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Acting Agent

What is an acting agent?

Before you go out and find yourself an acting agent, it is best if you first know what one is. An acting agent is an actor’s representative – he will submit you for roles and also get you in to see casting directors. He will also negotiate all of your fees and contracts. For all of this work, an acting agent generally takes about 10% of your income. Once you have an acting agent, you are known as his “client.”

How to get an acting agent:

One of the easiest ways to get an acting agent is if she sees your work and decides to call you for an interview. There is also the possibility that a casting director or actor or someone else in the business will recommend you to an acting agent. A third possibility is that you look for an acting agent and hand out resumes and photos and wait for an acting agent to contact you. It is good to get an acting agent to see your work before you start working with her, because then she can really see what sort of work you do.

How to get an acting agent to see your work:

Agent workshops -- First of all, be wary of things like agent workshops. There are some that agents and casting directors do show up to, but other ones just take your money. If you are going to do an agent workshop, make sure that it is reasonable priced and feature great industry professionals as guests. You pay money to hear these guests speak, and then you get a chance to perform and be critiqued by these industry professionals. Good speakers may be acting agents, casting directors, or directors.

Scene nights -- A scene night is an event for actors to try and be seen by people in the industry. Rather than putting on a long play, a group of actors will choose a few scenes that show off their skills the best. Then they send out hundreds of invitations to casting directors, acting agents, and directors.

Scene nights are a great way to show off your skills. Also, you do not have to pay that extra money like you do for other events, so you know you are not being scammed. Just make sure that your scene night is well organized. There should only be a small number of actors. Make sure that you only do short scenes. You do not want it to be a long evening.

Conclusion:

Show business is a difficult business. It can be hard to find a really quality agent, but a quality agent may be what you need to get your “name in lights,” so to speak. Make sure that you find an agent that has many connections and great networking skills. The more casting directors, etc, that he knows, the better off you are. Be nice to all agents, though, even if you decide not to sign with one – agents talk to each other, even, and you want to be sure that another agent will want to sign you on, even if another did not.

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