Righting Ourselves in an Upside Down World I imagine reading these sorts of posts a year or so in the future, looking back to our days amidst this pandemic, and thinking: man, it seems like we had all been sucked down some bizarre rabbit hole into a dystopian Wonderland. We certainly can identify a bit better with Alice now that our world, for too long, has been turned upside down and inside out. We’re seeing too many seams wearing thin and the fabric of society being pulled in too many directions. Anxiety, worry, and depression are becoming more commonplace, especially among those whose livelihoods had been abruptly shut down. Even while some productions are starting to crank back up – with Covid-mandated safety procedures in place – it’s still very tough on most actors. Actors are typically a self-doubting bunch: Am I good enough? Do they like me? Did I do something that will forever ban me from working again?! And so on. Well, thanks to 2020, there are a few more tangible worries to deal with. Here’s a rundown of the five I’ve heard the most, coupled with some encouraging news: Worry #1: My momentum is broken … The popular adage that "an acting career is a marathon, not a sprint” refers to the years of work and persistence that goes into building a successful career. Each new role booked builds on the body of work that preceded it, leading to larger and more interesting and demanding roles. Most actors don’t take much time off from the industry in fear of losing this momentum, becoming sidelined, or even forgotten. And it’s been difficult for just about everyone – financial pressures notwithstanding – when the industry has shut down. Even though we’re all dealing with the same situation, worry persists that there’ll be inevitable delays in career progress. And there’s certainly truth to this. Productions are re-working scripts and cutting many smaller roles to reduce cast size, mostly to reduce the risk of Covid, accommodate social distancing, and ensure that budgets and timetables are met. Unfortunately for actors, many look to these co-star and small supporting roles to prove their acting chops, make industry connections, and build their body of work. Even those more seasoned performers who were preparing to move to LA or pursue bi-coastal opportunities are feeling their options are stymied. Don’t Worry … Too much There’s no getting around the fact that work HAS slowed down or is still stopped in some areas. But nothing lasts forever and productions in Atlanta, Vancouver, and overseas are beginning to ramp up again. Not much can be done about the lost career momentum, but that may be more of an illusion, as everyone has been in the same position. Consider the past seven months or so a “freeze” in activity for the industry and not a personal spiraling down into irrelevance. The true loss in momentum is if the actor has not done anything to keep those acting and auditioning skills sharp. There really hasn’t been much of an excuse to have not done so. Since last spring, there has been a flood of virtual classes and workshops offered, plus monologue competitions and open calls by casting directors inviting all actors to submit their best work. Worry #2: Exposure to Covid on set Safety concerns remain high, especially on non-union sets that are not required to meet the stringent SAG-AFTRA requirements . While some non-union have strict guidelines and safety precautions, others are much more lax. Don’t Worry – Be smart and choosy Common sense dictates here. If you are in a high risk group, such as having a compromised immune system or pre-existing condition that makes you susceptible to Covid, don’t audition for any project that may expose you to the virus. There are some projects that involve filming your scenes from home or only with others with whom you’ve been quarantining. Commercials especially have been booking family members, couples, and roommates for their projects. Some productions have also been stating their safety compliance procedures with their auditions, so that actors can decide for themselves whether to apply for the roles. Even after booking, directors may talk with cast members to review the precautions on set. And SAG-AFTRA actors know that the union has their back, with compliance officers and nurses on set and plenty of Covid testing before and during a shoot. Mike G., an Atlanta-based actor, says that he was very impressed with the safety and protocols put in place. “Film sets in general seem to be one of the safest work environments around. The amount of precautions taken before actors even venture on set – not to mention once you’re actually here – are very reassuring.” Worry #3: Loss of (union) health insurance SAG-AFTRA sets a minimal amount that a member actor must earn each calendar year to qualify for union health insurance. With the industry effectively shut down less than three months into 2020, this fear is certainly understandable. For many, losing affordable health insurance for the next year when they’ve already lost their means of income is a cruel blow. Don’t Worry – SAG-AFTRA is helping The union has announced a bit of a safety net. If an actor loses earned eligibility, they may be able to continue their plan's coverage through COBRA for a specified time period. Click this link for details. It’s not cure-all, but it can help in the short term. Worry #4: Newer actors losing opportunities to the veterans On the surface, this sounds like a complaint voiced by newbie actors at any time, not just during a pandemic. Yes, it’s high likely that at any given time, we all will be competing against more experienced actors for a role. That’s the business, and the casting director, director, and/or producer will choose whomever they think will best bring their character to life. Sometimes it’s the seasoned veteran, sometimes it’s a newer actor. The concern being voiced, though, refers to the few number of roles available and the stiffer competition for them. And it’s quite likely that at this time, veteran actors WILL benefit more. As they say, “them’s the breaks.” Don’t Worry – be proactive … and patient The answer to this concern is two-fold: Up your game, keep training, and become more competitive. And second, realize that this industry IS slowly coming back and with it, more jobs. Lisa T., an actress in the Southeast, reports: “I’m surprised but thrilled with the number of auditions that are popping up. So much for rumors that the market is dead!” Worry #5: All of the above worries have my energy and attitude going down the tubes Yup, we’re right there with you. 2020 has been a test of resilience, fortitude, and determination. Not to mention patience. Most of us have not done too well by it! It’s been a balancing act, too, as actors try to balance risk with reward. For those booking jobs, the question in the back of their minds may be: Is this role worth it if I bring Covid home to my family? How much do I need to make to justify the risk? All these concerns can drain actors of their normal hustle mentality. And make them question again the wisdom of working in an uncertain industry where most of the decision-making is out of their control. Don’t Worry – You have the power to choose your reaction When we can’t control the situation, we can at least choose how we will react to it. We’ll each make the decision whether or not to audition for a role, which sets we’ll be willing to work on, and for what fees. We can – and should! – continue to take care of ourselves with a healthy diet, plenty of exercise, and – if we can – a positive attitude. Continue with online classes, get new headshots (plenty of photographers are taking proper safety precautions), learn a new skill or language, read industry-related books and listen to podcasts … you get the idea. Yeah, the world is a bit upside down now, but people made their way out from under the Spanish Flu and we’ll get through this century’s pandemic, too. After all, Alice found her way out of Wonderland, even though the silly girl eventually went right back in via the Looking Glass.

