Resources for taking the plunge

I have a fellow actor friend from college who is very talented and is starting the journey of pursuing acting in LA. We had lunch this week and I compiled the following links of resources that I find valuable. I thought this might be a good list for anyone else embarking on an acting career in Los Angeles.

As ever, take these with a grain of salt. I think they are great, but what speaks to me might not be right for you. This list is not comprehensive by any means. If you have a great site that we should all know about it, please add it in the comments!

From my email to my friend:

"There is an unending wealth of information on the internet, which is a mixed bag. These are my go-to sites and a good starting point. Feel free to direct any specific questions back to me and I'll do my best to answer them.

Bonnie Gillespie's book Self Management for Actors, is the book I recommend everyone read first. Her column, The Actor's Voice, comes out every Monday and her archives are a treasure trove. Have fun.

actor's access is a casting/self-submission site where it is free to create a profile. You can peruse the breakdowns and pay $2 when you want to submit, or pay $68 for a year of unlimited submissions.

I believe you can also set up a free profile on Now Casting but have to subscribe to submit. This is one of the newer casting sites, but I have booked work on it and have seen some big shows (24, Criminal Minds) that exclusively post here when they open it up for self-submitting actors.

LA Casting is the other main self-submission site. It seems to be more for commercials, and is more of an investment to create an account. They have an informative newsletter that you can read on their site and also offer free information workshops with casting directors.

Brains of Minerva is an actor's career and lifestyle resource. They frequently post interviews that are so good that I feel an explosive burst of inspiration and feel the need to share the article with everyone I know.

http://playbillsvspayingbills.com/ is a great blog that I've been reading recently. I know one of the contributors, Ben Whitehair, from twitter, and actually met him in person last night.

I have some lists of industry people on twitter, if you're interested in jumping on that bandwagon - www.twitter.com/laurendwebb I have gotten a couple of auditions from casting directors posting jobs on twitter, and learn something fabulous from a post by another actor every single day.

I have heard rave reviews about The Actor's Network from more people than I can count. I'm a little fuzzy on what it is exactly that they do, but it seems to be a great resource, and a large number of the people I know who have been affiliated with them are working consistently.

There is a lot of controversy over casting director workshops, where you pay for the opportunity to read for a casting director, but I have had good experiences at The Actor's Key in Burbank. You get to choose and prep your own sides, you do your scene with a reader, and many of the CDs will give you a written evaluation. (I've also gotten called in for a show after meeting someone here, so there's that. However, the only guarantee is the opportunity, and you should always research whether or not that particular CD is known for calling people in from workshops.)

Hollywood Happy Hour is a really useful yahoo group. Members ask for advice on various things and also sometimes post casting notices.

A similar useful yahoo group is Big Cheap Theatre. People do more show promotion on that one, but also sometimes post theatre auditions.

Alex's Info is a daily email for actors with all sorts of info - who's casting what, movie premieres, industry events, gas prices, side jobs... I look forward to reading it every morning.

The LA Stage Alliance is the group that puts on the Ovation awards, among other things. They are a good resource for half-price tix and info, and I like to check there to see what theatres are doing work that is consistently nominated. Same with the LA Weekly Theatre Awards - here is the list of nominees from this year: http://blogs.laweekly.com/stylecouncil/stage-news/stage-raw-31st-annual-la-weekl/

Dallas Travers is a great resource who focuses more on the business of the biz and career planning.

Backstage.com has great message board - http://bbs.backstage.com/groupee. The message boards are also a great resource when you want specifics on a name you think might have something shady going on. :)

Showfax message board as well - great resources there since some of those posters don't post on the Backstage board. (Thanks AmbitiousB!)

I hope this helps. I'm so glad you're considering the adventure - I say do it for as long as it makes you happy!"

So there you have it. I've already included a few things I forgot to put in my email. I'll edit as I have "I can't believe I forgot that site!" moments.