Ken Rea’s Outstanding Actor Class

So people have been asking me about the writer's strike.

Keep the focus on yourself.

But what can you do? Use this opportunity to let go of drama.

There's a great Michael Jordan quote, “Why would I worry about a shot that I haven't even taken yet?”

Everybody is worried about something that hasn't even happened yet.

Now let's talk about how that affects us as a human being.

We're going to talk about that in a moment. But I just want to talk about this subject and my own experience with worrying about a bunch of stuff that I cannot even control. What it does is it uses up my energy. 

When I am worried about something that is truly probably, if you think about it, none of my business.

If I am trying to get somebody to do something, I am out of myself and into control.

So when it comes to this "potential writer's strike," I again urge you to think about keeping the focus on myself, and taking care of myself pays enormous...

Katie Flahive On Camera Class

Time Management Replay

About Lev:

Lev is a celebrated actor, photographer, fine artist, and award-winning filmmaker.

He is currently recurring on Apple TV's FOR ALL MANKIND, and Starz' RAISING KANAN. Lev's acting career covers over 50 films and TV series.

He is widely recognized for his role as Arkady Ivonovich on FX's EMMY WINNING THE AMERICANS, and as the character of Eton on the HBO series THE WIRE.

In film, he has worked with WOODY ALLEN, SUSAN SARANDON, ROBERT DENIRO, and many others. He is set to direct his first feature film in the Fall of 2023.

What really influenced my acting as I got older is when I began to realize that good acting is really bad acting.

So for me, what became really important is behavior. Truthful behavior in imaginary circumstances.

If you approach roles, if you approach parts, if you approach scenes as behavior. Then you're not taking a page and trying to justify what the writer wrote.

I'm not going to pretend to do...

Time Management Workshop

About Geneva:

GENEVA CARR is best known for her portrayal of Marissa Morgan on 6 seasons of the CBS television series BULL.  

Additional TV credits include Law & Order: SVU and Criminal Intent, Rescue Me, Younger, The Mysteries of Laura, Royal Pains, Elementary, The Good Wife, and Sex and the City.  

Film credits include Wonder Wheel, Love and Other Drugs, Ava’s possessions, It’s Complicated, College Road Trip, and the upcoming Asian Persuasion.

Geneva earned a 2015 Tony Nomination for Lead Actress in a Play for her performance as ‘Margery’ in Broadway’s Hand To God. 

Additional NY theatre credits include Trevor, Just Sex, I Wanna Destroy You, Finding Claire, Rose’s Dilemma, Clash by Night, Betty’s Summer Vacation, and Boise. 

You have to create a space where you can find work for yourself.

Bull was my eighth pilot, which I like telling actors about because it doesn't...

Ask Me Anything

Time Management Class

What to get Casting Directors, Managers, and Agents over the holidays. 

This year I’m suggesting one of two things: a thoughtful gift card or a charity donation.  

So a thoughtful gift card would be that you contact someone else in the casting office or agency and ask what their fellow employees like. 

“Hey, are they a Starbucks person, or are they a Costco person? Are they a McDonald's person or a Dunkin Donuts person?” 

And then, you can send them an electronic gift card.  

If you're booking a lot. Yes. You want to be thinking more $50, $75, $100.  

But if you're a new client or you haven't been booking that year, or there's a casting office that has maybe thought of you a few times throughout the year. A simple $20 gift card. A $25 gift card is fine.  

Defaults: 

• Amazon, you can buy anything there.  
• Starbucks, you can get food, you can get coffee, you can get tea 

Or, the...

About Michael:

Michael Kostroff is an established TV and stage actor best known for his role as unscrupulous gang attorney Maury Levy on HBO's legendary series, The Wire. In addition to his many television gigs, he's toured with The Producers and Les Misérables, appeared on regional stages all across the country, served as an advice columnist for Backstage, created the popular workshop "Audition Psych 101" (which focuses on the psychological side of auditioning), and written four books, including his recently published manual, The Stage Actor's Handbook: Traditions, Protocols, and Etiquette for the Working and Aspiring Professional.

