What makes an Independent Casting Director so useful to the actor is that there are a variety of projects going on at any given time going on for them. For example, Pat McCorkle of McCorkle Casting Ltd. may have movie projects, a TV show, Regional, Broadway and West end Theatre projects AND New Play Readings…at the same time! This, of course, means more opportunities for actors, no matter what the interest or skill level. This is also why getting to know and learn from someone like Pat can prove useful both in the short and long run!

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NY Actors, TVI Actors Studio

“Marketability” is a word that comes up often in my work as a career coach.  This is due to the two-faced nature of the life of a professional actor.  Yes, we are artists.  But because we seek to ply our craft in other people’s projects, we also have to be business people.  If you’re marketing plan is to shell out a few hundred dollars on a picture and tell anyone that will listen that you’re a really good actor, well, you might as well save your money and your breath.  That’s no more a good marketing strategy than buying lottery tickets is a good investment plan.

Being business savvy is therefore clearly important.  Part of that savvy is recognizing and developing your own potential.  Which actor is more marketable:

Actor A has excellent presence in contemporary work, especially for film and television.

Actor B is a triple-threat.  She can act, sing and dance.  She’s equally at home in Shakespeare or primetime drama, on a stage or in front of a camera.

They’re both really good actors, but Actor B can successfully work in many, many more mediums and formats than Actor A.  She will therefore get more auditions, and if she’s as good as she’s supposed to be, that means she’ll work all the time.

What undeveloped potential resides in you?  Could you book classical work if you just bothered to spend a few months in an outstanding Shakespeare class?  Would musical theatre doors open for you if you invested in a year of vocal coaching?

Working sometimes is great.  Working all the time is even better.  But nobody’s going to hand it to you on a silver platter– if you want it, you have to go out and get it!

Today I conducted the second part of an exhaustive course at TVI Studios on type as it applies to actors and the acting industry.   From experience, I know this to be a delicate topic with many actors.  We are naturally abhorrent at the idea of drawing boundaries around our work and recoil when somebody suggests that we limit ourselves in such a fashion.

We would like to believe that as trained artists we are capable of a broad range of roles.  And the truth of it is, we are.  Unfortunately, however, most industry professionals (producers, directors, casting directors) aren’t particularly interested in  our range.  These people tend to be very focused on the project they have at hand.  They want to find actors that fit each role perfectly.   Let me give you a personal example of how these two perspectives (ours and theirs) clash:

I used to audition for “The Sopranos” on a fairly regular basis.  The casting directors there liked me and liked my work.  Unfortunately, most of the roles that fit my age range were attitudinal young men with strong “street” looks and accents to match.  The scripts called for either sleeveless leather jackets and slicked-back hair, or for gaudy pinstriped suits and wide ties.  The characters usually threatened people.  Sometimes they subsequently killed them!

Am I capable of performing well in one of these parts?  Absolutely.  The problem I ran into was that every time I went in on one of the above-described roles I would sit in a waiting room full of actors that, quite frankly, were in real life almost exactly like the characters!  (minus, I hope, the homicidal urges).   Who do you think had the competitive edge in those situations?  I’ll give you a hint– “The Sopranos” is not on my resume!

“Type” is about identifying the most marketable version or versions of yourself, and then concentrating your marketing efforts towards those roles.  It’s about understanding that industry professionals are more interested in solving their immediate problems than in heaping praise upon you for your broad range.

I help my TVI members and our program students identify and aggressively market for their type every day.  If this is an issue you have yet to address in your own career please contact me so I can help you too.

I hope you had a chance to catch the Tony Awards broadcast this past Sunday night. I sat down expecting a fairly pedestrian evening but instead was treated to a truly memorable show that reminded me of why I went into acting in the first place.

I was particularly struck by the breadth of what is currently being offered on the Great White Way, from cutting edge new musicals like “In the Heights” to defining revivals of classic dramatic fare ala Patrick Stewart’s turn in “Macbeth” at BAM. People ask me all the time if there is room for them in showbiz. Sunday night’s Tony Awards demonstrated that the theatre needs as many voices as it can find.

