Transcript - Raissa Katona Bennett Interview
(note - there may be typos in this transcript since it was done fairly quickly)
Martin: Today we have Raissa Katona Bennett who is a professional actress and she's here to talk a little bit about her acting career and how she markets and promotes herself. Thanks so much for joining us today in this interview, I really appreciate you being here. I'd like to start off just, if you don't mind telling us a little bit about your acting career. How did you get into acting and what would you say are one or two of your biggest accomplishments so far?
Raissa: My biggest accomplishments was that I played Christine [inaudible 00:54] on Broadway. I was the understudy and I went on many times. I did that five years. That was very wonderful. I did the national Tour of Casts, which I loved and also parade and I just recently made my debut on Law and Order as the judge Joan Callahan, Law and Order SVU. That was exciting. That's one of my highlights. I always wanted to perform from the time I was a little kid. I went to college and got my degree in music, voice and music education, minor in psychology, knowing that I could always teach or perhaps go into psychology. But my primary passion was to try and make it as an actor first. Luckily that happened so I didn't have to go back. I did teach school for a couple of years. My former husband needed a ride to the New England Theater Conference auditions up in Boston, which was many, many years ago before you were born. I had a car, so I drove him up and I was able to audition as well, and we got called back to all of the same theaters and got offers to the same theaters and I never went back to teaching. So that's how I got started.
Martin: You mentioned your Broadway role and also getting onto Law and Order, which is amazing. I want you, if you don't mind, tell us a little bit more about those accomplishments. How did you achieve those and what factors do you think contributed most to those two successful things happening?
Raissa: As far as Broadway goes, I just always knew I wanted to make my living in theater. My dream was to do a Broadway show, but I wasn't really sure it was possible. Every morning I got up and auditioned and I had roommates that would actually tease me that I went out for any audition whatsoever. If a zany female performer was one of the audition calls. My roommate was teasing saying, Oh, you're a zany female performing now. I just want to audition and keep my audition shops up and be available for anything. So I got my first big show with cast and I got that by going to an open call, an EPA. Same thing with Phantom. I never had an agent for any of my big shows. First big thing I got through an agent was Law and Order. It was a matter of just me setting a priority system for myself, a structure. Creating a structure as an actress is so important because you're not really answering to anybody but yourself. So I structured my day to go through at the time was just Backstage Newspaper and you went through and you pick up what audition notices you're going to go for. Scheduled my week and my work week around when I can go to the auditions. It was pretty tough back then, honestly, compared to what it is today because we would often have to wake up at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning outside the Equity building. That's when I was Equity.
When I was Non-Equity, it was even scarier. I guess I had to stick to the [inaudible 04:30] of it, I was just like, "I'm going to go for this while I'm young and have no responsibilities other than myself and just push ahead and see what happens." I'm not really sure. I guess it's a matter of degrees, keeping your skills up, keeping your voice training, your dance training. If the truth be told, I didn't have any formal acting classes until after I was out of Phantom. That's when I finally had the time and money for it. Any training I had was in voice, in dance, and on the job. Then as far as the most recent one Law and Order, as I've transitioned out of most of the biggest jobs that I had up until the last 15 years where it's all [inaudible 05:44] and then obviously you're not going to be a [inaudible 05:45] forever. How do you transition out of that into a young leading lady into an older leading lady or character actor, which is where I am now. I am fortunate enough now to be represented by Firestarter Entertainment Agency and they essentially are very marketable right now for television and film. They started submitting me for those sorts of things. I'm happy to say that my first audition for Law and Order, I booked and I'm just thrilled because it’s one of my favorite shows in the world, I watch it pretty much every day.
They helped to guide me towards what the right kinds of photos were. It's interesting talking to you about that because I know you started out as a photographer. Back when I just started in this business you would have composite headshots where it was like four shots on one page and then they went away from that. Now in the digital age it’s almost getting back to that where my agent said to me I'd like a picture of you as a leading lady, as a character, as a doctor, as a lawyer, as a pediatrician, all sorts of different things, as a cougar. Now on my website and on my actors access profile I have pictures of those things because they're digital. It's not like I had to pay tons of money to get those all printed up. So I started doing it that way. I had footage from commercials and some industrial things that I had done over the years and I stayed up with the technology. I happen to love technology. So I work every week with a friend of mine, Joshua Dejardin, who's a genius at Mac and also a website designer and all sorts of stuff. We work every week and we're working to update my website and to put some new content on it. I write a blog and I try to keep that current and things like that just to keep a presence going. I also have had casting people say to me that when they were in a crunch and they needed somebody right away I were to recommend that they can go right to my website and see everything they needed to see because I've got my YouTube stuff up there with me singing, I have my scenes, my resume and lots of pictures. So I'm making it as easy as possible for people to hire me and find me.
Martin: That's excellent. A website, having a web presence is so important. Actors, especially newer actors almost at times don't think that they're ready for a website yet. It's kinda like, "I'm brand new in this and I just need my headshot and my resume." But really you can actually make a website and there's plenty of ways to make one these days for free too.
Raissa: Yeah it's easier than ever.
Martin: Exactly. Something that's actually really important that you brought up earlier is the whole idea of the comp-card. Back in the past when you had to bring in a physical one, the reason that you want that is because the casting directors don't like to use an imagination. It's not because they don't want to or they don't have imagination. It's just because they don't want to guess. Cause there's that saying if you assume it makes an ass out of you and me. So they don't want to assume that someone can play something. If you have images of yourself that show you being able to play all those different parts it makes it much easier to get cast for those types of things. One thing that's actually really useful that some actors don't consider but benefit from having is a website where you create individualized pages for each of those character types. So rather than just having a website that says photos and you click photos and then it's like you in different types, you can actually have some pages that are like me as the cop or something. Then you have pictures of you playing cops, you link to different projects where you played cops or have a reel for that and you have info about like, why you enjoy playing cop roles. Then all you gotta do is send them the link to that page as opposed to a generalized linked to your entire website. Instantly they're like, wow, this person's an expert on this.
Raissa: That's interesting. I never thought of that. I like that idea.
Martin: Yeah. Again, it's a benefit to having a website and having someone who you're friends with who can design it or creating it yourself where you can easily make pages.
Raissa: So my website is multidimensional because I do a lot of things and I purposely made it as one website rather than doing an actor website, animal rescue website, spiritual website. Because I find that all of those things, all of the people that are interested, like for example, I'm an expert in dog rescue, people that follow me on Instagram with my dog rescue then will go into my website and then they will click to sign up for my newsletter. Then I'll end up finding those people at some of my cabaret shows! So I like the idea that it's multiple streams of marketing, that they're coming from everywhere. So I don't want to separate my website out. My question is, if I were to do what you're suggesting, does that make too many pages for somebody like me?
Martin: What you would do is basically like, just a technical thing for that. If you have a website, like let's say that for instance, my website talks about martinbentsen.com and I primarily promote marketing strategies for actors and branding and all of that. But I also shoot headshots and I also do some other things that I'm involved in. You can actually create your website so that it's primarily focused on what you want it to be. Then you can make pages that are sort of like hidden and they link to those pages within other pages. So if someone is reading on your page about how you act on things and then it's talking about how you love playing police officer roles, you can make the button, the police officer be clickable and that'll take them to a hidden page that's not necessarily at the top of your menu. So that way it doesn't seem like you do too many things. You don't want a busy menu.
Raissa: So that's great. I'm just making a note of that right now. I'm working this afternoon with Josh.
Martin: Putting too many things in your menu kind of makes it seem like it's a mixture. You want to show that you specialize in something. Your website is about who you are as a person and that's what people want to know. But then you have individual pages that are talking about how you specialize in each different area and you send the link to that page to whoever needs it.
Raissa: Yeah, it makes sense because that's the thing I do want to make. My menu bar is set and I don't want it to be too busy. I see what you're saying. That's a great idea. I'll work on that. Thank you.
Martin: Yeah. Awesome. I have two quick side questions. The first one is just you had mentioned that you studied, I believe in school, a little bit of psychology and some other stuff. Did you say that you also studied acting in school or was that after?
Raissa: It was after. In fact, I went to Hartford college of music in West Hartford. Now it's [inaudible 13:41] music. When I was going there they did not have a musical theater major. You can only be an opera major. There was one musical theater acting class, which I took, it was a great man who has now passed on, a good friend named Robert [inaudible 13:57]. Pretty much everything that I learned that I used going into my career was learned in that class. But it was really more about how to act for song, which is as far as I'm concerned, just the same thing as acting in a scene. So no I didn't study acting in college at all. It was voice, music education and psychology. My first formal acting classes were with a Craig Cornelius, that would've been quite a while ago now. But it was after I had already done Cats and Phantom. I think it might've been after I did Parade too quite frankly. I can't remember, the years all blend together.
