Hello Bonnie,
I have been reading your column on Actors Access for a few months now in preparation for my move to LA after graduation this May. I will be completing a BFA in actor training at The Hartt School, a conservatory-style program whose reputation for theatre is getting stronger every year. I’ve found so many of your articles helpful, especially the series on Self-Producing. I am the co-founder of a commedia group here in Hartford, CT, Show in Progress, and we’ve been producing our own events and just put up a full-length show last weekend! Hard work, but so worthwhile.
So here is my question: The Hartt School pays for us to do showcases (which I’m sure you know all about) both in New York and LA in May. Our LA Showcase is scheduled for May 13th at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank. How do we get people to come?
I have heard this is a great space, with free parking at a fairly central location. We’ll be doing the typical mailings and calls to CDs and agents in the coming months. The school has been going out to LA for several years, and every year they learn about how to improve, but they still never get more than two agents. We are 12 talented actors who don’t expect to get our big movie breaks from this showcase, but we would like to be seen. Our name isn’t Juilliard or NYU, but we’re just as well-trained and a very unique class of actors that I think industry professionals would find, at the least, interesting.
We want our trip out to LA to be educational (I’m excited to meet the city before I make my big move) and productive. Please help!
Thank You,
Erika Klics
Hi Erika,
Good for you, looking ahead toward how you can get the most out of your showcasing experience. And I love that you’re really focusing on keeping the trip “educational,” because that guarantees that you won’t be disappointed. No matter who turns out for your showcase, you will learn an awful lot just by doing it. Congratulations!
Just yesterday, I was going through a rather large stack of mail. Having received your email earlier in the week, I pulled aside the showcase invitations that were in this week’s mail. Five invitations. This week alone! Two of the cards were “save the date” cards for showcases during “prime showcase season” (mid-April to mid-May, when all of the league schools come out and present their graduating classes), the rest were for showcases going on between now and mid-March. It’s big business. There are a lot of showcases competing for our attention, as “talent shoppers.” (Not to mention the plays and stand-up nights and screenings and festivals and premiers, etc.)
So, how do you stand out? How do you get folks to show up to your showcase?
Free, convenient parking is essential. Commonly-known venue is essential. Free food and drinks before and after the show… also essential. An invitation that includes the headshots of the actors involved — and having those actors be of type categories that would fill gaps in our current active rosters or casting pools — is essential. And, perhaps most essential, you have to have relationships within the industry in order to get folks to come out to the show. You have to have a reputation for putting on consistently good showcases in order to get folks to talk about your showcase and generate the buzz that creates a following, year after year.
That takes time. I’m willing to bet that the very first showcases put on by any group — no matter how prestigious — didn’t net the numbers of decision-makers in the audience that they’d eventually build toward. You increase the odds that quality industry shows up at your showcase by doing the promotional efforts you’re already planning to do and adding something that makes your showcase less about showcasing and more about mentoring.
What I’m suggesting is that you invite folks to come speak to the group of actors either before or after the showcase. Mentoring creates a higher level of interest in your success and therefore the industry pros who agree to come speak are more likely to stay for the show or tell colleagues about it. That tiny shift in your already solid game plan could make the difference between a couple of agents showing up and a dozen. Doesn’t mean anyone is more likely to get signed or booked on a gig right away, but anything you can do to increase the number of bodies in the room — if your talent is exceptional — will absolutely pay off with buzz for the next showcase and the next and the next.
Include in your promotional materials some of the high-profile testimonials you’ve received from those few agents or casting directors who have attended your showcases previously. Reduce the risk we perceive about investing a night or afternoon commuting to and sitting through your showcase by showing us that our peers who have taken the risk previously have been happy that they did. Do innovative material (not the same ol’ stuff we’ve seen at a dozen other showcases). Do it really well (of course). And get the word out.
It takes patience to build a world-class showcase. But it’s worth the work and the time you’ll put in, for the alumni that follows. This is a true “pay it forward” experience. You may not have the time to see a huge increase in your attendance by May, but you can absolutely lay the groundwork for the 2010 showcase to be exponentially higher-profile. And so on.
Good luck to you! I look forward to hearing more about your showcase. And remember, your willingness to see this as an opportunity to learn about Los Angeles is going to serve you very well. Everything else that comes from your great showcase will be a bonus.
Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!
Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/000988.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.