When Catastrophe Comes Calling It was a glorious fall day. I was having a grand time in one of life’s simplest pleasures: just getting out of the house and enjoying a walk around my neighborhood on a beautiful day. The best part of walking in October is crunching the dry, brittle leaves underneath my feet. I don’t know why, but it’s immensely satisfying … like popping bubble wrap. As I rounded a corner, I was surprised to see an orange barricade in the middle of the street. Why was the road closed? Well, I live in an old neighborhood with equally old trees, so I figured it was probably a downed tree. Yup, sure enough, several people were gathered in the street as a crew worked on cutting up and disposing of the fallen oak. The tree had crashed mostly down the driveway between two homes, but a large branch sliced through a top floor bedroom of one house, while another branch knocked off the chimney on the other. It happened at 11pm while the homeowner was in bed in that particular bedroom. I was told that the branch actually landed at the end of her bed, though fortunately neither she nor anyone else was injured. But an incredibly close call. It’s not the first tree recently to come toppling down, without warning. Just a month ago, I was preparing for a client-directed recording session when I heard a crew fire up their cutting equipment. And a few years back, I remember talking with a friend in my family room when we heard a strange cracking sound. We looked out the back window just in time to see a 100 foot tree – in what looked like slow motion – suddenly veer over and fall, taking several other trees with it. Fortunately, this was in the woods behind my house, so no one (except maybe a slow-moving squirrel) was affected. When you live around old trees, you have to be proactive. The neighborhood received a harsh lesson years ago when an especially strong storm uprooted dozens of aging oaks along our streets. In some areas, it looked like a giant’s game of pickup sticks. Immediately afterwards, the community had each remaining tree along the streets carefully examined and endangered trees were replaced with younger, sturdier ones. In all things, it’s best to think ahead so we can check against potential catastrophes and hopefully prevent the worst from happening. It’s one thing if we’re talking about an old tree that looks sick and weak; a call to an arborist can help determine if we need to remove it before it falls. But sometimes, the catastrophe comes without warning. And it can be very personal. One day, we feel perfectly healthy. The next, our life is in danger from something we didn’t even know was there. Like a tree that looks healthy yet has a developing hollow center, we may have a serious medical problem that has not yet manifested into any symptoms we register, until it’s too late. This is what happened to a dear friend. A robust and healthy guy, he suddenly felt exhausted, had no energy, and became very ill. No, it was not Covid. A medical check-up revealed the worst: stage 4 cancer of the gall bladder that had spread to the liver. He was told that he only had two weeks to live. He didn’t make it seven days. It doesn’t take much for our fortunes to turn on a dime. Sometimes we can plan for the worst and offset it: check the health of tall trees near our homes, make sure that the heating, cooling, plumbing, etc. within our homes are all in good working order. Sometimes bad luck catches us blindsided and we can only react, as in accidents, medical emergencies, or a once-in-a-century pandemic. But occasionally, we can turn something bad into something good. The pandemic has, and still is, causing upheavals in our society, far beyond the health risks Coronavirus poses to us and our loved ones. In trying to contain its spread, the long shutdown of large segments of our economy has led to a significant loss of jobs and businesses, diminished personal financial resources, civil unrest, and high increases in the incident rates of anxiety, depression, and spousal and child abuse. Yet, through it all, people are rediscovering their sense of community, new businesses are popping up that cater to a shuttered population, and many individuals and workplaces are discovering how much more can be done through virtual conferencing than previously thought. And when this unexpected worldwide emergency is past, we’ll be more aware of the cracks in our society that this incredible stressor has produced – and hopefully do something to address repairing them. This fall season has seen a few things falling for me: trees, the sudden and unexpected passing of a friend, long accustomed ways of learning and working, old perceptions as our society is in the process of rapidly transforming in myriad ways. As human beings, we’re fairly adept at changing with the circumstances – in the long run, if not in the immediate short-term. But it’s hard when we don’t have control over things that radically impact our lives. We can plan and improvise, but sometimes all we have is our choice on how we react to unwanted happenstances. So how do we go about doing that? Religion and philosophy give us guidelines, comfort, and inspiration in these matters. Art, literature, and culture show us how others have reacted through the choices and decisions they’ve made. Our modern communications systems allow us to share and support each other as we collectively grapple with our common experiences. It’s easy to bemoan our woes, hard to accept what can’t be changed or avoided, and challenging to rise above and beyond them. But human beings have done all three of these things. Personally or communally, we all go through tough times. The key phrase is to “go through.” We’ll experience the down days, maybe learn from them, and move on … until the next crisis! Or happier times, whichever comes first.

What a Waste of a Perfectly Spooky Night Don’t you just hate it when a perfect opportunity arises for the ideal Halloween party … and then a pandemic has to come along and ruin it all? October 31, 2020 has all the ingredients one needs for a perfect spooky celebration: a Saturday night for the party (best night of the week for fun!), a full moon – and not just a full moon, but a “blue moon” (the second full moon in October), and the night in which we set our clocks back in most of the U.S. to end Daylight Savings Time , thereby gaining an extra hour of sleep to recover from said party. While some parties will continue anyways, especially amongst college kids and young adults, the rest of us will probably be staying home. But what about the mainstay of Halloween, those cute little trick-or-treaters with their pumpkin baskets? Will they be out this year and, if so, what will their numbers be like, so that we can plan on how many treats to have on hand? Who really knows how many kids will be going door to door this year, aside from the usual roving bands of teenagers with their requisite pillow cases? I live in a neighborhood full of young children and Halloween is a big celebration every year. A costume parade and competition, a home decorating contest, and a party in the park to kick-off the moment when they’re all let loose to run from house to house collecting candy. As far as I can tell, trick-or-treating isn’t called off, but I have no idea how many kids will actually be ringing the doorbell vs. going to some alternate Covid-approved event. The only cancellations for certain are the haunted house erected in the park and the huge neighborhood party. My kids, though they’re no longer little, still wanted to see our house decorated for Halloween, so up the decorations went, including the now-ragged 12-foot hanging ghost that’s truly destined soon for the dust heap. I decided to have candy ready, just in case, because I can’t imagine having to turn away any hopeful little faces should they come calling and I were to come up empty. But I decided to have a Plan B in case they don’t come in droves. Or at all. Plan B is actually rather self-serving. Truthfully, I have it in place every year, though I rarely have that much candy left over. Quite simply, I buy only the candy that my kids and I really like. It’s stuff that my husband likes, too, though he professes quite loudly that it’s just junk food and he won’t have any part of it. Then (of course) he sneaks a bunch of it into his office when no one is looking and believes he’s gotten away with it. Uh, huh. I learned about sneaky people early in life. When I was a kid, my mother used to filch her favorite candies from my Halloween stash until I noticed how all the good stuff was disappearing overnight. That’s when I learned the value of accounting and keeping an accurate inventory. And hiding my favorites from poachers. Recently, I took a little poll on Facebook to see what people are doing to prepare - or not! - for trick-or-treaters. Some, like me, are stocking up on treats, just in case the munchkins make their rounds after all. Some are checking with neighbors to see what they’re planning to do with their kids. Plans are all over the board: limited trick-or-treating, people passing out packaged candies in individual plastic bags that are set out for kids to pick up for themselves, Halloween-themed trucks that pass out pre-wrapped portions of Halloween goodies, and games that families can play with their kids inside their homes to emulate the fun of the holiday. Truthfully, if I were a kid, I’d be more than a little disappointed, especially with that last option. Nothing can beat the pure joy of running from door to door with your friends and collecting as much free candy as you can possibly carry. Or until they turn their lights off and tell you to go home. My last year canvasing for candy was in seventh grade when I was twelve. It was so discouraging when more than one neighbor eyed me critically and asked, “Aren’t you a little old to be trick-or-treating?” I didn’t think so, but nonetheless, the following year I felt obliged to hang up my goodie basket and move on to the next stage of life: answering the door and distributing candy to all the cute little kids who hadn’t yet aged out of the system. I can’t help but think how things have changed over the years. No one blinks an eye at young middle-schoolers in Halloween costumes. Hey, sometimes I get college-aged kids, which honestly is seriously pushing it. True, ostensibly they’re asking for donations to some charity or another. Never for UNICEF, though. Who else remembers holding a box while collecting candy, chanting, “ Trick or treat for UNICEF !?” Please say you do, or I’m gonna start feeling rather old.  Perhaps in future years, when this pandemic is in the rear view mirror, we’ll see Halloween costumes commemorating this bizarre time. It’ll certainly be a Halloween we won’t forget, especially if for many kids it becomes the Halloween that wasn’t. As for me, I’ll be hanging by the front door of my house that’s decorated for Halloween, including one very decrepit-looking old ghost hanging on by his chains, with a bowl full of safely-wrapped and socially distanced candies. Waiting for the trick-or-treaters. And if I’m left with a bunch of leftover candies afterwards, oh well. At least the kids and I can have fun hiding them from their dad.

Cultivating Gratitude in Adversity As we approach Thanksgiving, many Americans turn our thoughts to all that we’ve been grateful for this past year. 2020 hasn’t made it easy, not by a long shot. But cultivating gratitude, especially during a long period of adversity, provides us with a true gift. An attitude of appreciation or thankfulness reminds us that there is good to be found, even in the most difficult of times, and it naturally lifts our spirits. Want to be happy? Be grateful.” – David Steindl-Rast, monk and interfaith scholar Yes, there is an entire TED talk devoted to this subject. (Just click this link .) Happiness, David suggests, is born from gratitude. The key is to slow down, look where you’re going, and above all, be grateful. Thanksgiving provides us with an opportunity to do just that. Like the pilgrims stopped to give thanks for making it through their difficult first year, I think many of us will follow suit. A degree of happiness and optimism is indeed found by dwelling on the positive in any given situation. Here is my list, in no particular order except by stream of consciousness, of those top ten things that I'm grateful for this year. I started with the day-to-day concerns of work and routine and moved out to a wider view of life during Covid: 1. The film industry is finally opening u p in Atlanta! Long awaited, more and more productions in TV, film, industrials, and commercials have figured out how to create content while protecting their cast and crew by implementing vigorous Covid testing and distancing requirements. Actors are breathing (through their masks) a collective sigh of relief. Creatives have an innate need to express their talents and the months-long shutdown has been incredibly frustrating to artistic souls. And, of course, very taxing on the pocketbook. 2. The voiceover industry didn’t suffer the complete halt that on-camera work did. Yes, it slowed down significantly during the first few months when everyone everywhere was quarantined. But it began to rebound strongly in the summer months, especially in the areas of eLearning and (surprise, surprise) medical narration. Many voice actors in the major markets of LA and New York had to scurry to create home studios, but I’m profoundly grateful that the Southeast was ahead of the curve on this one. Long before the pandemic, we were told that a home studio was becoming essential, and I’m very thankful that my broadcast-quality studio was already up and running. All I had to do was add Source Connect for clients wanting to use it for directed sessions, which was a relatively easy thing to do. 3. I love the convenience of my favorite fitness classes moving to an online presence ! I work out daily in a Pilates, barre, or step aerobics class. While I had to buy some small pieces of exercise equipment, like resistance bands, a soft rubber ball, and hand weights, I am more than happy to work out from home. And I love saving the travel time to and from these studios, not to mention being able to totally avoid traffic congestion, parking headaches, or being out in bad weather. I can even take classes that I normally wouldn’t be able to make, especially those scheduled too close to dinner time. I also like having a virtual front row spot and an unobstructed view of the instructor. And it’s especially convenient that no one can see me check my phone from time to time during class. (To any of my instructors reading this, pretend you didn't see that last sentence.) 4. My daughter has been able to attend school in person , albeit with testing, masks, and social distancing in place. Her school implements testing and safety precautions to the nth degree, with the teachers, students, administrators, and their families exercising diligence at home, too. Consequently, there have been extremely few cases of Covid, and these are handled immediately with quarantine of those involved, so that the rest of the school population remains safe. I’m doubly thankful that she can attend school and visit with her friends there. It makes for a much happier kid! I’m also thankful that she’s old enough to drive herself to school, which has freed up many more hours in my week that I can now use towards other purposes. It’s also translated into more, much needed sleep. I rarely have to spend longer hours up at night trying to fit everything that needs to be done in one day. More sleep equals a better overall mood, a happier outlook, more energy, greater productivity, and a stronger immune system to fight off all the viruses and bugs out there. Definitely a win-win. 5. Speaking of health, I’m incredibly grateful that my family has remained healthy this year. Even without Covid, there are tragedies that touch families that fortunately we've been spared this year. My heart goes out to one family I know whose sweet little girl has been fighting cancer for well over a year, dealing with seizures and impairments that sadly developed from both the cancer and its treatments. Another dear friend is waging a losing war with cancer that has relentlessly recurred, attacking one part of her body after another, no matter what treatments she follows. And of course, there are those battling long periods of illness due to Covid. I pray that all those afflicted will recover quickly and completely; my prayers are also with those whom I know cannot. 6. I am also grateful that my immediate family – my husband, my kids – is together in our home. Not so great for my recent college graduate, who was eager to start an independent adult life in Boston, but as his mother, I’m glad to have him with us. The downside is not being able to visit my elderly parents who live out of state, except through Zoom calls. But I’m thankful for Zoom, which allows us to easily video conference with one another. 7. I’m also profoundly grateful for my family’s financial stability and that we’re not suffering the deprivations that so many others are struggling with. I’m thankful to be able to help out through the wonderful non-profit organizations that work tirelessly to support those who need a hand up during these hard times. 8. I’m profoundly thankful to my child’s teachers for going above and beyond the scope of their responsibilities to try to make life at school as normal as possible for their students. That goes for all teachers out there, and doubly for the first responders who risk their own well-being to care for others who desperately need their help. 9. Zoom classes, webinars, virtual instruction, and social meet-ups ! Thank you to Zoom itself, as well as all those who provide social outlets, educational content, and interactive learning. It help tremendously in maintaining our sanity and need for socialization. By extension, I’m grateful to all the streaming entertainment that so many have turned to over these long months. Thank goodness for the internet! Can you imagine how much more difficult this experience would have been if the pandemic had happened thirty years earlier? 10. Finally, I’m thankful that 2021 is just around the corner! With Pfizer and Moderna leading the way in providing highly effective vaccines, we can’t help but hope that this nightmare will be over by this time next year … if not sooner. In this respect, 2021 promises to be a much happier year when we can all breathe a (healthy) sigh of relief and begin to resume our lives more or less “normally” as before. No doubt, when this pandemic is relegated to the rear view mirror, we as individuals and as a society will be profoundly changed by our collective experience. Hopefully, we will also come out of this with a little gratitude for what good we did discover, and especially how much worse things might have been. This is not to minimize the loss that many suffered. For those who lost loved ones, my heart goes out to you. For those whose lives were completely upended by job loss and financial crises, I wish you a rapid turnaround of fortune. But adversity is a great teacher, and I do hope that we all are more awakened spiritually as a result of all this. We are social creatures, we need one another, we need to help one another in so many ways throughout our lives. Thanksgiving provides a time for reflection to consider the good even in the most difficult times. I hope you and yours enjoy a wonderful holiday filled with happiness, health, and appreciation.

