Showbiz: Returning actress dishes out a scoop

People say you can never go home again, that things there are never the same. Kelly Atkins, a 1992 Waynesboro alumna, will find out if the adage is true or not.

“I’m really nervous,” Atkins says, “coming to where I’m from. I feel like there will be some great expectations and I hope to meet or exceed them.”

Atkins returns home Saturday to Waynesboro to share some parts of her profession that she feels get little attention. She’s going to instruct local students of theater on how to act — not the onstage kind, but the offstage, real-life acting that is needed in order for an actor to promote themselves.

“I thought about a theme for the class, since master theater class is so broad a topic,” Atkins said. “So I’m going to be sharing things that I didn’t know, things that I wish I would’ve known before going into the acting business. Things that nobody taught me in school.”

Atkins, whose majority of professional acting is in musical theater, is not sure how many people attending her master class are planning on making the theater their profession, but she says that anyone who is interested in getting better roles will be able to learn how to better present themselves.

Hank Fitzgerald, director of ShenanArts’ production of “The Magic Garden” scheduled to be presented in March, has high praise for Atkins and her work.

“She’s incredible and her resume is off the hook!” says Fitzgerald, who was an actor for 10 years.

“You’ve got to be ready for rejection and there’s plenty of it. You have to make yourself open to a lot; otherwise you cut yourself short. You have to be versatile.”

Fitzgerald attended WHS with Atkins and also performed with her in ShenanArts productions. He played opposite her in “West Side Story.”

“She’s fantastic and I’m nervous to be performing with her!” Fitzgerald said.

During the lean financial times, when no theater acting jobs can be found, Atkins says there are plenty of sidelines to work and stresses the importance of learning what they are and how to go about getting them.

“You won’t perform for 52 weeks out of the year. No one does,” Atkins says. “Sidelines use the same skill set. They are all related to one another.”

Some of the sideline work that Atkins will speak about include commercial work, voice overs, industrial work and print work — all work she’s performed herself along with small parts in films and some series television.

Industrial films, for example, are films that are produced for corporations or businesses. These films are the kind that businesses use to promote diversity in the workplace or to instruct employees on sexual harassment. Atkins acted in a training film for a federal law enforcement agency; she played someone involved with a meth lab.

“It pays and you get film footage for your reel,” Atkins says. A reel is a 3-5 minute movie reel of film clips of the work an actor has done.
“You give it to your agent to show to companies who are looking for actors,” she says. “It gives them an idea of the work you’ve done.”

According to Atkins, creating a reel and keeping it updated can be expensive propositions. Doing sideline work can help an actor to pay their bills and provide additional income to maintain personal marketing.

Other promotional outlets include headshots, Web sites, mailings, calling companies for photos and clips, plus the associated fees.

“It’s not easy and it’s not for a lazy person. It takes constant effort to market yourself, which you are doing all the time,” Atkins says.

It’s more than a 40-hour per week job.

And when an actor is working a show, it’s just that much more that they have to do.

“It’s an all-the-time job,” Atkins says. “When I’m not working in a show, I do the other work.

“And it’s always up and down; feast or famine. You’ve either got too much work coming in and have to turn some of it down or there’s nothing coming your way.”

Atkins says that a lot of people don’t realize that professional performers can and do find employment off Broadway and that there are many regional professional theaters that hire.

Atkins hasn’t made a Broadway show yet either.

“I got very close,” she says.

What she has done is broadened her repertoire of skills to survive. And that’s what she’ll share when she makes her return to the Spilman Auditorium: survival techniques.

“She’s very entertaining and very beautiful,” says Fitzgerald, who hasn’t performed with Atkins in more than 15 years. “She’s going to be stellar. I know she’ll get a standing ovation.”

“I know it won’t be as polished like if I had more time to rehearse,” Atkins says.

“But I’m keeping my fingers crossed.”