Mari Lyn Henry - How to Be a Working Actor: The Insiders Guide to Finding Jobs in Theater, Film & Television

This book is dedicated to the men in our lives.

This book could not have been written without the assistance and support we received from our many, many friends and industry professionals.

Actors Agents Artistic Directors Casting Directors Directors Managers Online Entrepreneurs Photographers Producers Teachers Union Representatives

And the members of professional organizations on both coasts, in regional markets, and throughout the world who were happy to be interviewed, who responded to our e-mails, and who provided insight and generously volunteered to share their expertise.

We are very grateful to Dan Ramm, John Pielmeier, and the young writers at the Walden Theatre for allowing us to use their work. We give special thanks to Jeanne Davis Glynn, who passed away in the summer of 2007, for her generosity in giving us a unique sample of her soap writing skill for our Script Analysis Section.

Special thanks also to the Apple Creative Team: Matty Gregg, Scott Peterman, Becky Morrow, and Edmund Choi.

We are extremely grateful to our best friend on the Internet, Google.

MARI LYN HENRY, partner, Henry Downey Talent Management LLC, has advised thousands of actors on how to have successful careers in film, television, and theater for more than thirty-five years.

Upon leaving her position as Director of Casting, East Coast, for ABC, which she held for more than thirteen years, she launched an image and career consultation business. For many years she has taught workshops and given seminars on on-camera techniques, script analysis, marketing strategies, and impression management in cities and universities across the country. Her seminars on The Business of Show Business are based on the best-selling book How To Be A Working Actor. For more information about Mari Lyns seminars and workshops, visit www.howtobeaworkingactor.com.

LYNNE ROGERS has been the voice of a slew of nationally advertised products as well as a producer of instructional video series. Her first book, The Love of Their Lives, is a behind-the-scene look at the soap opera industry. She has since written about the theater for American Heritage magazine, and is the author of Working in Show Business: Behind-the-Scenes Careers in Theater, Films, and Television.

Lynne has served on the National and Local Boards of AFTRA and on the Board of Governors of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (earning their medal for Distinguished Service).

She is currently Co-President of the League of Professional Theater Women.

Foreword
By Joe Mantegna,
on location as a working actor in Brisbane, Australia

Having been a working actor for almost forty years, its little wonder Ive been intrigued by a book containing that very phrase in its title: How to Be a Working Actor. When I think about it, that one word working, appearing before the word actor, speaks volumes about the art and the profession so many of us have chosen, which probably includes yourself if youre reading this foreword.

The word actor has been bandied about a lot over the centuries, and not always kindly. Whenever one deals with an art form, theres the risk of the inevitable scrutiny the outside world will subject it to. Call yourself a doctor, or a lawyer, or practically any other sort of profession, and you will at least be capable of conjuring up a degree of education and competence that you must have had in order to earn that title. Its when you get into the more abstract areas such as music, art, or acting that the conjuring becomes blurred, and it becomes totally a matter of perception as to what constitutes a musician, an artist, or an actor. Add the term working in front of those words and you have made an important leap into an area that separates the men from the boys (pardon the chauvinistic aspects of the statement). A lot of people call themselves actors, but not a lot are able to call themselves working ones. Thats the beauty of this book. In an industry rife with impracticality, here is something that is chock-full of practicality. With its vast array of knowledgeable facts and numerous techniques and tips, the book gives readers invaluable information to help them achieve the jump that takes them from an inspired dream to a practical profession.

Theres no getting around the fact that making a living in the acting profession is as hard as the jokes have made it out to be. But knowing that only increases the importance of having as many tools as possible to help guide and educate whoever pursues it. Its no wonder this book has had so many editions. Its value was evident when it first came out; its value is as current and pertinent today. Read it, take what you can and what you need from it, and most of all enjoy the ride. Being an actor is a noble dream; being a working actor is a noble profession. I wish you all the luck and twice the fun.

INTRODUCTION

If youre not afraid, if you take everything you are, everything worthwhile in you and direct it at one goal, one ultimate mark, youve got to get there.

James Dean

You are about to enter a strange and wondrous land.

You are approaching that singular community of theater-TV-films that lies somewhere between the Twilight Zone and the Land of Oz and is known as The Business. It is a world of bright lights and of frenzy, crowded with inhabitants who love what they do with a fervent passion that sustains them, often for years, and enables them to exist under primitive conditions, working frequently for no compensation other than the thrill of participating in each endeavor, and the shimmering prospect of future greatness.

Thats how it has been for generations.

Thats the way it was.

However, since the end of the twentieth century, two major occurrences have transformed that world, everybodys world: the shocking terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and the emergence of what has been termed the Information Superhighway.

Who could have imagined, even so many years after the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, that the formerly bustling neighborhoods of lower Manhattan would still be hurting? And while the area is widely acknowledged to be the financial capital of the world, it is also home for a roster of revered Off-Broadway theater companies that for decades had presented stimulating works by emerging and established playwrights, with wonderful actors playing to standing-room-only crowds. However, after 9/11, the city was in shock after the sudden devastation and death. Understandably, New Yorkers as well as tourists were afraid to go anywhere near Ground Zero for a while. The downtown theaters would struggle to regain a portion of the clientele they lost as a result of that horrible day. Recovery would not happen overnight. According to the many theater owners and managers weve spoken to, only now are they beginning, very slowly, to count a few more friendly faces on the ticket buyers line.