science and they are not playing around good um prior to any set day uh you have to have had a rapid co you know rapid result covid test
• 33:30 - 34:00 within two days of that film date so if you're scheduled to film for four days um then you have a coveted test on let's say you start on wednesday covet test on monday you begin on wednesday by thursday you're already taking another covid test in order to show up for friday's work um they everybody is masked until cameras are actually rolling
• 34:00 - 34:30 and then you unmask just while cameras are rolling and mask episode is not so you in terms of viral load yes you might be exposed during that time but hey everybody around you has tested negative and just in case uh the amount of time that you are exposed to unmasked faces is minimized um [Music] all of the all of the uh food
• 34:30 - 35:00 is um you're no longer being served out of like a buffet line right they only the people serving the food can touch the utensils you get your fully wrapped pack of you know spoons and forks and whatever and your box of food and you move into a space by yourself and you eat your food um uh nobody else is permitted to touch your prop or costume you are the only permissive person allowed to touch your prop or cosmic feed so again they're just
• 35:00 - 35:30 they're not playing around that is awesome to hear that yeah yeah of an emt friend who works um the gate so to speak um letting people in and checking the stuff and and he knows he said that they've been very um conscientious about making sure that the set stays safe yeah because that's the only way it it's not strictly for appearance's sake if somebody on their set gets sick
• 35:30 - 36:00 production shuts down if one person gets sick on set everybody else has to go into quarantine for two weeks and in terms of film and tv man hours losing two weeks is hundreds of thousands of dollars lost so they're they're just they're not fooling around well and not only that you don't get paid right yeah if you're not
• 36:00 - 36:30 an actor and you're not acting if the sets shut down you're not getting paid so um lots of good reasons i'm super excited that atlanta is getting back up and running so so tell us we're getting ready to close out here any advice you have for somebody who's thinking about going into theater or live acting training never stops um i loved one of the things i loved about 2020 and i know that's not a sentence
• 36:30 - 37:00 you're going to hear often um i lost a lot you know i lost my job i lost artistic work i gained time on my couch to get better at skills i will carry into 21 and 22. uh i learned video editing and i learned sound editing uh and i got better at the instruments that i play with that time um there is no such thing
• 37:00 - 37:30 as i've earned my degree and i'm done training um [Music] so i used that time let's be perfectly honest uh uh depression hit everybody yeah in 2020 so i used half of that time to play video games and binge watch ncis um right but uh i used the other half of that time to learn skills that are i'd always wanted to learn and never had made time to learn
• 37:30 - 38:00 um the more hats you can wear i'll tell you about a friend of mine uh uh who shares my last name um but is not a relation of mine her name is a and she pronounces it levin instead of levine amy levin um she is a local actress and musician um great actress good dancer superb singer she earned her living during 2020
• 38:00 - 38:30 because she has amazing theatrical technical skills she's a sound engineer a sound designer and enough of the video engineer that as soon as everything moved on to zoom she was the go-to call person everybody needed her skills right um so my advice is the more hats you're capable of wearing uh the more valuable you are and the more you will never have to get
• 38:30 - 39:00 the job that supports the art you'll just be getting art jobs sometimes as a musician sometimes as a sound designer sometimes as a props mistress sometimes as in actors you know what i mean cobble together living yeah that's that's it that's the important part is to figure out a way to stay and make that paycheck so that you can keep making art yeah so i look forward to seeing you at the tavern we're gonna look forward to hugging you
• 39:00 - 39:30 in person oh my gosh yes well i'm fully vaccinated so i'm all ready for hugs i warn everybody good that you better get the fist if you're you know you're not ready for a hug when you see me but it's just been delightful and you're an amazingly talented person and i think it just can't be said how much to be able to do music you dance as well we didn't even talk about that but she also does dancing at the tavern and being able to also have those solid business skills as well like grant writing is just amazing in one package so
• 39:30 - 40:00 thank you for being so awesome and thank you for talking to our students my pleasure have a wonderful rest of your year