Martin: Well, it's good to hear you talk a little bit about that just because sometimes there's actors or there's people who want to get into acting that are not doing it yet and they think because I didn't go to school for it or whatever, I'm never going to be able to be successful or find work. So I think it's just good to remind people of that fact that there's plenty of actors who don't study it and they get into it at any point in their life, even when they're much older they can still do it. If you love something enough and you find out how to get the training you can just do a lot of research really easily online these days to figure it out.
Raissa: My friend Eric Michael Gillett who is also a great acting teacher, I used to study with him as well and learned a lot through him. I used to run a concert series here in Tudor City. There was a woman who accosted me in the street and was telling me how much she loved it, how she used to sing. Long story short, I got her going to an open mic and started singing again and I hooked her up with Eric Michael; she started taking voice lessons with him. Her name is Robin Westville and at this point now she's done several independent films that are going to festivals. She’s done commercials, she’s done several cabaret shows and she's in her 60s and this is someone who was a professional speech pathologist for many, many years. She always loved singing and acting and here she is coming back and she's starting a career now and she's good. I'm really proud of her. She's studied a lot with Eric on it and she's taken some other acting classes too. It's never too late. Interestingly enough, I think if you've got the talent and you've got the drive to give yourself a structure so that you are answerable, you create that structure. Like I said, it's really important. Once you get past a certain age, I was very fortunate to be successful when I was new, we can be a dime a dozen.
There's a lot of young pretty girls running around the city that are incredibly talented. The thing is staying with it until you get older. A lot of these people have great careers and then they raise a family and move out of the city. The talent will become a little bit smaller I think as you get older. So if you're hanging out and you're toughing it out and you've got the challenge and the training behind you and you keep going, I think that you're going to find a level of success that really feeds your soul. Even if you can't make a living of it, if it's something that you just want to do or you need to do for your soul, for you, because you have to. That's one of the things that Eric always says is we'd ask the students, "Why do you sing? Why do you act?" "Because I have no other choice. I have to, it’s part of who I am." So it's good to acknowledge that part of your life and say, "I can do this. Maybe I still have to have another job but I can do this and feel like a whole human being. Cause I'm answering all parts of my psyche and my passions."
Martin: I think that that's a great point about that there's basically less competition. There's more competition at the beginning when you're younger and then there's a little bit less competition from actors as you get older in life. I find that actually it's an interesting kind of trade off. So as you get older there's less competition except your competition generally has a lot more connections. It's a little bit more challenging. But when you're younger there's a lot of competition except no one has any connections. So I feel like, especially like for younger actors, they need to take advantage of that fact that no one has connections and figure out how can I make connections as quickly as possible? It's really important, but the fact that older people do have more connections doesn't necessarily mean that you shouldn't try because a lot of times because there's less competition, there's less people that have certain looks and there's more opportunities.
Raissa: With the world of online it's a whole new world. Kids starting out, coming into the city often come in with an agent because agents go to their student showcases, you've got self-submission with Actor's Access. It's not like it was when I was starting out, there were certain things you couldn't get access to unless you had an agent. That’s not the case anymore. Even though there's some submission there are still probably millions of submissions coming basically crossing offices. But at least you can try and create an online presence for yourself so that people can see who you are and what you do.
Martin: I'd like to ask what are some of the things that you do on a daily or weekly basis to get paid acting work? Tell us a little bit about them and how they've contributed to moving your career forward.
Raissa: I'm going to be very honest with you, at this stage in my life, I'm not as active with that as I know I should be. But there are still things I do on a weekly basis, which is at this point, check through Actor's Access and I will self-submit for things that I think I'm right for. I limit myself now more on where I will work. If I'm talking specifically about theater, I want to stay in the general area. I have my husband and I've got my three kids and my father just recently passed away, so I didn't want to go too far away until while I was still being responsible for his care. So that's part of the whole thing about being responsible for change as you get older. So I limit where I am willing to consider working. That's part of a little bit of what I do now. But I do go on Actor's Access, I check out what’s there. I work on my website every week and add content. I'm lucky in that people reach out to me often through connections. Just this week alone I've said yes to three staged readings that I didn't necessarily go after. I'm always present. For example, a good friend of mine is David Friedman, the cabaret and Broadway composer. He had invited me to an event saying, I think there's some people here that you should know and you should meet. From that, I've gotten actually 2 jobs recently, just being in a room and letting them know what I did and who I was.
Then they reached out to me when they needed me. So I'm doing a reading this coming Monday night, I'm doing a new production piece at the Richfield Play House on June 22nd called Speak and Be Kind which is a kind of a combination concert play that's been created by [inaudible 22:31] and David Friedman about survivors of sexual abuse and its a fundraiser. But all these people that are involved with these things work in other areas. For example, [inaudible 22:44] artistic director of ECT [inaudible 22:49] a fantastic theater company. I help the Music Theater of Connecticut with their new hot summer nights cabaret series. So I stay connected to these people. I guess at this point, my life as I'm talking to you about it now, I do a lot on the producing end and keep myself connected in that way. I'm in the sort in the loop of what people are thinking about. For example, back when I was producing, I produced a nonprofit concert series for nine years in New York City called Music and [inaudible 23:25]. I would have different Broadway actors, singers, people from the great cabaret range, jazz, the best in New York City. We had Eric Michael Gillette, we had [inaudible 23:43], all these people would donate their time and talent to this cause. They became part of my sort of collection of people that I could call upon at any time and say, "Hey, we have a concert, are you available?" Blah, blah, blah. Shift it to where I am at this point in my life, I’ve kind of become part of that camp of people that other people will call upon say, "Raissa can do this, she can do that." So I'm great that at this point in my life I get people calling me saying, "Would you consider doing this reading? We're developing it. We're hoping to move it forward." Does that make sense?
Martin: Yeah. It sounds like you're very much, even though it doesn't sort of feel like something that's scheduled or that it's work that you do each day, you're very much involved in the whole networking aspect and you go to events and you actually meet with people and you stay in touch with people on a day to day basis. But it's something that you enjoy so it doesn't really feel like work. Is that correct?
Raissa: Yes and no. My husband teases me, he goes, "You're always going to shows," and I said, "Well, I'm going to work. As far as I'm concerned, this is work." There's times when I'm going into things that I would rather stay home, but it's definitely a work obligation in my opinion. This doesn’t mean I don't enjoy it as well. I think you should enjoy your work. You're right. Networking is the word. I've been a major networker for as long as I can remember. I've always been aware of the value of networking and you have to stay in front of people for them to remember who you are. Which is why it's important to still go to EPAs and chorus calls because the people that are opening the submissions are the people that are at the calls that may not know me from 20 years ago. The casting people, like look at Terra Reuben's agency when I was first starting out, Tara Reuben worked for Johnson in Vermont. Tara knew me cause she was at the auditions and now she's ahead of her own agency. Unless I'm going irregularly, her people don't necessarily know who I am. There's that networking that has to continue to however you manage to do it within the life that you are living right now. The life that I'm living right now doesn't necessarily allow for me going to auditions every day and hitting it that way. To say that you're right, it's evolved in my lecture where it's part of my daily life where there's always some networking happening. I have three or four calls today after you and I finish chatting, I'm doing with these three events that are happening in June, July. I just got asked to do a guest spot in somebody’s show as well. Going to do that because that I'm just saying yes to things that I know can promote me into yet another venue or another job. The more you network, the more visible you are, the more activities you're opening yourself up to.
Martin: That's true. You'd probably be surprised, maybe not, maybe you know a hundred people like this. But there's so many people whether it's a business owner or an actor there's just so many people out there who want something. For instance, they want a successful acting career, but they just tend to spend their time at home or they'll just go online and submit for casting calls, but they don't do the other things. They don't go to the events, they don't meet the people and they don't make any effort to stay in touch. Just doing that alone, it's not really that much work. Maybe it sounds like a lot of work, but it's not that hard. You just do that and it already separates you from like 80% of actors out there who aren't doing it.
Raissa: I can't say it's not a lot of work, actually I think it is a lot of work. I think once you get into a routine of it, it just becomes part of your day. Today I have to put together my newsletter that's going out. I don't send out a newsletter every month because personally me, I'm annoyed by people that send out a newsletter every month unless you're in something that's really important for me to know. I want to hear it from you when you've got something I can go see you in or you've got some big news that I need to know about where you think I need to know. I would say I probably do a newsletter from my personal account as opposed to the concerts that I used to run. I send one out, I would say probably four to five times a year when I have shows coming up that I want to promote, causes that I want to promote, I try to put it all together. Now, as far as multiple streams of marketing goes the Conquer series that I ran, the nonprofit, one of the ones that we offered to the actors and singers and musicians that played for us for free for all those years is that we have them send us their events that they're doing in a Tristate city area and we send out a newsletter once a month to, I guess about 2,500 people on the mailing list that signed up to be on it either through my website or through the concerts. Literally in person people could sign up.
