Introducing the Permit Access Fund, in partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery Access Canada!

By Lisa Michelle Cornelius

If you follow any of ACTRA Toronto’s socials, you may have heard some buzz about the Permit Access Fund, a brand-new initiative launched by the Union in partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery Access Canada and it’s kind of a big deal!  The Permit Access Fund is intended to help reduce barriers for performers from underrepresented communities to gain access and full membership into the Union.  To do this, Warner provided ACTRA Toronto with a $25,000 bursary that will cover 50 per cent of a Principal Performer or Actor’s work permit fee for productions that fall under ACTRA Toronto’s Low Budget Guideline. That’s up to 200 work permits subsidized!

Personally, I’m excited about any endeavour that opens doors for performers in our often-challenging industry, so I was eager to learn more.

To help provide some insight and clarity on what the Permit Access Fund is all about, I took the opportunity to speak with Luisa Alvarez Restrepo (ACTRA Toronto’s Manager of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging) and Melanie Nepinak Hadley (Senior Director at Warner Bros. Discovery Access Canada), as both women are at the helm of its inception.

Lisa Michelle Cornelius (she/her):
Let’s get right into it… the Permit Access Fund is an amazing initiative that I know many performers will benefit from and appreciate. So, thank you for making it happen!  How did it all come about? 

Melanie Nepinak Hadley (she/her):
It was all Luisa’s thinking, actually…  she pitched us this idea and we were able to fit it under the umbrella of what we do.  I will say, it was a perfect storm because when we were looking at the Canadian industry and investing in different aspects of it, we were looking at writers, directors and even game talent… but we had not actually had actors as part of our original plans! I don’t think we really identified what an incredible area of opportunity there was with the acting community. Especially with underrepresented performers.

Lisa Michelle:
How does this Permit Access Fund address some of the challenges faced by underrepresented performers in joining the Union?

Luisa Alvarez-Restrepo (she/her):
I would get looped into conversations where different productions were facing different barriers, and a lot of it [came down to] authentic casting. Authentic casting is obviously something that’s very important, but for different reasons, we may not have [all identities] within our membership, but the stories are being told anyway. And we want those stories to be told within our membership! Many times, these are low-budget productions where the production has to pay the permit fee for non-members. Some productions choose to stay non-union because of this permit cost barrier. How many productions were hoping to go ACTRA, but could not do that because they had to count their pennies? So, I started thinking, ‘who can we partner with in the industry that can help us?’  Having worked with Warner before, I was familiar with the fact that they look to nurture Canadian talent who come from underrepresented communities and they had already done something similar to the Permit Access Fund with the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC).

Lisa Michelle:
Sometimes when people hear “underrepresented communities,” they only think of cultural or racial diversity, but we know it can also be used in the broader sense. Can you clarify who this Permit Access Fund is for?

Luisa:
With this, it’s for Black, Indigenous, People of Colour, people with visible or invisible Disabilities and folks from the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.  We leave it to the performer to self-identify.  Ultimately, we want to support authentic casting and performers getting into the Union, if that is (hopefully!) the path they want to pursue.

This Fund not only supports performers, but it supports producers as well. The feedback we get from both actors and producers about the permit structure is that it disproportionately affects productions working in the low-budget space, telling stories that feature underrepresented performers.  We listened, and that is why the Fund is for those productions.

Lisa Michelle:

I love that! In my experience, ACTRA is an organization that historically listens to the stories and feedback from its members. We don’t always have to see the data to make a change about something that seems so obvious. We tend to believe folks who speak up and take action! This Fund appears to be a good example of that.

Luisa:
We’re easy to work with and hard to fight!

Lisa Michelle:
So, if I’m a diverse performer who just got cast in a low-budget ACTRA production, how do I go about accessing the Permit Access Fund?

Luisa:
For non-members, the producer would be the one that starts the application for this by completing the Permit Access Fund form provided by the ACTRA Toronto Business Rep assigned to their production. If you are already an ACTRA Toronto Apprentice or ACTRA Additional Background Performer (AABP) and have been cast in an ACTRA Toronto LBG production, you are responsible for your permit fees, so you could apply directly to the Fund yourself.

Lisa Michelle:
Melanie, you mentioned the Permit Access Fund is one of the first initiatives for actors from Warner Bros. Discovery Access Canada, which is exciting!  I know it’s being defined as a ‘special project’ for now, but is there potential for this partnership to become a yearly endeavor?  Or even extended to other branches?

Melanie:
In theory, yes.  Our office operates on a year-to-year basis, so we’re not in a scenario to be setting up anything long term… but I think one big positive that came from this is the awareness that the area of underrepresented performers is so fertile with partnership. [As for it extending to other branches,] I think you’re right on the money in that this endeavour has really, really cracked open the conversations we’ve had with people who’ve reached out to me from outside ACTRA Toronto. And as soon as we start to have conversations with different members of the community, we feel a level of accountability to meet their needs. So, I will say that if it continues to grow, I do see it expanding beyond Toronto and becoming a more of a national endeavour.

Lisa Michelle:
Are you watching any great Canadian shows or have a favourite Canadian film? Bonus points if it’s an ACTRA Toronto Production. 😉

Luisa:
Sort Of! I’m absolutely obsessed with it. When it dropped, I binge-watched it.  I also love Run the Burbs.

Melanie:
Oooh, that’s such a good question! Run the Burbs holds a special place in my heart… much like Schitt’s Creek, that show’s only getting better and better.  In the “shorts” world, we had a couple come out last year called Monster and The Act of Stealing, which are both out on YouTube and Crave under the ‘Only You’ series. I served as a mentor on them and they’re near and dear to me.

If you have questions or would like to see more info about the Permit Access Fund (PAF), e-mail PAF@actratoronto.com with your inquiry or visit the PAF page on the ACTRA Toronto website.

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