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When Andy Rich was a teenager, he daydreamed of becoming an actor and showing up in television or movie productions, except for one small detail.
A small-town boy from Le Roy getting anywhere in Los Angeles seemed like a foolhardy pursuit.
“I told myself that was like a silly dream and that I should get a real job,” Rich said during an interview with The Batavian. “So I just gave up on it until I turned 25 or 26. And then I started finding commercial work. I’m 37 now and have probably been in 100 commercial films and television productions. The biggest thing I’ve done recently is I produced a film with Alicia Silverstone.”
His portfolio includes “Pretty Thing” as a producer; movies “Halloween Inferno Part 3” and “The Ultimate Playlist of Noise” as an actor; and commercials for Rozwell Park and Independent Health.
A 2005 Le Roy High School graduate who was involved with Batavia Players and was on the group’s board of directors in 2022, Rich now wants other aspiring actors who may be reticent about working in the field of acting or are making an attempt but with no clear road map to get some tools to help them out.
Supported by a grant through the state Council on the Arts, and locally administered by GO Art!, Rich is offering two workshops of Acting for Large Markets from noon to 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 3 and 4 at Main St. 56 Theater, Batavia. Residents of Genesee, Livingston, Orleans and Wyoming counties may pick one of the sessions to attend for free.
“The reason I’m doing this is because when I got started, there just weren’t any resources for this type of thing. No classes, no one to explain to you how to get started, you were here to figure it out on your own. It took me the better part of 10 years to figure it out. How can I make this dream something real? So that’s the point of this class, is to essentially give people the tools that they need to get started. It is like a jumping-off point.”
There will be two others from the field providing their expertise:
Educator, coach and casting director Amy Gossels will talk about Mastering your Camera Auditions and offer lessons about “innovative on-camera audition techniques that will elevate your auditions and gain coveted industry insight to boost your career.
Gossels has cast more than 1,500 commercials and has been the casting director and, in many cases, a producer for more than 100 film and television productions during her 25-year career in the industry.
- Andria Schultz is a brand strategist and consultant for entertainment professionals and organizations. She has worked on the production team for a variety of popular television programs, including “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and Disney Channel’s “Bizaardvark.”
Participants will learn more about honing their actor’s brand — for example, do you have that villain look?
“A lot of casting directors nowadays look for the look first, and then they’ll look at your audition if they’re interested,” he said.
Gossels will also offer tips on how to properly do a casting audition, Rich said, “and she’s not easy to get ahold of,” so making the connection with her is also a plus.
“This is going to give you all the work you need to do to get ready,” he said. “They’re going to get the opportunity to learn a lot of things that they maybe didn’t know as well and they’re gonna be able to make connections with people who have more industry connections than I do.”
He considered not promoting the class and just hoping for the best that people would learn of it and sign up. But then, he thought, “What a waste for it not to be full.”
He has learned the hard way about what not to do or say on set and in auditions, he said, and this is someone’s opportunity to start off on the right foot.
People can make innocent mistakes — say by talking too much on set — that gets them banned from future projects, and they may never know why. It’s a tough business, and the more you learn upfront about what’s expected of you, the likelier it is that you’re called back for other gigs because casting directors will remember you as the cooperative actor, not the difficult one.
And the really good news is that you don’t have to live in Los Angeles to get acting jobs, he said. Western New York is a burgeoning region for the field; there are commercials made for insurance and other familiar companies that are always looking for people of various ages.
New York State makes some eight I Love New York commercials each year, he said, and directors are always looking for people to serve as families in those projects.
Getting more interested? Registration will close by the end of July. To sign up, email iamandyrich@gmail.com with your preferred date of either Aug. 3 or 4. He hopes to see you there.
“I still have a really soft spot for small-town living, and Le Roy means a lot to me, and I just think that people in the region, the Western New York region, deserve more opportunities," he said. "I think a lot of people grow up thinking that there’s only a certain amount of options that are available to them. And I just want people to think differently, that the world is their oyster if they try hard enough.”
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