The gospel of low expectations. My philosophy is very different from the popular philosophies—no one's entitled to a career. If you decide this is what you want to do, then you're signing on for the unemployment, the insecurity, the inconsistency, and you don't get to...

About Christin Baker:

Christin Baker (A Baker Production) is an award-winning director and Emmy-nominated producer. She has been playing with video producing and storytelling since she was 13 after her family got their first VHS camcorder. She started out directing music videos, and SNL parodies with the neighborhood kids and moved on to start her own digital distribution and production company, tellofilms.com.

She is the co-founder of Tello Films, which focuses on stories for the lesbian/queer community. Tello is the first lesbian/queer network to receive an Emmy Nomination. The series Secs & EXECS has received a 2017 Emmy Nomination for Mindy Sterling, Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Comedy/Drama Series. In 2019 the series "Riley Parra" received 2 Emmy nominations for actresses Liz Vassey and Carolyn Ratteray.

Christin is passionate about telling relevant and meaningful stories. Christin was early in the streaming content creation and founded Tello Films in...

Time Management Workshop

About Jeremy:

Jeremy Redleaf is an Emmy and Streamy award-winning artist and entrepreneur. He tells stories and creates experiences through his Brackets Creative shingle, including "Odd Jobs," the Streamy Winning web series, "3rd Street Blackout," a feature film (Available on Peacock), and the SYFY special "Who Won the Year?" He's the co-founder of Caveday, a global community built around having a healthier relationship to work. Follow him at @jeremyredleaf on all the platforms!

The ultimate multi-hyphenate.

"Every time I was waiting for the phone, he was going out to make something. And I started to get a little jealous of that because it can be disempowering to wait to hurry up and wait or just to wait."

How empowering it is to make your own films, to make your own work.

Successful working actors are very curious.

Curiosity sometimes just comes out of necessity.

"Well, as soon as I built some self-esteem, I encountered, you know, fiercer...

Katie’s Interest List

David Cady Commercial Class

Andrew Dolan's Monologue Slam

About Rick:

Rick first started acting in 1990 when he was cast as Tony in the long-running Off-Broadway hit Tony N' Tina's Wedding. He later made his Broadway debut in the Neil Simon comedy Proposals.

His first film role was in the 1996 short film The Dutch Master, which also starred a young Mira Sorvino.  He recently appeared in Mank, directed by David Fincher. 

In addition to numerous TV roles, including Friends, NCIS, and General Hospital.

Rick also does voice-over work for commercials and video games. Some of his more notable works include Civilization V, Halo 5: Guardians, Batman: Arkham Knight, The Darkness II, and Grand Theft Auto V. In 2010; he voiced Vito Scaletta, the main protagonist of Mafia II and its 2016 sequel, Mafia III.

He is the co-writer and star of the one-man touring show "Channelling The King."

“You need to believe in yourself that that’s what you...

About David:

DAVID CADY is currently a professor of commercial and musical theatre performance at AMDA, NYU, and Pace University.

Prior, he was a casting director for Donna DeSeta Casting for close to 30 years.

In addition to countless commercials, his casting credits include the original Dirty Dancing, Disney’s Enchanted, Michael John LaChiusa’s The Petrified Prince for the Public Theater, and the world premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman’s Whistle Down the      Wind, directed by Harold Prince.  

He was an original cast member of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Merrily We Roll Along, and can be seen in Lonny Price’s film about the experience, The Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened.

Actors don't think like the rest of us. They have a very, very particular way of doing things, and that can lead to actors getting stuck.

You need accountability.

...

About Don:

Don Fullilove is an American screen live-action and animated voice-over actor who has had roles in numerous projects over the course of his fifty-year-plus career in both films and television.

He portrayed Hill Valley Mayor Goldie Wilson in the first Back to the Future film, as well as Goldie's grandson, hovermobile salesman Goldie Wilson III in Back to the Future II.

Donald, who graduated from Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles in 1976, currently resides in Burbank, California.

“Maintain the cockiness. Don't be an asshole because the cockiness is your strength against what the business is going to throw against you.”

“At one point in my career, I wasn't working, and I said, well, maybe your ass needs to go to school.”

Putting the ego aside and learning to love the work.