For newcomers to the business of acting, here are some helpful hints to get you going.

- Where do I begin?
- I've decided to give acting a try. What about training?
- The Importance of a professional headshot?
- What about a resume?
- Where do I find out about auditions?
- What about getting an agent?

Where Do I Begin?
The first thing one must do when deciding to embark on a career in the performing arts is to be very sure that it’s something you have a true passion for. And remember that it is possible to enter the business on many different levels. You could get involved in non-paying community theatre, do some extra work on TV and film and have a very fruitful hobby that won’t torment you too much if you don’t become a star. To have a career as an actor, where you pay your bills, buy a car, a house and put the kids through school solely from your income as an actor, is extremely difficult. I can guarantee that the person with a line or two on an episode of your favorite TV drama has a long tale to tell of the dues they’ve paid. I know of a friend of a friend who did a play with Al Pacino and the very next day was temping at an office job. The bills continue to come in even when the jobs do not.

One existing philosophy when embarking on an acting career is to make sure you set yourself up with a career to fall back on in the event your acting career doesn’t pan out. I know many who believe that if you have something to fall back on, that is exactly what you will do when times get tough. But if you don’t have anything to catch you when your career is falling, you will have no choice but to work harder to make your acting career work. That approach is much like climbing out onto a thin branch. You will either quiver and slip and shake and almost fall, but ultimately make it to safety, or you will hear a crack and the branch will snap tossing you down to the brutal reality that it may be time to rethink your life’s decision.

I’ve Decided to Give Acting a Try. What About Training?
The first thing I think one should do if they have decided to get into acting is to sign up for classes. Decent scene study classes are all over the city and are an excellent way to test the waters. Each week you go into a room full of people that are in the same boat as you. You get to pick each other’s brains, share knowledge you have accrued and start developing some self-confidence. You will be given or asked to come up with scenes to bring into class and be critiqued by the class instructor and the rest of the class. This will help you to understand what acting really is about and how to get from words on a page to a living breathing performance. It will also help you decide without too much commitment if it’s even something that you enjoy. If the exploration process of taking a scene apart and putting it back together, rehearsing and polishing until you feel it’s just right, doesn’t inspire you, then perhaps acting isn’t for you. A quick course, once a week for 12 weeks or so scene study class, can be helpful answering many questions you may have inside yourself.

If you are determined that this is what you want to pursue, immersing yourself in a full time acting program is the path most of the best hard working professionals have chosen. A 2-year program or a University program will take you through every facet of acting: how to properly use your voice, your body, dissecting the text, teaching you about career concerns with a host of professionals dedicated to working your strengths and weaknesses. Best of all, showcases are arranged to present your talent to industry professionals.

All this having been said, many people have instincts for acting and there is no shortage of stories of people truly excelling at acting without a single class. You need to figure out the path that’s best for you. The bottom line is that unlike other vocations, the route to a career as a working actor is unclear. To be a doctor or a lawyer, the steps to get there are obvious. To be a schoolteacher, there’s no mystery how to get there. Acting is not that way. There is a range of methods to getting there.

The Importance of a Professional Headshot
Once you feel you are ready to test the waters, the next thing you need is a photo and a resume. IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO HAVE A PROFESSIONALLY-SHOT HEADSHOT. I don’t say this because I am a headshot photographer but because I have worked professionally in theatrical settings where I was the one who had to go through headshots to decide who would be coming in for an audition. 95% of the people will be weeded out because you will have 600 headshots and you will want to audition 40. Weeding out can often be very fickle.

It’s not always clear why one person gets an audition and another doesn’t. I once had my little stack of photos of those who would be coming in to audition and a friend was looking through the ones I cast off to the side. He asked, “Why aren’t you seeing this guy? He looks pretty good.” My unfortunate answer was, "I don’t know. I can’t remember." There must have been something that had jumped out at me. That guy had probably been 75 headshots back. The lesson is that you want to eliminate ANY reason for someone to push your headshot away. When a headshot comes along where it looks obvious that you got your roommate and your little camera and went out on the balcony to try and do a headshot to save money, I don’t see a professional. I see someone who hasn’t taken this business seriously enough to arm himslef/herself with the first tool of the trade. It becomes very hard to take that person seriously as a professional actor who has his/her act together.