I recently had a callback for a role in a musical. Although the part was non-singing I still had to sing a few bars at the audition, which made me quite nervous. I’m not a singer and haven’t sung since college– no training, no experience, nada! Despite this, I prepped as best I could and ended up having not only a good audition but also a great callback.

The experience left me wondering if perhaps I should dust off my old songbook and get myself into some voice lessons. Watching the Tony Awards reinforced this desire. I haven’t forgotten my high school days when I was fortunate enough to play big parts in the school musicals, and how much fun I had. Perhaps I owe it to myself to find out if I can make that success translate into, and enhance, my current professional successes.

The venture will neither be cheap nor easy– voice lessons are expensive and I will need to test myself by going out on lots of auditions once my instructurs deem me ready. But my agents remind me all the time that lots of opportunities are available in musical theatre, and if a big push now might get me into the realm of consistent bookings in another year or two I think it’s well worth a shot!

As I approach an age milestone that I wouldn’t dream of revealing here I can’t help but reflect on who I was as a younger man and the hopes and dreams I had for myself. Would the Matthew DeCapua of five or ten years ago be disappointed to meet the Matthew DeCapua of today?

Naturally, when we initially consider acting we imagine ourselves as successful. Even if fame and fortune aren’t part of our optimistic fantasy, we certainly don’t picture ourselves struggling not only to make ends meet but also to find a venue for our unique and important talents (happily, I am definitely closer to “successful” than I am to the other end of the spectrum!)

With age, it is said, comes wisdom. While I might not be rich or famous I am certainly accomplished, and I am also definitely much, much wiser. Professionally speaking, every year is a little better than the one that preceded it. I keep putting in the work, and I keep seeing growth and results. And thank goodness too– if this were not the case, I think I can truthfully say that by this point I would have had to abandon ship.

As times goes by I read about more and more actors that struggled throughout their youthful days only to at last arrive into uncontested vocational success later in life. I am convinced that I have put myself in line to be one of these actors, and I like it this way. We tend to appreciate things more when we’ve had to earn them.

Come Monday, June 16th, I will move into the co-op apartment I bought in mid-May (I’ve been renovating). I’m a homeowner now! I feel quite fortunate to be living a piece of the American Dream. Also, however, this major step up gives me more comfort and security as I contemplate my future as a professional actor in New York City. There’s no question about it whatsoever now– I am in this for the long haul.

And I’m proud to be in a stronger position to help anyone that resonates with this long-term view of professional advancement.

Incidentally, I invite you to check out TVI Actors Studios’ new blog, “Inside the TVI Actors Studio.”  The URL is

http://insidetviactorsstudio.com/

I will contribute to that site, where you can learn about the accomplishments of myself, my colleagues and those that we strive to assist.  And I will continue to post my weekly industry musings here.

I’ve just this week learned that one of my friends is about to live the dream—he is earning enough income from his acting work to live exclusively on it, and as a result he is able to leave his survival job. It’s a major accomplishment. Remember that I define success as precisely the ability to earn a living just from your acting income. Anything beyond that is gravy!

I’ve known this man a long time. He is gorgeous and incredibly talented (we have studied together extensively so I am very familiar with his abilities as an actor). However, he has been in New York for a long time—nearly a decade—and has only arrived at this exciting threshold through hard work, on-going investments in his career, and an admirable dedication to the long-term view.

I stress this because lately I have been inundated with a frustratingly high number of meetings or phone conversations with persons looking for shortcuts to success. These are people that want to spend a few hundred dollars and about a dozen hours and have something major come from this minimal effort—a role on television, or in film, or a contract with an agent or several agents.

These are folks that take themselves very seriously, which can be a good thing, but they don’t take the industry seriously, and that is deadly. You should believe in yourself. You should feel quite strongly that you deserve to be a working actor, because you do. You should be hungry and you should be seeking out every possible edge and advantage. But you also must take the industry seriously. You need to understand how it works and why and then make smart choices to improve your chances and move your career closer to where you ultimately hope to be.

