It is also important to be organized when "making the rounds." Cabs are expensive, buses aren't too reliable in Manhattan traffic, and walking can be exhausting. Therefore, a simple geographic breakdown will help save time and energy. Plan to cover one section or block, or even just one building at a time. This simple discipline may prove very helpful.
If an agent sends you for an interview, you are, in all likelihood being submitted for a particular part. Even when visiting an office on your own, it is better to have something specific in mind-a role that you know the office is trying to cast and for which you think you are right. Try to have some kind of objectivity about yourself. If you are a 22-year-old woman on the slim side, don't try to convince a casting director that you would be just wonderful as the fat grandmother in a Broadway play just because you played a grandmother in college. That's fine for college. For Broadway, they'll get someone who looks the part.
It's not always possible to have a specific part in mind when making rounds; sometimes you are just trying to get acquainted with the people at the offices. But, needless to say, the more you have read or heard about a producer's plans, the better off you are.
Uta Hagen, addressing members of Actors' Equity, had this advice:
People come to me and say, "What should I work on?" I say, "Don't you read?" By the time you are twenty, you should be burning to play twenty different parts. It sounds like preaching when I say this, but you have to stop feeling sorry for yourself and knuckle down to a new discipline. Musicians have jam sessions all the time. Now, why don't actors do that? I think it's easy to get together with your friends to form a group to read plays, and when you start to find plays that interest you, work on them. You can continually develop rather than sit around and say, "Oh, I'm not doing anything." There hasn't been a day in my life when I've had enough hours to accomplish everything I wanted to do that day, so the idea of not knowing what to do with your time stuns me. When you're out of work, if you just start working on something--start reading plays aloud that you don't know--you'll find how exciting it is. You don't stop learning to act until you drop dead. We cannot stop practicing--no musician would think of it. I hope that I am an eternal student.
One possible source of employment that is often not exploited sufficiently is the play about to go on the road. Often, the Broadway cast is unwilling to accompany a show after it closes in New York; sometimes, even if a show isn't closing, a second or third road production is planned. The trade papers contain announcements of pending touring companies, and if you see every play you can (Buy the cheapest seats, but go!) you will know which ones have roles for which you could logically be considered.
When you read of a show going on the road and know there is a part in it for you, visit not only the producer's offices, but also the stage manager backstage. Give the stage manager your picture and resume. The best time to do this is either directly after a performance or when the stage manager enters the theatre about 45 minutes before the performance starts. Simply tell the doorman at the stage entrance that you want to see the stage manager and then wait. Never drop in while the curtain is up or during the half hour before the play starts. It is then that the stage manager is busiest, and your lack of knowledge or consideration will not be appreciated.
Many professional actors got their first jobs in summer stock or regional theatre. By scanning every available theatrical publication beginning in March, you can get a fairly good idea of upcoming summer stock activity. Start then to write letters, or if you are close enough, make phone calls or personal contacts to determine the possibility of your joining the company. Stock managers usually seek good acting talent geographically close, because they save money by not having to transport actors from Chicago, New York, or Hollywood.
Regional theatres have been established in many cities. The Arena Stage of Washington, D.C.; American Conservatory Theatre of San Francisco; the Cleveland Playhouse; the Hartford Stage Company; and the Guthrie Theatre of Minneapolis are but a few of the more prominent examples of successful regional theatres. It may be very valuable to scout the regional professional theatres nearest your home to see if you can get a position "apprenticing" with one of them-even if it, means not making any money at first.
Addison Powell, a veteran actor, has called regional theatre "the best thing that has happened to the theatre in my lifetime." For more than two decades, regional theatre has been supplying good theatre at prices most theatergoers can afford. Regional theatres offer new plays, which the commercial theatre cannot do, and offer actors an opportunity to do a variety of roles, which the commercial theatre cannot do. The night, Mother and Crimes of the Heart, both Pulitzer Prize winners, originated in regional theatre and moved to Broadway with the casts intact. Serious actors find marvelous opportunities in regional theatre. These are actors who do not view theatre work as merely a showcase for more lucrative work in films and television. Mr. Powell, who has been a professional actor for more than a few decades, notes that he is unable to earn a living in regional theatre, but he has been lucky to get some commercial work, and his commercial earnings help to support him and his family while he does what he really wants to do: act in regional theatre. In a short period of time, he was able to do two Chekhov plays, a rarely produced Shaw play, a new musical, and the premiere of a new comedy. This is an unparalleled experience for an actor and not available any place but in regional theatre.
