Peppy Biddy Interview—Where to Look for Work after Graduating

Festivals

In the states, for National theatre festivals, a group or company applies with a piece or show.  These festivals don’t generally hire individuals, unless a solo performer applies with a piece.  Some festivals will offer internships to work for the event, i.e. Ko fest in MA (kofest.com).  For more information and to stay on the radar/ mailing list, become a member of the Network of Ensemble Theatres (www.ensembletheaters.net).  Most of all, follow up with the festivals you’re applying for.  Don’t assume that because you sent in the application, that your piece will be chosen or even considered.  The more name recognition that your group has, the more likely you are to start getting calls. 

Professional Theatre Conferences

SETC—South Eastern Theatre Conference (www.setc.org)

Auditions for summer stock and year round employment.  With Graduate degree, no pre-screening is necessary (like pre-professional auditions).  Some amount of experience is needed on your CV/ Resume.  Be able to point to at least one professional theatre credit.

UPTA—Unified Professional Theatre Auditions (www.upta.org)

Auditions for full time employment.  Held in Memphis, TN every year in February.  Applications open in September and fill up within a matter of minutes.  To be considered, you must be available for year round employment and available within 90 days of the audition.  Some professional credit also necessary.

StrawHat Auditions (www.strawhat-auditions.com)

Northeast coastal audition conference held in NYC

MWTA—Midwest Theatre Auditions (http://www.indianaauditions.com/forum/showthread.php?6150-Midwest-Theatre-Auditions-%28MWTA%29)

Held at Webster University in St. Louis, MO

This is not the official site, but page has all the contact information.  The main site is down at the moment

*Use Peppy Biddy as faculty reference when filling out applications to these conferences.  The application will be sent to him and he will ‘vouch’ for the validity of the application.

Education

Theatre Communications Group (www.tcg.org)—Publishes American Theatre Magazine, ARTSEARCH, and others

Join this community for information on educational conferences and for listings of mainstream professional and academic jobs

Having the first professional credit on a CV/ Resume is important when applying for a professional level academic position.  This most likely will come from someone you know or who is familiar with your work.  Do workshops, be a guest artist, network, network, network, and follow up.

Adjunct work—not full time faculty, but usually a commitment on a short term basis to pick up the slack of a department who perhaps has a teacher out for a semester or has had a boost in enrollment but does not want to commit to adding a full time position to the payroll.  This type of work can be a great way to get a professional credit under your belt and widening your networking opportunities.  Cities with denser populations will have more people looking to hire these kind of artists/ educators.

Places like New York and Chicago will have tons of opportunity, but cost of living and is higher than say more medium sized venues like Dallas, Atlanta, St. Louis, and Salt Lake City which will not have the abounding opportunity, but living is easier.  Either, know where you want to live and go make it work, go where opportunity leads you, or start out in a small community where your experience puts you a step ahead of the competition until you can move to a larger venue.  To start out, sometimes it is best to be a big fish in a small pond. 

Representation

Get to know the town.  Know the people whose work you like and find out who represents them.  Sometimes talent agencies won’t be interested in you unless someone can couch for your work.  If you have friends or colleagues who are represented, have them recommend you.  If you are doing work with someone who is represented and you know that the agent is coming to see the work, introduce yourself.  Call, email, chat with them after the show, whatever you need to do to get someone interested in your career.  Follow up!  This of course varies from town to town and can take some time to feel out where ever you land.  Some talent agencies hold showcases (much like auditions) that you can apply to be seen at.