Welcome Back!

Thank you for being here tonight! And welcome to the Artios Awards!!! We are in for a night of excitement, thrills, and chills, and all in 4D! Tonight will be a much needed and deserved celebration of the work of casting professionals whose work often goes unrecognized and undervalued, but not tonight so let’s get ready to celebrate.

A lot has happened since we last met. Just one year ago, many in our industry were still reeling from the fires that devastated Southern California. The recovery is still in progress, and it is through strength that our communities will heal and rebuild. 

Today we face political uncertainty across the globe, and on a smaller scale we are also still trying to navigate the ups and downs in our industry. Through all of this, our casting community remains resilient in the face of adversity.  

We’re here tonight to celebrate excellence in casting, an essential craft that will finally get its due at the 98th Academy Awards in a couple of weeks. It’s incredible that very soon, we’ll see the first casting director receive an Oscar for their work. This is a dream come true for the founders of CSA, and the Artios Awards have been celebrating casting for 41 years and counting and we will continue to elevate the art and craft of casting for years to come.

The influence we have as casting professionals helps to change the world as we play a key role in determining how stories are told and how people are perceived. We have the power to change how people across diverse communities are portrayed. We have a say and have sway in how a person on the other side of the globe experiences the stories we populate. We get to reflect the world back to ourselves and bring deeper humanity to our work through authentic and compassionate casting. We are a line of defense against bigotry and xenophobia. The stories we tell shape the world, and the world shapes the stories we tell. Our work echoes through eternity every time a new person watches one of our projects. It’s a tremendous responsibility that we don’t take lightly and that has a deep impact. 

One of our goals is to be a truly global organization and set internationally recognized standards for casting, and we are thrilled that tonight a new category that celebrates casting for London Theatre will make its debut at the Artios.

It’s all so very exciting indeed and we could not do it without the dedication of the CSA Board, the CSA Global Chapter Board, and all of our producers, supporters, and sponsors. And our members who make CSA the thriving organization that it is today. 

So, don’t sit back! Don’t relax! Sit up, lean forward, and get ready for the 41st Artios Awards!

With gratitude-

Destiny Lilly, CSA