From Peter: There have been many moments over the past year where I’ve been extraordinarily grateful The Obvious Path exists. This moment is no exception. Some of you might know that Kat got an opportunity to become an agent at DGRW in a pandemic inspired tectonic shift at that agency. It’s her dream job. And, as we are a dream chasing blog, it seems appropriate to take a moment to celebrate, reflect, and express our gratitude.
If you haven’t, it might be fun to go back and read Kat’s first feature which was written in October of 2019 (and was put on our website January 2020.)
I’ll only say this: What I admire most about my wife is her ability to plant seeds. As I often remind her, she plants so many seeds she can’t keep track of all of them. I like to think my greatest gift to Kat is being her historian. I have a knack of remembering the goals she sets and the offhand comments she makes. But here’s the thing about Kat- even if she’s not neurotically watching the seeds, she’s dutifully tending to her garden, the big picture, every day. We’re as likely as any couple to get “lost in the weeds.” Especially in the age of COVID, we were unsure if our seeds would ever come to fruition or if New York would be possible. Thankfully, Kat has been dutifully planting seeds our three years back in NYC, we turned around and one of them had blossomed into a beautiful bouquet. I hope Kat inspires you the way she inspires me. Happy planting...
So… senior agent, huh? I guess dreams do come true.
Yes. They. Do. I’m as surprised and humbled as anyone would be to get a job (any job) during this time. To fulfill a lifelong goal and end up in a dream position… I’m just beyond.
As with many job opportunities, there were a million tiny things that happened to make it possible. 98% of them had absolutely nothing to do with me. In many ways, some of the things that had frustrated me about my own path came to play a pivotal part in this role.
Namely, the fact I started as a voiceover assistant- something multiple people told me would be the end of my dreams of being a “legit” agent. But, you know, after a 3-month internship I needed a job quickly and that was my only opportunity. When the company I was working for graciously allowed me to get out of the voiceover industry, I wanted to go to the theatrical desk. That didn’t work out, so I was sent to work with the on-camera agent. That gave me enough contacts to interview for my job at HCKR, where my responsibilities were even heavier on the on-camera side. And, you’re sensing the theme here, but Matt Redmond (now owner of DGRW) has always been a theatrical rockstar and was wanting to partner with someone with who had more TV/Film experience. It’s one of those checkpoints where I have to stop and think: “My path is being guided.” I continue to show up, do the work, and try to do my best Anna (aka “The Next Right Thing”). But, in the end, this is all bigger than me.
I’m going to make you tell your other checkpoint as well…
I mean, you would. Especially since you had to point it out to me.
You all might remember in my first feature I had talked about how I knew it was time for me to move on from acting. In 2014, I told Peter that I only had two roles left that I really wanted to play: Natalie in Next to Normal, which I did in Cleveland during Peter’s first year of grad school and Ariel from The Little Mermaid, which I did in Hong Kong the following year. A beautiful closure that not many actors get.
These days, I spend most of my time meeting individually with DGRW’s lovely roster. Peter looked at my schedule one day and said, “Do you realize what clients you’re meeting with this afternoon?” It was Alice Ripley (who won the Tony for Next to Normal) and Jodi Benson (The original voice of Ariel in The Little Mermaid). It was a full circle inside of a full circle. Another checkpoint that the universe put in front of me that said: “Why do you ever doubt anything? I’ve got you.”
We’ve been prepping or writing this blog for just under a year. What has The Obvious Path done for you in that time?
Personally, it’s helped restore my trust in the composition of our industry. It’s not like I thought everyone was heartless, but the transactional part of our business can highlight the colder side in all of us. I’ve realized having a public document that states a desire for humanity, however, offers an invitation for humans to come find us. And they do. The amount of time every person puts into their interview, with no reward, is humbling. Peter and I have a lot of lovely people reach out or say a kind thing to us in passing. Not to mention, we’ve made new friends or solidified friendships with every person we’ve featured. It’s given us an excuse to reach out to someone new, learn more about people that fascinate us, and express what we admire about them in our introductions.