Getting what you want in 2021 It’s almost the end of the year. Hooray! Finally, an end to 2020. Who isn’t hoping that 2021 will be so much better? It certainly can’t seem to get much worse. Well, of course, it can ALWAYS be worse: war, natural disaster, economic calamity … but after nine months of living within a pandemic, the hope of a better – and dare I say, NORMAL, year looms large in our collective psyche. With a new year comes new resolutions, most of which will be thought up, written down, considered seriously for perhaps a day or two, and then quietly abandoned. Part of the problem is that people usually make such lofty goals for themselves: lose 25 lbs., get in great physical shape, learn a new language. Part of the solution is to break those goals down into smaller, reasonably attainable steps, or reimagine those goals to something more realistic like losing 10 lbs. by year-end, going for 30 minute walks three times a week, or learning a new simple conversational phrase every week in the chosen new language. I use this time to visualize where I’d like my voice over and on-camera acting careers to be a year from now. And then I think about what’s realistic and write it down, figuring out what steps I have to take throughout the year to get there. It’s less a list of resolutions than a business plan that I resolve to follow. I know where I’d like to take both of my careers. I like to call them my twins, because I’m nurturing both simultaneously, they complement each other beautifully, and one supports the other. Yes, I’ve decided that they’re twins who get along rather well together. In my mind, there’s no competition, no fighting or choosing between them. And since it’s all in my mind anyways, I’ve decided that they enjoy a strong and positive sibling relationship and that it will remain so from here on out. And so, as we shutter 2020 and kick it to the graveyard where we’d like it to keep it buried, I’ve thought long and hard about my goals and written down business plans for each of my twins as to how I’ll achieve them. Eww. Business plans. A lot of people don’t like those words and what they represent. A lot of work to prepare, involving drudgery and a bunch of dull numbers, and the fear of failure. Well, a negative attitude usually creates negative results. So I don’t go there. I see a business plan as a roadmap to manifest some of my dreams. Not that the dreams will emerge fully realized within a year – I tend to dream big – but that I’ve taken steps to move myself farther down the road, thereby getting that much closer to reaching them. Dreams and goals. Conceptually, they’re fairly similar, though the dream is usually much rosier and a lot less well-defined than the goal. The dream is the right brain’s creatively-imagined vision. The goal is literally the brain child of, well, the left brain, and analytically and methodically constructed. Experientially, the goal often leads to the person realizing the dream, but very seldom is the dream realized without the person first putting in the effort to define, pursue, and attain the goal. The dream is the aspiration, the pinnacle achievement that we hold as indisputable success. For my acting career, one of my dreams is to become a series regular on a popular TV show. For voice over, one of my dreams is to become the voice of a well-known brand. Will either happen within twelve months just by writing it down on a piece of paper? Probably not. In this life, wishful thinking alone doesn’t generate concrete results. When the dream requires the agreement and support of other people, like in the examples I gave above, I know I’m going to have to put in quite a bit of effort just to plan and prepare the way for the dream to manifest. For that, I need specific goals, something that I can work towards and measure as smaller accomplishments. For example, I need to understand what it takes to realistically attain my dream of landing a role as a TV series regular. Most actors spend many years building their skills and proving their talents before they get to that point. And it’s not easy work, just considering how quickly the actors have to learn and master scripts and create compelling characters that grow and change during the life of a series. Additionally, TV scripts especially can be changed at the last minute, even while the scene is being filmed, and actors have to quickly adapt, learning the new lines and blocking with very little lead time. So, knowing all that, one of my acting goals may be to learn how to successfully prepare and self-tape two very different takes of a three-scene audition within a short 24 hour turnaround. That’s not an easy task and will take quite a bit of practice and experience, so I know that I’ll have to budget plenty of time to work on it. The equivalent voiceover dream needs specific goals, too: training with well-respected commercial coaches, researching the companies whose commercials I’d like to voice one day, and getting on the talent rosters of agencies and production houses who are called upon to create and cast those kinds of opportunities. Time and effort that needs to be budgeted throughout the year. Budgets for all goals consist of time and money. Specific times to work on them, scheduled into the calendar. If it’s for a class, then you’ll know the schedule and what work is required before each meeting. If it’s just your sweat equity, then you might want to block out a given amount of time in regular intervals on your calendar, like an hour three times every week to research and contact companies you’d like to work with. Budgeting money is pretty well understood. You’re allocating funds for all that it takes to work towards meeting your goal. In my examples, that includes expenses for classes and private coaching. And I budget both time and money because I know that flying by the seat of my pants won’t get me to where I want to be by year-end. I’ve tried shrugging it off, figuring that I’ll find the time to work on these tasks here and there as I go about my daily life. Sometimes I do, more often I don’t. And good luck getting other people to donate their time and talents if you don’t have the money allocated to pay for their classes and advice. People are funny about those kinds of things. The budgeting of time and money goes hand-in-hand with breaking the goals down into smaller tasks that are very focused: Enrolling in the advanced on-camera class next month. Reaching out to two dozen agents for representation within my target market every quarter. Updating that commercial voiceover demo by the end of the summer. Coaching once a month throughout the year with a respected teacher known for developing top talent in the commercial world. The goals become practical when each task is specific and can be achieved within a given time frame – and checked off when complete. It’s like the joke based on an African proverb, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” I see the whole process as a handshake deal between my inner artist and businesswoman. The artist dreams up the vision and gives voice to the goal. The businesswoman figures out how to make it happen. The trick is to give the plan life by making it REAL. That comes from writing it down, scheduling each commitment of time on the calendar, setting aside the money needed, and even creating a vision board of what you’re working towards. As a type A person, I also like to check off tasks as I complete them – what a sense of satisfaction that is! So I make daily, weekly, and monthly to do lists. (I told you I’m a type A!) Whatever motivates you, that’s what you do. And don’t forget to reward yourself when you can cross something off your list. Each task completed is another step towards meeting your goal, which is a huge leap towards realizing your dream. And before you know it, there’s nothing left but elephant dust.

How Yin and Yang are Good for Business As a former corporate gal and current actress, I get a real kick when these disparate worlds – business and performance - find common ground. It’s like a meeting of the minds, or within a single person, when the two hemispheres of the brain get together to see a pattern that escapes either side. In Ancient Chinese philosophy, yin and yang is a concept of dualism, describing how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. - Wikipedia It reminds me of the yin-yang symbol, which symbolizes the masculine and feminine aspects of our world. Each contains within it some essence of the other, which allows them to join and relate to one another. Nothing is pure logic or emotion, or even (as defined by yin-yang) entirely masculine or feminine. There is always a mix, a ratio of one to another within us, and therefore in the way we think, feel, live, and work. I see my two worlds, business and performance as an example of this entangled relationship. If I were to simplify, which I am going to do for the sake of this discussion, business embodies the yin principle, characterized as female and sustaining and associated with the earth, hard, dark, and cold. Thought predominates in the business world. So does, some detractors would say, cold hard logic. It is practical and in many ways the bedrock of our modern Western culture. Business is trade, exchanging one commodity for another for the betterment of the business person or organization and, on a larger scale, society. A lot of thought goes into