Just believing in something passionately is not enough to bring about the opportunities you seek. You have to act on those passions and beliefs. Talk is cheap. Actions are much louder than words. Only when we are actively engaged with the industry, really doing things on a daily basis, can we begin to make real progress.

I am excited for my friend. He’s worked hard for a long time and now his acting and his business savvy are strong enough to support him. I know that the extra time he will have will be re-invested back into his career. I know that he will continue to challenge himself to improve, just as he has done all along. I am excited for him and also for myself and anyone else that conducts the development of their career by respecting not just their own abilities but also the realities of the industry.

On a similar note I have some additional news for you this week.  I’ll be going out-of-town to originate a role in a new play being produced at a major regional theatre in Florida.  Working on new plays is what I love most about the theatre and I am very excited for this “gig.”  Unfortunately, however, the nature of the job will most likely prevent me from making my regular updates here at EB.  I therefore leave you in the very capable hands of my guest writers, who will introduce themselves in short order.

And don’t worry, true believers– you haven’t heard the last of me!

The strike is over!  Hallelujah, hallelujah!

Let’s celebrate by focusing this week on hope.

What if a powerful news-gathering entity were able to profile fifteen film actors that delivered breakthrough, career-defining performances in 2007?  Not necessarily superstars but rising talents that are now coming into their own and achieving major recognition– folks like Paul Dano (”There Will Be Blood”) and Ellen Page (”Juno.”)   What if the profile were supplemented with quotations from long-established actors as they remember the performances that launched them into the highest of career strata?

Your wish has come true. Last weekend’s New York Times Magazine presents us with a truly invaluable resource. Read the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/magazine/10Oscars-t.html?ref=magazine

and then, if you can, watch these performances one by one.  See great talents deliver performances that will cement their futures in the cinema. The paths that you and I travel to our own acting success will be different from the ones described by the Times. But by learning from people who have most recently walked down that path we can get a clearer understanding of where we need to go and what we need to do.

Report from the trenches: (2 of 2)

I’m starting to hear rumors that the WGA strike may end soon.  However, residual effects could linger for who knows how long, especially with a SAG strike looming in the summer. NBC canceled all of their pilot orders a week after CBS and Warning Brothers / CW pretty much did the same. None of the networks have announced an alternative plan to fill their programming so advertisers are holding their breaths about new ****aigns—meaning the next sector of the industry to suffer could be commercials.  If the WGA strike lifts hopefully the networks will rush to restore their scripted content.  But if the networks are sour on writers after the revenue losses incurred by the strike, and wary of the SAG contract expiration, they might be reluctant to forge ahead with another pilot season.

Last week I described the “trickle-down” effect a strike like this can have on professional acting opportunities.  The short of it is, jobs become scarce.  So what can we do in a time like this?

First, you have to go easy on yourself. If you were auditioning and/or booking often prior to the strike, and now the well is dry despite your continued due diligence in finding and submitting on auditions and following up with your industry connections, you have to accept that this is just the way things are going to be for a while. Making radical changes to your processes or launching major initiatives to find representation or expand your contact list will have no positive short-term effects and might just drive you bonkers. By all means continue submitting—you never know what might happen!—but this is a good time to focus on some goals that are less contingent upon the fickle ups and downs of the industry.

First, and regular readers will find this no surprise, this is an excellent time to train. I just signed up for a six-month workshop with one of my private coaches. SIX MONTHS! I figure I might as well make myself better and more marketable if I have to sit on the sidelines. When things heat up again I’ll be that much better able to compete.

Second, you can turn your unwanted spare time into money. Get another part-time survival job and save some bullets. If you are frequently unable to train or pay for networking opportunities this is a perfect opportunity to save up some resources for later. If the strike goes on, and if SAG does indeed strike this summer, we could be looking at a slow industry for months.  You could amass a considerable war cest during that time!

