The Foundation Played Vegas!

"On the last weekend of October, the SAG Foundation held a two-day workshop program in Nevada, a first for our local. Prestigious casting directors from Los Angeles, including Beth Klein, Jason Wood, Christian Kaplan and Russell Boast all came to Las Vegas to participate," said Anna Wendt.

"As many of you may know, the SAG Foundation is an organization for all SAG-AFTRA members nationwide. If you are not already registered on the SAG Foundation’s website, you will want to do so in order to be up to date on all it offers us. Just go to SAGFoundation.org and create an account. The SAG Foundation and its programs are free to members and it is privately funded by donations and not from member dues.

"I was so happy to see so many members participate in the sessions. As part of this event, and one that I attended personally, Klein, vice president of casting for NBCUniversal, held a highly informative Q&A for union members.

"In her 25-plus years in the industry, Klein has been involved in casting thousands of actors for various roles in countless projects. Klein told us that in addition to several projects she’s currently involved with, she was especially excited to have worked on the live version of Peter Pan, which aired on Dec. 4 on NBC. It starred Allison Williams as Peter Pan and Christopher Walken as Captain Hook.

"The tips and tools Klein provided to participants were invaluable, and many had the opportunity to ask specific questions about the casting process. At the end, an actor asked Klein what is one of the areas that is most important to her in the general area of casting, and Klein said, “More and more, what is important to me is that we, as casting directors, continue the diversity initiative, to show the world as we see it, as it really is, and bring that to television and film.”  

"On behalf of our Nevada union members, I would like to especially thank Rochelle Rose, national director of performers programs, and Karina Harris of the SAG Foundation, as well as Julie Crane.

"As 2014 comes to a close, I would like to remind everyone that we welcome any member who would like to submit articles to be included in the newsletter. Please email your article draft to nevada@sagaftra.org.

"Articles should be of general interest to SAG-AFTRA Nevada Local members and are best at 250 to 400 words in length. All submissions are reviewed by the union, both local and national, before publication. We publish our newsletter electronically three to four times per year, so any article submitted is considered for the next future issue. To make sure you are receiving the newsletter by email, as this is the only way it is sent to members, please make sure your contact information is up to date in your member profile of the SAGAFTRA.org website."

This item was originally featured in the December 2014 local newsletter.