Atlanta Unifieds returns, ready to connect performers with theaters
This story was originally published by ArtsATL.
After several inactive years, Atlanta Unifieds auditions have returned, with several hundred performers and creatives looking to make quick impressions on Atlanta’s theater community. Co-produced by the Georgia Theatre Conference, the event is set for today and Tuesday at the Alliance Theatre.
Atlanta Unifieds was created more than a decade ago by C4 Atlanta, a nonprofit arts service organization that equipped metro Atlanta artists with tools and skills to prosper. The private event was a big cattle call audition, according to Georgia Theatre Conference Executive Director Jono Davis — the biggest opportunity for artists in the Southeast to impress professional theater companies, all gathered in one room and eager to see new faces. During the pandemic, however, C4 dissolved, as did Unifieds.
As part of the 62-year-old Georgia Theater Conference, a job fair of sorts used to be held annually. With rotating locations, it was hard to track professional auditions. But Davis came up with a plan.
“We had this epiphany this year: Why don’t we just nix this and start Unifieds again, something that people know in a more centralized location?” said Davis. “We tossed (the idea) out to a few different companies and asked if there was interest in reviving it, and everyone said yes. So Unifieds is now a Georgia Theatre Conference program.”
It was not difficult to round up metro theater companies to participate, said Davis. “The city has been without Unifieds for so long, they were hungry for it.” No one balked at the pay threshold either. Participating theater companies must pay their actors and other artists a minimum of $250 a week.
In all, 26 theater companies and casting agencies are expected today and Tuesday, including one from Valdosta, Peach State Summer Theatre, and one from Florida, Emerald Coast Theatre Company.
Every actor who signed up has a strict performance guideline of 90 seconds, whether it’s contrasting monologues or a snippet from a song, while designers and stage technicians can take a portfolio or show examples of their work onstage. “Someone in the room will be timing them. That keeps us on track,” said Davis.
The event will host 330 performers, designers and tech artists onstage over two days. They are required to have two professional credits on their resume to participate. Some college students and younger performers are also allowed, but they, too, must have credits. It’s an opportunity for talent to be in the same space as those who could potentially hire them.
The 600-plus artists on the waiting list can submit their auditions virtually. “There is so much authenticity to a live audition,” said Davis. “Having said that, virtual auditions are a great opportunity to be in everyone’s database and for theater companies to have 900 new faces.”
Synchronicity Theatre Artistic Director Rachel May believes she and her organization have participated every time Atlanta Unifieds has been held in the various iterations.
“We have used (the event) all the time in different ways,” she said. Sometimes that means developing a list of people they find interesting, and other times it’s seeing actors before casting a show and offering callbacks for those that may fit a role. The designer showcases have been valuable to May, too, spotlighting creatives who may be new to town or just out of school.
She considers Atlanta Unifieds “a critical part of the theatrical infrastructure. It provides comprehensive and open access. The way it has been designed with the virtual submissions is a huge boon to the theaters. You have that searchable database (to) look at people I wouldn’t see normally.”
The event is particularly beneficial for actors who don’t know how to access audition notices or callbacks — or have availability challenges for general auditions that a theater may host just once a year.
“For existing actors, some people just don’t work consistently because of day jobs,” said Davis, “so it’s a way for them to be reintroduced into these companies and say they are still interested in being hired.”
Davis himself went through the process in 2012, auditioning the musical theater track with a monologue and a song, and he feels it opened many doors. “I thought, ‘I’ve never worked with half of these theater companies, and I’d love for you all to see the work I do.’” It took him some time to get work, but he was eventually contacted by Aurora Theatre before the company’s 2014 staging of “Les Misérables.”
Atlanta Unifieds doesn’t guarantee jobs or callbacks. At a minimum, though, it gets artists documented at theaters.
“The hardest thing to do is get your foot in the door,” Davis said, “and this is the ultimate networking event for an artist.”
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Jim Farmer received the 2022 National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Award for Best Theatre Feature and was a Online Journalist of the Year nominee. A member of five national critics’ organizations, he covers theater and film for ArtsATL. A graduate of the University of Georgia, he has written about the arts for 30-plus years. Jim is the festival director of Out on Film, Atlanta’s LGBTQ film festival, and lives in Avondale Estates with his husband Craig.
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