Still, people will show up from these concerts over the years and say, "I saw you at the Tudor City green's concerts and I loved you there." Eric Michael used to always get people showing up when he was actively doing a lot of cabaret shows because people just loved him and they were so excited to see that so and so was doing a show and they would go see them. That promotes those people. But it also clearly promotes me because I'm the one sending out, it's coming from me. So it keeps me in [inaudible 30:22]. But the primary purpose was to get payback to thank the people for doing this work for us for all those years. It just keeps you connected. But it does take a lot of time. I gotta be honest. It does take a lot of time. Running that concert series took me away from my acting career quite a bit. I started it, kind of a long story. I won't go into it now why it got started. I was basically asked, it was in my neighborhood, I would pick up the baton from somebody who no longer could do it. I don't do things evidently in small ways. I started out with just a couple of people and they grew and grew and grew to the point where it overtook my life. It just got so big and it was wonderful. But I found that I would say that even though we only ran through the summertime, he took up nine months of my life. They were huge concerts.
We're talking about Broadway style, sound engineers, everything. I was producing and it took me away. As time went on, it was time for it to wind down anyway and that was when I started to kind of enter the next phase of my career because I then had the time to put all that energy that I was putting into the concert series, I then started putting back into my own career and that's when things started happening. So that's a bit of a cautionary tale too. You have to realize as an actor singer and I also have produced, you go where does my main interest and passion lie? If you put a gun to my head and said, "What do you want to do more? I want to act on stage most of all. Secondly, I want to act on film or TV, but I love the live stage. Doing these other jobs like doing cabaret and stuff is very hard to serve two masters because that's a full-time job too." It was a very good thing for me to do and I still do it. I have a show coming, a [inaudible 32:36] of my show coming up in November, Don't Tell Mama. I have three CDs, so I have all this stuff. Takes a lot of work when you're self-promoting and self-producing. When I was in transition from [inaudible 32:53], or I would say from young leading lady to older leading lady character there’s a funky little area there where there's not a tremendous amount of work. I'm happy to say that there's more of it now with shows that come our way.
I'm thrilled that there's work for women of my age. But during that time when I was transitioning, there wasn't a lot and I knew that I needed to perform skill and I always loved the cabaret. So that's when I got started doing cabaret because I felt like I had something I want to share and I wanted to say and I just fell in love with the art form and I still am. But that is a huge, entirely different art form and to produce and promote yourself in that is a lot of work too. So I kind of got pulled away from my primary love. I kind of went too far into that world for a while and I don't regret it at all because it also raised my presence in the community. There's a community of cabaret, it's also the community of actors and directors and producers. So people knew who I was that didn't know who I was before. It's all good, but then you have to step back and go it's time to reevaluate. It's time to rethink what's my next step in my career? What's my next step in my life's journey? How do I get there? That's something that you face at every point in your career when you're starting out, when you start getting some work. I look at it as a timeline. I started out Non-Equity, then I started focusing on working Non-Equity and Equity theaters so back then I could get my points. Then I only would work in places where I could get my Equity card. Then I get my Equity card.
Then you just keep going along that path. That's how I did it. It doesn't necessarily mean that that happens for everybody. Then every step of the way you're making those choices. So that's where I was a couple of years. I think four years ago we stopped the concert series. About a year and a half ago was when I signed with I think only the second agent I've ever had. I made a concerted effort to do that, to go ahead and get an agent at this point in my life kind of thing.
Martin: That makes a lot of sense. One of the things that I typically recommend for actors to do is to set up some of reminder for themselves for at least once a year, ideally once every six months to do what I like to call a "Career Assessment," which is basically where you look at yourself and you say, what am I doing right now? Is this really what I want to be doing? If not, or if it's kind of like a sideline to what am I going to be, what do I want to do? What changes do I need to make? And also how can I use when I'm currently doing to propel myself towards what I really want? You do that just once every six months to once every year and it kind of keeps you on track. I've spoken to a few actors, especially in these recent interviews where it sounds like for a couple of years or more they were kind of off track. That sort of leads into my next question, have you had any low points in your career and how did you get past them? Like what was the worst low point in your career and how did you get past it?
Raissa: Interesting question. My father used to call me a Goddamn Pollyanna. I don't think of things in terms of low point. I thought of it in terms of transition times. There were times definitely and it's kind of what I just was talking about where I realized that I was not in a phase in my life where I was as hire-able because I was, neither fish nor fowl. I was right in the middle. So that was when I chose to say I knew I need to still express and I'd always wanted to do cabaret. This is when I chose to do it. I could also afford to do it then because I'm very fortunate, at this point in my life I do not have to worry about making my living in theater. I for many years did. But I had the good fortune of getting married to a wonderful man who is a doctor, who at this point is a doctor. He was a sailor when I met him. But I get the benefit of that now and I don't have to worry, I can take a creative job and I don't have to worry about making the mortgage. That’s a huge blessing and I'm aware of that. But when I started doing cabaret, I could afford to do it by then. You have to pay a director and you need musicians and all that stuff and you don't make money doing cabaret in the city. You make money from it once you go out of the city, you get your reviews here to keep your presence up here, etc.
I'm just going to say that during those times when I wasn't working as much as an actor I just kind of reinvented myself and say I know I still need to perform. I still have something to say. How do I do it? In many ways the cabaret was a great tool and I think it's still a great tool and a good thing too because it's a skill that you use when you audition. Auditioning should be no different than performing. But unfortunately, people get so freaked out when they walk into the room because they're not on a stage and there's just people right there in front of them and they have to be themselves [inaudible 38:54] character for cabaret is really, it's just you being you. So I would say that that would be, again, I don't like the term low point. I would just say it was a transitional time. To speak to your point, I did get caught in a little bit of that cycle when I was doing that and I got so good at that and so good at producing that concert series that it kind of ate me up for a while and it took me away from my primary passion. Luckily I've had the opportunity to stand back and take a look at it and go, "It's time for change, time for change. Let's get back to my roots and what I love to do the most." By that point I had transitioned enough until my neck was tight.
Martin: I have a quick question on something that you mentioned earlier. You had mentioned about how you only send out newsletters four or five, maybe six times in a year because they're on important things that you're in. Just out of curiosity, are you as an actor in a show ever able to get discounts or special offers or anything? Have you ever spoken to directors about that, that you could offer people who are on your newsletter?
Raissa: I'm not sure what you mean. You mean if I'm in a show?
Martin: If you're in a show would the person who's putting the show on be like, "Hey, because you're in the show if you refer people to the show they can get a 10% off of the price or something?"
Raissa: Often if the show is not filling out in particular there's a discount. I think that pretty much you can do that. But a lot of the shows that I'm promoting when I'm in them are the ones that I'm self-producing. Like my own cabaret show. Certainly I always have a loyalty code for that. People can get a discount on that sort of thing.
Martin: The main reason that I'm asking it is just because it's an idea of something that actors can do because a lot of times actors either will feel like, "Oh, I'm being too promotional or I'm trying to talk my name up too much and saying, 'Hey, come see me in this show.'" But remember, you always want to provide value to people who are on the receiving end of your newsletter. Or if you want an agent or someone to see a show, you want to give them value. So you're not trying to say, "Come see me performing this show." It's, "Hey, I'm a part of this show and actually I can get you a discount. Or if you come, you can come for free because whatever." Then you're actually providing the value rather than feeling like you're being pushy.
Raissa: Right. I see your point now. If you're in an Equity reading, any Actor's Equity member can come for free to an Equity approved stage reading. So they have to show their Equity cards for that, for the most part. When I promote and I send out stuff, I always provide those links. As far as doing a reading or show to get an agent to come see you I write to them personally and say, "I'd like to have you be my guest. Let me know how many tickets I can provide for you," and make it clear that they are not paying for their ticket. If somebody, a casting director or a producer, I want to come see me do my cabaret show, I'll say, "I'd love to have you been my guest. I'd like to host your evening." That means I'm paying for their cover charge and I'm paying for their drinks or their dinner. So I make it very clear if I'm promoting in that way, that they're not paying anything to come. That's one of the ways, I know that's one of the questions that you had on your list as far as getting an agent stuff goes. One of my passions is doing new work too and also new work [inaudible 43:21]. How it started out? These shows that start out, people are coming into Off Broadway and Broadway with shows they’ve been involved with for years. I've done probably six Off Broadway shows in the last couple of years that I have done several times, that I've been involved with over the years with the playwrights, composers, all of that. That's a very important networking relationship to keep up as well.