Professionally, it did the thing we never dreamed it would. It grew my network to the point it really helped getting my job at DGRW. One of our connections, whom I had never met before our interview earlier this year, really advocated for me. My name not only ended up “in the hat” because of this person, but I believe they made me a frontrunner before I even interviewed. And, this is the cliche part that we always hear and never believe, but that person is one of our best friends now.
Personally-Professionally, (is that a thing?) The Obvious Path exists in my brain as an evolving thesis. It constantly reminds or shapes me towards my why, our features all introduce new concepts that keep me thinking, and producing this content challenges me to keep living up to the dream of the industry we want to be a part of. I heard on a podcast earlier this year the Flannery O’Connor quote “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.” In our case, I feel like that’s true. It’s like a Google Doc that we get some brilliant people to contribute to. As we sit with those words or write our own words, we learn the articulation of our feelings.
Above all, years ago, Peter and I got some marriage advice from a person we really respect. They said, “Figure out every way where you can do life together.” The Obvious Path is Peter and I’s way of making our parallel careers intersect. I find working, writing, brainstorming, listening, learning, and dreaming much more fulfilling when I get to do it with him.
What are your goals in your new position?
The pandemic, our industry shutdown, and our country’s reckoning with race are all frustrating and heartbreaking moments to live in. That said, I don’t know that there is a better time to start a position like the one I’m in. It’s a continual reminder that our industry has major flaws, I don’t know all the answers, and we’re going to need to work together for change.
I’ve always viewed the agent as, primarily, a position of service. We submit our actors, we fight for them to be seen, and we negotiate the deal... Then, I read a blog post by Olivia Hernandez on the Ensemblist. That article did a lot of things for me.
One, it made me delineate the difference between an agent’s “power” and “responsibility”. When I was an actor, I viewed my agent as an authority. Therefore, I viewed them as “powerful”. The negative words they might use about my talent, a show they didn’t like, or how the business worked. Even if they were being encouraging, my lens of them as an authority figure was not helpful.
As an agent, I realize what I viewed as “power” when I was an actor are just my, or any agent’s, “responsibilities”. I have a responsibility to find actors that I really believe in. I have a responsibility to nourish relationships with my clients and Casting Directors. I have a responsibility to fight for equity, whether that is the amount of money a client is taking home or who I’m submitting for a role. But none of that should be confused as power. Agents and actors are a team: Equally powerful with different responsibilities.
Secondly, Olivia broke down the word we use to describe my job: Representation. And, for that matter; Agency. What I find inspiring, and particularly necessary in the time ahead, is growing our actor’s personal agency at their agency. In regards to relationships, we need to reinfuse that word, “representation” into how we work. It is imperative that we, as our client’s representation, represent them not only as artists, but as human beings.
And that’s the thing I find most invigorating about the conversations we have at DGRW. Our team, with Matt at the helm and our colleague, Kaitlin, approaches everything with an attitude of adaptability. We’re reimagining ways the agency supports actors, the way we advocate for them, and morphing the actor/agent relationship for the better.
Can we get an industry update?
So… The good news is that TV and film seem to be coming back in pieces. I’m writing this in the first week of September and we had two clients on set this week. I will say we’re getting more availability checks for our more established actors than normal. Part of keeping shows simple is using core casts and inviting actors back that have been on the show/have significant credits. That said, some casting offices seem to be operating with the intention of taking the extra time to see tapes from newer talent.
As we know, theatre is going to be tougher. I remember when Joseph Haj said The Guthrie wasn’t going to produce shows until March 2021. That, at the time, was a wake up call. Now, all these months later, that seems optimistic. The truth is we just don’t know. I know the days are slow, but the news can change fast. As is widely reported, there are SOME theatrical productions happening. I suspect there will continue to be creative ways to employ actors in the coming months. But it will likely be for the smaller percentage and those that have worked more.
