Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1530033
98 SAG-AFTRA | Fall/Winter 2024 | sagaftra.org talent looks like, talking great albums, talking about incredible movies, [and] what people are doing. That fellowship is way more essential than any 'practice' an actor would get playing a game. It's the joy of the game that makes this journey, which is arduous and hard, and lonely at times, worth its salt," he said. Dungeons & Dragons has been popularized in recent years in Netflix's Stranger Things through the Critical Role web series, and with the release of the Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie last year. At their heart, roleplaying games, or RPGs, are storytelling games, and the fuel that runs it all is imagination — something performers have in generous amounts. In fact, these games provide a forum for a variety of skills that play to actors' strengths: contextualizing character motivation, performing accents, working as an ensemble and active listening. Member Todd Stashwick takes his roleplaying seriously — so much so that he launched a successful Kickstarter for his own roleplaying game resource titled Dark Age of Theer. From his "Nerd Lair" bedecked with gaming treasures and curiosities, Stashwick explained the skills it takes to play a game like Dungeons & Dragons. Todd Stashwick as PERRY BLACKWING BLY 11th Level Sorcerer / 1st Level Ranger Half-elf "Listening. Making a choice. Supporting your fellow players. It's basically improv 101," he said. "And then being nimble to bend when maybe … the dice didn't go in your favor. Like acting, we can make all the decisions that we want, but then the scene could go [another] way emotionally, and we have to be willing to let go of our preconceived notions of how the scene 'should be.' Because the dice may not always roll in your favor, but I say, 'No bad rolls, only good stories.'" Adds SAG-AFTRA National Board member Anthony Rapp, "I think that there's an aspect of playing characters as actors — whether it's a character that we invent or collaborate in inventing or gets given to us by a writer — that gives us a real opportunity to explore the human condition, even if we're playing another species in D&D. It's still about exploring all the nooks and crannies of what it means to be alive. And I think that's a gift, and I think it can also be really good for our mental health. Anthony Rapp as TIZRIN 5th Level Monk Aarakocra "It's a wonderful opportunity to exercise those creative muscles … It's a hobby, but it also really can be incredibly rewarding and helpful to explore different ways of being. And that's like acting, except you're not auditioning for anything. You're not trying to prove anything. It's not about keeping a job. It's just a totally safe space to let loose." SAG-AFTRA National Board member Michelle Hurd enjoys the creative freedom that safe space allows. "I love acting. I love arts. I love actors and I love seeing us play. And I love seeing us smile and enjoy ourselves and let our hair down," she said. "We allow ourselves to sort of breathe and express ourselves in a way that is freer than a scripted show. It's a way to combine our acting skill with improvisation. Michelle Hurd as SEEKA (with pet badger Finda) 3rd Level Rogue Human "It allows me to be, maybe, a little more fearless and creative when I get to my scripted jobs. Because I've now gone big and bold on a D&D stage, and I can take that energy and that joy and figure out how to infuse that into a little bit of a smaller role that has tighter parameters, that doesn't allow me to be as big, but can still have that kind of joy and that playfulness." Member Bonnie Gordon said a lifetime of enjoying roleplaying games has made her a better performer, but there are even more profound lessons to be learned from the tabletop experience, where different characters of different species with different skills who worship different gods all work together for a common goal. Bonnie Gordon as PIPER BAGGINS (no relation) 9th Level Bard Halfling "If we could take that mentality and put it into real-world thinking, how much brighter and happier this place would be," she said. "Our world is just one big RPG and we're all playing characters in it. We all think we're the main character in our own story, but really it's a collaborative effort. And if all of us just worked together we could fix so much." ●