Third, you can address major personal initiatives. One of the hardest things about being an actor is the constantly being “on-call.” Going out of the city for even a long weekend can easily mean a major missed opportunity, particularly during a busy time of year. So if you want to take that big vacation, or backpack across Europe, or visit all the baseball stadiums in the land, or audit a few classes at the local university, or buy a co-op in Forest Hills, well hey—go for it!

Finally, as I’ve recently written about, you can create your own opportunity. Get a play-reading group together. Write something and rent a cheap space for a limited run of performances. Shoot some sketch comedy pieces and post them on YouTube. The professional opportunities may have run dry but that creative well within you is still flowing, and you neglect it at your own peril.

You can do it, true believer. Turn those strike lemons into MARGARITAS!

Today I received an email from a curious party asking how she can get in touch with an agent.  Since questions about representation come to me about a dozen times a day I think it’s high time I address the topic in some detail.

First, a disclaimer.  Many people believe that an agent is the single most important component to a successful acting career.  This belief is fueled by the popular media and reports heard through friends of friends of would-be actors.  The belief usually goes something like this:

“If I can just get myself an agent all of the difficult problems associated with navigating the business of acting, which I don’t entirely understand, will go away.  The agent will take care of everything.  He or she will make all the right people believe in me and take me seriously.  When I have a problem I will call my agent and he or she will solve it.  If I want to be in a certain movie or on a certain television show or in a particular play I will tell my agent and he or she will make it happen.  Until I have found my agent I will have no career and will be powerless to create one, so my top priority, my only priority, should be to find one.”

Part of the reason that this belief is so popular is that it takes all of the pressure off the actor.  Think about this closely because it’s very important.  If indeed some magical entity exists that can open any door for your career then, obviously, obtaining a relationship with this entity would indeed be extremely desirable.  What makes this belief a fallacy, however, is that NO SUCH PERSON EXISTS.  Agents are not all-powerful beings that can make or break careers.  Many successful actors do not have, or have ever had, or even desire to have, an agent.  Conversely, Many unsuccessful actors have been represented for years and years but have gone nowhere.

This is because it’s not the agent that’s important, IT’S THE ACTOR.

I’ll back up my claim.  Here is a very simple description of how a project gets cast:

The producer in charge of the project hires a CASTING DIRECTOR (CD).  They talk about the various roles that need to be cast and the qualities of each character.  The CD puts this information into a BREAKDOWN and releases it to all the agencies in the city.

AGENTS read through the breakdowns and compare the descriptions on it with the actors they represent.  If there are matches the agents compile a SUBMISSION and send it off to the CD.

The CD and his or her associates and assistants go through the many submissions.  They pull out the actors they feel might be good fits, call up the agents of those respective actors, and schedule audition appointments.  Only a certain percentage of the actors that are submitted receive an appointment.  Usually these are actors that the CD is already familiar with although exceptions will be made for actors that have extensive experience and appear to be right for one of the parts.

If an agent feels that a particularly well-suited client has been unfairly overlooked he or she will call the CD, sometimes multiple times, and try to get that client an audition appointment.  The agent’s success will depend on how many extra appointments are available and the strength of his or her relationship with the particular CD.

If you’ve been paying close attention you will see that the real decision-maker in this part of the casting process is not the agent but the casting director.

Actors that have developed excellent reputations with lots of casting directors audition frequently whether or not they have an agent.  Actors with few or no relationships with casting directors rarely get seen for anything no matter who or how powerful their agent is.  Because of this, agents are interested in representing actors that have established a track record on their own of booking jobs and already have good relationships with many casting directors.  This is for the simple reason that such actors are the most likely actors to book more work and make money.

