No Small Parts: The Importance of Background Players in Soap Opera

Oakdale ConfidentialWould you rather listen to Kate Martineau Adams than read about her?
Hear Full (23 minutes) Interview: Kate Martineau Adams with Susan Dansby

In this interview, Kate Martineau Adams compares the potential for moving up in acting ranks from background (extra) player to principal roles in soaps and feature films. She explains why you might want to get a job as an extra in one form, and definitely not in another.

Susan Dansby: You cast the background players primarily. [Note: Background players don’t speak at all. An ‘under-five’ is a part where the character has one-to-five lines of dialogue. A ‘day player’ character has more than five lines and may be used once or many times (recurring). A ‘contract role’ is one where the actor is contracted to appear a certain number of times each week.] How did those people come to your attention? Because being a background player, or an extra, is sometimes in actor’s first experience on film or on tape. Continue reading

Posted in Dream Jobs, Film Jobs, Interviews, Job Search Tips, Television Jobs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

When Screen Tests Impress: How Two Soap Actors Got Parts They Weren’t Auditioning For

Would you rather listen to Kate Martineau Adams than read about her?
Hear Full (23 minutes) Interview: Kate Martineau Adams with Susan Dansby

Kate Martineau AdamsAssistant Casting Director, Kate Martineau Adams (formerly of As the World Turns) reinforces the view that a great audition can lead to getting cast for a great role – even a role you didn’t audition for. She gives two examples of actors who didn’t get the job they came in for, but still got hired. But first, she remembers an actor who made an unwise choice.

Kate Martineau Adams: A lot of actors — they’ll hear this reminder of ‘always make choices.’ And then, if they don’t have the proper training, they make Continue reading

Posted in Dream Jobs, Interviews, Job Search Tips, Television Jobs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Kate Martineau Adams: Why You Need to be More than ‘Natural’ in Your Acting Audition

Oakdale Confidential

Would you rather listen to Kate Martineau Adams than read about her?
Hear Full (23 minutes) Interview: Kate Martineau Adams with Susan Dansby

Casting directors often audition nearly a hundred actors (or more) a day. Assistant Casting Director (formerly of As the World Turns), Kate Martineau Adams, gives us an insider’s view of what the casting directors look for and how an actor can stand out in the crowd.

Susan Dansby: Can you talk about how many people you might see for one role on a soap opera? Continue reading

Posted in Dream Jobs, Interviews, Television Jobs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Assistant Casting Director Kate Martineau Adams Advises Actors: Training and Preparation

Would you rather listen to Kate Martineau Adams than read about her?
Hear Full (23 minutes) Interview: Kate Martineau Adams with Susan Dansby

As My World Still Turns by Eileen FultonIn her position as Assistant Casting Director at As the World Turns, Kate Martineau Adams often gave seminars in various acting schools. Here, she offers advice to actors on where they should place their focus when pursuing an acting career — especially in the audition process. 

Kate Martineau Adams: Well, the first piece of advice I would give actors is that they need to have some training. There are definitely people who just get discovered, and it happens for them overnight. Those are very few and far between. You need to have Continue reading

Posted in Dream Jobs, Television Jobs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Kate Martineau Adams, Bio

Kate Martineau AdamsAfter earning a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kate Martineau Adams went on to produce the top-rated weekend newscast in the Raleigh-Durham television market.

From there, she decided to make the move to New York where she initially worked as a corporate event coordinator assisting on projects such as the GLAAD Media Awards Continue reading

Posted in Dream Jobs, Television Jobs | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Audio Recording with Assistant to the Executive Producer, Michele DeVito

Oakdale ConfidentialHear the full interview (19 minutes) as author Susan Dansby talks to Assistant to the Executive Producer, Michele DeVito, by clicking the link below.

Assistant to the Executive Producer, Michele DeVito, talks with author Susan Dansby about how her daughter’s crush on soap opera star, Jack Wagner, led her to the Daytime Emmys and the opportunity to apply for her first job in TV. Michele talks about being overwhelmed during those first days, and how she came to anticipate the needs of the seven executive producers she assisted over the course of 24 years. And, you’ll be surprised by the dream job acquired by her General Hospital-fan daughter.

Click here to hear Michele DeVito/Susan Dansby interview.

Posted in Dream Jobs, Interviews, Television Jobs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Michele DeVito’s Career Change to TV Nurtured Her Daughters’ Artisitic Ambitions

Saturday Night Live - Best of Chris FarleyMichele DeVito started her soap opera career because her daughter had a crush on Jack Wagner (General Hospital). Both of her daughters, grown now, have artistic leanings. And one has a dream job that keeps her busy on Saturday nights.Susan Dansby: At least one of your kids is in the industry.

Michele DeVito: Yes, my oldest daughter works for Saturday Night Live. About 17 or 18 years, she’s been there.

How she got into it is — I don’t even know if it was interning. I brought her in one day – just to see what it was like.  Because it was because of her that I got this job. Continue reading

Posted in Dream Jobs, Interviews, Television Jobs | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How Assistant to the Executive Producer, Michele DeVito, Survived 7 Soap Opera Bosses

John Whitesell

Film Director, John Whitesell

 Michele DeVito loved the excitement of working in the world of soaps. However, the job of Assistant to the Executive Producer had been created at the request of Michele’s boss, John Whitesell. When Whitesell left the daytime drama, Another World, Michele worried, justifiably, that she’d be out of a job.   

Michele DeVito: Any Exec that  came in could have brought their own girl. But I was lucky. It’s hard to remember, I had Michael Laibson, I had John Valente, Terri Guarnieri , Jill Farren Phelps, Charlotte Savitz. 

And I worked great with each one of them. And they kept me. And today I’m still here. Continue reading

Posted in Dream Jobs, Interviews, Television Jobs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why Michele DeVito Almost Quit her Dream Job in Soaps

Would you rather listen to Michele DeVito than read about her?
Hear Full (19 minutes) Interview: Michele DeVito with Susan Dansby
Michele DeVito had worked for six years as a legal secretary before the career change that led her to the world of soap operas as the Assistant to the Executive Producer on the daytime drama,

Another World 35th Anniversary Edition

Another World. Looking back (after 24 years in daytime) she remembers, it wasn’t an easy transition.

Michele DeVito: I had no idea of the hours, because I worked 10 to 3 [at the law office]. But when I got here? Forget it. The hours in this were rough. And we ran into that Labor Day weekend — we had a party planned for the entire family. At my house! And they said I had to work Labor Day.

And I said, “What?” They said, “Oh yeah, we tape 52 weeks.” And I had to cancel Continue reading

Posted in Dream Jobs, Interviews, Television Jobs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Daughter’s Soap Star Crush Lands Her Mom a Dream Job

Michele DeVito worked as the Assistant to Executive Producer, Christopher Goutman, on As the World Turns. But it wasn’t her first turn in that position. Michele assisted no less than seven soap producers during her career. During this interview in the waning days of As the World Turns  (ATWT went off the air 9/17/10), Michele DeVito answers the question: How Did You Get That Job?

Susan Dansby: So, give me a little background. How did you become an Executive Assistant?

Michele DeVito: I had been working in a law office for about six years as a legal secretary. And my daughter, who was in high school at that time – back in 1986 – started to watch General Hospital. And she had a crush on Jack Wagner.

She asked me if I could go to this luncheon of the Daytime Emmys. And back in those days Continue reading

Posted in Dream Jobs, Interviews, Television Jobs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment