CHICAGO CLASS SCHEDULE IS IMMINENT!
I will send out a mid-August Hooks Newsletter with specific announcements about my Chicago workshops. Stay tuned.

HAROLD PINTER WEB SITE!
Anybody who is even THINKING of working on a play that was written by Harold Pinter should visit his web site: http://www.haroldpinter.org/. There you will find a ton of background info on his work, reviews of past productions, analyses of all kinds, personal info on Pinter, his politics and all the rest of it. A marvelous resource, highly recommended.

ED'S FINAL SAN FRANCISCO WORKSHOPS....
I will teach my final class in San Francisco on August 30th. If you have wanted to work with me but have not gotten around to it, now would be the time. I will teach one more commercials workshop, on August 25-26, and I will teach scene study in both San Francisco and Palo Alto through the month of August. You have time to work with me on a scene and maybe a monologue or two if you begin immediately.

SCENE STUDY -- San Francisco, Monday or Tuesday night, 7-10:30. Palo Alto, Thursday night, 6:30-10pm. Tuition is $135 per 4-weeks.

COMMERCIALS WORKSHOP -- August 25-26 in San Francisco. 9-4 on Saturday and 10-5 on Sunday. Tuition is $250. There is a ten percent discount for TBA members or for current students in my other classes. If you have taken the commercials workshop in the past and want a refresher, you can do it again for $125.

PRIVATE COACHING -- I can coach you privately if you want to work on monologues or cold readings. $75 per hour.

HOOKS ACTORS WORKING
NICOLE DOHERTY (comml - '00) appears in "The House of Blue Leaves" at the Hillbarn Theatre in Foster City, Aug-24th -Sept 16th. She has also been cast in two more short films, "Pinch Fu", and "Gridlock" both being produced by James Guiterrez at AF Productions. JUDY MARTIN (comml - '99) is in "Nunsense" at Pacifica Spindrift Players in Pacifica, August 24-Sept. 16. Call 650-359-8002 for reservations. ERIC SWARTZ (comml & s.stdy - '99) and DIANE TASCA (s.stdy - current)
appear in the indie film "What's Thicker Than Water." KAREN SEIGEL (s.stdy - '00) is in "Meetin's on the Porch" at the Victory Theatre in Burbank. Previewing in July, opening in August. For reservations, 818-841-5421. JAYSON MATTHEWS (s.stdy and f/tv - current) has been cast in "A Few Gay Men", to run August 9-19 at Theatre Rhino in San Francisco. He also has a role in an upcoming indie film out of Film Arts Foundation, entitled "When the Blood Stops". NATHANIEL MIYAKI (f/tv - current) plays an athlete/frat-guy/rapist in the indie film "For an Eye", for Emily Dell Productions. JESSICA HART (comml - '99) is in Shakespeare's " Merry Wives of Windsor" at the Casa Peralta adobe in San Leandro, July 28 - Aug. 8. For info call 510-895-2573

CRAFT NOTES
"Cue Cards at Commercial Auditions -- Why?"

Screen Actors Guild requires that cue cards be used at commercial auditions if the actor's voice is going to be heard in the final commercial. If a casting director conducts a casting session in which cue cards are not used, he faces the possibility of a strict reprimand from the union. The cue card requirement has been in place nationally since the mid-1970's.

I mention this now because it appears that the non-use of cue cards is on the rise in San Francisco casting sessions. Actors in my two most recent commercial workshops expressed surprise when I began teaching them how to use cue cards. They explained to me that they had taken workshops with SF casting directors and were taught to fold and hold paper scripts while on camera. They were not taught about cue cards at all. When one actor tells me something, I figure that maybe the actor just misunderstood what is going on. When ten actors tell me the same thing, I know there is truth to it. At least ten have told me about the growing non-use of cue cards, and I find it alarming. One actor reported that a casting director had taught him that cue cards are purely optional, and another actor told me that she had not seen a cue card in an audition in "five years."

It is important that Bay Area actors demand the use of cue cards in commercial auditions. Here's why: It is common for commercial casting sessions to be held in more than one city at a time. If a
commercial campaign for Mazda is being cast, for example, it is perfectly normal for casting sessions to be conducted in both Los Angeles and San Francisco. When the session tapes are replayed at the ad agency, the LA actors on tape will have their hands free and will appear more at ease because they are using cue cards. Bay Area actors up for the same roles will look like a bunch of rubes while holding scripts in their hands. Once again, LA actors win.

This cue card requirement is a union thing. If the audition is for a non-union commercial, the casting director can do whatever he or she wants to do about cue cards. I recognize that most of the students in the SF casting directors workshops will be non-union, so I guess that is the rationale for not teaching them about cue cards. If they are non-union, and they are going to audition only for non-union commercials, then who really cares? Well, you should. Everybody starts out non-union. You get into the SAG usually by being cast in a SAG job. That means that, union member or not, you will at some point probably wind up at a union commercial audition. If the casting director is doing what he is supposed to be doing, there will be a cue card in use at that audition, and you ought to know how to use the thing. If a casting director is teaching in a workshop that the use of cue cards is optional, he is lying to you.

I recall that, when I moved to San Francisco from LA twelve years ago, local SF casting directors were not using cue cards at all. I complained to SAG about it, in fact, which led to the increased (and grudging) use of the cards for SF actors. Now, on the eve of my departure for Chicago, I fear the SF casting directors are returning to their old small-market ways.

If you go to an audition for a union commercial, and if that commercial has copy (i.e. words for you to say), there ought to be a cue card, even if you are a non-union actor. If cue cards are not in
use, then your chances of being cast may well be compromised. After you leave the audition, contact Karen Lipney in the San Francisco offices of AFTRA/SAG (415) 391-7510, and tell her about it. She will protect your anonymity, and you will be doing yourself and your fellow actors a favor. If enough actors complain about this, the union will force the casting directors to do the right thing.

The non-use of cue cards is yet one more indication of the inefficient market place faced by actors in San Francisco. I strongly urge that you, the actors, not put up with it.

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