Starting a Career as a Professional Actor

[angel_vixen]

Situation: Young man from Good Family goes to school to study International Business at the urgings of his family. After graduation and working at a good job for about three years, he decides to follow his passion and study to become a professional actor. He does have experience in acting and working backstage (general stage hand), from school

Comments

[profbutters]

Are you actually looking for information on Rutgers? Because the drama (and other arts) school there is Mason Gross

[doriscrockford2]

My background: I was a stage manager for 10 years, I've worked at theatres that had very well-respected drama schools attached and my husband was an actor who graduated from drama school

[lolmac]

Your character's biggest concern isn't getting an MFA; it's getting an agent

[mmebahorel]

DC has a very large and constantly growing number of theatre companies, predominantly non-Equity for the small, new ones. There's a lot of work out there between community theatre (where he can build some credits), small non-eq companies (build some more credits and make $50), and larger mixed companies that really are still small theatre (Keegan, Forum, Constellation, Imagination Stage - companies on that level tend to mix Equity and non-Equity actors not by level of role but by how many Equity actors they can afford and/or people they particularly want to work with regardless of union status). The major companies also use non-Equity actors in small roles, and it is in those companies in particular that one can most easily build Equity eligibility points

[mmebahorel]

Some links:

Washington City Paper: Change Agents (about the founding of Capital Talent Agency as I mentioned above)
Washington Post: True Crime TV Rampant in Washington (about Investigation Discovery's local filming)
Washington Post: From Guest Spots to Recurring Roles (about actors who work in DC frequently on the regional circuit are relocating here because there's enough work it make it a reasonable choice)