Dinner theatres are also good prospects, and they should be scouted avidly. But no matter where you try, you are better off if you can display some familiarity with an organization's work before asking it to find a spot for you.
TV soap operas are another good training ground. Many stars, including Demi Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Bacon, Christopher Reeve, Tom Selleck, and Meg Ryan started on the soaps.
As far as breaking into television broadcasting is concerned, you're far more likely to persuade a small station in Omaha that it needs you than to find NBC-TV in New York waiting for you to walk through the door.
No matter what kind of job you're looking for, there is no question that the unknown actor represented by a reputable agent has the edge over another unknown actor who walks in off the street. (This does not apply to chorus singers and dancers, who do not work through agents.) In the first place, the person sent by an agent, whose business it is to sell talent, will have a definite appointment to see a particular person and will get in to see that person. Also, when you are sent by an agent, there is a clear implication that the agent knows your work and recommends it. That is one reason why getting the right agent is sometimes harder than finding a job. Also, if you don't get the part for which you've been sent, a good agent can more often find out the real reason for your rejection-something you are unlikely to learn by yourself.
Usually, you will find that a reputable agent will not submit you for a job without having seen your work. Therefore, it is necessary to find some kind of "showcase" in which you can be seen; in New York, most often these showcases are either professional Off-Broadway stage productions or non-Equity shows, staged as workshops or under nonprofessional auspices. Since you won't be working in a nonprofessional production if you are an Equity member, and since parts in professional Off-Broadway shows are almost as hard to get as parts on Broadway or in television, it may be to your advantage not to join a union too soon so that you can be free to act wherever and whenever the opportunity occurs. While it is true that your chances of playing a part in summer stock or regional theatre are better than they are in New York or Los Angeles, few agents are willing to trek to the hinterlands just to see you perform. They have enough trouble finding jobs for the clients they already have.
Once you get a job in a "showcase" production, it is your additional responsibility to get every agent or casting director you can possibly persuade to see you. This is not as easy as it seems, and their reluctance to "discover" you may come as a shock. All will profess to be vitally interested in new talent because, basically, they are nice people who don't want to hurt your feelings; but as late actor-director, John Cassavetes once told a graduating class of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts:
You would be amazed and probably appalled and frightened to know that no one cares about you and what you are going to do. Everyone says, "We want new talent and new kids and new faces," but no one really cares. They are thinking of their own problems and their own jobs. If a production is involved, they are thinking of making a show.
These are hard words, but true, and realizing this situation at the outset can save a lot of heartache later on.
Once you have a showcase though--one that you honestly feel shows off your abilities to good advantage--you are ready to approach the agents and casting directors. These people should not be expected to pay for their own tickets, especially if you have asked them to view your show. You have to arrange for their tickets. (A pair of tickets is usually in order, not just one.) You can take comfort from the fact that everybody else appearing with you in the production will also want to be seen by these people, and if the management of the theatre does not sufficiently understand to set aside a few seats for the use of actors, the rest of the cast may chip in and purchase the tickets together. After all, they have as much to gain as you.
In Hollywood, too, theatrical (stage) showcases are also the main avenues of exposure for unknown actors. There are many little theatres in the Los Angeles area, known as "99-seat waiver theatres," and they are good places to be seen. Equity has created special contracts for these productions, and its West Coast office spends a lot of time administering them. Those theatres with fewer than 99 seats can employ anybody they wish, without regard to a performer's union affiliation. So in Los Angeles, as in New York, the "showcase" theatre is a good bet. It is also one of the few places left where one can learn and make mistakes without permanently disastrous results to a career.
It is much harder to make the rounds for films and television in Hollywood without an agent. In New York, many actors find their own jobs, especially those who work for minimum salaries. In Hollywood, usually you need an agent, since you cannot even get through a studio gate without an appointment. But always remember: the agent doesn't get you a job. He or she gets you an audition, but you have to get the job yourself.
In this discussion, we have been concentrating on the main production centers, New York and Hollywood. It is, of course, possible, and some distinguished people feel it is preferable, to join the acting profession (specifically the theatre) without ever leaving home.
