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July 1, 2007
The Actors Voice, 7/2/07
Hi Everyone!
Here's how tomorrow's The Actors Voice starts out.
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Bringing the Kids Along
Ooh, got a great question from a reader recently.
What is the best way to handle being a mother in this business? I am currently (and surprisingly!) pregnant, and moving to LA in a year. Obviously, my husband and I will have a baby by the time we get there. Is it bad protocol to bring a baby to an audition? I know daycare is the obvious choice, but if I happen to have her for the day...I worked as an actress in Chicago for almost four years and mothers would sometimes bring their children to the auditions, and of course leave them in the waiting room while they went in for auditions. I just wanted to feel out LA before I make any major faux pas.
As for auditions I'm holding, I might not even know that babies are along for the ride much of the time, since many actors--like those you've observed in Chicago--choose to leave their young ones in the waiting room with friends or other family members they have brought along. I would imagine that session runners might have a less-tolerant stance on this sort of thing, simply because of the overcrowding involved, when you show up with an entourage. But the handful of actors who have brought babies into my audition rooms with them have either done just fine or had their focus so completely split that their auditions were blown from the beginning.
Of course, I'm just one CD in a city of 600 of us. And I cast SAG indie feature films. So, what about the other CDs who are casting studio features, TV shows, commercials, theatre, industrials, voiceovers, and so on? Well, for a sense of what the general vibe might be about kids joining their parents at auditions, I decided to check in with a few working actor parents (some whose kids are also actors, others whose are not) and Anne Henry of BizParentz.com for their advice on this issue. Huge thanks to Robert Clendenin, Eitan Loewenstein, James Runcorn, Anna Vocino, and the amazing BizParentz.com for giving us a sense of what's going on in casting offices all over Los Angeles.
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Continue reading this column in the morning, along with a Your Turn about adding video to your Actors Access account after making a submission (and whether the CDs of that submission will be able to see that video) at Showfax.com.
And!!
Be sure to visit The Actors Voice: POV for a wonderful POV from one of LA's top voiceover talents.
Woo hoo!
As always, THANK YOU for reading!
Cheers,
-Bon.
Live your dreams! If you don't, someone else will.
Posted by bonnie at July 1, 2007 11:23 PM
Comments
Hi Bonnie,
Thank you for this wonderful look into the lives of working mothers at auditions!
I'd love to reprint this article at VOX Daily for our Family Week next week.
Let me know what you think and we'll discuss links, etc. :)
Take care,
Stephanie Ciccarelli
VP Marketing at Voices.com
P.S. I too know Anna Vocino - a lovely lady and inspiration to other working VO moms.
Posted by: Stephanie Ciccarelli at July 6, 2007 12:53 PM