So those instances, those performances that I'm involved in, again, typically if I'm promoting it on set or almost always if I’m promoting it I send it out and there's always a link for a discount ticket in that way. I think the way you phrase your newsletter or your communications are very important and it should be like, "Hey, come see me," and that's all there is to it. It's like, "Here's where I'm appearing and here's some other news or here's some services that you can have." As I said to you, I have multiple streams of interests and passions. One of them is it dog rescue. I always put it in my newsletters, I always include some information on some rescue work that we've done or how they can help and reach out to other rescues and stuff like that. So there's always services provided as well. It's not just about me, me, me. I use the platform that I have, whatever it is, sometimes it's higher, to help promote the causes that I'm passionate about that give back. If that makes sense.
Martin: Yeah, totally. It's really important just to, for actors to kind of understand how to make the distinction. This is a business concept, but it's all about what's in it for the client or for the customer. If the customer in this case is an agent, like you said, you want to make it clear that the tickets that you're inviting them to see a show. If it's just a regular person who's on your newsletter, then you can even send out a short, two or three emails in a row promoting a show. It's kind of like promoting a new product or a service for a business. You say, "Hey in the next two weeks we're going to be opening up this show. I'll send you some more information as soon as it's open." Then you send out an email that's like, "Hey, are you looking for something fun to do this Saturday night or somewhere to take your date? Here's a great show and here's a discount code to come to it." Basically it's like you're providing value to these people and not being like, "Hey, come and see my show because I want you to see me." It's like, "Here's something that I'm doing for you." Then the person feels appreciative of that and actually will come to see the show.
Raissa: Yeah, I agree. That's actually the model that I pretty much follow, not those exact words. But once I open a show, I'll send out, a newsletter with the reviews. Reviews are in and you could still come see the show and here's the link. If you put in this code at checkout, you get 20% off or whatever. So yeah, that's just important. That's part of the marketing that you have to keep up on. That is so important.
Martin: Cool. We talked a little bit about getting an agent. If there's anything else that you want to bring up on that in a minute we can. But I just want to hit on any advice that you have. I guess we also spoke about this for a minute too, but with auditioning, do you have one or two top tips that you can give to an actor who struggles to get called back after auditions?
Raissa: I don't necessarily limit it to callbacks, but I think what's so important is your demeanor before, during and after an audition. So many actors can shoot themselves in the foot by the way they act outside the room. You need to be kind of be professional and courteous in all three phases of that. You've got to make sure you are prepared. You bring your entire book in with you and everything that's in your book should be something you're prepared to sing or perform. You’d be surprised how many people back when I still use to - I'm seeing outside the room and just had it happen a couple of weeks ago where somebody came running outside the room to grab their book because they asked for this one. I thought, "Well, why on earth wouldn’t she have her book in the room with her?" That's silly and that's a waste of time. Just common sense tips like that are so important. I think your attitude, it's just gotta be that you have the opportunity to perform that day rather than being afraid that, "Oh my God, it's an audition." This is my chance to perform. This is a performance and I'm there to do it, to solve the problem of the casting director and to have them enjoy their time with me. I think that an important thought to have in your head before you go in.
As far as advice on getting an agent, I'm fortunate that I finally have one that I really like. As I said to you none of the jobs I ever got before this ever happened through agencies. I did it all by going to open calls and EPA. I was signed with an agent for a couple of years, had a few. I got one commercial through this person, wonderful person. Just didn't have a lot of auditions through him. I still ended up getting most of the stuff on my own. The way that I attach really when I came back into this phase of my career, when I stopped the concert series, back when I was really saying yes to a lot of readings and a lot of Off Broadway shows and I aggressively mailed and got agents to come see me. Through all of those, I think I only got three agents to come and had interviews with them all and I ended up not being interested in working with any of them. The other way I think that you can get yourself out there to be seen by agents is really seminars, networks and Actor's Connection and places like that. You get the chance to be one on one in front of somebody and do your stuff so they can at least see if they're interested in you. I think that's a great tool to use. So that's how I’ve worked it. That’s not how I ended up getting the agent that I have now. That's a longer story, but that was all part of the process and I know that's how a lot of people have been successful with it.
If I hadn't been able to find Fire Starter Entertainment, which I've been really pleased with, I probably would have continued in that way. I just met them in another way. I've made a point of when I have friend or somebody I'm going to show with that I know is unrepresented and is looking, I make a point of offering to introduce them to my agency because I know I really appreciated that when people did it for me. I began being a bit of a Pollyanna, I don't believe in competition. I believe that if you're supposed to have the job, you have the job. You’re there and you’re doing the work. So I'm never going to shy away from offering a friend of mine, even if they might be the same ‘type’, I'm always going to recommend them as well. But I just think that's a good thing to do. It's good Karma.
Martin: It's even helpful to your agency themselves because they're looking for people. So you're providing value back to your agency, which is going to make them more appreciative of you.
Raissa: Yeah. I'm never going to recommend somebody that I don't think is not only a fantastic, accurate, but a wonderful human being. You want to work with nice people.
Martin: Exactly, excellent. Just as kind of the final to sum this up, out of all the things that you've done, what would you say if you had to kind of narrow it down to one or two top things that you think have been the most helpful in moving your acting career forward?
Raissa: I would say determination. I actually have a video on my website of a monologue I do that leads into a song called, It's Possible. From the time I was a teenager, my parents told me that I had a lovely voice, but that I probably would never make a living in theater because there's too much competition. I was just like, "Okay," and I chose not to believe that. I thought, "I'm just going to try." So I would say that your personal determination and the determination and being willing to follow through and really work to achieve what you want is first and foremost. I used to talk to a lot of school groups and stuff like that because I didn't have an easy way. I'm going to be honest right now. It's easier because again, I don't have to be responsible for my own financial living. But for the first 30 years, you bet your butt I did. I was just determined to give it my all and do whatever I had to do to get myself out there and not believe people when they said I couldn't do it. I knew that I had enough talent behind me that at least I'd put myself in the room and then see what happens. I have friends that are incredibly talented that haven't had the success that I've had. So it's also a matter of just the luck of the draw and being in the right place at the right time. But I think determination and being willing to set yourself up with structure and work hard at it every day in some way is what will contribute to your success. Whether you decide to stay in the entertainment field or whether you decide I'm going to put this energy into something else, I think that's what is imperative is that you realize that nobody's going to hand it to you. You've got to step up and do the work yourself.
Martin: Yeah, exactly. It's like you're creating your own opportunities by actually staying in touch with people and doing all these things that we've talked about. There's so many things that you can do. But sometimes people feel overwhelmed by too many options and so instead they do nothing. I would be like just pick at least one, maybe two, even if they're not the perfect thing, just pick them and then that will build into something else.
Raissa: You said a magic the phrase. I got some great advice from a good friend of mine years ago, Jessica [inaudible 55:03]. We were sitting outside of an audition room for the first national tour of The Myth. She said, "You know what Raissa, no one is ever going to hand us anything. We're always going to have to make or create our own opportunities." Exactly what you just said. I remember talking to her about that and that phrase stuck in my head. She is the perfect example of that. She's incredibly successful now with her husband, John [inaudible 55:30] and they have their own radio, so called Radio Deluxe. They sell out their engagements at the Café Carlisle. She’s on many, many Broadway shows. She's got many incredible recordings. She is what I would portray as a working actor, performer. No one has handed that woman anything. I used her as a model and I'm constantly creating my own opportunities to stay current. You've got to create your own opportunities. Another thing is you've got to continue your education. I get annoyed when people say I just don't understand how to work the internet or the computer or the phone. It's not that hard anymore. Back when I was first learning computers it was hard. When I was first working on my first website, I couldn't have done it myself. Now you've got WordPress, now you've got Wix, now you got all these things that you really could, with the help of a 12 year old or a 20 year old, you can create your own website and make yourself a presence.
That's one reason why I work with Josh every week or every two weeks. I want to continue my technical education because that's what is driving our industry now. Many years ago it was, I was resisting going on Facebook and a good friend of mine, Scott says "You have to be on Facebook because you're marketing your career." I'm like, "Oh, that's the reason to do it." I instantly joined. He was right. I learned how to use Instagram. That's why now I learned that I have to really have more traffic going to my Facebook and my website pages. I tend to post on Instagram first and link to my Twitter and Facebook because that seems to be the platform that people go to more now is Instagram, four-five years ago it was Facebook. You always have to keep up with the technology. We have to keep up with the social media and the new ways of marketing. That's what it's going to help to create those opportunities as well. So I think those are two things, being determined and creating your own opportunities through continuing your education. Not just the technical education, keeping your voice up, keeping your acting chops up, keeping your movement skills up is also important.
Martin: That's awesome. This was absolutely amazing. I would love to continue talking about this for a lot longer, but we're pretty much coming right up on the end of our hour long interview time here. I really want to thank you for sharing how you've moved your career forward and the tips and the tools and strategies that you use and your general advice. I'm sure that everyone listening to this is going to find a lot of really valuable and helpful things. So thank you so much for doing this with us.
