SAG Foundation Brings Big-Name Casting Directors to Pittsburgh

The SAG Foundation brought its programs to the Ohio-Pittsburgh region early this fall for the first time — and it was a huge success! Many of our local SAG-AFTRA members participated in the workshops held in on Saturday, Sept. 13, and Sunday, Sept. 14, at the Point Park University Center.

The SAG Foundation worked with the Ohio-Pittsburgh Local to put together some truly beneficial programs for the local members. What resulted was a weekend jam-packed with acting workshops with big-time casting directors. These workshops were open only to SAG-AFTRA members and were completely free.  

Performers interacted in small groups with the casting directors, gathered valuable insight through question-and-answers sessions, performed assigned scenes and received specific critiques on their performances. Matthew Maisto, who was the casting associate for Foxcatcher (which filmed in Pittsburgh), The Hobbit films and many more, offered his time for two workshops that allowed for one-on-one performances. He provided positive energy and great feedback to the performers. Ilene Starger, casting director for Music and Lyrics, Taxi, Night at the Museum and more than 30 other films also lent her time to two two-hour workshops for our members. Her candid and honest critiques were the highlight. Sunday morning began with an open question–and-answer session with 20th Century Fox’s Senior Vice President of Casting Christian Kaplan. He painted a realistic picture of the casting process in the studio environment. He then hosted a workshop for performers following the discussion. Kaplan’s credits include The Fault in Our Stars (filmed in Pittsburgh), The Other Woman, Ice Age, Epic and many more. Local Pittsburgh casting directors Nancy Mosser and Donna Belajac also taught small group workshops, which were a great opportunity for local performers, since they cast most of the local roles in the region.
 

Clockwise from top left, performers listening to the introduction of Ilene Starger’s workshop; Matthew Maisto speaks to a small group of performers after his workshops; SAG-AFTRA performers rehearse their scenes in pairs; Nancy Mosser with Point Park University volunteers; and performers watch a SAG Foundation video before Christian Kaplan’s Q&A session.

Each seat was filled, and each performer left the weekend with some great personal advice. The casting directors also commented that they were impressed with the caliber of talent of our local’s actors. We’re so glad that so many of our local actors were able to take advantage of this opportunity. We’d like to thank the casting directors for their time and Point Park University for working with us on hosting the event. And we would of course like to thank the SAG Foundation for bringing in these casting directors.

For more information on other programs that the SAG Foundation is hosting, please visit sagfoundation.org. Many CAP and LifeRaft sessions are live streamed online from L.A. and NYC so that members throughout the country can participate.

The Screen Actors Guild Foundation provides vital assistance and educational programming to the professionals of SAG-AFTRA while serving the public at large through its signature children’s literacy programs.

Founded in 1985, the SAG Foundation is a national nonprofit organization, independent from SAG-AFTRA, and relies solely on support from grants, corporate sponsorships and individual contributions to maintain its programs and create new ones.

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