With acknowledgment of the big-picture implications of a pandemic that has claimed thousands of lives, cratered global economies and closed international borders, Deadline’s Coping With COVID-19 Crisis series is a forum for those in the entertainment space grappling with myriad consequences of seeing a great industry screech to a halt.
And Kelley and Demegillo, along with their fellow students at even the most prestigious acting schools and universities in the country, will be entering the so-called real world without – or largely without – the rites of passage that have traditionally been academic capstones and professional launchpads: the live student showcases at venues like Chicago’s Apollo Theatre or the Matrix in L.A.
Already, some in the entertainment industry are reaching out to students in new ways. Just yesterday,Warner Bros Television’s casting department has created a virtual platform for students at the undergraduate, graduate and conservatory levels whose final years of training were interrupted or canceled by the pandemic. Flyer-invitations have been sent to about 400 schools requesting student headshots, résumés, and brief introductions.
Among schools that have posted showcases via Virtual College Showcases, with others planning to join, are Columbia College Chicago, Studio School Los Angeles, Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Play House, American Conservatory Theater, Loyola Marymount University’s Department of Theatre Arts, Pace School of Performing Arts, UC Irvine, University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, University of Northern Colorado, University of Southern...
Emma Hoersdig is a fourth-year undergraduate student at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. A native of the Columbus, Ohio area, Hoersdig has studied with Tisch’s Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute since her arrival on the New York campus.
Students at other arts schools, inspired by the Tisch students, started similar drives and petitions, including the Yale School of Art, New York’s School of Visual Arts and the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, to little, if any, effect.