As we’ve seen in corporations, the pandemic has made the rich get even richer. I think that is true for our industry too- the more credits you already have the better off you will be. And I know that isn’t great news. What I’m telling my clients is the same thing I’m telling my husband: You’ve got to take care of you. If that means staying in class and having an outlet, please do it. If that means getting away from the business and focusing on survival, family, or mental health, please do it. Through this pandemic, we’ve all been reminded how important it is to prioritize family, health, passions, and healthy mindsets. If there is a “new normal”, I hope it’s one where we reincorporate those practices with more intention.
Here it comes… Where are you on your mountain?
I feel like it is important to acknowledge when I answered this question in the first feature, my next mountain was making the climb to an agent position. In that sense, I’ve reached a summit! It’s been enormously fulfilling to reach a goal I’ve been working towards and I take so much pride in where I ended up.
And then we move onto what we always know in asking this question: The summit of one mountain is the base of the next. 2020 has been a year of becoming more aware of the mountain range that we’re all on and how important it is to not become singularly focused on one goal. That’s when I really, really love being an agent. I feel like I get to find people on their own individual mountains and aid their ascent in any way we can. As we go on that journey, those clients will take me places I never would have seen otherwise. I’ve said this before, but it really is true: My dream is helping other people achieve their dreams.
RAPID FIRE:
Favorite Quaran-TV: The Great, Away, I May Destroy You, Unorthodox, Never Have I Ever… I’ve been watching SO much TV.
Quarn-reads: Peter and I have been guilty of what NPR’s Code Switch would call going to the “Gym on New Year’s: for Racism.” We’ve been a part of a discussion book club where we’ve read How to Be an Antiracist, I’m Still Here, White Fragility, The New Jim Crow, and The Fire Next Time essays by James Baldwin. We, obviously, have a lot more reading and learning to do. I realize I should’ve started this years ago, but now I’m doing my best to stay committed to education and subsequent actions as a result of these learnings.
Exercise routine (if you’re into that): Currently, we’ve been doing Orangetheory at Home. I’m working out 5 days a week for the first time in my life and mama’s legs are sore!!
Favorite food: Cancelling out my workouts with homemade pizza, beef stroganoff, and Häagen-Dazs Caramel Cone since 2020.
Thing you miss most: The lights dimming in the theatre before a show… Can’t wait until we get to do it again.
Places you’ve spent this year: Peter and I vacationed in Italy to start 2020. That feels like a LIFETIME ago… We went to California to stay with my in-laws for 5 months, the majority of shelter-in-place. Quarantined in NYC for two weeks, an emergency trip to Texas for a week to care for a family member, and now back in quarantine in NYC. Home is people. Not a place.
Hardest part of being an agent: Woof… Not being able to help everyone. It literally keeps me up at night. There are so many genuinely pure, genuinely talented people. I hate that I don’t have the horsepower to get everyone where they need to go.
Tips for communication with potential rep during a pandemic: Here’s the keys to the Kingdom in my book, which I mostly attribute to the teachings of Jen Waldman. Act within your integrity.
Don’t spend all your time trying to second guess what’s happening on our end. Control what you can on your end. If you have material you feel great about sending, if you write a pitch email that is well thought out and true to who you are: by all means, shoot the shot. You never know.
I spend a lot of time curating emails for casting that never get responded to as well. I realize we all have a hypothetical understanding of the volume of emails some industry folks receive, though I imagine we all still underestimate how much traffic certain emails have. Regardless, not getting a response always stings a little bit. But I can assure you, I feel so much more at peace when I send an email within my integrity. That means it’s personal, it’s specific, and it’s human. I’m at peace hitting send no matter the outcome.
Social media feelings: Facebook sucks, right? Why don’t I delete it?
Social media handles: We really gonna do this back to back? Lol. @kat_hargrave
Anything you’d like to promote: If you have a wishlist or ideas that agents could better serve actors, could you email me at obviouspath@gmail.com? I would SO appreciate ideas to add to an ever evolving list.