Hot Tip from Director Sammi Cannold: Actors, Make a Website!

Director Sammi Cannold is one of Broadway's most up-and-coming creatives, having made her Broadway debut earlier this season with How to Dance in Ohio. While she is hard at work on some exciting new projects, Sammi recently shared a PSA to fellow artists, which you can read in full below.

A Rant from a Sad Director:

I'm casting/hiring for a project right now and here's an annual 'Fellow Artists! Please Make a Website!!!' post beacuse half the people I'm trying to hire still don't have websites! Here's why I (and many others who are similarly fortunate to have hiring power) are begging you to make one:

1. Even if we know and adore your work, our collaborators have to agree to hiring decisions and they may not know your work. In these processes and others, I've watched so many amazing people I pitch to my collaborators get in the 'no pile' because my collaborators don't have enough info or vice versa. And with readings of new musicals in particular, for better or worse, auditions are infrequent and instead it's a who-knows-who game where decisions have to be made quickly.

2. We need contact information! At very early phases of projects, we creatives often don't yet have our eventual amazing casting directors or general managers. We need to know how to reach you or your reps. And while we can be resourceful (I've sent many a DM offer), creative routes only work maybe half of the time. 

3. Sometimes we need to know something specific- i.e. if an actor has any tap training, if a costume designer of plays has done a musical, etc. While we can ask you this at an audition, interview, etc., you go to the top of at least preliminary lists by having that information readily accessible. And a lot of us like to know who we can call for a character reference, so we need to see who you've worked with previously.

4. I'm asked to recommend other artists for jobs more or less every single day and I know other creatives are in similar positions, because we ask each other! Yay! In those cases, it would be unsustainable to write every person you're recommending to have them send samples. Here's how most of us recommend:

5. It's nice to get a sense of who someone is as a human and a website is a chance to express what you want to express about yourself and your work on your terms. 

I'm sure there are more reasons, but for now- end rant. I'm not the website expert, but happy to try to help with any questions if useful.

You can learn more about Sammi Cannold at her website: sammicannold.com

Photo Credit: Bruce Glikas