Apr 06 2009
Acting Up For Equity
There are a lot of individuals who get into acting through different routes nowadays. A lot of the time if you want to work in the professional acting industry then you will need an Equity card as a large majority of employers will only hire those with an Equity card. To qualify for an Equity card you will usually need some hands on acting experience first.There are different things that you can do to help yourself along the way. Joining amateur theatre societies gives you the experience you need to break into the industry.
Training of some sort through a school of drama or college can often help. Whilst some people train over a longer time period some just do the odd short course of study.
Agents are very good, but finding a legitimate acting agent can be difficult. An acting agent can get you many different types of jobs from television, radio, theatre and film work. You will need to put together a CV of your work and try to get accepted in their agency. Those individuals who have little to no experience don’t have a very good chance of getting accepted by an acting agent.
Network and talk to people being friendly and professional all the time. Although you might not like taking any job that you can find many actors started small and worked their way up.
Extra work can sometimes lead to bigger and better jobs. You also might find people to network with whilst you work as an extra. Although extra work isn’t the same as acting it does pay the wages. At the very least it will help you to gain membership of Equity.
