Acting: Make It Your Business by Russell, Paul;

Short description:

In Acting: Make It Your Business Second Edition, award-winning casting director Paul Russell offers a wealth of advice on auditioning, marketing, and networking, and puts the power to land jobs and thrive in any medium – stage, film, TV, or the Internet – directly into the hands of the actor.

Long description:

In ACTING: Make It Your Business, Second Edition, award-winning casting director Paul Russell puts the power to land jobs and thrive in any medium—stage, film, television, or the Internet—directly into the hands of the actor.

This blunt and practical guide offers a wealth of advice on auditioning, marketing, and networking, combining traditional techniques with those best suited for the digital age. Well-known actors and powerful agents and managers make cameos throughout, offering newcomers and working professionals alike a clear-eyed, uncensored perspective on survival and advancement within the entertainment industry. This second edition has been updated and expanded to include the following:

• More stars of screen and stage sharing acting career strategies








• Digital audition techniques for screen and stage, including how best to self-tape








• New tools to master modern marketing, both digital and traditional with innovation








• Expanded actor resource listings








• Additional bicoastal talent agents and managers spilling secrets for obtaining representation, and tips for successful actor-to-representation partnerships








• New insights on audition techniques

An excellent resource for career actors, beginning and amateur actors, as well as students in Acting I and II, Auditions, and Business of Acting courses, ACTING: Make It Your Business provides readers with invaluable tools to build a successful, long-lasting acting career.

Praise for the First Edition:

"Humorous and witty…. Actors everywhere who are trying to succeed in the business, young or old, on stage or on camera, in New York or anywhere in the world, take note: This is your road map." – Bernard Telsey, casting director (This Is Us, The Greatest Showman, Tales of the City, Hamilton)

"All the right questions asked and answered…and with a generous portion of good humor." – Suzanne Ryan, casting director (Law & Order, Unforgettable)

"Paul’s book made me proud to be a part of the acting community in this business we call ‘show.’" – Karen Ziemba, actress, Tony and Drama Desk Award winner

"A necessity for any actor. Read it again and again. Listen…and learn." – Richard Rose, producing artistic director (1993-2019), Barter Theatre

"Paul Russell’s words are not only blunt and accurate, they zero in on all the questions every actor wants to know but is afraid to ask." – Ken Melamed, talent agency partner, Bret Adams, Ltd.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: Cows and Greasepaint—A Journey Begins  1. Working Actors Speak Out: Candor and the Business  2. Being an Actor: A Tough Love  3. Training for the Actor: Tend Your Dreams  4. The Picture and Résumé: An Actor’s Business Card  5. Cover Letters and E-mail: Covering Your Assets  6. Actor Marketing: Set Yourself Apart from the Crowd  7. Auditions Actors Encounter: Are Your Auditions Safe?  8. Audition Preparation: Be First, First  9. Audition Strategies: Leaving a Lasting Impression  10. Negotiating the Contract: Get It On Paper  11. Rejection: "Thanks for Coming in..."  12. Agents and Managers: An Introduction  13. Agents and Managers: Finding One  14. Agents and Managers: Keeping One  15. Exit Lines: Parting Advice  Acknowledgments  Appendix  Index  About the Author