UPDATE ON SCREEN ACTORS GUILD THEATRICAL CONTRACT
They are still working on it. There have been some recent back-channel talks, but it remains to be seen whether SAG members will approve of what our negotiators have unofficially worked out with the producers.

Another Hollywood union, the Writers Guild, recently made an interesting mistake that I hope SAG negotiators will find instructive. Here's what happened: ABC-TV bought a popular web-only show entitled In the Motherhood. On MSN-TV (Internet), the program was attracting over 5 million viewers per episode, so it is easy to understand why ABC might have become interested. The trouble is that the web-only format included interaction with viewers who were encouraged to send in their personal stories about child rearing. The idea was that viewer submissions could be used in future scripts. ABC tried to move the show - including the viewer interaction part - onto network TV. The WGA immediately protested that viewer-submitted story ideas would infringe on the WGA contracts. ABC caved, and so viewers are now being encouraged to submit ideas in order to "be part of the community". This development could easily kill the new ABC show because the viewer-submitted-stories angle was part of its appeal. This kind of thinking on the part of WGA -- and all performing unions -- is what absolutely must change going forward. It is not a union's function to block producer innovation. Rather than embracing one of the unique aspects of the Internet, the WGA opted to make the producers conform to traditional television operating procedures. Big mistake.

THE GUIDING LIGHT CANCELLED AFTER A 72-YEAR RUN
One by one, the soap operas are going off the air. They were designed for stay-at-home moms, and we don't have many of those any more. The stay-at-home crowd today is older than the desired advertiser demographic. Join me in waving a fond goodbye to the town of Springfield and its residents. Life happened there.

CHICAGO SCENE STUDY
The scene study workshop meets at The Acting Studio, 10 West Hubbard Street #2E, in the Loop. That is located half a block west of Hubbard and State streets. Hours are 7-10:30 on Thursday nights. It is free to audit once, and you can start at any time. Tuition is $135 per 4-week month.

PRIVATE COACHING
I am available for private coaching in Chicago. $75 per hour.

ACTING FOR ANIMATORS WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
May 5-8, Stuttgart, Germany - FMX International Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Digital Media May 11, Erfurt, Germany - KI.KA (children's pub-caster)
May 14-17, Kalamazoo, Michigan - Kalamazoo Animation Festival International
June 17, Greenwich, Connecticut - Blue Sky Studios
Nov 18-27, Swansea Animation Days (SAND), South Wales
Planning - India (still working on it -- stay tuned)
Planning - China (still working on it -- stay tuned)

CRAFT NOTES
"THE DREAM"
There is no "right" time to dream, and there is no right time to be an artist. You would be surprised by the number of E-Mails I receive from people who confess to having had long time dreams about acting, but reality and the demands of making a living have caused them to follow a different path. They can't get rid of their dreams, though, and they often want to know if it is "too late."

It is never too late. Life is not a dress rehearsal. Van Gogh was twenty-seven before he painted his first picture. Henry Miller wrote Tropic of Cancer when he was forty-four. One of my favorites is Norman Maclean, who wrote the novella A River Runs Through It when he was seventy-six. The hit television show The Sopranos was brimming with late blooming actors. Vincent Curatola, who portrayed the New York underboss Johnny Sack, was a masonry contractor until the early '90s. Federico Castellucio, was a painter when he decided to pursue a sister art - acting. Tony Sirico, who played Paulie Walnuts, was an actual honest-to-God criminal before becoming an actor. No, it is never too late. Having said that, following a dream does not mean you have to toss common sense out the window. Unless you are a stash of money, you still have to make a living, pay the rent and maybe support a family. You can't just jump ship in life.

You have to balance your dream with reality. If you are a person who has the actor dream, I suggest that you start the process by asking yourself what your dream is really all about. (It is important to be very honest with yourself about this.) When you day-dream about acting, where do you see yourself performing? On a movie screen? In a soap opera? On the stage? As a guest on The David Letterman Show? If fulfilling your dream is dependent upon you becoming a movie star or a celebrity, you will be wise to think twice before pursuing it. There is a lot you can do to become a good actor, but there is almost nothing you can do to become a movie or television star. Sure, some small percentage of actors will likely become celebrities, but this requires a lot of luck, fortunate timing and persistence, in addition to acting skill. Dreaming of being a movie star is sort of like dreaming of being the Princess of Monaco. Yeah, maybe it is possible, but it is not a very realistic goal.

How much satisfaction and magic do you imagine acting will provide in your life? How important is it that you get paid to act? Are you thinking of making a living from acting? How much money is that? Could you scratch the itch by performing in non-or-low-paying community theater productions while making your living in a day job? If you intend to be paid to act, then it is a good idea to put on your business-person's hat for a minute and consider a few realities along with your dream.

The frustrating truth is that, especially in the United States, very few people make a living from their art, whether that be acting, music, dance or painting. Eighty-five percent of the members of Screen Actors Guild earn less than $5,000 per year from their craft. In acting, a middle-income group is practically non-existent. There are thousands of actors who are making zilch or close to zilch, and then there are Will Smith, Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts - who earn in the tens of millions of dollars per movie. An acting career tends to be feast or famine, starving or being over-fed. For twenty-five years, I was fortunate to be in the middle-income group, but I did that by acting on episodic television shows and commercials. Those kinds of programs are an endangered species in an age of low-cost reality-shows like America's Next Top Model and Wife Swap. Advertisers are in the process of moving their clients' money away from television and onto the Internet. New actors today are going to have to be entrepreneurial, seeking out new venues that pay money.

My point is that, if you want to make a living from acting, you really ought to have a realistic game plan regardless of your age. As Antonin Artaud famously observed in his book The Theatre and Its Double, "The actor is an athlete of the heart." He was correct about that, but actors that get paid are also generally hard-nosed realists that are willing to go out there and play tackle football.

Do you have a feeling deep inside that you have a life-perspective that you want to share with others? If so, I think you have what might be called an "artistic impulse". In that case, it is mainly a matter of pursuing the art form that speaks to you most personally. Art of all kinds is about communicating feelings.

In one sense, deciding to become an artist is like finding religion. You wake up one morning and realize that you simply must do this. Even though becoming an artist may not make good logical sense, you will never feel satisfied until you at least try.

There is one more very important benefit to becoming an artist that I want to mention. You will find others like yourself. All of us have a need to communicate. That is, after all, why I wrote these craft notes, and it is why I send you an encouraging cyber-hug.

Until Next Month . . . Be Safe!