determining what the merchant or business has to offer, what is wanted or needed in return, and how to find a trading partner to make that happen. The development of products and services, planning how they will be marketed and distributed to buyers, and accounting for and analyzing these results at all layers of the organization – these are not accomplished on a wish and a prayer. Film, TV, and voice acting, however, focus on affecting audiences emotionally. In performance, I recognize the active male yang principle, characterized as creativity and associated in Chinese philosophy with heaven, heat, and light. It’s energy that is alive and moving, always reacting to its surroundings and with all that it comes into contact. Actors are taught to respond viscerally to the story revealed in the script and to be “in the moment” as it’s played out with the other actors in the scene. Or, if they’re voice actors, in their imagination, when they’re alone behind a microphone in a booth. Actors capture and engage the attention of their audiences by creating worlds in which these scripted stories exist, ones that they and their audiences care about. We’re invited us in to vicariously experience these stories and relationships through them. Good stories well told generate an emotional response in us, as we identify with the characters, their problems, and how they go about resolving them. Even the driest medical narration full of pharmacological jargon stirs our feelings, as we personally relate to the problem and how we might be individually affected. Like yin and yang, business and performance are not complete opposites. They contain elements of each other which, when used together, can be quite powerful. Yin and yang can turn into each other, such as wheat in the field (yang) being harvested and milled into flour (yin). Some of the best business communications are perceived as pure entertainment, while still carrying their essential sales pitch. Remember Coca-Cola’s “We’d like to teach the world to sing” melody that turned into a hit pop song in the 1970s? Maybe not, but perhaps you remember the polar bears loving their Cokes. Kids everywhere in the 1980s parroted the elderly woman demanding to know “Where’s the beef?!” on behalf of Wendy’s. And a generation earlier, kids challenged each other to discover how many licks it takes to finish a Tootsie Pop, while others in the 90s wanted their very own Energizer Bunny mechanical toy rabbit. Similarly, many performance artists use their gifts to convey messages that they deem important to society. The purpose is to educate and widen the perspectives of their audiences through entertainment. It’s another form of a sales message, but with an inverse structure: the entertainment leads the charge, which some can enjoy just on a surface level, but there is a deeper, more meaningful purpose of thought that they want to leave their audiences pondering. Yin-yang, thought-emotion … as human beings, we live constantly with many different thoughts and emotions, and our institutions reflect that. Businesses are started by people with a passion or a desire to accomplish something. And businesses require at least some level of creativity to thrive, even if it’s just to market itself. What is creativity but the child of thought and emotion, with a good dose of inspiration thrown in? Inspiration that comes from integrating these principles within us to live as whole, balanced, and well-functioning people. Inspiration that allows us to step out of our limited self-views and take a good look to understand other people and the world around us, and to allow our hearts and minds to ponder a greater reality and purpose. There is a reason that the heartless, soulless individual, corporation, or government has been a popular villain in entertainment for a long time. We recognize that as the antithesis of what we as human beings instinctively know to be wrong. Performance, too, requires a modicum of thought. Certain questions need to be answered before the actor can begin his work: why did the writer create this story? What’s happening and why? What leads the characters from scene to scene and what obstacles are they trying to overcome to reach their objectives? Understanding the writer’s intent and bringing their essential selves to the roles lays the foundation for the performance. The actors’ interpretations and reactions to the events taking place stir the viewers’ emotions, but without thought and motivating reasons to anchor their feelings, the actors would be giving very superficial performances at best. It all comes together in the sales and marketing process: business and performance merge to create a solid, appealing message. From the business’ perspective, the product or service was created because the market has a need, which the business seeks to satisfy. A pain point, which is suffered by a large enough market segment to justify the development of that product or service. And now that the business has the solution, it’s up to its marketers to educate potential buyers and convince them to adopt it. Sometimes, as Steve Jobs did with the Apple iPhone, the business seeks to prove to their potential customers that they have a need for something new and revolutionary - to solve a problem that they didn’t even know they had! (And he was very good at doing just that.) Buyers are unlikely to be persuaded, or even interested, in a sales pitch that is purely dry and informative. It has to be personalized, striking an emotion that will generate a response. Sometimes that is a promise of happiness (food or entertainment) or relief from pain (medicine), a fear of missing out on something important (news or a competitive advantage) or risking harm without it (a security system), or – to strike at the heart of many - greater acceptance by others (stylish clothes, a new car, cosmetics, a cool toy). And people love stories. We always have. Storytellers have been an integral part of our civilization before, well, there was any civilization. We learn from stories and respond to circumstances that we could very well imagine ourselves to be in. We use them to teach, to warn, and to share our experiences and history. That is where performance comes in, to make personal the impersonal. Graphics, sound, music, the human voice and physical actions – together, they tell a story to alert potential buyers to the sales message, activating our senses and stirring up emotions that will (ideally) lead us to realize that the presented product or service solves one of our own, very real problem. Even if it’s not a problem we have, we generally sympathize with the problem that the people in the commercial are facing. And if the message fails to entertain us or touch our hearts, well, then the TV channel or radio station is changed, the mouse is clicked, and we move on. The phrase “pain point” is right on. As human beings, we’re almost always feeling some sort of pain. Small or great. Physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual. Sometimes it’s a sense of emptiness or loss or just a feeling that we’re somehow missing out. As social creatures, we recognize pain in others and respond, most of us empathizing with them and wanting to help. Effective marketing strategies recognize this human dynamic and use it to show a solution to a common problem … or play to an underlying pain point and create one that can be immediately solved with their product. Similarly, artists use their mediums of video, audio, and the written word to explore flaws in the human condition, celebrate triumph over adversity, draw attention to injustices, and awaken us to a greater purpose in our lives. Like the yin-yang symbol, thought and emotion are intertwined within us. Thought sparks ideas, ways of tackling problems, and planning our actions. Emotion spurs us to action, providing an array of feelings, memories, and sensory reactions that color and influence our motivations. And the most effective messages integrate thought and emotion to inspire a reaction. Thought to lay the groundwork and logical reason for accepting what’s presented. And emotion to give us a personal reason to agree and act upon it. When I was in business, I worked on the intellectual side of the sales and marketing process: the selling points of my company’s products and services, the solution it provided, the benefits to the customer. Now that I’m an actress, my work on a commercial or video narration is to discover and share the emotional impetus of my client’s message. Two sides of the same coin, both an integral part of the overall story. I appreciate my business background; it really helps me understand things from my client’s perspective. And I always enjoyed the presentational and educational portion of my corporate job; it allowed my inner actress to come out and play. So, I have to encourage people from both sides of the coin to occasionally flip their side over and take a look the other half. Not only may they find it interesting, but perhaps it can also help them come away with a better appreciation of how both business and creative folks can work together well to create the final product. It’s the yin-yang of the human experience. One that has a practical application for those producing commercials, videos, and other media to promote a business: crafting highly effective messages that generate more sales and a better bottom line for everyone.

