Anti—Mask Actors: Endangering Their Career, Industry & Society

#AntiMaskActorsHaveNoCharacter

Actors and masks. Actors have relied on masks for more than 3,500 years. Parading in the pageants of Ancient China. In Europe between the 16th to 18th centuries performing commedia dell’arte, a theatrical form reliant on masks. The union of actors and masks dominated Ancient Greek Theater, considered the cornerstone of modern western theater. Masks amplified the Greek actor’s voice and character. Two masks commonly utilized had a basis in Greek mythology. A mask symbolizing the Muse of Comedy. A mask symbolizing the Muse of Drama. These two masks paired form the universal emblem representing the profession of acting. Ironic that despite the iconic acting trade emblem there are anti-mask actors. Actors rejecting the wearing of a mask as protection during a pandemic crippling their business of acting. Anti-mask actors willfully endangering themselves and their industry. The anti-mask actors are not being asked to wear the non-porous wood, leather, or cork appliances which engulfed the faces of their thespian predecessors who performed in sunlight.  But a small, cloth mask. Covering only mouth and nose. An aide to protect the anti-mask actor from receiving or spreading a deadly virus.  As infection and death rates rise related to COVID anti-mask actors, who professionally traffic in fiction, choose in life to dismiss the reality of science recommending masks as a safety protocol.

An anti-mask actor recently shared on Facebook a post by an unidentified anti-mask author irresponsibly alleging, “the recommendations [for wearing masks] have never been about health or safety they are about control and compliance.”

The anti-mask actor added the hashtags #UncomfortableTruth #KeepingItReal.

What the anti-mask actor fails to recognize are these uncomfortable truths:

#UncomfortableTruthMasksSaveLives:

From:  World Health Organization, 10.9.2020

“Masks are a key measure to suppress transmission and save lives. Masks reduce potential exposure risk from an infected person whether they have symptoms or not. People wearing masks are protected from getting infected. Masks also prevent onward transmission when worn by a person who is infected.”

#UncomfortableTruthMaskUseInJapanControlledCovid:

From: Washington Post, 09.19.2020
As Infections Ebb, Japan Hopes It Has Cracked The Covid Code on Coexisting with The Virus

“TOKYO — There are no laws telling you what to do, but everyone knows the rules. Wear your mask, keep your distance, sanitize your hands, have your temperature checked. Don’t touch, don’t shout. Don’t cheer at soccer matches, and don’t scream on amusement park rides. (But if you catch the virus, it just might have been your fault.)…

“Months before the rest of the world woke up to masks and the dangers of confined spaces and dense crowds, Japan set out to find a way to live through the pandemic without a draconian lockdown…

“The virus…. spreading through microdroplets — not just through coughs, sneezes and contact, but in microparticles floating and circulating in the air, [is] what scientists call ‘aerosol transmission.’…

“Mask use was critical in containing a virus spreading through the air, while scientists concentrated on spotting and eliminating clusters of infection….”

(Aerosol spread of an exhale by a human not wearing a mask. Source: CNN)

#UncomfortableTruthCovidRatesRiseAfterTrumpRallies:

From: CNN, 10.29.2020
Many Counties that Hosted Trump Rallies had a Significant Increase in Covid-19 Cases

“A CNN investigation of 17 Trump campaign rallies finds that 14 of the host counties — 82% of them — had an increased rate of new Covid-19 cases one month after the rally.

“The 17 rallies occurred between August 17 and September 26. CNN evaluated the rate of new daily cases per 100,000 residents at four weeks before the rally, on the rally date, and four weeks after the rally at the county level and at the state level…

“CNN’s analysis also found that in 10 counties, the new rates of infection were growing faster than the overall rate for the state…

“Some of the rallies that were surveyed included the Trump campaign’s September 12 rally in Minden, Nevada. In the month before the rally, cases had begun to fall. But four weeks after the event, the rate of new cases in the county skyrocketed by 225%, outpacing the 74% increase the rest of the state experienced in the same time period…”

Uncomfortable truth: The chance for transmission is higher due in part due to lack of social distancing and many attendees not wearing face coverings. Trump rallies are attended largely by anti-maskers not wearing masks.

