Austin Actors Conservatory New Year!

The Austin Actors Conservatory kicked off the New Year in January by hosting the 2013 SAG Awards Viewing Party in Austin. Industry professionals and the Austin community came together at Spiderwood Studios in support of our newly merged union and to honor outstanding performances in television and film, with all proceeds benefitting TXMPA. With a red carpet and photographers, door prizes for best dressed, live auction and ballot winners, the evening was filled with laughs; rubbing elbows with directors, filmmakers and producers; and awesome food and drink specials in celebration of our industry.

The Austin Actors Conservatory (AAC), created in 2008, has been a real benefit to our members in Central Texas. Since its inception, AAC has consistently produced a wide array of educational seminars for the advancement of both our membership and the broader community of actors, providing networking opportunities and workshops that have included agent, casting director and acting teacher panels, and one-on one auditioning workshops with casting directors Beth Sepko, Karen Hallford, Sally Jackson and Divisek Casting. In 2012, workshop highlights included a one-on-one workshop with Sherry Thomas (Bialy-Thomas Casting), Los Angeles-based casting director for The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad and Vegas; voiceover techniques; conversations with major industry players; a tutorial on HD makeup application; informative workshops on New Media; and presentations debunking the myths of using SAG contracts. 

The event and workshop lineup for 2013 will continue to provide excellent resources to the Austin community, including Los Angeles-based actor-teacher-author of One Less Bitter Actor – The Actor’s Survival Guide, Markus Flanagan. Back by popular demand, voiceover actor and demo producer extraordinaire Bettye Zoeller will concentrate on audiobook narration in April. In May, an event sure to be of great interest and benefit to not only AAC members but also the greater Central Texas acting community, will be an informative workshop of How to Work Union in a Right-to-Work State. Coming in June, Just Shoot Yourself virtual auditions. Texas actors are experiencing a boom in casting requests from locations such as New Orleans, Albuquerque and Atlanta. This workshop will teach techniques and best practices for professionals doing self-directed submissions on tape, without costing an arm and a leg. Our popular Script to Screen program returns in July with a staged reading of a screenplay yet to be determined. So, if you’re a screenwriter, please send your submissions to Sheila Cooper for consideration.

An Afternoon of Casting Directors will be our featured event in August. Already booked for November are two sessions — Social Media 4 Actors: one for beginners and one for the advanced, with Los Angeles guru Ben Whitehair. More guest teachers and artists are already in the works to take us through the end of 2013.

SAG-AFTRA members may join the conservatory for $25 annually with the cost of most workshops being free or a nominal charge. If you are on the fence about joining the conservatory, these workshops alone will be an adjunct to your career budget.

We are truly blessed in Austin to be surrounded by filmmakers, musicians, crews, producers, directors and an indomitable amount of talented actors. We are preparing our acting community with the tools necessary to work in the careers we have chosen for ourselves, as more and more film production comes to Texas. Our motto: Create homegrown industry opportunity and bring more business to members!

AAC is now looking to add committee members with event and marketing backgrounds. If you live in Austin and are interested in participating, please contact Sheila Cooper. All AAC events are subject to change. For a current list of AAC Events, click here.

This item was originally featured in the April 2013 local newsletter.