Hollywood Reporter: It's dusk in Burbank, and the hopeful have paid to hear a homily beneath false ceiling tiles and fluorescent light. "When you became an actor, you went into business for yourself," a casting director tells the assembly of close to 20 at The Actor's Key, which hosted 160 such sessions in January, at the height of TV's pilot season. "There are more of you concentrated in this town than anywhere else. They want your job. And you want their job."
2 comments:
Theatre and entertainment has always been a rich kids game, and obviously, is becoming even more so. I study theatre at one of the most expensive universities in the country with the hope of one day landing a job in the theater industry. People are willing to pay to "make it" and get the right training and connections to hopefully land them a job in the future.
These workshops prove that actors will do whatever it takes to make it in the business, however, I feel that charging the actors to be seen by casting agents is wrong, and should be considered exploitation.
Just like in the university setting, I could understand an actor paying someone for tips and tricks in the form of a class, or private lesson. The fact that these casting agents and agency offices are holding these "workshops" in front of higher-ups in the business seems wrong. But in the end it probably does help the actor who pays for the class. This makes me wonder if it is morally right to hold these types of workshops that charge money. To me it seems as though the people who host the workshops are only enforcing the already prevalent stigma of entertainment being a rich kids game. If you don't have the money to pay for extra workshops how will you get to audition?
I feel as if this plays directly into the bad side of Hollywood we try so hard to distance ourselves from. The thought that actors can spend up to 1,500 a year for classes that everyone knows serve no real purpose is horrifying, and in reminiscent of a social psych concept called the Abilene Paradox. The Abilene paradox is a conceit in which everyone involved in something has no desire to do it, but because they think everyone else is interested, they continue on the line, as they fear being the person to speak out and say that this is something they don't want to do. I also don't like the thought that to be a successful Hollywood actor, you need to subsidize the system and prove that you're willing to rub elbows. Obviously, once you're established, this problem goes away, but now you have to think about how you get established. Workshops are important, as is staying hungry for learning, but when that hunger leads to you perpetuating systems such as this one, it is important to step back and evaluate what you want from your career.
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