Friday, February 10, 2017

A word from one of your mentors... Advice for all, not just actors.

I want to share this article with you to keep you aware of all the various people in the industry who claim to be helping you make "connections" but are really just exploiting you for their own financial gain. Please be weary of casting workshops - they are enterprises who's primary goal is to make themselves money; not to help you and your career. If you MUST do a casting workshop, please only attend it for research and informational purposes. 

Read this: http://deadline.com/2017/02/hollywood-casting-workshop-scams-city-attorney-1201907052/ 

A theme seems to be coming up through all of my individual meetings with you guys, and I feel it important to say now: a career does not happen overnight. A career is not as easy to achieve as simply paying for access. It isn't even achieved, unfortunately, through WANTING it hard enough or thinking/worrying about it at all hours of the day and night. It is achieved through focus, determination, and the active act of being an artist and putting your art out in to the world so others can see. Don't wait to be an artist, who attend workshops to learn how to be an artist, be an artist now. Do the work that makes you a better person. Focus on who you are and what makes you absolutely unique and individual.

Please, dear god, please, don't think you need to fit a "type." Your type is YOU. Figure out what you're good at, what makes you special, and really hone it/focus it, and put it out there in the world. 

This is a tough business, with a lot of ups and downs.  Take heart. And don't let the vultures get you.

- Keith Powell

Keith is a graduate of NYU TSOA now living and working in Los Angeles. He is currently a mentor in the 2016-17 program.