10 (Not Really) Mindblowing Ways They’re Different I’m waiting here on set, in what looks like a hermetically-sealed plastic booth. Strict Covid safety guidelines are in place, from the nasal swab two days earlier to my personalized bucket with a sealed sanitization kit containing a full facial plastic mask, goggles, and the instructions to properly use them. The project is an ad for a quick oil change franchise and I’m playing a customer. Fair enough, I’ve played this role in real life many times. And my car thanks me for it. Art reflects life, even in the mundane, such as making sure that your car won’t break down anytime soon. It’s not always glamorous, but it’s a believable “slice of life,” as renowned acting coach Margie Haber likes to say. The audience should feel like they’ve just dropped in on a private moment or a conversation that feels spontaneous and natural. All this preparation to play a moment, though, is anything but spontaneous. Yes, while we’re in the moment we should be, as Samford Meisner taught, “in the moment” and experience it as if it were brand new and react to it from a genuinely spontaneous place. “Acting is reacting” is taught early in the actor’s training … and for good reason. But there are some big differences between preparing to play a role and actually living it. The actor’s job is to bridge that gap so that one is indistinguishable from the other. So, while I’m waiting to live a slice in the life of a customer having her car’s oil changed, here’s a list of my top ten things that distinguish acting (even great performances) from real life: 1. High stakes vs. “don’t make a mountain out of a mole hill” An actor will study a scene to determine his objective, or what his character wants or needs from the situation and the other players in the scene. This objective will be highly important with a significant reward for achieving it or a devastating consequence if it’s not. Examples of high stakes are survival vs. death, landing a job vs. financial ruin, or winning the love interest vs. humiliating rejection. The audience doesn’t need to know any of this; it’s internal to the actor’s performance and develops his motivation to achieve his objective through a number of different tactics. In real life, however, very few moments hold such high stakes. We live in the breaths between those moments, because these big moments tend to be rather infrequent. That is, unless we’re drama queens, elevating everything above and beyond what is considered a reasonable reaction by others. I’m sure that we’ve been told at some time or another – usually by our mothers (sources of most reality checks) – not to make a bigger deal out of something than it deserves. In real life, the stakes just aren’t that high. 2. Dramatic moments vs. “keep it cool” To expand off my first point, the actor looks for the dramatic and comedic turns and twists in the script. She’ll often bring out the dramatic serious moment in a comedy or insert a humorous moment within an intense drama. This makes for interesting watching and provides depth to the performance. In real life, however, we’re more often going to be told to “lose the drama,” “keep it cool,” “don’t make waves,” “chill out.” Or we may be advised (by a teacher, perhaps?) that a little good humor is welcome, but don’t go overboard and play the class clown. 3. Interesting to watch vs. boring as h*ll For all the reasons above, a TV show or film should be pretty interesting to watch … or it’s not likely to be commercially successful. Likewise, while some individuals may be pretty intriguing to follow on social media, reality shows, or their own talk shows – most of us are just not that interesting to watch moment by moment. The actor HAS to be interesting. Well, if it’s a walk-on one-line role, that may or may not be the case – that character is just moving the story along – but most of the time there has to be a compelling reason to care about the characters in the story. In real life, well, we’re just doing what we have to do. Some of it may be binge-worthy, but honestly, most of it is cringe-worthy or just downright boring as we go about our unremarkable business. 4. Relating to others vs. focusing on ourselves The tensions in a scene lie in how the actors relate to one another and how that relationship may change and evolve as they go about pursuing their objectives. The actor MUST relate and react to the other person(s) in the scene! If he doesn’t, there’s no connection, no tension, no push and pull in their relationship and the scene falls flat. Even in a monologue, the actor is reacting to something – a memory, a known person or circumstance, another aspect of himself – and there is a dynamic movement within the scene. In real life, we’re lucky if the other person is paying attention to what we’re saying. OK, it may not be THAT bad, but we naturally focus on getting what we want and making sure we’re heard. As any parent knows, little kids are prime examples of that natural inclination. Psychologically, we become of interest to someone else when we really focus on them and listen, and ask questions about their lives, hobbies, work. So, here’s a bonus tip for those looking to make a good impression: ask another person about himself and get him talking about his favorite subject. Usually for most people, that’s themselves. And they love it. And appreciate the person showing the interest. 5. Seeing things from other people’s perspectives vs. judging from our own viewpoint Relating to other people also means learning to see things through their perspectives, which can be quite different from our own. This is one reason that actors so enjoy their craft: being able to temporarily become someone so different from themselves and imagine experiencing life’s ups and down’s, nuances, and preconceived notions from another person’s vantage point. We’d all be better off if we tried to walk in someone else’s shoes once in a while. A few other professions may do this; the helping and teaching professions come to mind (social workers, psychologists and counselors, teachers, etc.) Most of us, though, never get or try to take the opportunity. I think this is one of the true gifts of actor training, to expand beyond ourselves. Something I want to continue to practice in my daily life. 6. Emotional life vs. using your head The actor focuses on conveying the emotions of the moment, so that the audience feels those reactions within themselves. We react viscerally to emotion. It triggers physiological responses within ourselves. We find ourselves holding our breath in anticipation, shaking a bit in fear, relaxing the tension in our bodies when we realize something is funny and laugh. Actors use this tool in both ways: reacting in their bodies to an emotional stimulus and creating emotions within themselves with physical movements. It may the intensity of driving a point home that creates a finger to wag or the wagging of the finger to bring out the urgency of the message. It can be the physical reaction to an outrageous insult that stimulates a cringing response, or the act of physically shirking and avoiding an unseen enemy that creates the feeling of avoidance or powerlessness. In contrast, in real life we’re told to use our heads and get our emotions under control. In many professions, thought is valued and not emotional reaction. Can you imagine many doctors, attorneys, financial analysts, and tech wizards FEELING their way through their daily work challenges? Neither can I. Nor would we want them making decisions that could affect us by flying by the seat of their pants. Of course, we want emotion and feeling to temper their work so we have caring and compassionate physicians, civic-minded attorneys, honest accountants, and helpful technology partners. And then there are those mothers again in the back of our minds, telling us to use our heads to solve problems, “keep a level head,” and so forth. 7. Cinematic “do overs” vs. one shot wonders Actors prepare at least two, and often several, different approaches to their scenes. And then it may all go by the side when a scene partner reacts in totally unexpected way and provides a new interpretation on the spot. The actor always goes with the flow, reacting in the moment. Directors, however, decide which reaction and which interpretation best fits their vision, so actors will run their scenes multiple times. Even when their first take is spot-on, the scene will be filmed multiple times to focus on different characters and work different camera angles. The actor is always in “do over” mode until the director is satisfied. In real life, we rarely get “do overs.” Little kids on the playground will allow them in their games, but not once they’re old enough to understand and agree to play by the rules. Our lives are series of one shot wonders. We say and do something - and it’s fixed. No going back and changing the past. Perhaps that’s why time travel stories are so popular. We can admit a mistake, apologize, and make restitution – a wonderful thing to do – but we can’t go back and relive the moment, choosing to say or do something different. The premise of “ Quantum Leap ,” one of my favorite shows from the late 80s/early 90s, had the premise of going back to fix major life mistakes. And it worked, because people could relate to it. 8. Being in the moment vs. really living in the moment While real people don’t have the liberty of “do overs,” we do have the advantage of living each moment purely authentically, believably – because it’s our real lives. For the most part, we mean what we say and we say what we do. Our actions have purpose. Actors have to work at that, developing background for their characters, assessing their belief systems, and their tendencies to react, etc. before leaping into the scene to experience these moments. Audiences judge whether or not they hit their mark by their reactions to the story being presented. Are the characters believable? Even in a wild fantasy or animated feature, can we identify with them and how they’re presented? Living truthfully in the moment (Meisner again) takes work, it doesn’t always come naturally. 9. Story arcs vs. “What, me, worry?” Alfred E. Neuman of Mad Magazine fame had no concerns, breezing through life as it presented itself. Well, until MAD Magazine itself stopped publishing in 2019 after decades of popular political and social satire. Still, Alfred serves my point here, which is that actors analyze their scenes while most of us … don’t. We just live them. Actors look to develop an arc for their character, even within short scenes. An arc has the character starting in one place emotionally or with a particular view and ending somewhere different. For example, a character may feel boisterous and exuberant, receive some unsettling news, and leave flustered and upset. In real life, we may also go through something similar, but only when viewed in retrospect. Nothing planned, unless we’re the ones springing some news on someone else or taking an action that we know will certainly affect them. Otherwise, we blithely move within the scenes of our lives, never really knowing when they started or ended; mostly in mundane life, they just flow from one to the other. 10. Getting paid vs. a lifelong freebie Tongue in cheek … but a big difference is that actors get paid for their work. Well, except those who accept non-paid gigs for charity or student projects. Or do you know anyone who’s receiving payment just for living their life? Neither do I. The Truman Show may have been scripted for its audience’s entertainment, but most of us have to find payment in the work we do and the smart investments we make. Entertainment is work. Almost all actors work long hours for little pay, supplementing their income with other jobs in the industry or in other professions. Yes, it’s also a lot of fun work and personally fulfilling. I find it’s a training ground for opening up one’s heart to others, learning through other people’s experiences, and experiencing a transformation in oneself as you begin to adopt a wider worldview. And ultimately, an intimate study of life.

