How to Jump Start Your Career – by Rebecca Atwood (TGE)

Actors who are looking to jump-start their career often ask me “what more can I be doing?”  There are so many things you can do to be a self-starter as a performer.  Just a few: Get into a great improv class.  Try stand-up comedy.  Write to a few casting directors and offer to be a reader.  Find scripts of new plays that have been recently produced, get some friends together, and read them aloud.  Write a webisode pilot and work with friends to produce it.  Grab a friend and put a few scenes on tape to have at the ready when industry pros ask if you have anything on tape to show them. Get ambitious and start your own theater company.

One mistake I see actors make is thinking along the lines of, “well, so-and-so got their start in improv, so I should do that too… even though I don’t really like doing improv.”  This business is too unpredictable to find success by following the path others have taken.  Instead, think about what gets your creative juices flowing, what seems fun and exciting to you, and do that in the very best way you can.  That’s something that people WILL notice.

(TGE is a NY management company that reps series regulars on SCANDAL, MOM, CHICAGO FIRE, BANSHEE and more).