Bypass New York and L.A. and Start Your Career in the Lone Star State
By Wyatt Elling
Just like Texas has nurtured its reputation as a vibrant, independent state larger than life, it has also developed a vibrant, off-beat market for professional actors.
Unlike the local SAG and AFTRA unions in other states, the Texas union actively encourages young people to apply for membership. There are even special incentives for actors and productions to qualify as union. Many times actors don't even have to fulfill the two-project requirement to acquire SAG membership! To make things even easier, SAG and AFTRA membership fees run about $400 dollars less than anywhere else in the country. If you move to a different jurisdiction you will have to pay the difference. You can also pay your union membership fees in installments, making Texas the ideal location for serious young actors to start building their resumes.
Most professional actors in Texas used to live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but as times have changed acting roles have been spread more evenly across major city centers. Dallas still has a lot of paid acting work, and wherever you live in Texas you're going to have to do a lot of driving between cities anyway as a working actor. For screen acting the most common gigs you'll get in Dallas are commercials, voice-overs, and industrials. Industrials are instructional or promotional films made for circulation within companies. Major corporations like Pizza Hut, Ford, and IBM do much of their national commercial casting out of Dallas, which has five talent agencies for both union and nonunion actors, as well as state-of-the-art production facilities.
Dallas has also hosted the productions of popular long-running television series like Walker, Texas Ranger, Wishbone, and Dallas and very few professional actors in the area made it without appearing on those shows at some point during their careers. There's also a thriving independent film scene that is always casting both union and non-union actors.
Dallas also plays host to a progressive and professional theater community. The amount of Equity activity in Dallas is expanding so quickly, that it could rival Chicago in the near future as the biggest theater town between coasts. The theaters in Dallas are cutting-edge and will be some of the first in the country to perform edgy, controversial, or experimental plays. They are very open to casting young people, and rules in Texas make it easier for Equity theaters to cast non-union actors, but they tend to look for a proven track record. Volunteering with theater companies can be a very good way to build confidence and pave your way to a paying gig.
The balance of power in Texas as far as film production goes has tipped solidly toward Austin in recent years. The city has become a cultural hotspot for people around the country, and tends to consider itself an independent state inside Texas. There are also three large Universities in the city with prestigious film programs that have nurtured filmmakers like Richard Linklater and Wes Anderson, both of whom have made films in the area. Movies like Dazed and Confused, School of Rock, The Alamo, Planet Terror, Spy Kids, Miss Congeniality, and Sin City were all filmed and cast in Austin. Robert Rodriguez bases all of his film operations out of Austin, and is setting a trend for other hip directors like Quentin Tarantino.
Austin might also be the most convenient place for a young actor to make a living, as it's within easy driving distance of both Dallas and Houston, and most acting jobs in the state are cast in between those three cities. There's also a thriving independent film industry in Austin, attracted to its laid-back artsy atmosphere and relatively cheap production costs. There are also 8 talent agencies in the city for models and actors, both union and non-union. For theater actors there are at least four Equity theaters, and many more non-union ones.
If you're young, live in the South, or just want to live in a laid-back city with plenty of acting opportunities, Texas just might be the state for you to start your career.
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