It's rough here in NYC.

Lots of actors are talking about how tough it is to find acting work in the city now, especially given the current economic state ... young actors, old actors, stage, film, television, nearly every actor. Auditions for anything are hard to come by. I have been going to as many Equity Principal Auditions (EPAs) as I can. EPAs are auditions for union work, and since I'm in the stage actors' union Equity, union work is the only kind I can take. Let me tell you what that entails . . .

I will get up at 4:45am to shower and ready to go to an EPA. I'll board the subway by 5:50 hopefully, to arrive at the audition location by 6:15 or so. But I don't get to wait inside in the warmth ... I wait on the street in the cold with all the other actors who want to audition. The doors open at 8am. I have a portable folding chair that allows me at least to sit, but in the cold of NYC winters, it can be a grueling and painful wait.

When the doors open, there is more waiting. Sometimes as many as 150 actors will wait for another hour to sign up for a slot to audition, as sign-up begins an hour before the start of the audition--sometimes 9am, sometimes 9:30, sometimes as late as 10am. There is only a set amount of audition slots though, so some of the people who show up only get slots as alternates; that's why I show up early, to guarantee a slot and one of my choice.

Then there's the added humiliation: Some of these auditions are simply required by the union. That means that a theater company will hold an audition even though they are not looking to cast anyone. The union sometimes requires a company to hold an audition to push them to make sure they are seeing other actors outside the ones they may regularly work with, and to make sure the other union actors are being seen by casting people. Sometimes the casting people are reputable; sometimes they seem like someone's assistant who has no say. EPAs are fruitless for most people as they are, but required ones seem even more so since they are not actually casting but going through the motions.

The fodder for these auditions is often a monologue. Rarely do we read from a script. I almost always feel really good about my auditions, but in one year of doing EPAs (averaging 2-3 a week in the winter, now about 1 a week) I have had only one callback, for a non-paying staged reading. It is frustrating.

So why do I keep going on? Well, without representation and a whole lot of shows that will accept and appreciate and want union actors, I have to do something to help make me feel like an actor. For enough actors, getting up at 7am is difficult. But I am disciplined and am usually successful at getting myself up for these EPAs.

Here are some of the things going on in my acting life of recent:

1. Far from Heaven

In October I did featured extra work for a Dennis Quaid/Julianne Moore film called Far from Heaven. The movie takes place in the 1950's, and I play a movie theater concession guy. Dennis Quaid slowly walks beside me as I give a kid some popcorn. And I'm leaning against the counter and wiping it as I watch a movie, in an angle on Quaid as he watches the suspicious doings of a couple of men going upstairs.

A featured extra isn't paid any more than a regular old "background artist" (as an extra is sometimes called), but the "featured" means the actor is obviously seen as opposed to being someone strolling by the camera somewhere in a crowd.

At least I'm getting paid to act!

Far from Heaven on the Internet Movie Database

2. "Surrender Dorothy" to Re-Air in January 2002

Watch TNT on Monday, January 14th at 6pm Eastern Time to see my episode of Law & Order called "Surrender Dorothy" air! I am in the very, very top of the episode, so don't miss it. I have four lines. I am in a ski jacket carrying skis. For more information on the whole filming experience, visit my highlights page. And to get a reminder close to the date when it will air, sign up for my mailing list by clicking here!

3. Boycott the National Tour of The Music Man

I support the Equity boycott of the national tour of The Music Man. I went up to Hartford, CT, on October 23rd to pamphlet the audience and inform them how the producer, Big League Theatricals, is not compensating their actors fairly.

While the actors on the tour are having rich experiences working on a first national tour, they are not receiving fair compensation compared to union actors working on first national tours. The package a union actor would get would be around $1,200 a week plus health & pension; the actors in this tour are possibly receiving a third of that rate with no health or pension benefits. Big League Theatricals claims that the show could not stay alive while paying actors such high union rates, but that is why Equity wants to represent the actors in contract negotiations, to negotiate a fair contract which includes health & pension benefits.

All the actors have to do is submit authorization cards to the union, noting that they want the union to represent them in negotiations. If half the cast submits these cards--kept strictly confidential and never revealed to the producer--then the union can approach the producer as a representative for the actors. The actors do not have to join the union if Equity negotiates a contract; that is each actor's decision. And the actors cannot lose their jobs by trying to organize, because being fired on such grounds is illegal. The actors have nothing to lose and only to gain from having Equity negotiate a better contract.

So why don't they? It is tough to say. I know someone in the show. I get the sense he is offended by Equity, being made to feel like an unprofessional actor. He is very proud of his work. But I think his pride and other actors in the show's pride are going to keep them from organizing. Which is tough luck for Equity, because the "success" of this tour could make way for other non-union first national tours, working toward the lowering of actor wages, less union jobs, no health & pension benefits, and less of a market for Equity tours.

To read an article about my visit to Hartford, click here. For more information on the boycott, visit the Music Man boycott page on the website for the Actors' Equity Association.