The Next Best Thing to Chocolate Let's talk dessert. What's your seasonal choice of pie? Pumpkin, pecan, or sweet potato? How about cookies? Are you into decorated, frosted cookies shaped like Christmas trees, stars, Santa, wreaths, etc.? No? Maybe you're more inclined to something different that's still sweet, but sounds a bit healthier. After all, we really don't want to start the new year with a resolution to whittle away all those extra pounds from holiday eating. So, maybe a dessert with fruit? Hey, stop right there, don't even suggest the old December standby, fruitcake. Nope, that won't help you keep off the extra pounds. Besides, I've got something better in mind. Furthermore, it's healthy and delicious enough to show up on the breakfast table. Dessert for breakfast ... every kid's dream. And a dish to enjoy right from the oven or warmed up the next day. I'm talking about an easy to make banana-blueberry crisp that I originally found as a summertime recipe when freshly-picked blueberries were plentiful. It works just as well in the winter, though - just substitute frozen blueberries for fresh and you're good to go. This fruit crisp is especially versatile. Serve it hot out of the oven as a dessert with a little vanilla ice cream on top. Warm it up the next morning (or eat it cold) as a substitute for oatmeal, perhaps adding a little milk to it. I love it served warm on a cold morning with a little vanilla almond milk mixed in for a creamier consistency. It's the best type of recipe - quick and easy to make! Short grain rice works particularly well, but really any type will do, as will other grains like bulgur wheat. I prefer brown rice, which I cook in a rice cooker while I pre-heat the oven and prepare the rest of the ingredients. Banana-Blueberry Crisp 2 cups cooked rice or bulgur ¾ cups skim milk ¼ cup brown sugar 1 Tbs margarine, melted (optional) 1 tsp cinnamon 2 bananas, peeled & sliced 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine rice or bulgur, milk, sugar, margarine if desired, and cinnamon. Add fruit and mix gently. Transfer to an 8 inch square baking pan and cover with foil. Bake 30 minutes. Cool slightly before serving. And enjoy! It'll put a smile on your face and maybe entice your kids away from the overly sugary breakfast cereals, too. Not mention helping you avoid putting on that extra winter weight.

A few chuckles to help you get through your day. Stuck at home. Again.

New Places to Find Talent For Your Project 2020 is one big, long sob story for just about everyone. Just a few months into the new year and then all work comes to a screeching halt. Long-planned projects derailed, stalled schedules with indefinite return dates, pipelines of new business frozen or - worse - dissipated. It’s been a tough year for film, television, and stage actors, too. Most productions ground to a halt last March and only now are some studios beginning to gear up again. That’s a long time to go without an opportunity to earn some money at your craft. But both businesses and actors have been searching for - and creating - workarounds. it's really rather amazing how ingenious people can be when the tried and true no longer works, and new ways must be found. I described in a previous article how some businesses and studios are successfully doing this. On the performance side, too, more and more actors have been turning to voice over as another medium. After all, they have the acting training, the script analysis skills, and their experience on camera and/or on stage … right? It’s a natural fit, isn’t it? And while voiceover work has slowed down a bit during the pandemic, it hasn’t stopped. And it can pay pretty well. There are many actors who are this type of “triple threat” – they perform behind a mic, before a camera, and on stage. (Disclaimer: I’m one of them.) But it’s a mistake to think that an actor can just glide from one genre into the other without training and preparation specific to that medium. On-camera acting, for example, is very different from stage acting. The camera captures expressions, conversations, and physicality close-up, so the acting needs to be much “smaller” than that required for the stage, which instead requires bigger movements and louder or more exaggerated speech to reach the audience members in the last row of the theater. Voice over work in that sense is even smaller, with only the actor’s voice conveying the message and emotion of the story in tone, pitch, pacing, volume, etc., even if the performance requires physicality to convey those qualities through the voice. In short, success in voice over requires more preparation than just picking up a microphone and starting to talk into it. Not all actors realize that, and that’s not even touching upon the necessities of having the proper equipment, a broadcast-quality home studio, and the training to use, record, edit, and deliver high quality audio files to agents and clients. I’ve had quite a few fellow on-camera actors call me up and ask how to get started, thinking all they need to do is to pick up a USB mic and find a quiet corner of their home to work in. That’s why I created a Resources section of my blog to advise them on how to get started , find the training , create a home studio , make their first demo , build a voiceover website , and find work . Here's where businesses who employ voice actors can benefit. In addition to the regular voice talent on their rosters, creative director and producers can now call on more of these "triple threat" actors, too. Once they have invested in voice over training and gone through all the steps to be professionally up and running, these new “triple threat” actors have so much to offer. With on-camera, stage, and voiceover training and experience under their belts, they have multiple tools at their disposal to truly dive into a script, understand its intrinsic message, and convey the client’s message in varied ways that are informative, compelling, and entertaining. They know that techniques unique to one genre can, with adjustments, be applied to another. After all, it’s all storytelling, even if the story is a technical medical narrative on the benefits of a new pharmaceutical drug. The skilled actor knows who he/she is supposed to be and who the listener is, understands the story’s background and the client’s message, and can to weave the narrative to teach, explain, or showcase the product. It's been interesting to observe how film and TV producers have been rewriting commercials, TV episodes, and films to incorporate voice over more than ever before. In many cases, it streamlines the production process, reduces the time to film, and gets around strict on-set requirements to adhere to the new COVID-mandated guidelines. The device of incorporating 911 calls into a plot line seems to be especially popular now. I’ve noticed many more voiceover jobs being listed, for example, on Actors Access, a casting site for on-camera films, TV, commercials, and industrials through which actors can apply directly. On-camera actors can't help but see which way the wind is blowing, at least while this pandemic drags on, and pivot accordingly to qualify for these jobs. So, as a client looking to book voiceover talent, what does this mean to you? First, with an influx of professional on-camera and stage actors, you have a wider (and possibly deeper) pool of talent to draw upon. Just be sure to verify that they indeed have the skills and wherewithal to produce a quality audio file. A good voice over demo can speak to their skills and a requirement for them to describe their studio and equipment can serve to screen out those not sure how to even answer. Second, by using these on-camera casting sites to post voiceover work, you have more ways to attract talent than just through agents, voice casting sites, or through your own rosters. And who knows? Maybe you’ll find the fees or commissions lower on these sites, and save a few dollars, too.