With few face masks and no social distancing to reduce the risk posed by the coronavirus, supporters wait for the arrival of U.S. President Donald Trump during a campaign rally at Phoenix Goodyear Airport October 28, 2020 in Goodyear, Arizona. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The anti-mask actor claims her fiction is “keeping it real.” Here is keeping it real reality:

#KeepingItRealNoMasksMeansNoJobs:

Broadway is shut down until at least May 30, 2021. 97,000 workers who rely on Broadway for their livelihood and an annual economic impact of $14.8 billion to the city.

Live entertainment nationally: theater, tours, performance in dance, concerts—any live performance attended by a large audience cannot occur until COVID within our borders is controlled and/or eradicated.

#KeepingItRealMaskWearingMeansMoreJobs:

From: SAG-AFTRA

“SAG-AFTRA’s Protocols Based on ‘The Safe Way Forward’ require that actors hired, go through multiple rounds of testing, quarantine before and after the contracted work, and that while on set when not being on-camera, masks must be worn.”

#KeepingItRealPandemicMeansGlobal:

Many anti-maskers are of an opinion that the COVID pandemic is a “scamdemic.” A conspiracy perpetrated by the U.S. Democratic Party during a presidential election so as to discredit the rival Republican occupying the Oval Office. COVID pandemic deniers don’t understand that a “pandemic” is basically a global epidemic — an epidemic that spreads to more than one continent. American COVID pandemic deniers explain away the 46.3 million COVID infections and related 1.2 million deaths globally by suggesting media and governments in all nations are co-conspirators aiding the U.S. Democratic Party. Russia with your 1.6 million COVID infections and 28K-plus deaths, are you listening?

World COVID rates as 10.31.2020 – U.S. rates in the aqua-blue.

#KeepingItRealMeansKeepingAntiMaskersReal:

Anti-maskers who believe that suggestions for, or mandates requiring, wearing a mask during a pandemic violates personal freedom, is unconstitutional, or a diabolical plot for control: a question. When you’re outside of your home and among the public as you shop, run errands, get take-out, or attend religious services: are you naked? If not, why do government mandates/ordinances requiring you to wear clothing covering your genitalia, and other areas of your body not violate your personal freedom?

#KeepingItRealSaveYourselfSaveTheWorldWearAMask!

ABOUT PAUL RUSSELL – PAUL RUSSELL CASTING

Paul Russell has been in the entertainment industry for over forty years as an award-winning casting director, director and the author of NEW & EXPANDED edition of ACTING: Make It Your Business. He’s cast for 20th Century Fox, HBO, Broadway, and regional theater. Featured in American Theatre Magazine, Paul has directed premiers, and at the Tony-award recognized Barter Theatre. He teaches master classes at university BFA and MFA actor training programs, and privately online with actors globally. Paul began his career in entertainment as a successful working actor.

Visit Paul & Paul Russell Casting @ PaulRussell.net.

Visit the NEW & EXPANDED edition of ACTING: Make It Your Business – How to Avoid Mistakes and Achieve Success as a Working Actor!
http://www.ActingMakeItYourBusiness.com

A New World for Actors Post-COVID

We’re creative as f**k. We will figure out our new normal. We did post-9/11, and we will in a post-COVID world.

Answers For Actors guest columnist, Douglas Taurel: actor-playwright-producer.

“Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.“

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Our artistic world today is, without a doubt, scary and a little depressing. It’s so hard to see the future optimistically as an actor. All the cornerstones that we have known as actors are disappearing. Businesses that were the center of our acting lives have closed. Rehearsal and casting studios across the U.S. are vanishing, and I don’t think they will ever come back. Bastions of the acting world, that I thought could never be touched, are beginning to crack. Broadway won’t even think about coming back until 2021, and when it does it won’t be at full capacity. Theater margins were already incredibly tight in a rational world but to be forced to 25 percent—or even 50 percent audience capacity?—fuhget about it. The shutdown will have a severe ripple effect on every aspect of the entertainment community worldwide. The entire acting eco-system that stretches from Los Angeles to New York to London and beyond and everywhere in between is dying. It’s like we’re a strapped-in audience of a horrific Broadway musical wrought with bad acting, atrocious singing, horrible costumes… and there’s still twenty-five acts to go. Make it stop!