Raissa: It's my pleasure. Thank you for asking.
Martin: Today we have Raissa Katona Bennett who is a professional actress and she's here to talk a little bit about her acting career and how she markets and promotes herself. Thanks so much for joining us today in this interview, I really appreciate you being here. I'd like to start off just, if you don't mind telling us a little bit about your acting career. How did you get into acting and what would you say are one or two of your biggest accomplishments so far?
Raissa: My biggest accomplishments was that I played Christine [inaudible 00:54] on Broadway. I was the understudy and I went on many times. I did that five years. That was very wonderful. I did the national Tour of Casts, which I loved and also parade and I just recently made my debut on Law and Order as the judge Joan Callahan, Law and Order SVU. That was exciting. That's one of my highlights. I always wanted to perform from the time I was a little kid. I went to college and got my degree in music, voice and music education, minor in psychology, knowing that I could always teach or perhaps go into psychology. But my primary passion was to try and make it as an actor first. Luckily that happened so I didn't have to go back. I did teach school for a couple of years. My former husband needed a ride to the New England Theater Conference auditions up in Boston, which was many, many years ago before you were born. I had a car, so I drove him up and I was able to audition as well, and we got called back to all of the same theaters and got offers to the same theaters and I never went back to teaching. So that's how I got started.
Martin: You mentioned your Broadway role and also getting onto Law and Order, which is amazing. I want you, if you don't mind, tell us a little bit more about those accomplishments. How did you achieve those and what factors do you think contributed most to those two successful things happening?
Raissa: As far as Broadway goes, I just always knew I wanted to make my living in theater. My dream was to do a Broadway show, but I wasn't really sure it was possible. Every morning I got up and auditioned and I had roommates that would actually tease me that I went out for any audition whatsoever. If a zany female performer was one of the audition calls. My roommate was teasing saying, Oh, you're a zany female performing now. I just want to audition and keep my audition shops up and be available for anything. So I got my first big show with cast and I got that by going to an open call, an EPA. Same thing with Phantom. I never had an agent for any of my big shows. First big thing I got through an agent was Law and Order. It was a matter of just me setting a priority system for myself, a structure. Creating a structure as an actress is so important because you're not really answering to anybody but yourself. So I structured my day to go through at the time was just Backstage Newspaper and you went through and you pick up what audition notices you're going to go for. Scheduled my week and my work week around when I can go to the auditions. It was pretty tough back then, honestly, compared to what it is today because we would often have to wake up at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning outside the Equity building. That's when I was Equity.
When I was Non-Equity, it was even scarier. I guess I had to stick to the [inaudible 04:30] of it, I was just like, "I'm going to go for this while I'm young and have no responsibilities other than myself and just push ahead and see what happens." I'm not really sure. I guess it's a matter of degrees, keeping your skills up, keeping your voice training, your dance training. If the truth be told, I didn't have any formal acting classes until after I was out of Phantom. That's when I finally had the time and money for it. Any training I had was in voice, in dance, and on the job. Then as far as the most recent one Law and Order, as I've transitioned out of most of the biggest jobs that I had up until the last 15 years where it's all [inaudible 05:44] and then obviously you're not going to be a [inaudible 05:45] forever. How do you transition out of that into a young leading lady into an older leading lady or character actor, which is where I am now. I am fortunate enough now to be represented by Firestarter Entertainment Agency and they essentially are very marketable right now for television and film. They started submitting me for those sorts of things. I'm happy to say that my first audition for Law and Order, I booked and I'm just thrilled because it’s one of my favorite shows in the world, I watch it pretty much every day.
They helped to guide me towards what the right kinds of photos were. It's interesting talking to you about that because I know you started out as a photographer. Back when I just started in this business you would have composite headshots where it was like four shots on one page and then they went away from that. Now in the digital age it’s almost getting back to that where my agent said to me I'd like a picture of you as a leading lady, as a character, as a doctor, as a lawyer, as a pediatrician, all sorts of different things, as a cougar. Now on my website and on my actors access profile I have pictures of those things because they're digital. It's not like I had to pay tons of money to get those all printed up. So I started doing it that way. I had footage from commercials and some industrial things that I had done over the years and I stayed up with the technology. I happen to love technology. So I work every week with a friend of mine, Joshua Dejardin, who's a genius at Mac and also a website designer and all sorts of stuff. We work every week and we're working to update my website and to put some new content on it. I write a blog and I try to keep that current and things like that just to keep a presence going. I also have had casting people say to me that when they were in a crunch and they needed somebody right away I were to recommend that they can go right to my website and see everything they needed to see because I've got my YouTube stuff up there with me singing, I have my scenes, my resume and lots of pictures. So I'm making it as easy as possible for people to hire me and find me.
Martin: That's excellent. A website, having a web presence is so important. Actors, especially newer actors almost at times don't think that they're ready for a website yet. It's kinda like, "I'm brand new in this and I just need my headshot and my resume." But really you can actually make a website and there's plenty of ways to make one these days for free too.
Raissa: Yeah it's easier than ever.
Martin: Exactly. Something that's actually really important that you brought up earlier is the whole idea of the comp-card. Back in the past when you had to bring in a physical one, the reason that you want that is because the casting directors don't like to use an imagination. It's not because they don't want to or they don't have imagination. It's just because they don't want to guess. Cause there's that saying if you assume it makes an ass out of you and me. So they don't want to assume that someone can play something. If you have images of yourself that show you being able to play all those different parts it makes it much easier to get cast for those types of things. One thing that's actually really useful that some actors don't consider but benefit from having is a website where you create individualized pages for each of those character types. So rather than just having a website that says photos and you click photos and then it's like you in different types, you can actually have some pages that are like me as the cop or something. Then you have pictures of you playing cops, you link to different projects where you played cops or have a reel for that and you have info about like, why you enjoy playing cop roles. Then all you gotta do is send them the link to that page as opposed to a generalized linked to your entire website. Instantly they're like, wow, this person's an expert on this.
Raissa: That's interesting. I never thought of that. I like that idea.
Martin: Yeah. Again, it's a benefit to having a website and having someone who you're friends with who can design it or creating it yourself where you can easily make pages.
Raissa: So my website is multidimensional because I do a lot of things and I purposely made it as one website rather than doing an actor website, animal rescue website, spiritual website. Because I find that all of those things, all of the people that are interested, like for example, I'm an expert in dog rescue, people that follow me on Instagram with my dog rescue then will go into my website and then they will click to sign up for my newsletter. Then I'll end up finding those people at some of my cabaret shows! So I like the idea that it's multiple streams of marketing, that they're coming from everywhere. So I don't want to separate my website out. My question is, if I were to do what you're suggesting, does that make too many pages for somebody like me?
Martin: What you would do is basically like, just a technical thing for that. If you have a website, like let's say that for instance, my website talks about martinbentsen.com and I primarily promote marketing strategies for actors and branding and all of that. But I also shoot headshots and I also do some other things that I'm involved in. You can actually create your website so that it's primarily focused on what you want it to be. Then you can make pages that are sort of like hidden and they link to those pages within other pages. So if someone is reading on your page about how you act on things and then it's talking about how you love playing police officer roles, you can make the button, the police officer be clickable and that'll take them to a hidden page that's not necessarily at the top of your menu. So that way it doesn't seem like you do too many things. You don't want a busy menu.
Raissa: So that's great. I'm just making a note of that right now. I'm working this afternoon with Josh.
Martin: Putting too many things in your menu kind of makes it seem like it's a mixture. You want to show that you specialize in something. Your website is about who you are as a person and that's what people want to know. But then you have individual pages that are talking about how you specialize in each different area and you send the link to that page to whoever needs it.
Raissa: Yeah, it makes sense because that's the thing I do want to make. My menu bar is set and I don't want it to be too busy. I see what you're saying. That's a great idea. I'll work on that. Thank you.
Martin: Yeah. Awesome. I have two quick side questions. The first one is just you had mentioned that you studied, I believe in school, a little bit of psychology and some other stuff. Did you say that you also studied acting in school or was that after?
Raissa: It was after. In fact, I went to Hartford college of music in West Hartford. Now it's [inaudible 13:41] music. When I was going there they did not have a musical theater major. You can only be an opera major. There was one musical theater acting class, which I took, it was a great man who has now passed on, a good friend named Robert [inaudible 13:57]. Pretty much everything that I learned that I used going into my career was learned in that class. But it was really more about how to act for song, which is as far as I'm concerned, just the same thing as acting in a scene. So no I didn't study acting in college at all. It was voice, music education and psychology. My first formal acting classes were with a Craig Cornelius, that would've been quite a while ago now. But it was after I had already done Cats and Phantom. I think it might've been after I did Parade too quite frankly. I can't remember, the years all blend together.
