THE WORLD IS YOUR STAGE.
I teach a series of workshops for emerging professional actors to learn how to establish and maintain their acting career. The series includes workshops on marketing and promotion, and preparing for auditions. In one class, I present a series of maps to the actors and ask them to identify their target market. The first is a map of their city, the next their province, then Canada, then North America and, finally, the world. The presentation speaks for itself. There is no "local" market for a professional Canadian actor. I haven’t yet met a full time professional actor who only works as an actor, only in one city. Narrow your market that much and you’ve probably diversified into other fields besides acting...
Google any significant film or TV production that’s been shot in the last decade and you’ll get thousands of hits from around the world. I just tried it and I found a French website about “Less Than Kind”, A Greek website about “Degrassi” and a Portuguese website about Gary Yate’s “High Life”.
It may feel great to be a comfortable, safe, relaxed, part-time Canadian actor, but when we audition for any significant Film or TV project, we are competing with actors from other Canadian and American cities and often actors in other countries and continents.
If you audition for a lead, supporting or principal role on an ACTRA production, you should assume you are competing against actors in Toronto, Vancouver, New York and L. A. If they’re looking at six people for the role in Winnipeg, there are probably another eight actors auditioning in Vancouver, eight in Toronto, eight in New York and twelve in LA - and the L.A. actors probably have whiter teeth. An international co-production may have you auditioning against actors in Britain, Belgium, New Zealand or France.
Even if the role you are auditioning for is a small “Actor” role that is likely to be cast locally, the director and producers are still comparing your work to all those other actors in all those other cities. Make sure they’re seeing you at your best.
In a busy centre like Toronto or Vancouver, actors have many opportunities to audition. I’ve heard different statistics, but it’s reasonable to say that actors in a busy centre may audition for twelve or fifteen roles for every job they book. When I worked in Vancouver, I auditioned anywhere from two to ten times a week in the busy season. An actor in a larger centre auditions more often in three months than a Manitoba actor auditions in three years. That’s a lot of practice. That’s what you’re competing against.
There are advantages to being a “local” actor. If the project is being shot in your town, the producers want to take advantage of provincial tax credits by hiring as many locals as possible. They also save on airfare, hotels and per-diems by using local talent. It makes sense, financially to hire a local actor for a locally shot production. That’s your advantage over the out-of-town actors. It cost less to hire you. But, it’s only an advantage if your audition is as good or better than the actors in other cities.
Remember the directors, the producers and the casting directors all want you to succeed. They want the next actor that comes into the room to be the one they cast. They want to say yes to you. You just have to ensure them that they are saying yes to the right actor.
All you have to do to succeed is to do the work and be prepared for EVERY audition.
Read the script, do your homework, learn your lines, be professional, be focused and, most of all, be excellent. See you at the next audition.
John B. Lowe
