Acting Career Start: Your First Steps as a Theatre & Film Actor

Actors usually start with some theatre acting under their belt, if only at school, so the various types of theatre acting need to be considered.
There is amateur dramatics, a good and popular place to begin.
You join a local community theatre group, while earning a living in some other capacity.
This way you can play a big variety of parts and, after some years of loyalty, might even get to choose specific plays and roles you always wanted to do.
This first step can also be the only step you make, but if it keeps you happy, so be it.
Then there is fringe theatre or showcases, often called off-off Broadway.
This is usually unpaid work, or profit share, and is stuffed with actors keen to gain experience in anything or simply to tread the boards and keep the brain cells working.
There will always be unpaid projects you can apply for, so you need to consider what the payoff is going to be.
Many casting directors will use such productions to get to know actors and their work, but beware! They will cast you only in a role that they have seen you do, so if the unpaid part you are offered is not the type you are likely to be up for as far as screen work is concerned, then doing this role will not help.
Remember: casting directors are looking for results, not for potential.
At the very least, make efforts to ensure that some of the monies end up in the actors’ pockets.
If anyone connected with the show is to receive any money, then make sure you at least get your bus fare.
Actors’ putting up with terrible financial conditions leads to future actors being similarly exploited.
Your silence gives consent, and we don’t want to go back to the days when actors paid to be in shows, do we? Then there is the professional theatre, where somebody pays you to act.
This is all very lovely, but what are they paying for? Probably not so much for your versatility as for your speciality.
This can be anything from authenticity in a certain accent or dialect, a sporting capability, a musical or physical skill of some sort, or simply the way you look.
When you get into the profession, there will be many things that seem stupid and old-fashioned.
Instead of telling everyone how your ideas can work better, assume that everything is in fact done for a good reason, and spend your energies working out why it is done that way.
As the years go by, you will be embarrassed to realize that what seemed stupid and inefficient at first is in fact the best way to do it, or the best way to behave.
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