I moved to New York City from Texas in January of 2000. I remember 9/11. As a young, green actor walking out of the Twin Towers when the second plane hit, I thought, ‘Hmmm, perhaps this was not the right move.’ Post-9/11 was just as scary. The entertainment industry took a massive economic blow across the U.S. Everything that we knew as actors was profoundly changing. And making acting careers more difficult was a writers’ strike compounding the economic woes for us as actors. Can you say, “Non-Union?”

But post-9/11 we found a way to get through challenges. Life and artistry is never easy. The ‘hard’ is what makes both so beautiful and amazing, plus why we live and create. Our happiness as actors will come from what we focus our energy on, and what we create. I began to write, and I found opportunities for myself. There will be plenty of opportunities for us all. We’re artists, We’re creative as fuck. We will figure out our new normal. We did post-9/11, and we will in a post-COVID world.

We are experiencing a seismic shift in our artistic world. But seismic shifts have always happened. Silent pictures became talkies. Radio dramas and variety shows found new life on live television. Black and white became color on TV and movie screens. Air-broadcast TV dominated by three major networks became a gluttony of programming with cable TV. Cable went to digital to streaming, and on and on. Think about all the artists who were left behind because they chose not to adapt to the technology of the day.

We’ve gone full circle to how acting used to be at the very beginning. We are going to have to become producer/writers like Shakespeare. In Shakespeare’s day actors had to create, write, and produce their work, and then had to find an audience. Today, creating for and, reaching people is easier than it ever was. We will have to learn how to change, and that change will be through technology and creating new content.

However, the new world will ask that you tackle the beast that is technology. Technology will be the key to opening the doors to your future. You don’t have to master it. But you cannot run from it anymore. Not in a post-COVID world. Gone are the days when as actors can say, “I’m not good with technology” –those days are gone! Tackle a little bit of technology every day. That knowledge will build up over the week, months, and years.

Look for success in the things you can control, and the one thing we can all control is creating content. Self-creating content was the answer post-9/11, and it will be the answer for us in the afterlife of COVID. As actors, writers, casting directors, and artists, we can all have a podcast, have a YouTube channel, write, and all shoot a film or create a series with our iPhones. Our ability to create content today is endless, and it will open many doors for us in our new world.

I created and recently uploaded a film on Vimeo On Demand, and onto Amazon. I have a podcast. A blog. A YouTubechannel. I share my artistic thoughts. I own platforms, and distribution channels that I could have never dreamed of ten or fifteen years ago. I create characters, record monologues, and share them with producers, directors, and casting directors. When I was studying with Wynn Handman twenty years ago at Carnegie Hall, if I wanted to be in a movie or get that new credit on IMDB, I had to be cast by a gate-keeping casting director in something. Not today. I control the gate.

The most genuine truism of all is, work will always beget work. It was true in Shakespeare’s days, the Golden Era of Television, post-9/11, and will be true post-COVID.  Focus on what you can do, what you can control, and what you can create. ‘What’ is up to you, not someone else. That is all that matters. It’s all that ever mattered. It’s what our identity should be and where our happiness lies.

We all can do this. You can do this!

(P.S. – If you need help or have any questions: Please feel free to reach out to me at www.DouglasTaurel.com or via my social media platforms listed below.)

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About Douglas Taurel:

Taurel has been nominated for the United Kingdom Amnesty International Award for his play The American Soldier.  Taurel was twice invited to perform The American Soldier at the Kennedy Center. The Library of Congress commissioned Taurel to write and perform his follow-up play An American’s Soldier Journey Home. He’s appeared in numerous TV shows and films including his recently released TV series Landing Home which he wrote and directed. 

Douglas Taurel online:

www.DouglasTaurel.com
www.TheAmericanSoldierSoloshow.com
www.LandingHomeWebSeries.com 

Social Media:

Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / YouTube / LinkedIn

About Paul Russell – Paul Russell Casting

Paul Russell has been in the entertainment industry for over forty years as an award-winning casting director, director and the author of ACTING: Make It Your Business. He’s cast for 20th Century Fox, HBO, Broadway, and regional theater. Featured in American Theatre Magazine, Paul has directed premiers, and at the Tony-award recognized Barter Theatre. He teaches master classes at university BFA and MFA actor training programs, and privately online with actors globally. Paul began his career in entertainment as a successful working actor. Visit Paul & Paul Russell Casting @ PaulRussell.net.