SCAD presents aTVFest: Day 3
The inaugural aTVFest, hosted by SCAD Atlanta, concluded on February 16. Honoree Phylicia Rashad was awarded the “Outstanding Achievement in Television” award for her work in television spanning over three decades. District was there to cover the highlights from the final day at the festival.
Phylicia Rashad master class
Two-time Emmy Award-nominee and Tony Award-winning Rashad has been in the business for over three decades. Probably most well known for her role as Clair Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” Rashad is an actor, director and producer. Adding the “Outstanding Achievement in Television” award to her accomplishments, Rashad screened her new film, the Lifetime remake of “Steel Magnolias.”
A Howard University graduate, Rashad gave students the advice to “give yourself to the work,” stating “the best things are not easy.”
No stranger to hard work herself, Rashad has immersed herself in stage, film and television work. She most recently directed “A Raisin in the Sun,” the play which earned her a Tony Award for Best Actress in 2004 at the Westport County Playhouse.
Rashad also shared that the greatest piece of advice she ever received was from her mother: “Know your own wonder of being and stay within your element. Be bold, be beautiful, be free.”
“Casting for Television: The Pilot Season”
Every great television show would be nothing without the casting director. Responsible for bringing the show to life, they are the people who put faces to characters who were at one time only names on pieces of paper.
Moderated by SCAD casting office director, Professor Andra Reeve Raab, the panel “Casting for Television: The Pilot Season,” brought veteran casting agents Sheila Jaffe, Melanie Burgess, Katharina Eggman and Mikie Heilbrun to discuss everything from auditioning for new-season pilots to getting your foot in the television-industry door.
When asked what piece of advice they would give up-and-coming actors, Burgess, who cast hit shows such as “Shameless” and “Southland,” simply said to “know that we’re there on your side.”
Seeing between three and four actors every 15 minutes, casting directors are no strangers to the hustle of putting together great television. Pilot season is the busiest time of the year and every director is competing with one another to fit the best actors into their project. For actors, pilot season is also the busiest time of the year for auditions.
“Never make excuses for your reading,” said Jaffe, veteran casting director on more than 40 films and television series such as “Ted” and “The Fighter.” “Bring yourself to the role. You can’t ask an elephant to be a monkey.”
“The Walking Dead”
When asked why they thought zombies were so fascinating to people, Laurie Holden, who plays Andrea, said that she thought they were a “metaphor for people’s fears.” Emily Kinney, who portrays Beth on the series, simply said, “people love what they can’t explain.”
The three also discussed how the series was much more than fighting the living dead.
“It’s a morality tale about the human condition,” Holden said. “At the end of the world, who are you going to chose to be?”
A tight-knit cast, the unpredictability of character’s deaths in the script can be the hardest thing to deal with. Over the last three seasons the group of actors has lost a few major characters.
“We’ve had to bare our souls to one another, so losing a character is more like losing a friend,” said Holden. “There’s no need to prepare for the scene because the emotion is real. We even hold “death dinners” for them to celebrate their time on the show and to honor their character’s death.”
“The Walking Dead” premieres every Sunday at 10p.m. on AMC.