I’ve seen shots that were obviously taken by a professional but somewhere off in a small city less connected with the profession of acting. These shots can look outdated using the wrong border or an old-fashioned choice of background. There is a fashion with headshots. There was a time when people would stare pensively off camera. Not today. Such shots look outdated, or British. Your photographer should understand today’s look in headshots. In the 90s, it was the 3/4 shot, shooting someone down to the belt buckle. The 3/4 shot is used less today. A hip, happening photographer might start shooting people pensively looking off camera and it could become the hot new trend. Everything comes back in fashion. Until that happens, look down the barrel of the lens.

If you want people to see you as a professional, present them with a professional headshot and resume. If your shot looks amateurish, that is exactly how you will be perceived.

What About a Resume
Learn how to lay out a resume. I don’t care what a resume for any other occupation looks like, an actor's resume is done in columns. The first column on the left is for the play or film name. The middle column states the role you played. The last column states the theatre or film company that produced it, then with space permitting, use a slash (/) then add the director's name. Under your name at the top of the page you should list things like height, weight, vocal range, union affiliations and phone number.

One section of the resume should list Theatre and another Film and TV. Then you could list other categories like training, special skills or awards. If you do both TV/film and theatre work, I would suggest you have two resumes--one that has Theatre first for theatre auditions, and one with Film/TV coming first for film/TV auditions.

I once read an actor's resume that had read from left to right in paragraph form. I was to believe this resume? It stated that he had done 18 Off Broadway productions. Anyone who has done that many Off Broadway shows would know how to compose a resume. Therefore, I didn’t believe anything on the resume. I assumed that he was probably an usher in a costume or something and was trying to pass that off as Off Broadway gigs.

Where do I find out about auditions?
In New York the most common place for actors to find out about auditions on his or her own without an agent has always been The Backstage Magazine. Today on the Internet, audition listings can also be found at sites like Actornews.com, PlayBill.com, Actordepot.com and of course Backstage.com. Some cities like Chicago have an audition hotline but at this point in time, New York does not. With the Internet here to stay, there will probably not be a need for a phone hotline.

Getting an Agent
There is no denying that having someone sitting at a desk all day doing nothing but searching for fabulous auditions for you, while you kick back and wait for the phone to ring, is a wonderful fantasy. And that’s exactly what it is. A fantasy. Agencies have very large rosters and it is very easy to get lost in the shuffle. Even if you have an agent, you must still pound the pavement as though you don’t have one.

The best way to get an agent interested in you is to invite him/her to something that you are in. I’ve heard young actors, when asked if they’re inviting agents to see them in a given show say, “I don’t really want them to see me in this one.” Or “I don’t have a very big part” and they don’t invite agents to see them. Big mistake. The brutal reality is there’s nothing to worry about inviting agents to a show where you have a small role. They won’t come anyway. That may be a broad generalization, but seriously, agents are invited to 3 things per night. However, my experience has been that being in a show will whet their appetite. They’ll look over your photo and resume. If they’re interested they will call you in to meet you. That’s where the decision is usually made. They may try you out on a couple of auditions, get some feedback and without ever seeing what you do, they can make up their minds. So, invite agents to everything you do. It’s doubtful that they’ll ever come but it’s a perfect window of opportunity for you to approach them when you look most appealing. The old adage is “It’s easier to get a job while you have a job.”

Hopefully, you’ll keep getting cast in things to invite agents to and will eventually wear them down. By that time, you might really be in something worth seeing you in.

When going for an agent, remember that it’s important to get the agent that is right for you. If you have very little on your resume, the chance of getting the kind of attention you crave is very small if you are in an agency that is out of your league. Find an agent who is as jazzed about having you on their roster as you are being there.

Now you have done some thinking, taken some classes, had headshots taken and made up a resume. You know where to go for auditions and who to invite when you get a job. You’ve taken care of the easy stuff. Now it’s time for the hard part.

Good Luck

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