Ben Cook

[kport]

These delightful young BETM Alum and other creative young ones are such an obvious reason that all elected folks up on that hill, all 435 of them, need some positive (not evil), creative training in their background. Right now, out of the entire bunch, there's but one senator (Al Franken) up there serving in place of his and our friend Paul Wellstone "who died while campaigning for this job many years back". Al has been and will always be a shining example of an "elected citizen politician."

I'll bet he's one of a small handful of elected officials that could have fun with Billys (past, present, future or future perfect [which they always are]) and communicate with them on their highly evolved level.

tzwicky

Not so long ago, my Maine neighbor spent some time with the cast; I recall a photo of George H W Bush with Lex, Kylend, Daniel and Giuseppe after the show in Houston in 2011. Knowing Poppy, he probably had a blast meeting them and showing off his mismatched socks!

Rahm Emmanuel, mayor of Chicago and former Obama team member, was trained as a classical ballet dancer as a boy. I am sure there are many politicians on both sides of the aisle who would love the show and would enjoy meeting the cast.

[kport]

Now we know......just who inspires DC politicians to flip-flop!

http://instagram.com/p/ihnt0RTKnQ/

[kport]

Ben has posted this witty farewell to 2013:

http://instagram.com/p/impi9nzKnJ/

[porschesrule]

Congratulations to Ben, Kylend Hetherington, Drew Minard, Noah Parets, and Mitchell Tobin for winning Broadway World - Austin Best Leading Actor in a Musical (Touring) award.

Great Job Guys!

http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/20 ... p-20140109

[kport]

Ben has posted this on his Instagram: "Doing some audio work for VEEP'. He further comments that 'I play the character Walt. He's Mikes son on the show' and that the series will be shown from April 6 on HBO at 10 p.m.

http://instagram.com/p/jaKotIzKqP/

[CJ-Rochester]

Here is a short trailer for the Metropolitan School of the Arts' production of "The Nutcracker" in which Ben played the title role last November. We only get a few glimpses of Ben, but you can tell this was a quality production.

http://vimeo.com/ondemand/msa?fb_action ... map=%5B%5D

[Musical Fanatic]

Ben's dad writes a new article. "Twice, Ben has been called back to audition in New York for shows that — in the end — “hired older.” In the D.C. area, matters are complicated by the fact that Ben is a member of Actors Equity, and the many fine theatre companies here — with the exception of The Kennedy Center — do not have the financial capacity to hire Equity actors for teen roles. In most cases, they won’t even have him audition, knowing they can’t hire him." This is something that I never realized was a problem. So once you are AE than you can only take AE roles I guess






http://www.dcmetrotheaterarts.com/2014/ ... lenn-cook/

Sam

[LiamM]

I am surprised to hear that there is a downside to being an Equity member. I thought they had things like the Equity Showcase rules to allow Equity members to take non-union roles. For example, Noah was the only Equity member in The Dark I Know and the program stated that it was run under Equity Showcase rules. Perhaps the rules are not as flexible as I thought. I wonder what the details are about this. Is the issue that they are allowed to hire Ben for an otherwise non-union show, but still have to pay him more than a non-equity actor?

[CJ-Rochester]

I know plenty of Equity actors who live outside NYC and have these troubles. Some find work in companies that can hire a mix of Equity and non-Equity. Such opportunities can be found, but they are often not enough to make a career out of it. As Musical Fanatic said, once you are AE than you can only take roles under an AE contract.

Those who don't live in an area with very much AE work either end up leaving AE or they get more creative, such as using an alternate stage name when they are in a non-Equity show.

[michaelJ]

I am surprised to hear that there is a downside to being an Equity member. I thought they had things like the Equity Showcase rules to allow Equity members to take non-union roles. For example, Noah was the only Equity member in The Dark I Know and the program stated that it was run under Equity Showcase rules. Perhaps the rules are not as flexible as I thought. I wonder what the details are about this. Is the issue that they are allowed to hire Ben for an otherwise non-union show, but still have to pay him more than a non-equity actor?

I wrote a little bit about that in the regional production thread. The showcase rules limit the size of the theater, the amount of money involved in the production, and limit the number of appearances allowed among other things.They are definitely not flexible. The union pay scale is not in effect for a showcase production, although there are relatively minor payment agreements made for travel and etc.