Most agents leave some space on their client roster for “developmental clients.”  These are usually newcomers to the industry that the agent feels are particularly marketable because they possess a high level of talent and a certain look that often comes up in the breakdowns.  When an agent signs a developmental client the understanding is that the agent will work hard to get as many doors open as possible, AND the actor will will work hard on his or her own to do the same thing.  The goal is not to book work right away but instead to establish a long list of casting directors that think the actor is good.  The agent AND the actor are working together so that the actor can eventually reach a highly competitive position within the market.  Success depends on how hard BOTH parties are willing to work to arrive at their goal.

Unfortunately, a frightening number of talented young actors are lucky enough to find representation as development clients despite not being aware of the responsibility they have towards the ultimate success or failure of the relationship.  These actors are usually under the spell of the false belief I exposed in the disclaimer to this article.  As time goes by and nothing happens they get frustrated.

My bottom line is this: the best way to find representation is to demonstrate you don’t need representation.  Be as good as you can be, book work on your own, and establish glowing reputations with as many casting directors as you can.  If you can do this you will find that the agents come to you!

If this article doesn’t make sense to you then I would like to as politely as possible suggest you may stand to benefit from career coaching.  Please call me at TVI Actors Studio in New York and we can chat!

If you don’t know who Alex “A-Rod” Rodriguez is then you probably are not a baseball fan. He is one of the game’s most talented and controversial figures. No, he’s not into drugs or steroids, and he’s never been in trouble with the law. The reason he is controversial is that he is by far the game’s highest-paid player.

At the end of the 2007 season he opted out of his existing contract. It was a 10-year, $252 million deal and he had three years left on it. Apparently he was convinced– and this is where his agent Scott Boras enters the picture– that he could get an even better long-term deal. His agent made the announcement that A-Rod was again for-hire the day of the clinching game of the 2007 World Series in a brazen and classless attempt to steal the spotlight away from the two World Series contenders. This and the fact that A-Rod and his agent were seeking an even larger ridiculous sum of money quickly turned the tide of popular opinion against them. Scott Boras announced that he wouldn’t even talk to a club unless it was offering at least ten years and $300 million.

Only one team responded (Anaheim), and their offer was not inspiring. After two weeks Rodriguez began to sense that he had made a horrible decision. He approached the Yankees entirely on his own and asked if he could sit down with them and negotiate a new contract. The two parties are in the midst of this negotation right now– without the agent– and hopefully both parties will be satisfied with the outcome.

Now what could this possibly have to do with acting? I’m so glad you asked.

I become very frustrated at times listening to the aspirations and problems of some actors. They are talented, they have a marketable look, and they have for some reason decided that they are too good for the sort of entry-level, career-building opportunities available to them today that will, eventually, accumulate and put them in a strong position to compete for the jobs they desire most. They want to skip over the lean years of struggle and become quite impatient when somebody (like me) suggests that unless they get incredibly lucky it’s simply not going to happen. In other words they want to enjoy a career trajectory that exists only in theory. They’re chasing after a pie in the sky the same way Alex Rodriguez and his agent convinced themselves that somebody would be willing to sign a gigantic contract. And make no mistake– A-Rod is an outstanding talent. But even he doesn’t get to invent rules for his industry. Even he has to be aware of what reality is and act accordingly.

Belief in yourself is very important. But it is also important to be knowledgable about the industry and how it works and what is realistic and what is not. You need to be and should be ambitious and err on the side of over-reaching. But when things aren’t working out like you’d hoped you need to re-assess your approach. When you are acting do you ignore the other actors and what they’re doing and just do whatever you’ve previously decided upon? Of course not. And we can’t do that with our business approach either. The actors that work the jobs you feel are beneath you today are too often the actors booking the jobs you want tomorrow and beyond.

Remember that if you are just starting out nobody in the industry– no agent, casting director, producer or artistic director– is sitting at a desk waiting for you. The challenge you therefore face is to create a demand for what you offer where none currently exists. To oversimplify, you can meet this challenge by being the best actor you can possibly be and by putting yourself in the best possible competitive position. Because long resumes and constant bookings impress better than anything else you need to distinguish yourself in the sectors of the market you have access to right now before you will finally– and deservedly– gain access to the opportunities you covet the most.