Martin: Well, it's good to hear you talk a little bit about that just because sometimes there's actors or there's people who want to get into acting that are not doing it yet and they think because I didn't go to school for it or whatever, I'm never going to be able to be successful or find work. So I think it's just good to remind people of that fact that there's plenty of actors who don't study it and they get into it at any point in their life, even when they're much older they can still do it. If you love something enough and you find out how to get the training you can just do a lot of research really easily online these days to figure it out.
Raissa: My friend Eric Michael Gillett who is also a great acting teacher, I used to study with him as well and learned a lot through him. I used to run a concert series here in Tudor City. There was a woman who accosted me in the street and was telling me how much she loved it, how she used to sing. Long story short, I got her going to an open mic and started singing again and I hooked her up with Eric Michael; she started taking voice lessons with him. Her name is Robin Westville and at this point now she's done several independent films that are going to festivals. She’s done commercials, she’s done several cabaret shows and she's in her 60s and this is someone who was a professional speech pathologist for many, many years. She always loved singing and acting and here she is coming back and she's starting a career now and she's good. I'm really proud of her. She's studied a lot with Eric on it and she's taken some other acting classes too. It's never too late. Interestingly enough, I think if you've got the talent and you've got the drive to give yourself a structure so that you are answerable, you create that structure. Like I said, it's really important. Once you get past a certain age, I was very fortunate to be successful when I was new, we can be a dime a dozen.
There's a lot of young pretty girls running around the city that are incredibly talented. The thing is staying with it until you get older. A lot of these people have great careers and then they raise a family and move out of the city. The talent will become a little bit smaller I think as you get older. So if you're hanging out and you're toughing it out and you've got the challenge and the training behind you and you keep going, I think that you're going to find a level of success that really feeds your soul. Even if you can't make a living of it, if it's something that you just want to do or you need to do for your soul, for you, because you have to. That's one of the things that Eric always says is we'd ask the students, "Why do you sing? Why do you act?" "Because I have no other choice. I have to, it’s part of who I am." So it's good to acknowledge that part of your life and say, "I can do this. Maybe I still have to have another job but I can do this and feel like a whole human being. Cause I'm answering all parts of my psyche and my passions."
Martin: I think that that's a great point about that there's basically less competition. There's more competition at the beginning when you're younger and then there's a little bit less competition from actors as you get older in life. I find that actually it's an interesting kind of trade off. So as you get older there's less competition except your competition generally has a lot more connections. It's a little bit more challenging. But when you're younger there's a lot of competition except no one has any connections. So I feel like, especially like for younger actors, they need to take advantage of that fact that no one has connections and figure out how can I make connections as quickly as possible? It's really important, but the fact that older people do have more connections doesn't necessarily mean that you shouldn't try because a lot of times because there's less competition, there's less people that have certain looks and there's more opportunities.
Raissa: With the world of online it's a whole new world. Kids starting out, coming into the city often come in with an agent because agents go to their student showcases, you've got self-submission with Actor's Access. It's not like it was when I was starting out, there were certain things you couldn't get access to unless you had an agent. That’s not the case anymore. Even though there's some submission there are still probably millions of submissions coming basically crossing offices. But at least you can try and create an online presence for yourself so that people can see who you are and what you do.
Martin: I'd like to ask what are some of the things that you do on a daily or weekly basis to get paid acting work? Tell us a little bit about them and how they've contributed to moving your career forward.
Raissa: I'm going to be very honest with you, at this stage in my life, I'm not as active with that as I know I should be. But there are still things I do on a weekly basis, which is at this point, check through Actor's Access and I will self-submit for things that I think I'm right for. I limit myself now more on where I will work. If I'm talking specifically about theater, I want to stay in the general area. I have my husband and I've got my three kids and my father just recently passed away, so I didn't want to go too far away until while I was still being responsible for his care. So that's part of the whole thing about being responsible for change as you get older. So I limit where I am willing to consider working. That's part of a little bit of what I do now. But I do go on Actor's Access, I check out what’s there. I work on my website every week and add content. I'm lucky in that people reach out to me often through connections. Just this week alone I've said yes to three staged readings that I didn't necessarily go after. I'm always present. For example, a good friend of mine is David Friedman, the cabaret and Broadway composer. He had invited me to an event saying, I think there's some people here that you should know and you should meet. From that, I've gotten actually 2 jobs recently, just being in a room and letting them know what I did and who I was.
Then they reached out to me when they needed me. So I'm doing a reading this coming Monday night, I'm doing a new production piece at the Richfield Play House on June 22nd called Speak and Be Kind which is a kind of a combination concert play that's been created by [inaudible 22:31] and David Friedman about survivors of sexual abuse and its a fundraiser. But all these people that are involved with these things work in other areas. For example, [inaudible 22:44] artistic director of ECT [inaudible 22:49] a fantastic theater company. I help the Music Theater of Connecticut with their new hot summer nights cabaret series. So I stay connected to these people. I guess at this point, my life as I'm talking to you about it now, I do a lot on the producing end and keep myself connected in that way. I'm in the sort in the loop of what people are thinking about. For example, back when I was producing, I produced a nonprofit concert series for nine years in New York City called Music and [inaudible 23:25]. I would have different Broadway actors, singers, people from the great cabaret range, jazz, the best in New York City. We had Eric Michael Gillette, we had [inaudible 23:43], all these people would donate their time and talent to this cause. They became part of my sort of collection of people that I could call upon at any time and say, "Hey, we have a concert, are you available?" Blah, blah, blah. Shift it to where I am at this point in my life, I’ve kind of become part of that camp of people that other people will call upon say, "Raissa can do this, she can do that." So I'm great that at this point in my life I get people calling me saying, "Would you consider doing this reading? We're developing it. We're hoping to move it forward." Does that make sense?
Martin: Yeah. It sounds like you're very much, even though it doesn't sort of feel like something that's scheduled or that it's work that you do each day, you're very much involved in the whole networking aspect and you go to events and you actually meet with people and you stay in touch with people on a day to day basis. But it's something that you enjoy so it doesn't really feel like work. Is that correct?
Raissa: Yes and no. My husband teases me, he goes, "You're always going to shows," and I said, "Well, I'm going to work. As far as I'm concerned, this is work." There's times when I'm going into things that I would rather stay home, but it's definitely a work obligation in my opinion. This doesn’t mean I don't enjoy it as well. I think you should enjoy your work. You're right. Networking is the word. I've been a major networker for as long as I can remember. I've always been aware of the value of networking and you have to stay in front of people for them to remember who you are. Which is why it's important to still go to EPAs and chorus calls because the people that are opening the submissions are the people that are at the calls that may not know me from 20 years ago. The casting people, like look at Terra Reuben's agency when I was first starting out, Tara Reuben worked for Johnson in Vermont. Tara knew me cause she was at the auditions and now she's ahead of her own agency. Unless I'm going irregularly, her people don't necessarily know who I am. There's that networking that has to continue to however you manage to do it within the life that you are living right now. The life that I'm living right now doesn't necessarily allow for me going to auditions every day and hitting it that way. To say that you're right, it's evolved in my lecture where it's part of my daily life where there's always some networking happening. I have three or four calls today after you and I finish chatting, I'm doing with these three events that are happening in June, July. I just got asked to do a guest spot in somebody’s show as well. Going to do that because that I'm just saying yes to things that I know can promote me into yet another venue or another job. The more you network, the more visible you are, the more activities you're opening yourself up to.
Martin: That's true. You'd probably be surprised, maybe not, maybe you know a hundred people like this. But there's so many people whether it's a business owner or an actor there's just so many people out there who want something. For instance, they want a successful acting career, but they just tend to spend their time at home or they'll just go online and submit for casting calls, but they don't do the other things. They don't go to the events, they don't meet the people and they don't make any effort to stay in touch. Just doing that alone, it's not really that much work. Maybe it sounds like a lot of work, but it's not that hard. You just do that and it already separates you from like 80% of actors out there who aren't doing it.
Raissa: I can't say it's not a lot of work, actually I think it is a lot of work. I think once you get into a routine of it, it just becomes part of your day. Today I have to put together my newsletter that's going out. I don't send out a newsletter every month because personally me, I'm annoyed by people that send out a newsletter every month unless you're in something that's really important for me to know. I want to hear it from you when you've got something I can go see you in or you've got some big news that I need to know about where you think I need to know. I would say I probably do a newsletter from my personal account as opposed to the concerts that I used to run. I send one out, I would say probably four to five times a year when I have shows coming up that I want to promote, causes that I want to promote, I try to put it all together. Now, as far as multiple streams of marketing goes the Conquer series that I ran, the nonprofit, one of the ones that we offered to the actors and singers and musicians that played for us for free for all those years is that we have them send us their events that they're doing in a Tristate city area and we send out a newsletter once a month to, I guess about 2,500 people on the mailing list that signed up to be on it either through my website or through the concerts. Literally in person people could sign up.
