SAG-AFTRA presents The Business of Acting

This workshop will get you prepared for working as an actor. You will hear from SAG-AFTRA representatives, casting agencies, actors and filmmakers about the ins and outs of working in this field. Tips for auditions, headshots, contracts and more.

Naheem Garcia, David J. Curtis and Andrea Lyman will be leading the group in some acting exercises and techniques.

Facilitators:

Andrea Lyman

Andrea Lyman is thrilled to be volunteering at RoxFilm Festival on their 25th Anniversary, Silver Celebration. She can be seen in the premiere of film PLUS 1’s on Friday, June 23 and then later through the online screenings Andrea Lyman Headshot.jpegand in the Daily Reads and on the panel of The Business Of Acting. I love serving on the RoxFilm Festival Board meeting and planning all year. Andrea is a Director of The Secret Society Of Black Creatives Actors Forum and the New England Local President of SAG-AFTRA. She can be seen playing the role of a journalist in the MAX-TV series JULIA and as Pamela in the upcoming feature film UGLY SWEATER and during the holiday season playing a lawyer in A SNOW WHITE CHRISTMAS. Andrea has her own solo musical show BROADWAY LADY. She works in commercials, TV, films, stage and many virtual projects.

David J. Curtis

Born in Washington, D.C., but raised in Boston, MA, David has been blessed to work in television, film and stage since 2004. David J. Curtis is a director, actor, screenwriter, and producer. Some of David’s production credits include co-directing/producing the upcoming short film, “Plus 1s,” acting/producing the full-length psychological thriller “By the Water’s Edge,” (both making the film festival rounds) and many other music videos, promotional and educational videos. A proud SAG/AFTRA member, some of David J. Curtis’ film and television credits include principal roles in Dexter: New Blood, Whiskey Floats, Julia, Kevin Can F- - - Himself, Don’t Look Up, R.I.P.D., The Maiden Heist, Edge of Darkness and many more. With over 20 theatre productions under his belt, his most memorable stage credits include “When January Feels like Summer,” “Brokeology,” “A Soldier's Play,” “The Crucible,” “A Streetcar Named Desire,” and “Mama, I Want to Sing,” He has also been featured in many national and regional television commercials and industrial/educational videos. In addition to acting, David is also an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, composer, music producer, and sound engineer with many credits to his name.

Naheem Garcia

Naheem Garcia arrived in Boston from Cuba in 1968. He is the Founder and Lead Teaching Artist for NG Edutainment, an arts education program, founded in Boston Massachusetts. He has been a teaching artist for the Huntington Theatre Company for over 27 years and recently joined the American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T) as a teaching artist, doing pre-show presentations in several Cambridge and Boston Public Schools, for their production of 1776. Naheem is a long time teaching faculty member for Boston Casting. He is the Speaker in Residence for the METCO Program at Sharon High School in Sharon, MA; leads acting workshops with the Boston Police Department’s youth program, “Acting Up With the 5-0”; and has served as a teaching artist at Salva Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island. He is a member of AFTRA-SAG New England and has appeared in several prominent Hollywood feature films, TV, and local and national commercials. Naheem’s most recent principal roles are, Tire Town (Zandaya Coleman); Money Games ( Co-starring as Professor Gardner); HOLDOVERS ( Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Carrie Preston); I Just Wanna Dance With Somebody; Hocus Pocus 2 (Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy); Somebody (The Whitney Houston Story. Feature); Chili (Ryan Reynolds, Will Ferrell, Octavia Spencer/ Apple TV)

Panelists:

Benjamin Shallop, Senior Business Representative, SAG-AFTRA

Benjamin Shallop (he/him) is the Senior Business Representative for the New England Local of SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), the union that represents actors, broadcasters, stunt performers, singers, and anyone else who may work in front of a camera or a microphone. His duties include managing most freelance contracts and handling field services in New England where he visits film sets to ensure compliance with SAG-AFTRA contracts and engage with film workers over questions about SAG-AFTRA contracts, membership, and the local New England Film Industry. He began his career with SAG-AFTRA in 2012 after working for ten years with labor unions in both the public and private sector including the United Food and Commercial Workers and the American Federation of Teachers. Ben's educational background is in public education and he began his long professional involvement with Organized Labor after his experiences working in a nonunion school in Florida. He's originally from Salem Massachusetts and lives in Salem today.

Lisa Lobel, Co-Owner/Casting Director, Boston Casting

Lisa Schwartz Lobel was born and raised outside of Boston and earned a BA from The University of Hartford. She joined Boston Casting in 1995 and is a proud member of CSA (The Casting Society of America) as well as ICDN (International Casting Directors Network).

In 2021, Lisa was nominated for an Artios Award by the Casting Society of America for Best Local Casting and a Semiramis Award for Excellence in Casting worldwide for SOUND OF METAL, a film that features an almost entirely deaf cast. Recently, Lisa was the local casting director on the Netflix thriller I CARE A LOT, the feature film FREE GUY, Newline’s 2022 take on Steven King’s SALEM’S LOT, and Alexander Payne’s latest film THE HOLDOVERS. Some of her most recent TV casting work includes HBOMax’s JULIA, Showtime’s DEXTER: NEW BLOOD, and the Netflix teen series THE SOCIETY.

Lisa is currently doing local casting on Netflix’ THE PERFECT COUPLE with Nicole Kidman.

Nick Bohling, Extras Casting Director, Boston Casting

Born and raised in MA, Nick Bohling is an Extras Casting Director with a decade of Casting Experience across all the major platforms. He has a BA in Communications from Fitchburg State University with his concentration being in Theater which is where he first fell in love with entertainment. He has since worked all across the country on various projects such as: Yellowstone, Good Burger 2, I Wanna Dance with Somebody, Patriots Day, Stronger, Old Dads, Hubie Halloween, 13 Reasons Why, Kimi, The Matrix Resurrections, Welcome to Chippendales, Perry Mason and many more. Nick is thrilled to be a panelist at the RoxFilm Festival!

Tim Ayers, Owner, Model Club Inc. in Boston

Tim is the Director and Adult Acting Agent for Model Club Inc, a SAG franchised agency in Boston. With 18 years of experience as an agent in both New England and Los Angeles, as well as the owner of Model Club for more than 10 years, he has extensive experience booking actors and models and guiding the careers of many successful local actors. Under his leadership, Model Club became the first agency in New England to represent actors for on camera work more than a decade ago and Tim currently represents a large and diverse roster of actors for commercial, theatrical and voice over work