WA Actors Out in Cold
Tue, 16 July 2002, 07:45 amAngelique21 posts in thread
WA Actors Out in Cold
Tue, 16 July 2002, 07:45 amThis has been really bugging me, so I'd like to hear what others think:
There is a feature film to be shot in WA next month which features a couple of big name actors (fair enough - box office and all that) and is, I believe, at least partially funded by Screenwest. However, there are several minor roles which WA actors where auditioned for. A handful of WA guys got roles (congratulations!). However, there were two minor female roles which (after months of waiting with baited breath) I have just found out were given to Eastern States actors. These would be one or two days shoot. I don't know, maybe I'm biased as my "availability was asked" for one of the roles - but knowing the wealth of talent in WA, I find this completely unnecessary (and somewhat insulting). What do you think? Should Actors Equity help local actors have first "dibs" on minor roles in locally funded projects by instituting some policy or other? I mean, we wait long enough for anything to happen here and when it does they'd rather pay Eastern Staters to fly over here! Its time we recognised that some major talent has come from (and still is in WA). Let's see...Judy Davis, Heath Ledger, Marcus Graham, and my old mate, Frances O'Connor (just to name a few)
Thou impertinent fool-born strumpet!
There is a feature film to be shot in WA next month which features a couple of big name actors (fair enough - box office and all that) and is, I believe, at least partially funded by Screenwest. However, there are several minor roles which WA actors where auditioned for. A handful of WA guys got roles (congratulations!). However, there were two minor female roles which (after months of waiting with baited breath) I have just found out were given to Eastern States actors. These would be one or two days shoot. I don't know, maybe I'm biased as my "availability was asked" for one of the roles - but knowing the wealth of talent in WA, I find this completely unnecessary (and somewhat insulting). What do you think? Should Actors Equity help local actors have first "dibs" on minor roles in locally funded projects by instituting some policy or other? I mean, we wait long enough for anything to happen here and when it does they'd rather pay Eastern Staters to fly over here! Its time we recognised that some major talent has come from (and still is in WA). Let's see...Judy Davis, Heath Ledger, Marcus Graham, and my old mate, Frances O'Connor (just to name a few)
Thou impertinent fool-born strumpet!
Re: high pressure systems over the bight
Fri, 19 July 2002, 12:03 amI've just returned to Perth (yay!) after landing a job in Sydney, resulting in a large tour (Suburban Road). No one over there seemed to complain that I had gotten the role, although there were definitely NSW actors who were considered but missed out because I was cast.
Of course, it helped that I knew the director (Alan Becher) and that the Ensemble Theatre tour was a co-production with the PTC. Also that I'd been involved in a previous production. They had to pay me a lot extra to accommodate me to rehearse in Sydney, but someone must've thought it was worth it.
(Also, perhaps, when you know a show is going to tour nationally, WHERE an actor comes from holds less meaning. You're hardly going to try to cast someone from every state just to appear "fair". Perth seems to be isolated (pun intended) in that it's the only city that really differentiates where the performers come from.)
I guess that was the way it worked when Glenn Elston came over here; there was a good chance he'd cast someone he'd known and worked with before. A lot of the people brought over for the Shakespeares in the Park had been involved in previous productions over east.
If a director has someone in mind that they know they'd be happy to use, it make sense to pursue them...even at the expense of holding auditions to cast locals. Holding auditions is a tedious, difficult task, that can waste a lot of time; the only reason to go through with it is the off-chance of discovering a hidden diamond.
Diamonds don't look like diamonds in their rough state, and so no wonder people get frustrated when they don't get the chance to even shine at an audition, let alone being passed over for a "polished" performer from elsewhere.
But it also becomes a convenient excuse, to blame "the east" for the fact that we don't get cast as often as we'd like. Who would we blame if there wasn't this great geographical divide? We'd have to aim our grievances toward those local actors (like me!) who tend to get cast a lot, often without having to go through the full auditon process because they have an established history with certain directors ... The situation would be exactly the same, but the animosity would be closer to home. It's much more polite to blow off steam about non-locals than it is to vent these frustrations against our friends & neighbours, the people we're likely to be working with some day.
I think it's interesting to note that the two Perth companies with the strongest reputation for creating work for local artists, Barking Gecko and Deckchair, are headed by directors who originally came from the eastern states. (Grahame Gavin and Angela Chaplin both started in VIC and then SA before coming here).
And as far as despising the eastern seaboard, the only reason I can think of is that they seem to get piss-poor sunsets compared to ours...!
Cheers,
Craig
'Tis but a base ignoble mind that mounts no higher than a bird can soar!
[%sig%]
Of course, it helped that I knew the director (Alan Becher) and that the Ensemble Theatre tour was a co-production with the PTC. Also that I'd been involved in a previous production. They had to pay me a lot extra to accommodate me to rehearse in Sydney, but someone must've thought it was worth it.
(Also, perhaps, when you know a show is going to tour nationally, WHERE an actor comes from holds less meaning. You're hardly going to try to cast someone from every state just to appear "fair". Perth seems to be isolated (pun intended) in that it's the only city that really differentiates where the performers come from.)
I guess that was the way it worked when Glenn Elston came over here; there was a good chance he'd cast someone he'd known and worked with before. A lot of the people brought over for the Shakespeares in the Park had been involved in previous productions over east.
If a director has someone in mind that they know they'd be happy to use, it make sense to pursue them...even at the expense of holding auditions to cast locals. Holding auditions is a tedious, difficult task, that can waste a lot of time; the only reason to go through with it is the off-chance of discovering a hidden diamond.
Diamonds don't look like diamonds in their rough state, and so no wonder people get frustrated when they don't get the chance to even shine at an audition, let alone being passed over for a "polished" performer from elsewhere.
But it also becomes a convenient excuse, to blame "the east" for the fact that we don't get cast as often as we'd like. Who would we blame if there wasn't this great geographical divide? We'd have to aim our grievances toward those local actors (like me!) who tend to get cast a lot, often without having to go through the full auditon process because they have an established history with certain directors ... The situation would be exactly the same, but the animosity would be closer to home. It's much more polite to blow off steam about non-locals than it is to vent these frustrations against our friends & neighbours, the people we're likely to be working with some day.
I think it's interesting to note that the two Perth companies with the strongest reputation for creating work for local artists, Barking Gecko and Deckchair, are headed by directors who originally came from the eastern states. (Grahame Gavin and Angela Chaplin both started in VIC and then SA before coming here).
And as far as despising the eastern seaboard, the only reason I can think of is that they seem to get piss-poor sunsets compared to ours...!
Cheers,
Craig
'Tis but a base ignoble mind that mounts no higher than a bird can soar!
[%sig%]
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