R.I.P. AMC & OLTL

In my dressing room, the day of
my screen test.

The acting world was shaken yesterday with ABC's announcement that they have cancelled daytime staples, All My Children and One Life to Live.  Having worked on both of these shows and having tested for a major contract role on one of them last year, I took the news pretty hard.  It is so much more than an American form of entertainment dying.  It is also so much work that is being lost for those of us in the entertainment industry.  Soaps sometimes get a bad rap because of their outrageous story lines and particular style of acting but these shows are the workhorses of the industry.  Turning out new scripted shows everyday is an incredible feat.  Soaps can be a training ground for many actors and oftentimes, the soaps become a place to call home.  A place to have a career.  The place where actors work year after year, developing characters that have fans like no other fans in this business.  Soap fans are devoted and invested and even though things have changed since soaps started - fifty years ago! - with less people at home during the day, many people record their stories and catch up with them when they have time.  There is a strong core of viewers that are mourning the loss of this form of entertainment.

At some point, almost all actors work on soaps - here's a fun list of some actors that started in daytime.  It is a great place to work when just starting out - as background work, under-5s or dayplayers.  Getting the opportunity to be a contract player is a huge accomplishment. And forget about the actors for a moment - the behind the scenes is a huge machine that is getting cut off.  Soaps employ so many crew members and directors and writers.  What struck me the most when I first was on a soap set was how factory-like the operation is.  There are sets lined up, ones that are permanent, ones that are built overnight, scenes are shot quickly and you move on to the next.   This kind of work standard requires a well-oiled machine and the crews and casts made it happen.  The loss of soaps from the landscape leaves a gaping hole for so very many.

Soaps are how I became an AFTRA member.  Soaps are where I was hoping to get another chance at for a different contract role.  Now, there are less opportunities for actors to get a break.  Soaps being replaced by unscripted talk shows and cooking shows signals how the acting world is seriously shifting.  With reality television continuing to grow in primetime, daytime was a place of refuge.  But not anymore.

So as the model changes, so do we.  We write more and produce new media and try to carve out a space to perform.  And we cross our fingers that one of these forums will eventually become the new way to make a living...because as of now, no one has really nailed down a way to monetize new media.  We do the work for "deferred pay" that we know we'll never see.  We do it in hopes that it will lead to recognition for bigger projects.  That a network or casting director or producer will take notice and say, "There she is!  Just who I've been looking for!"

And we do it because we can't help ourselves...

We love to act.  We love to tell stories.  We love to connect to what connects us all.

You will definitely be missed, AMC and OLTL.  You will definitely be missed.