Still, people will show up from these concerts over the years and say, "I saw you at the Tudor City green's concerts and I loved you there." Eric Michael used to always get people showing up when he was actively doing a lot of cabaret shows because people just loved him and they were so excited to see that so and so was doing a show and they would go see them. That promotes those people. But it also clearly promotes me because I'm the one sending out, it's coming from me. So it keeps me in [inaudible 30:22]. But the primary purpose was to get payback to thank the people for doing this work for us for all those years. It just keeps you connected. But it does take a lot of time. I gotta be honest. It does take a lot of time. Running that concert series took me away from my acting career quite a bit. I started it, kind of a long story. I won't go into it now why it got started. I was basically asked, it was in my neighborhood, I would pick up the baton from somebody who no longer could do it. I don't do things evidently in small ways. I started out with just a couple of people and they grew and grew and grew to the point where it overtook my life. It just got so big and it was wonderful. But I found that I would say that even though we only ran through the summertime, he took up nine months of my life. They were huge concerts.
We're talking about Broadway style, sound engineers, everything. I was producing and it took me away. As time went on, it was time for it to wind down anyway and that was when I started to kind of enter the next phase of my career because I then had the time to put all that energy that I was putting into the concert series, I then started putting back into my own career and that's when things started happening. So that's a bit of a cautionary tale too. You have to realize as an actor singer and I also have produced, you go where does my main interest and passion lie? If you put a gun to my head and said, "What do you want to do more? I want to act on stage most of all. Secondly, I want to act on film or TV, but I love the live stage. Doing these other jobs like doing cabaret and stuff is very hard to serve two masters because that's a full-time job too." It was a very good thing for me to do and I still do it. I have a show coming, a [inaudible 32:36] of my show coming up in November, Don't Tell Mama. I have three CDs, so I have all this stuff. Takes a lot of work when you're self-promoting and self-producing. When I was in transition from [inaudible 32:53], or I would say from young leading lady to older leading lady character there’s a funky little area there where there's not a tremendous amount of work. I'm happy to say that there's more of it now with shows that come our way.
I'm thrilled that there's work for women of my age. But during that time when I was transitioning, there wasn't a lot and I knew that I needed to perform skill and I always loved the cabaret. So that's when I got started doing cabaret because I felt like I had something I want to share and I wanted to say and I just fell in love with the art form and I still am. But that is a huge, entirely different art form and to produce and promote yourself in that is a lot of work too. So I kind of got pulled away from my primary love. I kind of went too far into that world for a while and I don't regret it at all because it also raised my presence in the community. There's a community of cabaret, it's also the community of actors and directors and producers. So people knew who I was that didn't know who I was before. It's all good, but then you have to step back and go it's time to reevaluate. It's time to rethink what's my next step in my career? What's my next step in my life's journey? How do I get there? That's something that you face at every point in your career when you're starting out, when you start getting some work. I look at it as a timeline. I started out Non-Equity, then I started focusing on working Non-Equity and Equity theaters so back then I could get my points. Then I only would work in places where I could get my Equity card. Then I get my Equity card.
Then you just keep going along that path. That's how I did it. It doesn't necessarily mean that that happens for everybody. Then every step of the way you're making those choices. So that's where I was a couple of years. I think four years ago we stopped the concert series. About a year and a half ago was when I signed with I think only the second agent I've ever had. I made a concerted effort to do that, to go ahead and get an agent at this point in my life kind of thing.
Martin: That makes a lot of sense. One of the things that I typically recommend for actors to do is to set up some of reminder for themselves for at least once a year, ideally once every six months to do what I like to call a "Career Assessment," which is basically where you look at yourself and you say, what am I doing right now? Is this really what I want to be doing? If not, or if it's kind of like a sideline to what am I going to be, what do I want to do? What changes do I need to make? And also how can I use when I'm currently doing to propel myself towards what I really want? You do that just once every six months to once every year and it kind of keeps you on track. I've spoken to a few actors, especially in these recent interviews where it sounds like for a couple of years or more they were kind of off track. That sort of leads into my next question, have you had any low points in your career and how did you get past them? Like what was the worst low point in your career and how did you get past it?
Raissa: Interesting question. My father used to call me a Goddamn Pollyanna. I don't think of things in terms of low point. I thought of it in terms of transition times. There were times definitely and it's kind of what I just was talking about where I realized that I was not in a phase in my life where I was as hire-able because I was, neither fish nor fowl. I was right in the middle. So that was when I chose to say I knew I need to still express and I'd always wanted to do cabaret. This is when I chose to do it. I could also afford to do it then because I'm very fortunate, at this point in my life I do not have to worry about making my living in theater. I for many years did. But I had the good fortune of getting married to a wonderful man who is a doctor, who at this point is a doctor. He was a sailor when I met him. But I get the benefit of that now and I don't have to worry, I can take a creative job and I don't have to worry about making the mortgage. That’s a huge blessing and I'm aware of that. But when I started doing cabaret, I could afford to do it by then. You have to pay a director and you need musicians and all that stuff and you don't make money doing cabaret in the city. You make money from it once you go out of the city, you get your reviews here to keep your presence up here, etc.
I'm just going to say that during those times when I wasn't working as much as an actor I just kind of reinvented myself and say I know I still need to perform. I still have something to say. How do I do it? In many ways the cabaret was a great tool and I think it's still a great tool and a good thing too because it's a skill that you use when you audition. Auditioning should be no different than performing. But unfortunately, people get so freaked out when they walk into the room because they're not on a stage and there's just people right there in front of them and they have to be themselves [inaudible 38:54] character for cabaret is really, it's just you being you. So I would say that that would be, again, I don't like the term low point. I would just say it was a transitional time. To speak to your point, I did get caught in a little bit of that cycle when I was doing that and I got so good at that and so good at producing that concert series that it kind of ate me up for a while and it took me away from my primary passion. Luckily I've had the opportunity to stand back and take a look at it and go, "It's time for change, time for change. Let's get back to my roots and what I love to do the most." By that point I had transitioned enough until my neck was tight.
Martin: I have a quick question on something that you mentioned earlier. You had mentioned about how you only send out newsletters four or five, maybe six times in a year because they're on important things that you're in. Just out of curiosity, are you as an actor in a show ever able to get discounts or special offers or anything? Have you ever spoken to directors about that, that you could offer people who are on your newsletter?
Raissa: I'm not sure what you mean. You mean if I'm in a show?
Martin: If you're in a show would the person who's putting the show on be like, "Hey, because you're in the show if you refer people to the show they can get a 10% off of the price or something?"
Raissa: Often if the show is not filling out in particular there's a discount. I think that pretty much you can do that. But a lot of the shows that I'm promoting when I'm in them are the ones that I'm self-producing. Like my own cabaret show. Certainly I always have a loyalty code for that. People can get a discount on that sort of thing.
Martin: The main reason that I'm asking it is just because it's an idea of something that actors can do because a lot of times actors either will feel like, "Oh, I'm being too promotional or I'm trying to talk my name up too much and saying, 'Hey, come see me in this show.'" But remember, you always want to provide value to people who are on the receiving end of your newsletter. Or if you want an agent or someone to see a show, you want to give them value. So you're not trying to say, "Come see me performing this show." It's, "Hey, I'm a part of this show and actually I can get you a discount. Or if you come, you can come for free because whatever." Then you're actually providing the value rather than feeling like you're being pushy.
Raissa: Right. I see your point now. If you're in an Equity reading, any Actor's Equity member can come for free to an Equity approved stage reading. So they have to show their Equity cards for that, for the most part. When I promote and I send out stuff, I always provide those links. As far as doing a reading or show to get an agent to come see you I write to them personally and say, "I'd like to have you be my guest. Let me know how many tickets I can provide for you," and make it clear that they are not paying for their ticket. If somebody, a casting director or a producer, I want to come see me do my cabaret show, I'll say, "I'd love to have you been my guest. I'd like to host your evening." That means I'm paying for their cover charge and I'm paying for their drinks or their dinner. So I make it very clear if I'm promoting in that way, that they're not paying anything to come. That's one of the ways, I know that's one of the questions that you had on your list as far as getting an agent stuff goes. One of my passions is doing new work too and also new work [inaudible 43:21]. How it started out? These shows that start out, people are coming into Off Broadway and Broadway with shows they’ve been involved with for years. I've done probably six Off Broadway shows in the last couple of years that I have done several times, that I've been involved with over the years with the playwrights, composers, all of that. That's a very important networking relationship to keep up as well.