Realigning Work and Priorities Thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic, TV and film production (and nearly every other industry) came to an abrupt halt in March 2020 in an unprecedented worldwide economic shutdown. Social distancing restrictions halted work on all levels, from major studios down to film student projects. Actors, crew members, and support personnel were suddenly out of work and without a paycheck for the unforeseeable future. Fortunately for voice actors, the work is by nature compliant with social distancing. You can’t get much more isolated than by working alone in a 4x4 recording booth for hours at a time. And for production houses able to work from home offices, many projects are still going forward. So, while voiceover work may have slowed, it certainly hasn’t stopped, and in some genres – especially medical narration and eLearning – the work is picking up dramatically. As both an on-camera actress and voice talent, my time previously had been split more or less evenly between the two. Bookings pretty much decided where my time was allocated. Priority was given first to awarded jobs, with preparation for those jobs, paperwork and administration in support of those jobs, auditions, and marketing/social media work scheduled around those important client commitments. Once the quarantine hit, half of that activity immediately evaporated. Too many other actors, however, saw all of their professional momentum hit a brick wall. Even more painful, those working in the service industry as waiters and bartenders had their income safety nets yanked out from under them. Some are just trying to hold out until the industry shutdowns are over, but others with special skills are showing ingenuity by offering their services online in new creative ways, such as teaching design for social media platforms or leading group fitness classes from their homes. I have nothing but admiration for those folks and their resourcefulness. In my case, I’ve shifted my focus to voice over, fully investing in my business by launching a new and better website, updating my demos, and upgrading my ability to service clients with better connectivity options. But the on-camera side has not been ignored; actors have to continually work at their craft lest they become rusty. Like many others, I am also taking advantage of online workshops, coaching, and Q&A sessions with casting directors, as well as open casting calls generously offered nationally by many respected casting directors to consider new talent. The smartest actors are using this time to create original content, practice their monologues, or learn new skills, readying themselves for when productions will resume casting. Not surprisingly, voice over is attracting a lot more attention from the on-camera talent. I’ve been fielding many questions from actors interested in learning the basics and the steps to developing their own VO business. Aside from helping them get started, I like to remind them that VO practice will also help them keep their on-camera acting skills sharp; the foundational training, which is the script analysis and character study, is the same. It doesn’t matter if the actor is in front of the camera or out of sight behind a microphone. The actor is still telling a story, whether it’s from a character’s perspective within a crime drama or as an experienced medical worker explaining how to properly use a COVID-19 test kit. And a commercial voice over script often requires the actor to tell the whole story within 30 seconds or less. Excellent training material for the on-camera actor trying to convey intent and purpose in a longer-lasting scene. Life never stands still and we’re always called upon to pivot in response to unexpected events. Repositioning ourselves and our careers in especially uncertain times like these … well, it can seem more like we’d been unceremoniously thrown off a tower than just being pushed down to the ground. We can sit at the bottom of that tower and nurse our grievances, but most of us would prefer instead to check for broken bones, scramble to our feet, and dust ourselves off (probably with a curse or two) before looking for a way back up into that tower. Or maybe we’d decide to invest our days inside a nearby, more structurally stable building instead. Either way, the repositioning begins with a positive thought that there is a way out, followed by a goal-setting mindset that these new objectives can and will be achieved. Priorities are certainly changed by these major events. People are appreciating good health in ways few stopped to consider much before. Family, loved ones, and friends are top of mind, whereas career may have once occupied most waking thoughts. And while we may not be able to control the causes of these unwelcome changes, we can manage our personal outlook, responses, and new priorities and do our best to mitigate the damages. We can shift our time, attention, and resources to make the most of what we have and can do for ourselves. Perhaps best of all, we can keep a cool head so that we can assess a changing situation and position ourselves as best we can to make lemonade out of lemons. We may not have enough sugar to sweeten the result to our liking, but it’s better than just sucking on the lemons and feeling sorry for ourselves.

Learn more about voice over by following these popular bloggers Sometimes, the best way to learn about an industry is to learn from those working in the trenches. Voice actors who write about their experiences. Both good and bad. What works and what doesn't. And what you should watch out for as your own journey unfolds. It's helpful to learn from the perspectives of those who've been in the industry for a few decades. And others who've come to VO from other careers. You'll find some very well-known and respected names here, as well as some up-and-comers who are well worth watching. We're all part of an informal voice over blogging consortium and most of us know each other fairly well. Yes, I'm including a link at the end to my blog, too, since I'm a card-carrying member of this group. I'm a little different in that my blog also touches on life as a film/TV actor, since I work in the on-camera world about as much as I do in voice over. There are also posts about business, customer service, and entrepreneurship, stuff I've gleaned running a voice over business and, before that, as a corporate IT sales exec. Funny observations, too, because good-natured humor is part of my brand and I tend to see the ironic in life. Hey, I figure a little humor now and then goes a long way to bettering our lives. You'll get to know some of my blogger friends through their posts. Several are coaches, others run highly regarded Facebook networking and learning groups, newsletters, and podcasts. They're just some of the super-nice folks who are genuinely happy to share advice and experience with other voice actors in our community. Check them out! And enjoy. Want to learn what it's REALLY like in voice over? Read the blogs of those who've come before you. FEATURED BLOGGERS Paul Strikwerda Paul's name is synonymous with voiceover blogging. With over 40,000 subscribers around the world, he's a straight shooter, unafraid to call BS as he sees it and stir up controversy when and where he deems fit. And we all love him for it! Read & subscribe here . J. Michael Collins JMC is the uncrowned king of voice over. His name - and initials - are well-known throughout our industry for his first-rate work as a voice actor, coach, demo producer, and all around industry cheerleader. Read & subscribe here . Kim Handysides Kim is a longtime voice talent with a knack for well-researched articles that are not afraid to dive into the political arena and challenge the status quo. She has excellent material and a great mind to challenge your views and refine you. Read & subscribe here . Joshua Alexander Josh calls his blogs "edutainment" - and they certainly are! On point, interesting, and always downright funny. And, oh, he heads the VO blogging community. Read & subscribe here. Michael Apollo Lira Michael is an RN and brings a uniquely vulnerable and human perspective to his writings. Read & subscribe here . Carrie Olsen Carrie heads up the " Voiceover Start-Up with Carrie Olsen " group on Facebook and is coach and all-around source of encouragement. Read & subscribe here . Jeffrey N. Baker Jeffrey is a heart-on-his-sleeve blogger who shoots straight. Read & subscribe here . Jon Gardner Jon writes a humorous blog, inspiring and full of life, and always on point. Read & subscribe here. Paul Stefano Paul, along with Sean Daeley ,maintains The VO Meter Podcast . His blogs are honest, friendly, and transparent. Read & subscribe here . Paul Schmidt Paul maintains "The Move, Touch, Inspire Newsletter" which truly lives up to its name. Read & subscribe here . Billie Jo Konze Billie Jo writes a lively blog based on her experiences in the VO community. Read & subscribe here . Natasha Marchewka Natasha runs the Freelancer's Blog, a great resource of thoughts, experience and lessons. Natasha helps the voiceover community through her partnership with Katherine Tole in the V123 Pro's program, hailed for helping voice talent maximize their Voice123 profiles and online marketplace performance. Read & subscribe here . Tom Dheere Tom is a highly trusted name in the VO industry, helping other voice talents navigate the voice over industry as the VO Strategist . He always has a lot to say about our industry. Read & subscribe here . Ian Russell Ian's blogs have an educational, insightful British flare, showing us just how much is possible in the VO realm. Through a joint effort with his wife Sandra, Ian focuses on helping people find creative ways to do business through personal experiences and insights. Read & subscribe here . Sumara Meers From the land Down Under, Aussie Sumara's blogs are full of humor and enthusiasm. Read & subscribe here . Mike Christensen Mike "The Voice Monkey" pens a blog that chronicles his journey in stream-of-consciousness style. Read & subscribe here . Craig Williams Craig's blog is honest, forthright, and occasionally salty, as the situation may dictate. Read & subscribe here . Theresa C. Ho Theresa is a new and honest blogger with a business background who has no qualms about tackling serious topics like diversity in voice over. Read & subscribe here . Jessica Mathison Jessica is a novel writer with a unique viewpoint that is literally moving, as she shares her travels of life and voice over on the road. Read & subscribe here . Tyler Robbert From the perspective of someone fairly new to voice over, Tyler writes very well-crafted and unique blogs that bring a colorful and energetic look at what we do. Read & subscribe here . J.D. Gibson A world traveler, J.D. writes from a business perspective, having worked years in IT in both the military and the corporate world.. Read & subscribe here . Laura Doman And here I am, bringing up the rear on this list! if you haven't already found my blog, you can Read & subscribe here . Want to learn more about the business of voice over and what it's REALLY like? Read more about it here > I'm Laura Doman, a former tech industry sales executive, hands-on mom, voice & TV/film actress, and improv performer. I create memorable characters that tell my client's stories, from the friendly CEO touting new upgrades to your sassy best gal pal dispensing some necessary, real-world advice... Let's Talk! COMMERCIALS •  EXPLAINER VIDEOS • CORPORATE NARRATION •  ELEARNING • K12 • MEDICAL NARRATION • CHARACTERS & ANIMATION • TELEPHONY