So those instances, those performances that I'm involved in, again, typically if I'm promoting it on set or almost always if I’m promoting it I send it out and there's always a link for a discount ticket in that way. I think the way you phrase your newsletter or your communications are very important and it should be like, "Hey, come see me," and that's all there is to it. It's like, "Here's where I'm appearing and here's some other news or here's some services that you can have." As I said to you, I have multiple streams of interests and passions. One of them is it dog rescue. I always put it in my newsletters, I always include some information on some rescue work that we've done or how they can help and reach out to other rescues and stuff like that. So there's always services provided as well. It's not just about me, me, me. I use the platform that I have, whatever it is, sometimes it's higher, to help promote the causes that I'm passionate about that give back. If that makes sense.
Martin: Yeah, totally. It's really important just to, for actors to kind of understand how to make the distinction. This is a business concept, but it's all about what's in it for the client or for the customer. If the customer in this case is an agent, like you said, you want to make it clear that the tickets that you're inviting them to see a show. If it's just a regular person who's on your newsletter, then you can even send out a short, two or three emails in a row promoting a show. It's kind of like promoting a new product or a service for a business. You say, "Hey in the next two weeks we're going to be opening up this show. I'll send you some more information as soon as it's open." Then you send out an email that's like, "Hey, are you looking for something fun to do this Saturday night or somewhere to take your date? Here's a great show and here's a discount code to come to it." Basically it's like you're providing value to these people and not being like, "Hey, come and see my show because I want you to see me." It's like, "Here's something that I'm doing for you." Then the person feels appreciative of that and actually will come to see the show.
Raissa: Yeah, I agree. That's actually the model that I pretty much follow, not those exact words. But once I open a show, I'll send out, a newsletter with the reviews. Reviews are in and you could still come see the show and here's the link. If you put in this code at checkout, you get 20% off or whatever. So yeah, that's just important. That's part of the marketing that you have to keep up on. That is so important.
Martin: Cool. We talked a little bit about getting an agent. If there's anything else that you want to bring up on that in a minute we can. But I just want to hit on any advice that you have. I guess we also spoke about this for a minute too, but with auditioning, do you have one or two top tips that you can give to an actor who struggles to get called back after auditions?
Raissa: I don't necessarily limit it to callbacks, but I think what's so important is your demeanor before, during and after an audition. So many actors can shoot themselves in the foot by the way they act outside the room. You need to be kind of be professional and courteous in all three phases of that. You've got to make sure you are prepared. You bring your entire book in with you and everything that's in your book should be something you're prepared to sing or perform. You’d be surprised how many people back when I still use to - I'm seeing outside the room and just had it happen a couple of weeks ago where somebody came running outside the room to grab their book because they asked for this one. I thought, "Well, why on earth wouldn’t she have her book in the room with her?" That's silly and that's a waste of time. Just common sense tips like that are so important. I think your attitude, it's just gotta be that you have the opportunity to perform that day rather than being afraid that, "Oh my God, it's an audition." This is my chance to perform. This is a performance and I'm there to do it, to solve the problem of the casting director and to have them enjoy their time with me. I think that an important thought to have in your head before you go in.
As far as advice on getting an agent, I'm fortunate that I finally have one that I really like. As I said to you none of the jobs I ever got before this ever happened through agencies. I did it all by going to open calls and EPA. I was signed with an agent for a couple of years, had a few. I got one commercial through this person, wonderful person. Just didn't have a lot of auditions through him. I still ended up getting most of the stuff on my own. The way that I attach really when I came back into this phase of my career, when I stopped the concert series, back when I was really saying yes to a lot of readings and a lot of Off Broadway shows and I aggressively mailed and got agents to come see me. Through all of those, I think I only got three agents to come and had interviews with them all and I ended up not being interested in working with any of them. The other way I think that you can get yourself out there to be seen by agents is really seminars, networks and Actor's Connection and places like that. You get the chance to be one on one in front of somebody and do your stuff so they can at least see if they're interested in you. I think that's a great tool to use. So that's how I’ve worked it. That’s not how I ended up getting the agent that I have now. That's a longer story, but that was all part of the process and I know that's how a lot of people have been successful with it.
If I hadn't been able to find Fire Starter Entertainment, which I've been really pleased with, I probably would have continued in that way. I just met them in another way. I've made a point of when I have friend or somebody I'm going to show with that I know is unrepresented and is looking, I make a point of offering to introduce them to my agency because I know I really appreciated that when people did it for me. I began being a bit of a Pollyanna, I don't believe in competition. I believe that if you're supposed to have the job, you have the job. You’re there and you’re doing the work. So I'm never going to shy away from offering a friend of mine, even if they might be the same ‘type’, I'm always going to recommend them as well. But I just think that's a good thing to do. It's good Karma.
Martin: It's even helpful to your agency themselves because they're looking for people. So you're providing value back to your agency, which is going to make them more appreciative of you.
Raissa: Yeah. I'm never going to recommend somebody that I don't think is not only a fantastic, accurate, but a wonderful human being. You want to work with nice people.
Martin: Exactly, excellent. Just as kind of the final to sum this up, out of all the things that you've done, what would you say if you had to kind of narrow it down to one or two top things that you think have been the most helpful in moving your acting career forward?
Raissa: I would say determination. I actually have a video on my website of a monologue I do that leads into a song called, It's Possible. From the time I was a teenager, my parents told me that I had a lovely voice, but that I probably would never make a living in theater because there's too much competition. I was just like, "Okay," and I chose not to believe that. I thought, "I'm just going to try." So I would say that your personal determination and the determination and being willing to follow through and really work to achieve what you want is first and foremost. I used to talk to a lot of school groups and stuff like that because I didn't have an easy way. I'm going to be honest right now. It's easier because again, I don't have to be responsible for my own financial living. But for the first 30 years, you bet your butt I did. I was just determined to give it my all and do whatever I had to do to get myself out there and not believe people when they said I couldn't do it. I knew that I had enough talent behind me that at least I'd put myself in the room and then see what happens. I have friends that are incredibly talented that haven't had the success that I've had. So it's also a matter of just the luck of the draw and being in the right place at the right time. But I think determination and being willing to set yourself up with structure and work hard at it every day in some way is what will contribute to your success. Whether you decide to stay in the entertainment field or whether you decide I'm going to put this energy into something else, I think that's what is imperative is that you realize that nobody's going to hand it to you. You've got to step up and do the work yourself.
Martin: Yeah, exactly. It's like you're creating your own opportunities by actually staying in touch with people and doing all these things that we've talked about. There's so many things that you can do. But sometimes people feel overwhelmed by too many options and so instead they do nothing. I would be like just pick at least one, maybe two, even if they're not the perfect thing, just pick them and then that will build into something else.
Raissa: You said a magic the phrase. I got some great advice from a good friend of mine years ago, Jessica [inaudible 55:03]. We were sitting outside of an audition room for the first national tour of The Myth. She said, "You know what Raissa, no one is ever going to hand us anything. We're always going to have to make or create our own opportunities." Exactly what you just said. I remember talking to her about that and that phrase stuck in my head. She is the perfect example of that. She's incredibly successful now with her husband, John [inaudible 55:30] and they have their own radio, so called Radio Deluxe. They sell out their engagements at the Café Carlisle. She’s on many, many Broadway shows. She's got many incredible recordings. She is what I would portray as a working actor, performer. No one has handed that woman anything. I used her as a model and I'm constantly creating my own opportunities to stay current. You've got to create your own opportunities. Another thing is you've got to continue your education. I get annoyed when people say I just don't understand how to work the internet or the computer or the phone. It's not that hard anymore. Back when I was first learning computers it was hard. When I was first working on my first website, I couldn't have done it myself. Now you've got WordPress, now you've got Wix, now you got all these things that you really could, with the help of a 12 year old or a 20 year old, you can create your own website and make yourself a presence.
That's one reason why I work with Josh every week or every two weeks. I want to continue my technical education because that's what is driving our industry now. Many years ago it was, I was resisting going on Facebook and a good friend of mine, Scott says "You have to be on Facebook because you're marketing your career." I'm like, "Oh, that's the reason to do it." I instantly joined. He was right. I learned how to use Instagram. That's why now I learned that I have to really have more traffic going to my Facebook and my website pages. I tend to post on Instagram first and link to my Twitter and Facebook because that seems to be the platform that people go to more now is Instagram, four-five years ago it was Facebook. You always have to keep up with the technology. We have to keep up with the social media and the new ways of marketing. That's what it's going to help to create those opportunities as well. So I think those are two things, being determined and creating your own opportunities through continuing your education. Not just the technical education, keeping your voice up, keeping your acting chops up, keeping your movement skills up is also important.
Martin: That's awesome. This was absolutely amazing. I would love to continue talking about this for a lot longer, but we're pretty much coming right up on the end of our hour long interview time here. I really want to thank you for sharing how you've moved your career forward and the tips and the tools and strategies that you use and your general advice. I'm sure that everyone listening to this is going to find a lot of really valuable and helpful things. So thank you so much for doing this with us.
Raissa: It's my pleasure. Thank you for asking.